Tag: business

    Herb Gardening for Money

    There are so many things that you can make or grow at home that can actually bring you some income. Herb gardening is one of these things, especially when it comes to high quality culinary herbs. They are easy to grow, take up little space, and people are always on the lookout for great herbs.

    What Herbs to Grow

    * Popular in Your Area – To be successful in selling your herbs, you want to make sure that you are offering a product that is in demand in your area. Take a look at your potential competition, grocery stores, and other places where herbs are being sold and pay attention to what herbs are most in demand.

    * What Grows Well – Learning what herbs will grow the best in your area will also be helpful when planning out your herb garden. Do your research before you begin and figure out if you are going to be growing indoors or outdoors, and how to set up your herb garden for maximum production.

    * Forms of Herbs – Another good thing to think about is how you plan on packaging your herbs, and what forms you will sell them in. Some ideas are selling dried herbs, fresh sprigs, and also small potted herb plants.

    How and Where To Sell

    * Proper Licensing – Depending on where you live, you may have to go through a little bit of legal yellow tape to be able to sell your herbs. You will need to set yourself up as a business, acquire proper licensing, and you may even have to get your garden area inspected. These rules will differ from state to state, but it is best to do your research so that you are not skipping any vital steps to avoid getting in any trouble.

    * Farmer’s Markets – Farmer’s markets are an excellent place to set up a small booth and sell your herbs. People that frequent farmer’s markets are usually looking for the freshest local produce that they can find. Also, you will have the added benefit of being right there when they are doing their shopping for meal planning.

    * Flea Markets – Although it might sound a little outside of the box, flea markets are also a great place to sell herbs. First of all, the herbs smell great, so your stand will attract tons of people walking by. Secondly, people often go to flea markets with cash in their pockets, ready to buy.

    * Produce Stands – Whether you set up right next to a produce stand, or set up a partnership for a produce stand to sell your product for you, this could be a great marketing opportunity. Depending on where you live, and the rules in your area, you could even set up a sign and/or stand out in your own yard for people to come to you for great fresh herbs.

    * Local Groceries – If there are any locally owned, smaller grocery stores in your area, approach them about selling your herbs. Show them that you have all of your proper licensing and inspections, and that you are a legitimate grower, and bring some samples for them to see your packaging and the freshness of your product. It is pretty easy to market anything that is fresh and local, especially high quality culinary herbs.

    Herb gardening for money could be a very lucrative business to run out of your own home. There are many places that you can sell them, and they are not difficult to grow and maintain. Start by doing your research and finding out the best places in your area to sell.

    Categories: Home Business Ideas, Run a Home Business Tags: Tags:

    Home Business or Work-at-Home Job – Which Is Right for You?

    Many people often want to work from home for a variety of reasons. Maybe you just had a child and want more work-life balance, or perhaps you have an illness that makes it difficult for you to get out of the house. Or maybe you just like being home and want the freedom to work your own way.

    Whatever the reasons you want to work at home, you’ll need to choose whether or not you want a job from home, or you want a business from home. Here are eight questions to help you decide.

    1. Are You Self-Motivated?

    If you want your own business so that you can set your own hours, you will need to be very self-motivated. You’ll need to take time out of your day for marketing, interviewing clients, closing the deal and then doing the work too. You’ll be 100 percent responsible for delivering the work, billing and collecting. You’ll even be responsible for deciding the methods you’ll use to do the work. To do that you’ll need to be a very self-motivated individual.

    2. What Skills Do You Have?

    Take a piece of paper and write down a list of the skills you currently have, based on what you’ve already done in the past. Can any of these translate into a business? Label them appropriately. Do any of these translate into common work-from-home positions such as call center agent or transcriptionist? Some skills cross over into both, but which side of the list gets full faster?

    3. What Sort of Lifestyle Do You Want?

    With a work-at-home job you’ll be required to “show up” for work on time each day that you’re scheduled, and you may have little control over that schedule. What’s more, with work-at-home positions it’s a lot harder than typical jobs to call in sick, whether it’s you or a child who is sick. Often the first 90 days you cannot miss your schedule at all if you want to keep the position. Are you ready for that? Or, would you prefer a more family-oriented type of schedule that can be adjusted more easily and is more deliverables-based than hourly-based?

    4. Do You Already Have a Business Idea?

    If you have already researched a business idea, and feel as if you want to do that instead of working for someone else, can you pull it off? What steps do you need to take to make it a reality? Are you the type of person to be able to organize and take the steps needed to get your business off the ground? Can you find and afford help if you’re not sure what to do to get the business going? Does the thought of all this stress you out?

