The current trend is geared towards more home-based businesses. They require lower overhead and startup money- making them easier for entrepreneurs with limited funds to start up. If you are thinking about starting a home-based service business, here are a few tips for getting started on the right foot.
What is a service business?
Service businesses are those that provide help to others. This can be anything from mowing the lawn to managing business accounts. The basis of a successful service business is one that supplies a need. In your area, it may take some research to discover the top service needs and then figure out which one you can provide. Use those around you and try to fill a need. Around here we need a fast food delivery place, a drive thru desert place (who also delivers), an entertainment zone for the teens to spend time at. These are just a few examples of service businesses that are needed in my area. My mother owns a business offering residential and business cleaning services. What is the need in your community and how can you fill it?
Benefits of a home-based service business
There are several benefits to running a home-based service business. First of all, you can run the business from your home. Since you already pay a mortgage, utilities and car payments, the only thing you need spend money on now is the equipment for your business. And, if you are running a service that began as a hobby that means you probably already own most of the needed equipment.
Secondly, a home-based service business requires low overhead and startup costs. We alluded to the startup costs above and the low overhead means no employees but you. The key to keeping the overhead low is taking on only as many projects as you can safely and efficiently handle by yourself. Start small and then grow and invest your business. Every business I've ran, I've started small with one client, one service or one product.
Home-based service business options
As we mentioned, you can usually run these service businesses out of your home. Establishing a website for selling your services lowers the overhead even more and maximizes your profit. With the Internet as your potential customer base, the opportunities are endless for marketing and finding clients. Here are some home-based service options.
There are considerations before beginning any type of business even a home-based one.
1. Check out the local laws for registering and zoning a home business. Most home businesses require no zoning issues unless you will be meeting clients in your home and posting signs in the yard.
2. Small business tax laws. Now that you are a business, you are subject to different tax exemptions, deductions and payments. Sites like www.irs.gov can give you the information you need.
3. Set up a separate work space at home. This could be as simple as using a spare bedroom or den with a door to keep your work separate. If you rely on the telephone a separate phone line can be added. When a workshop is needed, consider using a garage or purchasing a large outbuilding.
4. Use on and offline marketing methods to find clients. This includes: viral marketing, newspaper and Yellow Pages ads, flyers, scratch off coupons, direct mailings, email marketing, and article marketing
5. Create a schedule to divide time between work and family. Balancing both is hard. Scheduling time and sticking to it means more gets done and no one is slighted. This is how it's supposed to be, in real life you will have interruptions and feel like you can't get it all done. Hang in there and get your schedule set and teach your friends and family that although you are working from home, you are not availalbe to chat, visit, or run their errands-unless you are running an errand service.
A home-based service business is an alternative for people who want to experience entrepreneurship without spending a lot of money in upfront costs. If you have a talent and can meet a need, consider a home-based business.
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Terra Williams is a work-at-home entrepreneur who balances a home, career, husband, and four kids . She enjoys helping others market their business using scratch off stickers .
Ideas, tips, hints and more to use scratch off stickers to grow your business.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Scratch Off stickers -Will they hurt my image on my card?
I'm frequenly asked if the scratch off stickers will hurt the card they are applied to. Will the scratch off stickers damage the photo printed on the scratch off card? No, when scratching off the scratch off sticker you, are revealing a clear sticker that protects the image printed on your card.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
5 Tips to keep your direct sales team motivated
Motivate Your Team Using These 5 Simple Ideas
Looking for some quick and easy ways to get your direct sales team energized and active? Try these five simple ideas for motivating your team and you'll be amazed at the results you see in their increased sales and success rate.
1) Weekly Emails
Taking the time to create a weekly email for your direct sales team will pay off greatly in terms of added sales, team unity, and longevity of team members. Staying in contact with your team keeps them motivated and reaching towards their goal.
2) Online Team Chats
If your team is scattered across the country as many direct sales teams are in our cyber-age, holding a weekly sales meeting at a local restaurant becomes a challenge, to say the least. But that doesn't mean your team can't get together.
Instead of a local meeting, host an online team chat that will serve the same purpose. This will help your team develop stronger relationships, as well as keeping them updated with important information.
