Pink Girly

How To Overcome The Biggest Challenges Of Working From Home

admin — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 21:01:34 +0000

Ahh… the entrepreneur’s life… Many imagine that working from home is like being a Hollywood superstar: working leisurely in your pajamas, eating bon bons, and cashing paychecks you write to yourself. While managing your own business can be a life long dream, your business can also take over your life if you let it. Here are some tips for how to overcome the biggest challenges of working from home.== ARE YOU A WORKAHOLIC? ==When you work from home it can be hard to STOP working. Temptations such as the ringing of your business phone, the constant flow of emails, and piles of paper work can easily draw you back into work mode if you let them.TIPS TO CONQUER WORK-A-HOLISMa) Set a regular schedule for work and home hours. Make a deliberate effort to stop working on time. When you are done with work, shut off the computer, and mentally shut off work.b) Locate your office in a separate area of the house. Having your office out of sight may help you forget about work.c) Enjoy your “off” time. Pamper yourself! Schedule yourself regular vacations! Take time to relax! Spend time doing the things you love most. If you started working from home to spend more time with your family, then make sure you are actually DOING that. Schedule daytrips with your kids. Take time to visit a friend you have lost touch with.== ARE YOU EASILY DISTRACTED? ==Does the sound of Nickelodeon, the allure of the cookies in the pantry, and the beautiful sunny weather distract you?TIPS TO HELP YOU STAY FOCUSED:a) Don’t tolerate distractions in your life. Discover sources of the distraction and remove it from your work environment. If you can’t remove it entirely, try to come up with a creative “work-a- round” that will let you function.b) Make a daily to do list and prioritize, by placing the most important 3-5 tasks at the top. Put all other “tasks” at bottom. Try to spend your time on items which on the things which will do the most to move your business forward.== DO YOU FEEL LONELY? ==Do you miss birthday lunch celebrations, water cooler talk, and co-worker friendships? Are you becoming a bear in your “work at home cave”?TIPS TO AVOID ISOLATION:a) Volunteer. Sign up to help with a Girl Scout troop, at church, or at the local library.b) Join a group. There are lots of local women’s business breakfast groups. You might also be able to find a local playgroup, or church group to join.c) Take a class. This is the perfect opportunity to learn a new business skill or indulge in a personal interest such as pottery, art, or scrapbooking.d) Spend time with friends and family. Have lunch, call an old friend, make a date with your spouse, or send a personal email to a family member. Make time to connect with the important people in your life.e) Build a personal support network. Whether it is a business coach, or fellow entrepreneur you’ll need someone to encourage you, listen to you, and guide you. Find a mentor who is highly successful at what you want to do and ask what their secrets are for success!d) Participate in an online community. There are many online communities for entrepreneurs and work at home parents. Here you can network, meet friends, and promote your business.== DO YOU NEED HEALTH INSURANCE? ==Insurance is a regular perk of working in the corporate world. When you go “solo” you will find yourself without the crucial coverage you need.TIPS FOR GETTING INSURED:a) If your spouse has a corporate job, check to see if you can be covered under their insurance plan.b) With the costs of family insurance coverage ranging from $7000 to $10,000 per year, it really pays to shop around.Here’s a few web sites where you can get free health insurance quotes from several leading carriers and easily compare many policies to choose the one that’s best for you.- http://www.ehealthinsurance.com/ - http://www.InsureCom.com - http://www.insurance.com/ - http://www.quotescout.com/ - http://www.localinsurance.comc) If you recently quit your corporate job, the COBRA law will let you purchase health insurance from your old corporate employer for up to 18 months.d) Ask your insurance agent about opening a Medical Savings Account (MSA). An MSA is a combo type account from which you can draw funds to pay for your medical expenses and the remaining funds grow like a tax deferred retirement fund.== DO YOU MISS REGULAR PAYCHECKS? ==Do you have trouble making regular paychecks to yourself?TIPS FOR REGULATING YOUR INCOME:a) Build reserves. When you have a good month, stash it away for those slow business periods. Stock up by working more during winter, so that you can take time off in the summer.b) Develop an “automatic” income source. Some options include writing and selling an ebook and acting as a reseller for services that complement your offerings.== DO FAMILY & FRIENDS VIOLATE YOUR BOUNDARIES? ==Do your friends, family call you during your work time? Do your clients call during your family time?TIPS FOR SETTING BOUNDARIES:a) Communicate with your clients early on letting them know your policies, your work hours, and what they can expect.b) Let family know what your work hours are. Ask them not to call you with personal chit chat until your “home” hours begin.c) Caller ID can help you identify calls to see if they are from family, friends, or pesky sales people.The bottom line is to determine your boundaries, set them in stone, communicate them, and guard and uphold them!== SUMMARY ==While working from home is the new American Dream, it can present some real challenges at times. Smart business owners work hard to maintaining balance, practice extreme self-care, and regulate their income. By overcoming these obstacles you’ll experience renewed energy, focus, and stability in both your personal and business life.