    5. How Do You Feel about Punching a Clock?

    For some people the idea of clock punching is relaxing, for others it feels like a nightmare. Neither feeling is right or wrong as it takes all types of people to make this world work. If you know up front that you are fine with punching a clock and you’d rather someone else tell you when to be someplace and what to do, then a work-at-home job is best for you. If that feels like prison to you, then a business is probably better if you can do what it takes to get it going.

    6. Do You Have Money to Start a Business?

    Starting any type of business, even an online business, requires an investment not only of time, but also of money. Have you worked out a business plan and do you know how much money you need to get started? Do you have that money available? If not, do you have a way to get it? Perhaps working at a job first, while you save for and work on your business on the side, is the way to go if you don’t have the funds to start.

    7. Do You Need Training and Education?

    Both working at a job and owning a business sometimes require skills that you don’t have yet. But that’s okay. Decide if you want to invest in the training yourself to get your business off the ground, or if you would like to try to find a work-at-home job where they will train you from the ground up even if you have little experience and due to that the pay may be low.

    8. What Is Your Biggest Dream for Your Life?

    When you think of the future, what do you see? Does it sound relaxing to get up in the morning, have some breakfast, and move to your home office where you sign in to work at your job, taking a break when needed by telling your manager that you have to use the restroom, or go eat lunch and so forth, then when you get off work you’re totally and fully off? Plus, each week you collect a certain paycheck? Or, do you like the idea of being able to do what you want when you want (and likely working more hours than you ever thought you could) but without the surety of income each week, knowing you’re forging your own future?

    Whatever you decide, neither is right or wrong. They are both good choices for you. Whether you want a work-at-home job so you can sign off after the day and focus 100 percent on your family, or whether you want a business that will cross boundaries into family time and vice versa but that puts you 100 percent in charge – both are good choices and choices that you are fortunate to have in this age of high speed internet.

    Categories: Home Business Ideas, Run a Home Business Tags: Tags:

    Ultimate Guide to the Business Card

    a smiling businesswoman holding empty card

    With people connecting instantly by Facebook, LinkedIN and Twitter and searching for contacts and business through Google search, you would think there wouldn’t be a need for business cards.

    However people still want to meet face to face. There will always be a need to interact personally because first impressions of a person can not be read over the internet.  In the end, whether you will trust and do business with someone can only be ultimately done face to face and business cards reflect who you are and what is your business if you get business card design done right.

    In this ultimate guide to the business card, we will look at:

    1. The History of the business card. 
    2.  What is the psychology behind networking with business cards.
    3.  What are some of the guidelines for the best business card design. 
    4.  What is some of the new, innovative designs in business cards.

     

    The History of the Business Card  

    Before business cards there were calling cards. As early as the 15th century, calling cards (called Meishi) were in common use in China. Meishi were sent to communicate your intention to meet with someone. They also doubled up as a form of personal identification to gain access to private homes or exclusive events. 

    In 17th century, under the reign of Louis XIV, ‘Viste Bielets’ gained popularity amongst French aristocracy. A calling card was sent, servant to servant, to announce the impending arrival of a particularly big wig.

    from   A brief history of the business card

    Victorian Calling Card

    Around the same time, trade cards were becoming popular, and were used by the merchant class in London. Businessmen would engrave them with information, like maps to their stores, and hand them out as advertising before or after a trade. Colour printing and elaborate designs helped the tradesmen stand out, and became an early example of brand identity according to A Short History of the Business Card. 

     

    In the 20th century, the business card developed from the calling card to be a standard size card of  2″ high x 3 1/2″ long with  information about your business, your authority status (your university degrees) or your status within a business (last name, senior vice president) so it could fit into a Rolodex and kept for reference to contact a person at a later date. 

    Rolodexhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0

    The Rolodex, invented in 1956, was an improvement to an earlier design called Wheeldex. 

     

    wheeldexCreative Commons 2.0 license, by CALoynd

     In order for business cards to fit into the standard Rolodex, they had to be the standard size. So, the only way to make your business card standout was through colour, text, taglines or quality of paper. 

    I remember reading the  first Guerilla Marketing book by Jay Conrad Levinson in 1984 and the use and distribution of your business card wherever you are and whatver you are doing was a core guerilla marketing technique.

    Guerilla techniques included making your business card standout by not making it 2″ x 3 1/2″ or making it out of unusual materials like wood or sheetmetal so people would keep your business card even though it didn’t fit within your Rolodex. 

