Friday 16 May 2008

Refreshing Your Home Business

Have you been in business for some time? Are the client calls starting to slow down? This is the time that all business owners dread. When a business starts to slow down so do the profits. Do you know how to fix this problem? It can be fixed and this article has some tips to help with that situation.

One good way to help your business is to alter or completely change your advertising. Most people watch the Super Bowl each year just to see the new commercials. Advertising is what draws customers to your business. You might want to use a unique personality or mascot in your advertising. Another idea is to change the colors used in your advertising. Experts suggest using primary colors to catch people’s eyes. Animals, especially baby animals, are also big attention getters. This is also true for using children in advertising. If none of these ideas appeal to you, you can always fall back on the old standard of sex appeal. It is a known fact that beautiful people sell products or services. Advertising changes will help bring new life to businesses.

Have you considered adding a new product or service to your company? This new product or service definitely needs to tie in with what you are currently selling. You don’t want your new product or service to take the place of the old product but should compliment or expand what you already have. By doing this you can draw in customers for both products and services. You can also return to former clients with the new product or service to see if they are interested in the addition. If you are not sure of a product or service that you could use, check other similar businesses and see what they are selling.

Younger people won’t remember this but laundry detergent and gas stations use to give away items such as towels or glasses to draw in customers. Why not return to this type of advertising? Free give away promotions are eye catching in a society where nothing is free. They don’t have to be big prizes such as vacations or cars. You might want to find an item that relates to the product or service that your company has. If you aren’t interested in giving away gifts, you could always try discounts or coupons. You will be surprised how many people enjoy not paying full price for an item. You can also reach customers that can’t afford to pay the full price for your product or service. Any gift, discount or coupon needs to have your business name, phone number and contact information on it. By doing this, the customers can easily contact you.

Expansion is another good way to attract new business. Expansion can be done from local to statewide, nationwide or even global. If you don’t already have a website, you need to start one. By putting your website on several search engines, you can expand your business greatly. There are several styles of advertising available on these search engines to help bring in more business.

Breathing new life into your business is fairly easy and inexpensive. The changes are relatively easy to implement and can reap great things. Your business is your livelihood so make it work for you.

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Tuesday 13 May 2008

Naming Your Home Based Business

William Shakespeare once penned that a rose by any other name would still smell as sweet, and when naming your home based business the name you choose may be a determining factor of its success. Many businesses today use catchy names, some of them are really weird in trying to make sure their name stands out among the others. This sounds similar to the old marketing claim that it does not matter what the press says about a person, just spell the name right.

For companies with hefty competition, this may not be the best approach when choosing a name for a new business, home or otherwise. In many instances, the business owner might be able to use their own name as part of their new business name, but for most consumers looking for a specific product or service, identifying a person's name as being a possibility for offering what they are looking for is not clear cut resulting in the business owner possibly missing out on a lot of business.

When sitting down to write your business plan the first thing you will need is a name. To help come up with the perfect moniker for your business, consider how you will most likely advertise and market the business. Print ads and broadcast ads will require a different approach. A name that makes sense in the phone book or newspaper ad may not sound as good if it is difficult to pronounce on the radio. Additionally, names that require a dash or two, or have other punctuation marks go well in print, but they are hard to relate through a radio ad.

No matter how you feel about your pet, unless your business is selling pet supplies naming the business after a canine or feline may not accurately tell the public what they can expect to find in your business. If your advertising will consist mostly of internet advertising, keeping it simple generally works best, but it should also relate, in some way, to the industry of your business.

Look at the names used by your competition and consider how likely you are to equate the business name with the product or service they are offering. For example, a printing supply store with a name something like "Under The Sun" may say to the owner that they carry everything under the sun, but customers in need of paper or ink might think they sell tanning supplies or swim wear. As tough as it is to find a new name, it is something that will require some brainstorming to get the right one to fit the business.

Avoid negative connotations in the name when naming your home based business. While they can sometimes seem cute and make people snicker when they read them, they may not present the type of professional attitude you are really trying to convey. Once you have settled on a name, research trademarked names to be sure you do not infringe on an established business. Going back to the drawing board will be cheaper than having to reprint all of your stationary, business cards and pay to redesign a new logo for your website.

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Monday 12 May 2008

Work From Home Moms

Are you one of the growing numbers of moms seeking a work from home job? More and more women are looking to become a work from home mom. They believe that staying at home to raise their children is a priority. However, the opportunities now exist for mothers to stay home taking care of their children and creating an income for the family while also pursuing other interests and hobbies.

