Home Based Business Exposed

Home Based Business Resources

admin — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:33:47 +0000

Here are a few other resources for people looking to start a home based business.

Small Business Administration – Run by the US Government, the SBA is a great resource for new and potential business owners. They provide information on laws and regulations, advice and strategies on creating business plans, free online training, information on loans and more. Definitely a good place for home based business owners to start.

Score.org – Score.org offers free counseling and advice from hundreds of business mentors with experience in lots of different fields. No matter what sort of business you’re starting or considering, Score.org most likely has a mentor with expertise in that area who will help you as you try and grow.

7 Habits of Highly Effective People – If you’re starting a new business, you’re going to have to handle lots of things that you probably haven’t been responsible for in the past: managing your schedule, creating your own work, and deciding what you need to be working on right now, just to name a few. 7 Habits, written by Steven Covey, is one of the best books out there on the subject of business management and organization. Not only does he help you figure out how to accomplish your to-do list, he helps you decide what needs to be on there in the first place. Highly recommended for anyone starting a business, growing a business, or even anyone simply trying to become more effective at their career.

Getting Things Done – In the same vein as 7 Habits, Getting Things Done, written by David Allen, teaches you to become more organized, streamline your to-do list, empty out your Inbox, and generally get things done. But while Covey takes a big picture approach to the issue, discussing such topics as leadership, management, and “quadrant” activities, David Allen takes a “from the bottom up” approach, saying that the big picture doesn’t matter much if the small details don’t get done. If you are overwhelmed by the number of things you are responsible for each day, then GTD is great place to look for help and insight.

22 Immutable Laws of Marketing – While the first two books are great for business owners trying to streamline and grow their business, if you don’t know how to sell yourself, your business or your product, then not a whole lot else is really going to matter. The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, written by Al Ries and Jack Trout, will show you the important things you need to know about effectively marketing to your customers.

5 More Home Based Business Ideas

admin — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:10:54 +0000

1) Blogger – If you’re online savvy at all, chances are pretty much 100% that you’ve heard of and are familiar with blogging. A blog is simply a website where you can write about any topic of your choice. There are thousands of blogs out there, so it’s difficult to separate yourself from the crowd, but A-list bloggers can make a very nice income.

Starting a blog is super easy. Simply go to Blogspot.com, sign up for an account, and you can have your first post up in a matter of minutes.

2) Product sales – If you have experience in sales, or enjoy talking to and dealing with people, then product sales might be a good choice for you. The easiest way to start in this is to create a product yourself (something small and easy to make – knitting and embroidery are great examples) and start selling it to people that you know. Other businesses in your town might also be interested in purchasing it and re-selling it in their stores.

3) Babysitting – This is always a great option for people looking to work from home, especially those who already have children. You can start by keeping the children of friends and family, and then start branching out when you’re comfortable with keeping more. You will need to check the laws in your area – you’ll probably need to get some sort of certification after a certain number of children – but this can be started with little to no red tape.

If children aren’t your thing, then you can still keep with the same theme and be a pet sitter. You’ll need to be in good shape, as you’ll usually be expected to exercise the pets, but this is also a great option for a home based business.

4) Fact checker – Being a fact checker will usually require some sort of background in writing or editing, but newspapers, magazine and other written media always need someone to research and confirm the claims made by their writers. Starting a business in this field would be a great way to segue into a writing career yourself, as you’ll be meeting people and getting lots of contacts in that industry.

5) Indexer – Have you ever looked through an index in the back of a book to find a particular term or idea? Did you know that there is an entire industry of book indexers that create those indexes? Being an indexer will require you to have solid reading comprehension skills and being detail oriented will help as well. For more information, check out the American Society of Indexers.

5 Legitimate Home Based Business Ideas

admin — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:47:47 +0000

Let’s take a look at some specific ideas for legitimate home based businesses. When I say legitimate, I mean exactly that – these are all business ideas that you could make a reasonable income from and that would allow you to work from home full time.

1) Writing – Not too long ago, I came across a quote that said, “Everyone has at least one great American novel in them.” I don’t know if that is perfectly true – mine, for instance, is buried rather deeply, if it’s even in there at all – but I do think that lots of people have talent for writing that they don’t know about yet. Have you ever read a book so bad you couldn’t even finish reading it? Don’t you think you could do better than that?

And the beauty of choosing writing as a business is that there are so many different media to write for: books, newspapers, magazines, trade journals, etc. You can even go online and offer your services as a freelance writer for blogs and websites.

2) Sending out a newsletter – Related to writing is the idea of creating a monthly or weekly newsletter about a particular topic and sending it out to readers. You can create your own content or pay someone else to do the actual writing.