    5709880151 4146300ef4 m

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/popupology/5709880151/

    https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/

    Now the business card is a talking point when you meet another person. You’ll never forget the 3-D paper pop up business card at http://www.foldform.co.uk.  

     

    106709219 6c8be9703b m

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/ranh/106709219 

    https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

    Kevin Mitnick of www.mitnicksecurity.com has unique business card tool that is made of metal and when taken apart, it can be used as a lock pick! 

     

    Now with the internet, people say the use of the business card is not needed with the instant connections we can make on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Googleplus. However, according to Statistics Brain  there are 27 Billion business cards worldwide printed daily. There is a 2.5% increase in sales for every 2000 business cards passed out in statistics given. 

     

    What is the psychology behind networking with business cards

    So, why are business cards still being used in business?  

    Authority 

    They are being more for one on one meetings between business people. What you say about your business and yourself is important on your business card. Listing your university degrees or your level of your authority in the business needs to be recognized on your business card. It is a simple way to show your experience and authority in your business. 

    Brand 

    The business card is a simple, inexpensive way to show what your brand is all about. It represents you when you meet someone new. Whether you use thin paper or heavy quality watermarked paper will affect how people perceive you when they don’t know you. Your mission or your tag line for your business can speak to people as to who you are if it is on your business card. 

    Trust-building

    According to Business Insider the business card is being used to build trust among business people especially in the Asian countries. 

     They can be a quick way of establishing connections, particularly in Asia, where they are something of an obsession. The Chinese are following the Japanese in treating them as semi-sacred objects. Some businessmen hand out 24-carat gold cards. Nursery-school children sometimes carry cards not only with their own contact details, but also with the job descriptions of their parents and even grandparents.

    My husband went on business to Japan and he had business cards made in the Japanese language as well as English. He knew there was a presentation etiquette for meeting the senior Japanese CEO and he did remember to present his business card face up and he even remembered to look at the Japanese businessman and nod in appreciation however he then put it in his back pocket.

    Exchanging business cards is not just a way of sparking a conversation. It is a way of placing people correctly in the pecking-order without the embarrassment of asking them their formal title. As “wearables” go, this is a killer app according to Business Insider. 

    Business Card Strategy 

    Now when I heard this from Gina Gaudio Graves at www.directionsuniversity.com, I was blown away as I never thought that a business card could be a strategy!  Gina brings boxes of her business cards to any conference she is in. She has a unique business card just for these events with the standard information on the front and on the back there is the word “Notes” and some lines imprinted.  Now anyone else would use this business card to take notes during a presentation on the back of the business card. Gina sees people who are struggling to find paper to write down notes so she will chat with them and hand them several business cards or even boxes of her business card for them to use to take their notes or write down the connections they are making during the conference to remember those peoples email address and phone numbers. These people will then take home her business cards with all their notes and email addresses from their connections that they will keep so she is spreading awareness about her business by helping other people making their connections. Awesome! 

     

    What are some of the guidelines for the best business card design?

    Think about what is the outcome for your business card before you design it.

    Do you want to make a lasting first impression with a new client?

    Do you want to spread your business card here and there to advertise your business?  

    Do you want it to be your “Calling Card” ? 

    If you look at the outcome of using your business cards that will help you decide. Though as www.medianovak.com mentions here….. 

    Do try to keep the design of your cards clean and simple, and avoid visual overload or clutter at all costs. Consider using the back of the card or create a folded business card if you need more space for additional information. However, make sure you keep the practicality of your card in mind. How often will people see the back of your business card? from Business Card Design Essentials | 5 Things You Have To …

     If you want a business card idea you will never forget, go check out this one at Clever Business Card Features A ‘Striking’ Surface, Lets You Start A Fire

    To create a lasting impression for their new company, Canadian event agency Wildfire Experiential and Events included a clever feature in their business cards that lets you start a fire. Designed by Vancouver-based integrated marketing firm Cossette, the new visual brand identity was based on a simple design brief: “Spark conversation.”

    Just way-out there business cards that are memorable but do they really reflect that person’s business  at The 31 Greatest Business Cards In The History Of All Business

    The infographic from AllBusinessCard  below is a great summary of what to consider for your business card….

    Business Card Must Haves For Effective Networking

    Categories: Business Card Tags: Tags: , , ,

    Special Reports

    close up shot of notepad and pen

     

     Build your List and Make Money

    Does your business enterprise need a boost? Consider using special reports to add revenue and build a business contact list for future use.

    What are special reports?