3) Training Tip Sheets
If you aren't able to prepare a full-fledged weekly newsletter or detailed email, offer your team some monthly, or bi-monthly, training tip sheets to help them succeed. You can do this in addition to your weekly emails if you are able. Your team members will appreciate all the business building help they can get.
Cover one training tip at a time and help your team learn to sell more, book more shows, promote their businesses, deal with difficult customers, build a website, handle rejections, and anything else you can teach them to better their business results.
4) Contests
Monthly or quarterly contests can be advantageous to your business and will help motivate a large number of your team members. Look for simple ideas such as the most sales in a given period. Offer a prize, then let your team's ingrained sense of competition take over and make it fun. Send out a scratch off card for them to scratch to find out what they have won.
5) Recognition
While money motivates some people, and the sense of freedom in entrepreneurship motivates others, some people will be more motivated by simple recognition of their efforts and successes than by anything else. Let your team know you're proud of them. Use your weekly emails to share team members' successes such as a first party, a record-breaking sales week, a birthday or anniversary, etc. You might be surprised at the encouragement this provides.
There are any number of ways to get your team members excited and wanting to sell more. For starters, use these five simple ideas for motivating your team. Then look for more ideas that will work for your specific team members and put even more team-building ideas in place to boost moral, and sales, even further!
Looking for some quick and easy ways to get your direct sales team energized and active? Try these five simple ideas for motivating your team and you'll be amazed at the results you see in their increased sales and success rate.
1) Weekly Emails
Taking the time to create a weekly email for your direct sales team will pay off greatly in terms of added sales, team unity, and longevity of team members. Staying in contact with your team keeps them motivated and reaching towards their goal.
2) Online Team Chats
If your team is scattered across the country as many direct sales teams are in our cyber-age, holding a weekly sales meeting at a local restaurant becomes a challenge, to say the least. But that doesn't mean your team can't get together.
Instead of a local meeting, host an online team chat that will serve the same purpose. This will help your team develop stronger relationships, as well as keeping them updated with important information.
3) Training Tip Sheets
If you aren't able to prepare a full-fledged weekly newsletter or detailed email, offer your team some monthly, or bi-monthly, training tip sheets to help them succeed. You can do this in addition to your weekly emails if you are able. Your team members will appreciate all the business building help they can get.
Cover one training tip at a time and help your team learn to sell more, book more shows, promote their businesses, deal with difficult customers, build a website, handle rejections, and anything else you can teach them to better their business results.
4) Contests
Monthly or quarterly contests can be advantageous to your business and will help motivate a large number of your team members. Look for simple ideas such as the most sales in a given period. Offer a prize, then let your team's ingrained sense of competition take over and make it fun. Send out a scratch off card for them to scratch to find out what they have won.
5) Recognition
While money motivates some people, and the sense of freedom in entrepreneurship motivates others, some people will be more motivated by simple recognition of their efforts and successes than by anything else. Let your team know you're proud of them. Use your weekly emails to share team members' successes such as a first party, a record-breaking sales week, a birthday or anniversary, etc. You might be surprised at the encouragement this provides.
There are any number of ways to get your team members excited and wanting to sell more. For starters, use these five simple ideas for motivating your team. Then look for more ideas that will work for your specific team members and put even more team-building ideas in place to boost moral, and sales, even further!
Monday, September 13, 2010
Marketing to Moms
The goal of any business is to make money. And, we’re not just talking about the short term but long term goals of increased revenue. To that end, many businesses are missing out on a multi-billion dollar market: moms. Marketing to moms is the wave of the now and the future.
Why are moms so important?
Moms are enterprising. According to BSM Media Inc., mom spending is already over the trillion dollar mark. That’s more than the budget of some third world countries.
Also according to BSM Media Inc., almost 90 percent of moms consider themselves the financial head of the home. Her husband may bring home most of the bacon but it is the moms who decide how to spend it. They shop for everything related to the household: kids clothing, appliances, electronics, outdoor furniture, accessories and home improvement items.
Any husband that shops for these things is going to consult their wives before buying them. Why? Wives do the research into these products to find the best on the market. Moms influence as much as 85 percent of the purchases for the home. That’s over 70 million women we are talking about here. It doesn’t get any bigger than that.
