Monthly Archives: November 2013

10 Places to Advertize your Small Business for Free

“Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing but nobody else does.” Anonymous

Once you have set up your home based small business you need to promote it through advertising. Advertising your small business will ensure consumer, customers and general public are aware of it.

Paid advertising is expensive but the good thing is you can get free advertising from many places across the internet.

Best Places Where You Can Advertise Your business For Free

1. Google+ Local (Formerly Google Places)

Google places was a business listing service that was owned by Google. It was tailored to provide searchers with information on local businesses. Business provided information like, address, telephone and contact person. The more information your business provided on its Google Places page, the more likely the business ranked high in local searches.

Google places is now integrated with Google plus. A business owner will need to set up a Google plus account and set a page for his business.

The main advantage is Google+ Local pages are indexed by Google. That means, when people search for “Jewellery Shop in New York”, your Google+ Local page will appear on search results.

2. Attract more customers to your business through Facebook Fan Pages

Facebook Fan pages for businesses are free to create. You only pay if you want to promote your page across Facebook platform. By creating a Facebook fan page for your small business you heighten your exposure within the social network. Your page will be listed on Facebook search results when people search for information related to your page.

People who find you on Facebook.com will probably be interested enough in your product or service to click on a link that will take them directly to your website.

3. Create A Video Channel on Youtube

YouTube.com is now the second largest search engine after Google. Millions of people use Youtube to find out how products work.

Create short instructional videos on what you do or how you help customers. Make your business website URL visible inside the videos. Have it on the background and refer to it in the audio. Make sure to end the video by urging the viewer to visit your business website.

4. Yelp

Yelp.com is the leading small business directory in the US. Yelp.com has more than 71 million monthly visitors.

Listing your business contact details is free on Yelp. Businesses may advertise with Yelp for preferred search result placement and extra listing features.

5.Craiglist

You can’t talk of free advertising without mentioning craiglist.com. It allows anyone to post a free advertisement. It has over 50 million unique monthly visitors in the United States alone.

6. Tripadvisor

TripAdvisor.com is a travel website that assists customers in gathering travel information, posting reviews and opinions of travel-related content and engaging in interactive travel forums. It is visited by 50 million visitors each month and has over 20 million registered members.

It is the perfect listing for entrepreneurs operating a hotel and restaurant. Being listed is free of charge. If your business is already listed you can log in to confirm your business and add images and important contact details.

7.dmoz.org

Dmoz.org or open directory project is the largest website directory in the world. They claim to list all websites in the world. At the beginning it was easy to get listed but now it is a bit hard. If you believe your business website is the best then it is worth trying to getting listed with them.

8. Gumtree

Gumtree.com is provider of free online classified. Classified ads are either free or paid for depending on the product category and the geographical market. Sellers may promote their listing through featured placements on the homepage or under product categories.

Gumtree covers 60 cities across 6 countries – the UK, Ireland, Poland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

9.Niche Forum

Another innovative trick of getting free advertising for your small business is participating in forum discussions related to your niche. All most all forums in the internet allow members to place a web link pointing to personal websites. Every time you leave a comment in the forums, readers will see a link pointing to your site. If they link your advice, they will be compelled to visit your business website.

10. Search engine listings

This is the mother of all places where you can advertise your business for free. Search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing are the largest providers of free visitors to 90% of business websites out there. If you want people to find your small business website when they do a search on Google, you have to make sure your website is search engine friendly.

Tax advantages of a home based business

There are so many benefits related to any home based business. Apart from enjoying your own freedom, independence and proximity to your family, you also benefit from a range of tax advantages. While you wouldn’t want to start a home based business solely on the basis of tax advantages, the fact is, running a business from a home office setting presents great tax advantages you wouldn’t get in many other places. Here are some of the tax advantages of a home based business and some advice on how to benefit from them.

Home office tax advantages

Based on the percentage of space of your house represented by home office, you can benefit from deductions of a number of household expenditure such as utilities, insurance, property taxes, internet and phone bills.

If you are a home based business owner, you can for instance benefit from deductions on part of your mortgage payment for tax purposes. According to Internal Revenue Service, the deductible amount is based on the square footage of home and office.

You can simply determine how much is deductible by taking the square footage of your office and then divide it by the total square footage of your livable home space. The result you get is the percentage of your home, which is consecutively the percentage deductible on mortgage for tax purposes. This can also determine the percentage you can deduct from the mortgage interest.

This is one of the well-known tax advantages for home based business owners as it covers a wide range of household bills and utilities as well.

Supplies and Equipment Deductions

Being a home based business owner qualifies you to write off supplies and equipment you use for your business. These include equipments such as pens, legal pads, staplers, folders and so on. If you use computers, faxes and printers to run your home based business, then you can also write them off. The only problem is that most office equipments depreciate with time and tax deductions are usually based on particular equipment’s current value.

If you operate internet based business that sells or supplies products, you can as well write off the cost of the products you have sold. If for instance you sell $1500 worth of products and the cost of the goods sold is say $250, then you may claim the deduction of the amount incurred as cost of goods sold.