    Special reports are short reports that contain helpful information on a subject. The reports are anywhere from a few to 30 or so pages in length. If you have the know-how, you can write them yourself or hire a writing service to do it for you. There is very little work involved in creating them but they are versatile tools for building an online business.

    One popular subject for special reports is how-tos. They direct a reader, step by step, how to do something. If you are knowledgeable with computer software and hardware, that is a perfect niche for special reports on your website. People are always having trouble figuring out their computers and you could help.

    Marketing special reports

    There are options for marketing your special reports. If you are trying to build a business list of customers, use these special reports as a freebie when any visitor signs up to be a part of your email mailing list. For this type of promotion, use a shorter report like a five page report on how to navigate problems with Windows Vista (if your website has a computer niche).

    You can create a five-part course and use the first part as the free promotion. It is your hook. Once they sign up for the mailing list, you can grant them access to the other installments through emails that also advertise your website products. Signing up for a business newsletter subscription can also be the reason to gift a free special report.

    Making money

    All of your special reports don’t have to go towards list building. Besides your other products or services, you can sell special reports on your website. Many reports sell for between $5 and $20 a piece, but if you offer very valuable information, you can command a higher price. Sell single reports or create various courses to interest your customers.

    People love to learn about money-making opportunities. They will pay the money for any information that is a how-to guide to making money on and offline in various ways. How have you made money? Begin there with the subject of your special reports.

    As your business grows, create an affiliate program. This gives customers a way to help you make more money and also make some for them. Offer certain special reports as additional compensation for reaching a certain selling level in the affiliate program.

    There are a number of ways to use special reports. As you build your library and your lists, alternate the free promotional reports and continue to sell your entire library, creating combination offers such as Buy Two, Get One Free.

    While your special reports are building your contact list, they are also making you money. With such a low cost to create them, your profit margin will rise.

    For more marketing tips, subscribe to The Business of At Home Business newsletter. 

    Categories: Marketing Tags: Tags: , , ,

    Dropbox

    400px-Cloud_computing

    Be More Productive with DROPBOX 

    Never have to email a File again and get it bounced back to you because your web provider has a maximum Bandwidth per day for you to use.  

    In our engineering office, we would always get calls from the contractor saying “My zipped pictures got bounced back to me or my Web Provider says, it can not send the file.” Well, we had to explain that their Web Provider only gave them a maximum bandwidth to upload files and it isn’t our issue because we were paying for increased bandwidth several years ago. Once Autocad drawings could become pdfs and more than two photos attached to an email meant the Email file was too large, it has become harder to transmit large files by email.

    As noted in Wikipedia, when Apple developed iCloud in October 2011 as free service for its members to store music, podcasts,pictures and files from iTunes and all its IOS devices, it had 320 Million Users as of July 2013. Other companies like Microsoft and Dropbox offered free storage to people to encourage them to store their files in their Cloud service. 

    Dropbox is exciting in that you as a user can share a file that you have uploaded to Dropbox with another person anywhere or anytime. All you need to share is an email address for that person. You and that person don’t have to know each other or be a part of the same company. You can email a link to a person and there is a link in the email they click which opens up a viewer where they can view, download to their computer or store it in their Dropbox. Unlike Google Drive where both people have to have a Gmail account, you can use any email address to send a message that there is a file in the Shared Folder.

    Dropbox  has a free app available for your ios devices so you can upload video and photos from your smartphone, ipad or itouch. 
    Any file you save to your Dropbox will also automatically save to all your computers, phones, and even the Dropbox website. This means that you can start working on laptop computer in a coffee shop and finish on your home office computer. You are not tied to your home office to do any work! 

    You can: 

    • Share a Folder – you can invite your friends, family and teammates to a folder in your Dropbox. It’ll be as if you saved that folder straight to their computers.
    • View Previous Versions of a File so you can  view a record of changes made to a file. You can choose to go back to an earlier version of a file if you’d like.
    • Browse your Dropbox Folder in the  Web Browser or drag and drop files in the Dropbox Folder on your computer. It will automatically sync folder and add/delete files depending on your actions. 
    • Make a link to any file or folder in your Dropbox. You can then send this link to anyone you’d like to view the file — even if they don’t have Dropbox!

    They reward you with 250MB of extra storage  bonus if you do 5 out of these 7 activities:

    • Take the Dropbox Tour 
    • Install Dropbox on your computer
    • Put Files in your Dropbox folder
    • Install Dropbox on other computers you use 
    • Share a folder with colleagues and friends 
    • Invite some friends to join Dropbox
    • Install Dropbox on your Mobile Devices

    Dropbox is exciting in that you as a user can share a file that you have uploaded to Dropbox with another person anywhere or anytime. All you need to share is an email address for that person. You and that person don’t have to know each other or be a part of the same company. You can email a link to a person and there is a link in the email they click which opens up a viewer where they can view, download to their computer or store it in their Dropbox. Unlike Google Drive where both people have to have a Gmail account, you can use any email address to send a message that there is a file in the Shared Folder.