Think about all of the tasks that moms handle in a day. They take care of the housework, shuffle kids from school to sporting events to other activities, cook dinner and manage the finances. In order to keep everything straight, they employ a wide variety of technology. It’s not uncommon to see a mom sitting in the park watching her kids play while listening to an iPod or browsing the Internet on her iPhone.
Moms are also savvy on the Internet. The trend for many years has been moms coming out of the workplace and starting their own businesses at home to spend more time with their kids. To that end, moms have developed a network of blogs, websites and forums designed to teach moms everything from designing websites, starting Internet businesses, marketing to other moms and managing their homes all the while. Their buying power increased exponentially with their knowledge.
Manly mistake?
Traditionally the only products marketed towards women were household products and cooking items. This goes back to the archaic thought that a woman’s place was in the home. That has been a huge detriment to many companies as they are beginning to see.
Women and moms have made an imprint in the man’s world in many areas. Women are not limited to office jobs; they are CEOs and CFOs. They don’t just surf the Web, they are becoming entrepreneurs with widening influence over Internet marketing. Having moms shun your product because you are not marketing to them means they are also spreading the word to other moms across the world (via the Internet) and in their own communities.
The future
Moms are influenced by other moms. Several generations of moms are coming together to influence the spending habits of major corporations. In the future the trend will continue. As moms become more “connected” in the world, their spending will increase. No product is off limits to mom advertising.
Moms do rule the world. Gain the support of savvy moms with your products and your business will reap the benefits.
Why are moms so important?
Moms are enterprising. According to BSM Media Inc., mom spending is already over the trillion dollar mark. That’s more than the budget of some third world countries.
Also according to BSM Media Inc., almost 90 percent of moms consider themselves the financial head of the home. Her husband may bring home most of the bacon but it is the moms who decide how to spend it. They shop for everything related to the household: kids clothing, appliances, electronics, outdoor furniture, accessories and home improvement items.
Any husband that shops for these things is going to consult their wives before buying them. Why? Wives do the research into these products to find the best on the market. Moms influence as much as 85 percent of the purchases for the home. That’s over 70 million women we are talking about here. It doesn’t get any bigger than that.
Think about all of the tasks that moms handle in a day. They take care of the housework, shuffle kids from school to sporting events to other activities, cook dinner and manage the finances. In order to keep everything straight, they employ a wide variety of technology. It’s not uncommon to see a mom sitting in the park watching her kids play while listening to an iPod or browsing the Internet on her iPhone.
Moms are also savvy on the Internet. The trend for many years has been moms coming out of the workplace and starting their own businesses at home to spend more time with their kids. To that end, moms have developed a network of blogs, websites and forums designed to teach moms everything from designing websites, starting Internet businesses, marketing to other moms and managing their homes all the while. Their buying power increased exponentially with their knowledge.
Manly mistake?
Traditionally the only products marketed towards women were household products and cooking items. This goes back to the archaic thought that a woman’s place was in the home. That has been a huge detriment to many companies as they are beginning to see.
Women and moms have made an imprint in the man’s world in many areas. Women are not limited to office jobs; they are CEOs and CFOs. They don’t just surf the Web, they are becoming entrepreneurs with widening influence over Internet marketing. Having moms shun your product because you are not marketing to them means they are also spreading the word to other moms across the world (via the Internet) and in their own communities.
The future
Moms are influenced by other moms. Several generations of moms are coming together to influence the spending habits of major corporations. In the future the trend will continue. As moms become more “connected” in the world, their spending will increase. No product is off limits to mom advertising.
Moms do rule the world. Gain the support of savvy moms with your products and your business will reap the benefits.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Motivate your Direct Sales Team
Finding the motivators that drive your direct sales team to achieve their personal goals will ensure greater success, for both your team members and you. As a direct sales team leader, one of the best ways to grow your own business is to motivate your team for higher profits.
People's reasons for becoming a direct sales consultant vary. Some reps may join simply because they want to receive a discount on the products they buy. Others may want a reason to get out of house and away from the kids. Still others join because they want, or need, to make additional money.
Some consultants will be self-motivated. They'll be determined to succeed whether you encourage them, or ignore them. Most of your team members, however, will need some motivation to help them reach their goals, while helping you reach yours.
Motivating someone requires discovering what they want and helping them to achieve it. One way to determine a team member's motivation is to ask why they joined your team. You can then provide ways to help them reach their goals and get what they want from their association with your group. That's what motivation is all about.