Tax Advantages on Business Expenses

There are many home based expenses that are tax deductible such as:

  • Education – expenses you may incur on education intended to improve your business skills
  • Meals and traveling expenses
  • Car expenses – you may take deductions on the expenses incurred by using your car for transportation in your business. This is usually done by deducting gasoline or mileage traveled for business based on per mile amount.
  •   Software used for running the business

Family Labor

If you for instance choose to engage your teenage kids to do certain duties for your business, then you can also deduct that as your additional business expenses and your child’s income.

For considerations, it’s important that you keep your inventories and documentation on hours worked by your family members. This will help you when using IRS schedule C to file your report on income and expenses.

Alternative Home Based Business Lenders

Home based businesses have been on the rise and many people have embraced them as a profitable and convenient way of making a living. But financing such enterprises can be a little challenging, especially when one doesn’t know how to go about it. The good news, however, is that lending to home businesses has increased rapidly and many home based businesses owners have been able to secure advance loans for their businesses.

There are many home based business lenders out there who are willing to finance small businesses, and home based business owners who wouldn’t for one reason or another qualify to obtain loan from traditional financial institutions.

Kabbage Inc

Kabbage Inc. is one of the leading home based business lenders and they also give cash advance loans to business owners selling products online. In their report released earlier in 2013, Kabbage Inc. said they paid more than $200 million in annualized cash to over 100,000 small business owners. This was an increase from the estimated $15 million cash paid in the previous year. Kabbage mainly lends to home office businesses such as those that sell merchandise on online stores like eBay, Amazon among others.

Accion

Accion is another leading home based business lender. This is a microfinance organization specialized in lending small business, from $500 and up to $50,000. They also offer credit and business advice to small business owners who may not be able to obtain traditional financing.

Accion however doesn’t give credit to businesses dealing with real estate, money lending, multi-level or network marketing programs, weapon sales, illegal or polluting and other related activities.

One of the best resources with up-to date information about home based lenders is Small Business Administration – a government website with the detailed information about running small and home based businesses.

Before you approach your potential lender for financing, there are a number of things you’d need to consider. Among other things you should have a long term plan on how you intend to run and succeed in your business, your form of collateral and so on. Make sure you also have a good credit report.

Convincing Your Potential Lender

One of the things your potential lender would want to know before financing you is whether your business can endure through the tough competition in the market. You should therefore know your business well in terms of strengths, weaknesses, risks and opportunities and be ready to convince your lender how you intend to deal with any challenges.

A Business Plan – having an impressive business plan enables the financier to weigh whether you have a good scope of marketing study and your business projections. In your plan you should make sure all these are well spelt out as there’s no lender who’d risk approving financing without first reviewing your plan.

Family, Friends and Partnership

If for any reason you are not able to obtain credit from banks or micro finance organizations, you can alternatively ask your family or friends to finance your business. Further you can also seek potential business partners who may wish to invest in your business. If they look at your business plan and are willing to commit themselves then you can consider your financing need as resolved.

Home based business opportunities for stay at home moms

While being a stay-at-home mom presents a rare opportunity of taking care of your kids, having time to run your home and so on, you’d also want to earn an income and even contribute to your family finances. Whether you simply feel that you want to bring in some extra income or want to kick start a long awaited entrepreneurial dream, there are a number of inspiring opportunities befitting a stay-at-home or a wannabe mom. Indeed a huge number of US companies operate as home-based businesses and a fair number of the most famous brand names were started by stay-at-home moms.

I’m not trying to suggest that it’s easy to find a good idea for a home based business. I receive a lot of enquiries from stay-at-home and wannabe moms investigating about the most suitable home-based business ideas. The following are some of the most practical work from home business ideas suitable for a stay-at-home mom.

Offer Assistance in Events Planning

Helping people plan events such as weddings, parties or other community based events can be a good point of entry towards becoming a successful entrepreneur. You don’t need a lot of experience to start. You can begin by offering light services such as researching on the best pricing of venues, bookings, making phone calls and so on. You can charge hourly or a fixed amount per project, depending on the type of an event.

Operate a day care Center

If you have some experience and passion about this field, you can apply to be licensed as a day care operator. Some of the requirements to be approved as a day care operator include minimum space per child, provision of meals and the number of children per licensed day care worker and so on. Many parents prefer taking their children to day cares operated in a home environment and if you can do a good job then this can turn out to be a lifelong business opportunity.

Start Your Online Store

You can make an income through selling stuff online. You don’t need a lot of money to begin. There are so many online merchant stores such as eBay, Amazon, Etsy among others and you can even start with clutter of stuff you’d want to rid of your home. Alternatively, you can source some items that are in demand from junk or yard sales or even from charity shops and resell them at a profit.

Make and sell Gift Items

If you are good at some arts and crafts and you can make some items such as gift baskets and you can establish good relationship with your customers, then this could turn out to be a perfect idea for you. You only need to be creative and keen on design and you can begin by selling your products to the local stores.