Work at home moms are now one of the largest growing groups on the internet. There is a huge variety of home-based businesses online with new ones popping up on a daily basis.

Guidelines to finding a work from home business

Assuming you have the desire to become one of the work at home moms how do you go about accomplishing this desire? Going online and searching for “business opportunities will throw up a plethora of sites. Now comes the tricky part. You will need to research which of these opportunities grab your interest. Find out what is involved in the business, what your total costs would be in getting involved, what equipment or supplies are needed. How will you be paid and how often? The more information you can unearth at the start will enable you to make a decision as to whether or not this business is for you and also reduce the likelihood of being caught in an online business scam. As part of your research check out what others are saying about any business opportunity that appeals to you.

Try and avoid any “get rich quick” schemes because while they are possibilities the reality is that they are unlikely. Initially, it might be helpful to choose something that is simple and easy to set up. You will need to take into consideration the learning curve for the job or business that you have chosen. Do you have any computer skills or is this something you will also need to learn.

Find something that you will enjoy doing. Starting up a new business can be daunting and hard work requiring time and effort. Doing something that you enjoy will make sure you still feel motivated when the going gets tough and things are not working as you thought they would.

Time management is another important area to consider. How much time do you have available to devote to your business bearing in mind that you have children to take care of and other household chores that need to be done. You may need to allocate a certain amount of time each day to do the other things aside from your business.

Forums for work at home moms provide a meeting place for people similar to your. You can listen to their experiences of working from home and they can offer advice and suggestions that enable you to decide which opportunity is best for you.

Work from home moms is the future and you can become successful providing you find the right opportunity for you. Remember stay motivated and focused, and soon you will reap the rewards for your work from home moms job.

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Friday 9 May 2008

Medical Transcription Working From Home

Should you consider yourself one of the growing numbers of the population seeking to establish a work from home business, then medical transcription working from home may be an area for further exploration. Currently, the demand for this type of work is growing and annually there are increasing job opportunities in this field.

So What is Medical Transcription?

Basically, medical transcription is a process where documents or voice recordings produced by health professionals, normally about a patient, are transcribed to enable the health professionals to communicate with each, and the insurance companies. The information is recorded by the health professional, usually on a Dictaphone device. This is then listened to and typed by a medical transcriptionist resulting in a patient medical record. This medical record can consist of medical treatment, appointments, consultation reports, procedures, psychiatric evaluations etc.

What skills Are Required?

A comprehensive understanding of medical terminology is essential for the job of medical transcription. There is also a requirement for knowledge pertaining to the legal and ethical requirements of patient medical records. There are various courses available for learning medical transcription. You will need a course that enables you to be to correct errors made by health professionals, computer and grammar skills because reports need to be clear and understood by a wide variety of medical specialists.

A background in office administration, or experience of working in a hospital or doctor’s surgery will be beneficial. The possession of the skills-set listed above will place you in good standing when applying for work as a medical transcriptionist. Some medical transcription working from home job offers also provide on-the-job training.

The Rewards

Working from home in the medical transcription field can be rewarding providing you possess the discipline, willpower and “can-do” attitude to get through the demanding training required. However, this skill will provide you with some form of security for the future due to aging of the largest sector of the population and therefore the requirement of more health records.

Medical transcriptionists can earn a large amount of money, whether paid by the word, line or page. There are also additional benefits of working from home, reducing your daily work expenses and quality time spent with your family.

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Tuesday 6 May 2008

Finding a Legitimate Work From Home Job

More and more people are investigating the opportunity of finding a legitimate work from home job. The fantasy is that you can work when you want to, sleep in daily, and relax for the remainder of the day. Imagine, no uniform for work, no commuting, making your own schedule and still having time for the family. Wonderful idea but where do you find a job like this?

The problem with work from home jobs is that so many people want to have them but the majority have little or no idea how to set about getting one. Because of this, there are unscrupulous people out there who would like to take advantage of people who truly want to be able to have the freedom of working from home. They might see what they could do to scam people into doing more work than they are getting paid for, or into signing up and paying for things that are not jobs at all. It is important that you find some kind of legitimate work from home job if you truly want to work from home, and that you are able to find one as soon as possible. Without doing the research to find a real legitimate work from home job you might find yourself subject to scams and to all kinds of problems.

There are many ways that you can find out which legitimate work from home jobs are going to work for you. First of all, be sure that you do your research on the job before you sign up for it or even before you ask for more information. Doing a simple internet search will give you all of the information that you need about various companies or about various jobs, and from there you can see what will be a legitimate work from home job and what will not. It is usually easy to make up your own mind after you have had the right type of information for yourself. When it comes right down to it, getting the best information is often the easiest way that you have to find a legitimate work from home job.

