Idiots Fail To Plan
March 29, 2006
Someone told you that a business plan is just something people use to impress some jumped up jerk in a suit when you want to borrow money. You haven’t done one, because you don’t need a loan to set up your home based business, and it all sounds too complicated anyway. Well, believe me, only idiots fail to plan - and you don’t want to be an idiot do you?
Doing a plan for your home based business doesn’t need to be complicated, and whether you’re setting up a part-time home based business to pay your child’s college fees, or planning to build a multi-business corporation, you need a plan.
In How to Run Your Business Like a Girl, the author interviewed several business owners. One of the questions she asked them was, “Do you have a business plan?†Another question she asked was, “How long were you in business before you were able to start paying yourself?â€
Would it surprise you to learn that some of those without a plan have ran their businesses for 4 years plus, and claim that they are still unable to pay themselves? The ones who did have a plan were able to begin paying themselves relatively quickly. Which boat would you rather be in?
You’d have to be a nut to want to run a business for more than four years, with no pay. What would you live on? How could you possibly motivate yourself to go on, if you weren’t making a single bean?
Before you work yourself into a state of panic, you should know that a business plan is just like a road map. You work out where you want to be, and how long it will take you to get there.
Check back later, and I’ll show you how to start making a basic plan. If you’re too impatient to wait, and want to get started right now, try the links below.
Business Plan Kits for Dummies
Be A Business Planning Pro
It’s A Jungle Out There and a Zoo in Here
I’m Bored - Surprise Me
Make cash selling other people’s things online
March 28, 2006
One profitable home based business involves selling other people’s things online. Hundreds of businesses sell thousands upon thousands of different products online, through other people’s websites. This type of business is referred to as affiliate marketing.
Many people make an excellent living through these programs. In fact, famous super affiliate, Rosalind Gardner made over $400,000. The amazing thing is, she doesn’t need to employ a huge team to help her run this home based business. In fact, she does it all on her own, and much of her business is automated, leaving her free to do what she pleases. To read more about Rosalind’s success, and get her free newsletter Click Here! Or to find out more about affiliate marketing, read on.
Several years ago, there were a lot of people out there with great websites, and no idea how to make them profitable. Then affiliate marketing came along, and a system was invented which allowed webmasters to sell other people’s things on their sites, and receive a commission. The system has become even more efficient, as there are now a few large companies, who manage the programs of thousands of businesses and affiliates.You can sign up to these companies for free, but to join the most popular programs, you will first need a website. Most of the large and popular programs won’t allow you to join unless you have a website email address. You can then browse through thousands of different products, ranging from loans, to hotel rooms, to software, to clothing. There are programs for just about every product you could think of.
Once you have chosen which products you would like to sell from your site, you simply copy and paste a simple link on your website. When a visitor clicks on the link from your site to the merchant’s site, they don’t need to buy straight away. A clever cookie system can track the sale back to you a month later, and in some cases, merchant’s allow as much as a year.
If you are considering joining one of these programs, I would highly recommend beginning with a couple of the larger ones, such as Commission Junction - www.cj.com or Share A Sale, which you can join by clicking the link below.
Grab traffic from Ebay
March 26, 2006
You’ve built your website, optimised it, and listed it on the major search engines. How can you begin driving traffic to your site until you’re number one for your keywords on Google? Ebay is one avenue you can use.
Ebay gets millions of visitors each day, so popping an advert on there would be a great way to generate swarms of traffic to your site. Unfortunately, you’re not allowed to put a listing on Ebay, which merely points people in the direction of your site. We’ve all seen people do it, but you shouldn’t. If a competitor sees it, they may report you to Ebay.
The best way to grab traffic from Ebay, and send it hurtling towards your site is to sell an informational product. It doesn’t need to be long, and it doesn’t even need to be in ebook format. In the past, I’ve sold information products on Ebay which were as short as 11 pages. If you provide good information, which is of interest to people and price it accordingly, you’ll get traffic for your site, and make some extra cash for your efforts.
You may have noticed that some people sell ebooks on Ebay, for as little as 2 cents. Don’t do it. You could have a million links to your site in a book which you are giving away, but it wouldn’t drive as much traffic there as a product which you have charged for. This is because, there are thousands of freebie hunters on Ebay, and some of them will snap anything up, even if they’re only mildly interested in it. Also, people tend to value things more that they’ve paid for, and this especially applies to books and educational materials.
So price your product at what you think it’s worth, but don’t just stop at including links to your site in the ebook. Do something which will pull visitors back to your site regularly – include free membership to your newsletter with the ebook. If you don’t have a newsletter – you need one. The newsletter should be on the same topic as your ebook, but it will provide the visitor with special updates and deals.
If it all sounds like too much hard work, it is worth it. To learn how to write your ebook in a week Click Here!
Shoestring business in a Basket
March 23, 2006
If you have a creative flair, a gift basket business may be the perfect home business option for you. You could start this business at home, in your spare time, on a low budget, and the great thing is that it’s marketable online and offline.
Gift baskets are popular year round, and obviously even more popular on special occasions such as Mothers Day, Christmas, Easter etc.
The key to this type of business is to target a niche market. That way, you’re not competing against the masses who do general gift baskets, plus, targeting a niche market will keep your start up costs down. You can always expand your niche, as your business becomes more successful.
Research your local area for possible markets. Chances are there will be a hospital near by, so you could consider selling “get well gift basketsâ€. Or perhaps there’s a golf club nearby, in which case, gift baskets for golfers could be the way to go.Unless you live in the sticks, there will be plenty of businesses in your area. You could make corporate gift baskets for local businesses to give to their customers.
There are so many options, from gift baskets for gardeners, to give baskets for cat lovers. If you do a bit of research, you’re sure to come up with dozens more.
Working from Home
Learn more about starting a gift basket business
101 Gift Basket Ideas Click Here!
Basket Business Forum
