Home Based Business – 3 Tips For Running A Successful Home Based Business

Running a successful home based business is not always an easy thing to do. In this article I’m going to share with you three tips that will prove to be a big help in your journey as a home based business entrepreneur. These tips may seem simple and pretty basic, but they have helped thousands of others reap the rewards of a home business.3 Tips For Running A Successful Home Based BusinessTip #1 – Getting On A Schedule – While working from home has many benefits, it can often times be very distracting especially when you have kids around the house. It’s important that you treat this business like a real business. That means when it’s time to work, it’s time to work. Set a schedule for yourself and stick to it EVERY DAY. If plan to work for 4 hours per day, set that time aside for your work and let your family know that it’s your work time and you can’t be bothered.Tip #2 – Don’t Be Afraid Of Change – With all of the new tools out there to market your business, learning to adapt and try new strategies is a must. I call this ‘layering’ your marketing. Never be afraid to test new marketing strategies to see how they work. As your business and this industry evolves, you need to evolve with it in order to build a successful home based business.Tip #3 – Stay Consistent and Never Quit – This is actually going to be the hardest part of building your business. Even though there are many benefits of working from home, there are still going to be ups and downs just like anything else. Whatever you do in your business, stay consistent with it. Stick to your schedule, work hard, and don’t expect overnight results. Too many people get discouraged when they don’s see immediate results, and they give up before they ever have a chance to become successful.These tips may seem obvious and pretty basic but there are crucial to building a successful home based business. Don’t overlook these 3 tips, but keep them in mind as you are getting ready to build your business.

Small Business Owner’s Personal Touch Helps To Compete With the Big Guys

Small Business is the backbone of this country. I shudder to think what our economy would be like without small businesses providing jobs and tax revenue in every city and town in the U.S.

Many years ago, I worked with a woman who grew up near Louisville, Kentucky. One day, over lunch, we were reminiscing about our teenage summer jobs. Hers was working at her grandmother’s pizzeria.

“Does your grandmother still make pizza?” I asked.

She shook her head. A Papa John’s opened directly across the street. Grandma couldn’t compete with its lower prices and broader delivery area. Once Papa started taking orders online, it was all over. Grandma shut her doors and retired.

Don’t Let the Big Guys Sneak Up on Your Business

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t dislike Papa John’s pizza; it certainly tastes better than some of the other national chain pizza. But it was sad to hear how my colleague’s grandma was quashed by a growing chain.

Do you worry this could happen to you? Are you challenged by the proximity of a national chain with more money to innovate and undercut you? Do you feel like the playing field is tilting away at greater angles?

Don’t despair. Fight back with what makes you unique to your customers and reminding them about it-your understanding of their unique needs, and the fact that they are people, not accounts. Stress the importance of supporting local business, and practice what you’re preaching!

Every year, American Express sponsors a Small Business Saturday that usually follows Black Friday. If this or a similar campaign is in your community, join it.
Shop at local stores as often as possible. Resist big box stores except for items that really aren’t available anywhere else. When you shop at local places, you learn more about the local business community and who knows, you may gain new customers directly or by referral.
Redouble your customer service efforts.
The last bullet is very important. The big chains do emphasize customer service but you can stand out because you and your employees actually know your customers, assuming your turnover is lighter than the average Wal-Mart’s.

Sometimes you have to say this a little forcefully, particularly when the competition is much cheaper or even free. Ask your friends to stop Liking free website building services, for example; while they may be free, the sites are rarely attractive or particularly useful. Legitimate businesses don’t sell a one-size-fits-all approach. But like you, they take the time to create customized solutions.

Always remember this, “People do business with people, not businesses.” Probably the greatest advantage the small business owner has over the “Big Guys” is the business owner himself or herself. Take the time to come out from your office and meet your customers. Show some personality in your social media posts. People tend to know the name of the small business owners they frequently do business with. Anyone know the name of the CEO of Home Depot? If so, let me know in the comments below.

Look for Small Business Resources

If money is a growing issue, I can understand. It’s been difficult for small businesses and entrepreneurs to get loans. Banks continue to sit on piles of money and have given many of us the cold shoulder.