Next you want to be sure that you are looking at legitimate work from home jobs that sound like they make sense. Stay away from the jobs that look or sound too good to be true, because they are not going to be the types of jobs that you need. Also, be sure that you are doing everything that you can to be sure that you have researched the particular job and all of the parts that will come along with it. This can be the best way that you have to make sure that you are getting the right job for your own needs.

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Monday 5 May 2008

Learning How To Say No And Really Mean It

One of the toughest challenges of operating a home based business is interruptions to your workday by friends and relatives. Too many of them think that because you work at home and have a flexible schedule it can be adjusted whenever they have something more important to say or do. Especially when you first begin to work at home, the temptation may be there to help people out or take an unscheduled break when someone stops by, but it will not take long for these interruptions to become more frequent.

While it may sound crass and insensitive, you may find yourself asking them what part of 'no' do they not understand. While family members may say they understand that you are busy and need to work, they are also the ones who interrupt the most. Unless it is made clear from day one, your days can become long as you work late to make up for the time you lost during the day running errands or doing household chores that should have waited until you got off work.

When asked if you can do something around the house, usually preceded by the phrase 'if you have time,' when you say you will try, they usually take it as a yes. The diplomatic response will be along the line of you will try, but if you run late getting done with whatever it is you are working on, you will make sure it gets done that evening. Of course, when you get done working that day you are going to have to fulfil your promise.

The first few months of running your own home business will be busy and the hours will be long. Even you have expressed that reality from the beginning, later on you will not be able to day anything like you told them it was going to take time to grow the business. Most family members will interpret this as you care more about working than you do about being with the family. Somewhere along the line you have turned into a workaholic and even if you are making decent money, it is not an acceptable answer.

Even with full cooperation, you may have to sometimes say no and then stick to it. No matter how much a spouse or child complains, you are going to have to stick to the reality that if you do not get the work done on time, there may be no more work and you will be back at a job outside the home. In some cases, this may be the best solution. If family and friends refuse to acknowledge the fact that what you do is just as important as holding down a "real" job, it is going to be tougher to maintain your productivity.

Communication is going to be the key to make running a home based business work. Establish a working schedule and stick to it. When the day is done you can go back to being a member of the family, much the way it would be if you worked outside the house.

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Sunday 4 May 2008

Improve Your Business By Learning From The Competition

Basically, it is very easy for you, as a business owner, to visit your competition and point out all the things you believe they are doing wrong. If you consider however, that what your competition is doing wrong boils down to your personal opinion and the way it might contrast with the way that you believe things should be done. Another important point to consider is: are they successful at what they do? If they are then they may be doing more things right than you are giving them credit for. To truly learn from your competition, you need to look at what they are doing right before you try to steal away any of their market share.

In today's business climate, with most businesses having an online presence, it is easy enough to check pricing on many products and services. However, in many instances pricing is going to be fairly close and businesses rarely succeed and grow based solely on their pricing structure. Any customer you attract based only on the price of your products or services will probably be a customer lost when lower prices become available elsewhere.

If you are hoping to have any impact on your market share you have to be willing to look objectively at the competition and try to see them as their customers see them. Since online businesses can be represented with many facets based on their web page design, you can get a better idea by visiting their traditional outlets to learn how they do business as well as what they do to keep their customers happy and coming back for more.

Look for the little things that may seem insignificant but affect how their customers feel about the store. Cleanliness is one of the most common complaints from customers who often equate a dirty or messy unorganized store with lack of service as well as lack of quality in the products they sell. One key area in all public outlets that can quickly bring a customer back or run them out the door is the cleanliness of any public restrooms. If you allow the restroom to go unattended, customers will have unmentionable opinions about how the business is run, and probably will only come back if it is absolutely necessary.

Check out their display merchandise to see if it is working. Many customers want to touch and feel a product before making the decision to buy it, and even though an open product may sell for less when it comes off the display, making customers base their buying decision from the picture on a box is not going to get it done. If you set up displays, many should be in perfect working order. Obviously, for safety reasons there are some that should not be working, such as chain saws or most power equipment, but all the parts need to be there so the customer can see what they are getting for their money.

Friendly, knowledgeable service is probably the most important selling point for any business. Letting the customer know all the good things about a product they are interested in may require you to actually look at the owner's manual, but it can translate into a sale rather than an empty promise by the customer to stop in later.

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