    So, Dropbox is a free service with 2GB of storage free for you to store files, share files and even do collaboration with another person on editing a file. Have a look at this Dropbox tutorial above by Dotcom Guy Tutorials and you will see the flexibility of Dropbox and how it can help you in your business.

    Now I don’t have an affiliation with Dropbox. In fact, in another article, I will go over the benefits of the other Cloud-based services like Google Drive, Microsoft One Drive and Apple iCloud.  I just wanted to do Dropbox today as I have this great tutorial above and you will see how putting your files up in the Cloud will increase your productivity as you share your projects and files with your clients!  

    The featured image is of Cloud Computing definition in Wikipedia – Thanks !!  

    Categories: Productivity Tags: Tags: ,

    Grow Your Business

     

    mature businessman reading newspaper

    Fred had a successful consulting service serving many clients in his community. He enjoyed his days in his home office but he was finding that he wasn’t spending the time with his family as much as he wanted to do. He hadn’t had a vacation in a year and he wasn’t sure he could be away from his home office without his clients being angry.

    He took the time one day to look at his options for decreasing his workload while maintaining his lifestyle.
    He could:
    1. Hire and train an employee to help with client related documentation.
    2. Partner with another consultant in his field sharing some of the workload while getting a “finders fee” for sending the work to the sub-consultant.
    3. Find a support desk for his office administration who do all the office paperwork leaving him free to do the consulting.
    4. Increase his consulting work by marketing his services on the internet to companies in other communities and setting up a virtual business with lots of automation to reduce his time and expenses in maintaining a home office. He would have to think “outside of the box” as it would be a new way to market his services.
    Fred decided that spending time with his family was a high priority for his lifestyle so he put all four ideas into action by getting advice on resources available on the internet to help him decrease his workload while increasing his revenue. He hired and trained a personal assistant for his home office knowledgable in his consulting work. He paid for virtual office support and he got training in how to sell his consulting service on the internet.
    If you are wanting to move your business onto the internet and international community, you should subscribe to The Business of At Home Business newsletter for tips and resources.

    Categories: Fred's Story Tags: Tags: , ,

    Unexpected Skunk!

    da4a17c502d2cff6649b008fc3a1948fUnexpected Events

    It is always good to be flexible in your day to day planning when you have a home based business.

    What happens when a skunk decides to ruin your day and stops your business in its tracks?

    A couple of weeks ago, I got a call from my brother, with a cat howling in the background, that his cat was foaming at the mouth and could we go to the emergency vet?  Well, we raced in the car over to the emergency vet only to find out that the cat had been skunked.

    They  gave him some skunk removal shampoo to use but the smell was upsetting the invalid dogs and cats in the hospital so we left quickly.  Luckily, the emergency vet  only charged us for the shampoo and we were relieved that the cat hadn ’t been poisoned. The skunk must have sprayed the musk right into the cats face which caused the mucus to pour from his eyes and throat.

    When we got home, we realized that we were both skunked as we had sat in the enclosed car for 45 minutes with  a stinking cat. Many showers later,  and Skunk removal shampoo, I still smelled of skunk two days later. The car had a horrendous smell.

    So, three days of cancelling appointments and washing clothes, I didn ’t get much work done because the musk clung to anything I touched. The car was the worst so I got the interior shampooed and “bombed” with fragrance overnight so it smelled of a pretty skunk.  I try to keep the car windows open so that one day, the smell may go away.

    The week that I had the “Skunk Incident” was a waste in terms of work and I had to cancel a few appointments.

    Remember that in business:

    1. You can ’t be prepared for everything so have some flexibility in your schedule. There are always “Acts of Gods” like skunks or flooding or (in our area) earthquakes that you can ’t plan for.
    2. To try to have an assistant who has a “How To” Guide from you whether it is a family member or some trusted “handyman” who can help you with chores or email or repairs to keep the business going forward if you are incapacitated.
    3. To automate the business as much as possible whether it is bookkeeping, email or contacting clients.
    4. To have business interruption insurance even though I don ’t think it covers skunks!

    Subscribe to The Business of At Home Business newsletter to find out about resources and ideas for a home based business.

    Categories: Productivity Tags: Tags: , , , ,