Article Source: www.iSnare.com

‘Dip Your Toe’ Ways To Prove Value And Make The Sale

admin — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 21:01:34 +0000

One of the problems you face when marketing your product on the Internet is that the whole transaction is based on trust and proving value. Your web site plays the crucial role of presenting your message of what you are about, why clients need you, how you can help them, and to build trust. You need to prove the value of your product to the customer so that they aren’t afraid to risk their hard earned money. Building trust is especially important if you are selling a higher priced item and people need assurance that your product/service is “worth” the money.Here are some ways to build trust with customers by letting them “dip their toe” in the water and try your services in low risk ways. After they experience the value for themselves, then they will be ready and eager to “jump in” and purchase your full-blown or tie-in product offering.1) FREE TELECLASS - Offer a free 1 hour teleclass on a given topic. If you “wow” them with the free teleclass, then they’ll be eager to take the follow up for fee teleclass that offers more comprehensive coverage on the topic. Just make sure you don’t give it ALL away in the freebie. Give them a sexy tease into what the fee class will do to build upon what they learned in the free class.If you are looking to learn more about how to create and conduct a teleclass, you’ll find more information from Phil Humbert’s site here: http://www.philiphumbert.com/Bridge.htm. He teaches many successful for fee teleclasses and has taught others to do the same.2) PROBLEM/SOLUTION APPROACH ARTICLE ? Write an article the presents a problem and shows how your product/service solves the problem. This proves your value “up front” and tells customers how to contact you to “solve” the given problem your article addresses. At the end of the article, include an author bio, which includes: a teaser about your product, contact info, and a “special” discount, which makes it an offer, they can’t refuse! Read this cleverly written article about “The 5 Tactics Your Internet Business Must Employ Immediately if You Want to Prosper in the Next 90 Days” which leads you to sign up for his ezine. Clever huh?3) FREE EBOOK ? Write a mini ebook/brochure that presents a problem and offers a solution. Think of it as an “infomercial”. Say for example, you figure out what the top 10 problems are for your target audience. Then, either give them the answers, or give them the questions/tools to help them access their level of need. In the back of the ebook, you can offer a discount and information about the products/services you offer that will help them solve these problems.4) FREE AUTORESPONDER COURSE ? Create a free 5 week course designed to help them with a particular issue. Offer the autoresponder course on your web site. To get a better idea, here’s a FREE 5 day marketing course you can sign up for: Once they see the value of the information your present, they will want to buy the full-blown version of your product/service. A great free sequential autoresponder is http://www.getresponse.com5) RADIO INTERVIEW ? Think of this as an “audio” infomercial. By doing a radio interview you get a great chance to showcase your expertise. When people hear your voice in person, they feel as though they know you. It provides a believable forum for you to present your marketing message. My radio interview about from Money Room and Let’s Do Biz Online do a great job of showcasing my ebook expertise and really boost my ebook sales. Take a listen here: http://www.kcustom.com/cgi-bin/sgx/d.cgi?ultimate-100006) TESTIMONIALS ? Testimonials let the customer live vicariously the experience of others using your product. If you have customers who love your “stuff”, I strongly encourage you to ask if they’d mind writing a testimonial for you about their experience using your product or service. There is NOTHING more powerful than the words of a satisfied customer to build trust.For example, I know that contracting a web developer will cost roughly $1000 to create a small business site. I show the value of my extra friendly killer customer service thru the testimonials on my web site here: http://www.kcustom.com/testimonials.htm. This proves up front the level of service I offer and goes a long way to build trust with my future customers.7) FREE CONSULTATION ? Consider offering a free half hour consultation to prospective clients. This is an especially successful way to get your foot in the door with clients interested in your products/services. Remember the Kirby Vacuum salesman who shows up at your home to show you why you need a better vacuum and how his product will solve your cleaning needs? Use this time to access your client’s needs and tell him the specific ways that your service would address his needs. The conversation time allows you to build a personal rapport and trust.SUMMARY:The biggest profits are made from people who have remarkable ideas that change the world. By proving the value, you take the risk out of purchase. It’s all about proving “Will your product so what you say it will do and does” and “Does that product provide enough value for the price? By giving customers a low risk way to realize the value of your product, you’ll make it build the necessary trust to make the sale.