Let's assume your team members are motivated by more money. To help your members use that motivation, encourage them to think about what they might do with that money. Would they pay off some bills? Buy a new car? Save for the kids' education? Take a vacation?
If you can get your team thinking about what it feels like to have that extra money and how they want to spend it, you're well on your way to motivating them to work harder to earn it.
One way to motivate your team members to reach their goals is to have them write the goals down. Remind your team that if they don't know where they're going, they will never know when they arrive!
Hold monthly team meetings and encourage every member of the team to set a sales goal for that month. Then, have them write down that goal and post it in a conspicuous place in their own home. Your team members are much more likely to achieve that goal when they see what they're aiming for.
Contests are another great way to motivate your team members. Offer a prize to the member who has the most sales, holds the greatest number of shows or recruits the most new consultants. Whatever the goal is, encourage your team members to work the contest daily and send you an update on their progress.
You can compile the results at the end of each day, or week, and let the group know where everyone stands. Competition is a great motivator for some. Use it to your advantage and see your profits rise right along with your team members' success!
Be sure to provide a prize to the winner. A gift card, a free product, or if possible, an added percentage of profits.Give them a scratch off game with a prize underneath to keep them motivated and excited. The gift isn't nearly as important as the contest itself, but again, it will serve as motivation.
Keeping your consultants "hyped up" and excited about the company, the products, and being a part of your team will go a long way in helping to motivate your team to higher profits. Look for ways to do that every week, and your success potential will soar!
People's reasons for becoming a direct sales consultant vary. Some reps may join simply because they want to receive a discount on the products they buy. Others may want a reason to get out of house and away from the kids. Still others join because they want, or need, to make additional money.
Some consultants will be self-motivated. They'll be determined to succeed whether you encourage them, or ignore them. Most of your team members, however, will need some motivation to help them reach their goals, while helping you reach yours.
Motivating someone requires discovering what they want and helping them to achieve it. One way to determine a team member's motivation is to ask why they joined your team. You can then provide ways to help them reach their goals and get what they want from their association with your group. That's what motivation is all about.
Let's assume your team members are motivated by more money. To help your members use that motivation, encourage them to think about what they might do with that money. Would they pay off some bills? Buy a new car? Save for the kids' education? Take a vacation?
If you can get your team thinking about what it feels like to have that extra money and how they want to spend it, you're well on your way to motivating them to work harder to earn it.
One way to motivate your team members to reach their goals is to have them write the goals down. Remind your team that if they don't know where they're going, they will never know when they arrive!
Hold monthly team meetings and encourage every member of the team to set a sales goal for that month. Then, have them write down that goal and post it in a conspicuous place in their own home. Your team members are much more likely to achieve that goal when they see what they're aiming for.
Contests are another great way to motivate your team members. Offer a prize to the member who has the most sales, holds the greatest number of shows or recruits the most new consultants. Whatever the goal is, encourage your team members to work the contest daily and send you an update on their progress.
You can compile the results at the end of each day, or week, and let the group know where everyone stands. Competition is a great motivator for some. Use it to your advantage and see your profits rise right along with your team members' success!
Be sure to provide a prize to the winner. A gift card, a free product, or if possible, an added percentage of profits.Give them a scratch off game with a prize underneath to keep them motivated and excited. The gift isn't nearly as important as the contest itself, but again, it will serve as motivation.
Keeping your consultants "hyped up" and excited about the company, the products, and being a part of your team will go a long way in helping to motivate your team to higher profits. Look for ways to do that every week, and your success potential will soar!
Monday, September 6, 2010
Scratch off promotions
Using scratch off stickers to create your own scratch off promotions in your business.
You can use scratch off stickers on your business cards, without them being specially printed.
You can write in your promotion on your business card with a pen and cover the promotion up with a scratch off sticker.
You can also have custom cards created and designed even if you don't have a logo.
How will you use scratch off stickers for your next promotion?
You can use scratch off stickers on your business cards, without them being specially printed.
You can write in your promotion on your business card with a pen and cover the promotion up with a scratch off sticker.
You can also have custom cards created and designed even if you don't have a logo.
How will you use scratch off stickers for your next promotion?
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