3) Researcher – In doing work as a researcher, you will be tasked with finding and reporting certain information as your clients need. For instance, you might contract with a law firm to research a particular part of the legal code or a certain court case, and then report your findings on the subject back to them. You might also work with a college professor who is writing a scholarly paper for publication and needs additional research done on his topic.

Working as a researcher requires good reading comprehension and decent writing skills as well. You’ll also end up spending a good bit of your time online or at the library, so having easy and reliable access to both will help immensely.

4) Tutoring – If you have a decent amount of expertise in a particular area, you might consider tutoring students who are studying that subject in school and need a little extra help. The amount of expertise needed will depend on the level of students you plan on helping. Tutoring college students will take much more knowledge than helping elementary students. I think that just about anyone could help 5th or 6th graders with math or English.

5) Teaching lessons – What sort of hobbies and interests do you have? Do you know the subjects well enough to teach them? If so, consider giving lessons to interested people. The classic examples are things such as piano and guitar lessons, but you could also teach computer classes, dance, scrapbooking and more!

Benefits of Running a Legitimate Home Based Business

admin — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:51:25 +0000

Now that we know several reasons to run your own business, let’s take a look at several specific benefits to running a business from your house.

Firstly, running a business from your house allows you to start your business with little to no money. This is essential for a lot of people looking to quit their job and be their own boss. Starting a business that requires you to work out of your house would mean you have to find and rent office space, and commute to work from your house. This would require more money and time than most potential business owners have, but thankfully it’s really not necessary for most new businesses. There are countless successful businesses that have been started and run from home, and you can do it too.

One caveat to this is to be careful of starting a new business with no help. Buying a franchise, for instance, generally requires a good deal of capital up front, but you get a good bit of training and help in return. If you’ve never started a business before, don’t try and go it alone. Look for advice and help from friends, business contacts, and people who have done it before.

The second great thing about running a business from your house is that it is perfect for stay at home parents. If you have children, you know how crazy it can be trying to take them out in public. If you were to try and actually get work done while watching your children at a workplace, you’re going to be unsuccessful at both things, and will likely drive yourself crazy in the process. Running your own home based business allows you to watch your children in the peace and privacy of your own house, and work on your business at the same time.

Another huge benefit to running your own business is the potential for making lots and lots of money. In a typical job, your salary is more or less fixed. Sure, you can get raises and bonuses on occasion, but ultimately, what you get paid is pretty much independent of the amount and quality of work that you do. If you bust your hump and ship out an extra 100 widgets one month, does your paycheck grow accordingly? Probably not. On the other hand, if you run your own business and ship out an extra 100 widgets, then you can be sure that your paycheck is going to go up. That’s not to discount the risk involved – if you can’t find anyone to buy your widgets, it doesn’t matter how hard you’re working – but the upside potential is well worth it once you’ve managed to control the risk.

Why Run a Home Based Business?

admin — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:25:56 +0000

For many people, the idea of running their own business is very attractive. Visions of relaxing in a hammock on the beach, sipping a cold drink, while typing away on a laptop are often used in commercials and advertisements by companies trying to sell “home based business systems”. The reality of running a legitimate home based business is usually very different than those ads, but there are still some great positives to running your own business. Let’s take a look at why you might want to work for yourself.

First off, running your own home based business means that you’re your own boss. There’s no one telling you what to do, there’s no one watching the clock to make sure you come in on time, and there’s no one saying you when you can and can’t take a vacation. While this probably sounds great, it can really be both good and bad. It’s fantastic to not have a boss telling you what to do, but this really only means that you have to decide for yourself what to work on. This can be a daunting task, especially for someone who has never run a business before. It takes a great deal of self-discipline to make yourself work when there’s no one standing over your shoulder making sure you do your job.

Secondly, working on your own home based business means that you get to do work that you enjoy. Since you choose what sort of work you do, there’s no reason you can’t choose to work on things that you enjoy anyway. This is, for many people, the greatest benefit of working for yourself. As the saying goes, “Do something you enjoy, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” This is also often used by marketers trying to sell some business system, but despite that, it really is true. If you work for yourself and don’t enjoy the work you do, then it shouldn’t be too hard to change the work that you’re doing.

Another good thing about running your own business is the freedom and flexibility it provides. Marketers often like to play this up, showing people relaxing at the pool all day while they rake in money with out working. The reality of the situation is that while you are free to choose your own hours, you cannot reasonably expect to sit by the pool all day, doing no work, and still make money. There is no business system out there that lets you get paid for not working. What running your own business does allow you do to is set your own hours, instead of being forced to work 8 to 5 Monday through Friday.