More options are surfacing for small businesses that need to upgrade equipment, move to better locations, or simply need access to credit in order to respond to unexpected events. Here are few trends I’ve noticed:

Crowdfunding is set to take off even if the SEC is slow to release rules about who qualifies for equity funding. Colorado and Arizona recently passed legislation allowing non-accredited investors to buy SMB stock or invest in them ($5000 in Colorado and $10,000 in Arizona).
Online loans from companies like Kabbage, Accion, IOU Central, OnDeck and Can Capital often talk about determining small business’ loan worthiness. These companies may be great sources of capital, but you want to look closely at the actual cost of the loan. Be sure you understand the interest rate and the loan origination fees, if any.
Mobile providers are abandoning long-term contracts after T-Mobile ended them in 2013. Many are setting up small business centers to cater to this previously overlooked segment.
Use tools developed for small business to help with your marketing and streamline your efforts to grow. Companies like Constant Contact and HubSpot really have the small business owner’s back.

Of course, there’s always Shark Tank. Many businesses that don’t get an offer still benefit from the free publicity!

Information Product Creation: Never Compete on Price Because There Is Only One You

Information product creation requires extensive preparation, no matter which niche you work within and you want to make sure that your information product has a successful launch. That probably sounds scary and intimidating but here’s the thing: this is a one time effort and it will pay off in a foundation that is strong enough to get your ideal clients to invest in your high-end programs and services without the perils of a traditional funnel. This article will teach you a few of the things that you need to remember if you’d like to invest in yourself and start on the information product creation path using your unique talents and abilities. Remember that you never have to worry about anyone ripping off your ideas because if you understand how to properly position yourself around your story.

Understand Both Strengths and Weaknesses: It is good to have an impartial view of your own strengths and weaknesses when lay the foundation of selling yourself within the information product creation process. It helps you figure out where you are, what you lack and how to move forward so that you get as much growth as possible. It is more than important, it is urgent if you want to create fast success for yourself to have personal positive reinforcement and deep belief to provide yourself the support you need so that you can get over your own limitations to ensure that your information product is as valuable as it can be.

You also need to know exactly who your competition is so you can study them and use their methods to help you improve your own standings. Down recreate the wheel, but understand the wheel and position yourself going uphill from the competition. Check out which kinds of opportunities you’ve already got and try to figure out how best to use them while taking care to remember your strengths and weaknesses. This is a great way to figure out where you stand against your competition which helps you figure out how best to grow.

Launch on Time: No matter what, even if you haven’t officially announced your “launch date” you should launch the site when you’ve said you would. This will force you to stick to your goal and actually work on it. Thinking that “I’ll launch it when I think it’s ready to launch” will only hinder your efforts. You’ve got a responsibility that you need to live up to with your launch, and you can’t move back on that one. If you get close to your launch date and you are getting hung up on your self limiting beliefs in your information product creation, don’t worry this about getting it out there and not perfection. As long as it is usable you should launch it. Launching on time is the professional thing to do and it is more important than creating a “wow” effect in your site visitors. You can always update/upgrade your website when you have to, so there shouldn’t be any issue with that.

Analyze Your Own Concept: If you want to make your information product creation successful you need to understand how good your concept is: is it really going to work for your chosen audience or would something else be better? You already know about your competition; how does your concept measure up? If you haven’t come up with your own idea and are trying to work with someone else’s concept, do some more work on your own before your launch. People want original ideas because they’ve seen too many other me-too websites already.

Test Your Concept Before You Commit To The Information Product Creation Process: One of the biggest failures people have with information product creation is not testing an idea before putting a lot of effort into producing an information product. PPC to a small 5 page site with a landing page is a great way to test an offer before you even produce it. If people will sign up to get it, you can be sure that you can create an information product that will target eliminating the pain of your target market. The small amount of money will be invaluable in using crowd sourcing to direct the final outline of the information product creation process.

You’ll have lots of hurdles to clear after the launch of your information product and the only way to truly take care of them is to follow the advice in this article to work smarter. Plenty of people work hard, but it is the ones who work smarter who make real money online with the information product creation business model.