Article Source: www.iSnare.com

The Primary Cause Of Business Financing Frustration

admin — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 19:01:34 +0000

Finding proper business financing is not easy at the best of times for most small and medium sized business owners and managers.There are a number of reasons that collectively explain why the business financing market can be so difficult to understand and navigate.But probably the single biggest reason is the lack of useful information about how the business financing market actually works.Business financing information and education sources predominantly come in two forms: 1) Text books; 2) Major bank advertising.If you’ve ever read through a educational finance text book or taken a business financing course, you already know how difficult it can be to apply the theories, principles, and strategies to a small or medium sized business.Our formal education system provides limited information as to how the market place works, how to plan for financing requirements, how to manage periods of growth, decline, transition, start up, etc.Sure academic books and courses can go through all these areas in great detail, but is the information practical, real world, something you can relate to and apply yourself as a manager or owner of a small or medium sized business?In most cases, the answer is a resounding NO.Most finance text books speak to big business financing dynamics that are not easily transferable to small and medium sized business scenarios.Outside of the formal education system, the next great source of business financing information is the information provided by the major banks, which they tend to make available to you by the boat load through their broad based marketing campaigns.Unfortunately, the information by itself seldom helps you determine if a particular institution would be able to provide you with financing, or what would be required to qualify for a loan.The good news is that business financing sources continue to grow in numbers as more and more lenders carve out a particular piece of the market to service.In order to take advantage of these alternatives, you need to have a solid approach in place when seeking business financing.Here’s a short list of things to consider>>> Develop a solid, ongoing, understanding of both your personal and business assets, income, and cash flow.Regardless of the business financing model, these elements will always come into play to some degree.Being able to demonstrate a solid understanding of your business financials is also an indication of your ability to manage the underlying business.>>> Monitor and manage your personal and business credit.Small and medium sized business financing is focused on both personal and business credit histories.Regular reviews of both personal and business credit reports from the major credit reporting agencies are important to avoid errors and credit practices that can severely damage your borrowing power.>>> Develop your marketing position.Yes, seeking business financing is a marketing exercise.When applying for business financing, you’re marketing your business to lending sources and they in turn are marketing their business financing programs to you.Think of the lender as a customer to better understand what they’re looking for. Then, develop a business proposal that addresses all their potential needs and concerns.>>> Research Lending SourcesThere are lots of business financing sources. But there is also lots of variation in the types of business applications each one is prepared to consider.Broad based lenders rely on credit history and net worth. As you get more specific in terms of financing application and industry, lender programs become more narrow and can be harder to locate.You need to consider things like industry, sector, and geography when looking for business financing sources.Financing consultants and business loan brokers can be an excellent source of information to aid you in this process.>>> Qualify The LenderBefore you make a formal application, find out if the lender has the programs and lending track record to meet your specific needs.Too often, the lender is doing all the qualifying.>>> Compare your optionsDepending on the scenario, there can be several financing strategies that could work for your business.Make sure you take the time to compare before making a decision. The extra time spent could save you considerable time and money in the long run.>>> Start TodayRegardless of what your business financing needs are right now, you should regularly invest time staying on top of your business financials, monitoring your credit, and researching financing sources that fit your industry and potential future requirements.When the time comes to acquire capital, your proactive efforts can make all the difference in getting the capital you need with terms and timing that are acceptable to your business.

Article Source: www.iSnare.com

Joint Ventures: The Power Of Partnership

admin — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 14:01:34 +0000

When two people join forces, there’s a certain synergy that takes place, that’s why many ebusiness folks are seeking out joint ventures. What IS a joint venture (JV for short) you ask? Basically it’s when you agree to form a partnership and jointly promote someone.== BENEFITS OF JV ==Here are some benefits you can realize from forming joint venture.1. EXPOSURE: You can instantly “double” the exposure of your products and services by tapping into each other’s built-in audiences, business relationships, and mail lists.2. MENTORING: As partners, you’ll form a powerful relationship and learn from one another. As you create plans together, each partner’s specialties and knowledge will complement the others.3. FORM A DYNAMIC DUO: Being associated with other highly successful business people enhances your image and reputation. Look at the fantastic relationships that Jim Daniels, Rick Beneteau and other successful marketers have built. They are examples of people who truly are putting the power of partnerships to work!== TIPS FOR BUILDING A SUCCESSFUL RELATIONSHIP ==Are two heads better than one? Well YES and no? You see, relationships can be sweet or they can quickly turn sour. Like a good marriage, a joint venture relationship needs to be built on a solid foundation of trust and friendship. Partnerships need nurturing, loyalty, and faithfulness from both parties. It’s not a one way street. Partner’s need to genuinely care about and trust each other.1. BE HONEST AND SINCERE: It all starts with the proposal. If you don’t write a strong proposal, the future of your JV will quickly be decided with a “click”. An impersonal, hard sell letter will turn your prospect off. Instead, write a personalized proposal including what you both could bring to the project and what you both can expect of a joint venture partnership.2. KNOW YOUR POTENTIAL PARTNER: Take time to get familiar with their business, their web site, and ezine. This way can tell your partner what you like about their business and how you foresee them working together. You may even consider making a phone call to say hello and “meet” each other first. The few joint venture letters I actually consider are from folks who take time to know me and my business, and speak honestly about WHY and HOW we could work together.3. WHAT’s IN IT FOR ME? Explain up front how working together would be mutually beneficial to both of you. If a joint venture proposal screams “ME, ME, ME” then why would you consider it? Instead, take time to think about how YOU could help your potential partner. Clearly state the potential benefits to your partner. Will they gain instant access to 40,000 extra subscribers? Will you endorse your partner’s products? How can you grow your partner’s business?4. RESPECT YOUR PARTNER: What you do reflects on the reputation of your partner. Conduct yourself with integrity and professionalism. If I am promoting “Joe Schmo’s” product, I expect Joe to treat my customers with respect and offer outstanding customer service. If Joe doesn’t answer his emails, offers bad customer support, or his product doesn’t “work” ? then that reflects badly on his partner’s reputation.== WAYS TO WORK TOGETHER ==Here are a few ideas on how partners can work together to promote each other.1. CROSS PROMOTION: When you endorse each other’s products, it’s important that you TRY and BELIEVE in the product. A personal testimonial is a powerful sales tool. Partner’s can agree to swap ads or articles in each other’s ezines or send promotional endorsements to each other’s email lists.2. BUNDLING: Another JV idea is to bundle your packages together. Bundling works best when the product complements yours. But, be careful that their product doesn’t overshadow yours. Also, don’t pile on so many bonuses that the offer becomes unbelievable. An offer too good to be true may raise doubts in the consumer’s mind.3. PRODUCT SWAP: Agree to “swap” products with your partner and offer them as a prize. Give the prize away in a contest or do a random drawing to one lucky subscriber.4. JOIN FORCES AS A VIRTUAL COMPANY: Partner with companies who offer services related to yours. Your customers will enjoy the convenience of one-stop-shopping. By cross promoting each other, you’ll BOTH gain new customers. Don’t limit yourself to partners who are close to you geographically. With fax and email your associates can be located anywhere in the world.== IN SUMMARY ==Take a minute to look up from your busy desktop and dream about WHO you would like to work with! Open up your mind to the possibilities. The INTERNET makes the world a small place. You could potentially partner with ANYONE, ANYWHERE! Get to work writing a smashing proposal and YOU TOO could be tapping into the power of partnerships to promote your business.

Article Source: www.iSnare.com

Hello world!

admin — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 09:34:03 +0000

Welcome to Actualblog.net. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!