Start a pet Services Business

If you love animals and you wouldn’t mind offering a service for pay then this could just be another great idea. You can provide pet sitting, grooming, and dog walking among other services.

Write your eBooks and sell online

Writing can be fun, especially if you are an expert on something and passionate about it. Think about a problem you can provide solution for and nail down a book about it. Amazon has one of the best eBooks stores and it’s pretty easy to upload your eBooks there.

Home Based Business Ideas for Retirees/Seniors

If you are senior or nearing retirement, you’d want to investigate some of the home based business ideas or work–at-home opportunities. Working at home can be a great solution towards meeting your retirement needs, such as supplementing your social security benefits or even financing some of the extras you’d want to acquire during retirement. Most people who are retiring or nearing retirement find themselves in a difficult financial situation and that’s why it’s important to consider having a workable home based business idea. The following are some of the home based business opportunities that can earn you a stable supplemental income during retirement.

Start a Home based Consultancy

You can turn your wealth of knowledge into a regular flow of income during retirement. As an expert or an experienced senior, you can help the upcoming entrepreneurs on how to start or operate their business. You may also want to offer consultancy to firms or small businesses that might be interested in your expertise and long experience.

Become a trainer

Training others is another amazing way you can use to translate your experience into an income. The best way to do this is through conducting classrooms or practical training in the field of your expertise and earn from it. You can also offer tutoring lessons online where you can earn an hourly commission. What you need are credentials from a college or university in North America and experience in subjects such as English, math, social studies and science. With such credentials you can simply access online tutoring opportunities by logging in to a site such as tutor.com and make from $10 per hour or more from home.

Engage in Network Marketing

Bill Gates once said that if he’d be given a chance to start all over again, he would choose network marketing. Indeed, if done systematically, network marketing can earn you a good residue income that can support you throughout your retirement. What you need to do is to choose between online and offline setups, pick a reputable company and a good product and begin looking for prospects to grow your business.

Offer Catering Services

If you like cooking, you can make some stuff and supply them to offices, possibly starting with your former office. You can also make and supply confectionery products to schools since many Kids love biscuits, candies, chocolates and so on.

Start a Home Based Franchise Business

Although starting a home based franchise business is a bit challenging, the advantage is that you will be working with an established brand name. It is easier to market an established brand than starting and marketing your unknown brand from scratch.

To succeed in a home based franchise, you’d need to do some research on a number of things. Apart from putting your home office in place, there are a number of things that you need to do to get your business running – like a business plan, getting a client base, settling on the businesses you want to do business with and so on. It’s important that you get in touch with groups that deal with home businesses and franchisees for advice. Some of the resources include The American Franchisee Association (www.franchisee.org), The National Franchisee Association (www.nfabk.org), for legal assistance, product and service knowledge and advertising opportunities. You will also be able to compare different business models and know where franchisee events are held around the country.

Top Affiliate Programs for Mommy Bloggers

One of the greatest opportunities for mommy bloggers to earn money is through affiliate marketing. What makes affiliate marketing even a greater idea for mommy bloggers is the fact that it’s trouble-free as one is not required to offer their own product or service. You only need a platform such as your blog or a website to run the campaign for the affiliate programs of your choice and get paid once a sale or a referral is made.

There are numerous affiliate programs out there, all tailored to suit different markets and marketers. If you are a mommy blogger running your blog from home, you definitely want to know the affiliate programs best suited for your lifestyle. As a mommy blogger you also want an affiliate program that offers products in a niche market that you’re already blogging about. Here is a list of top affiliate networks and programs suitable for mommy bloggers operating a home based business.

ShareASale

ShareASale is one of the leading affiliate networks. The Chicago based affiliate network has over 2,500 merchant programs and was rated number 3 out of 20 in the 2012 Blue Book ranking of the best performing affiliate networks in the world. One of the most outstanding things about ShareASale is that they feature some cool niche merchants for moms that you couldn’t find in many other places.

Some of their affiliate programs suited to a home based mommy blogger include:

  • MomAgenda – offering a range of products from day planners, all forms of home organizers, folios and accessories for busy moms at the rate of 10% per sale.
  • gDiapers – for earth friendly diapers at the rate of 10 % per sale or $0.25 per lead.
  • Nannies4hire – a great affiliate program for mommy bloggers offered at ShareASale. This is a nationwide online nanny and family database tailored to connect families to nannies and pays $40 per sale
  • Tiny Prints – for amazing baby announcements and holiday cards paid at the rate of 10% per sale.

Commission Junction

Reputed as the largest affiliate network in North America, commission junction is a global operator with management that knows how to balance relationship between merchants and affiliates. The Californian based organization claims number 2 spot in the 2012 Blue Book of top 20 affiliate networks and has numerous affiliate alternatives for mommy bloggers such as:

  • Tutor.com – one of the largest online tutoring companies offering $5 per lead and 100% of the first sale. One huge advantage of promoting programs that pay per lead is that it’s much easier to make money and this makes tutor.com a perfect choice.
  • Green and More – another perfect affiliate program for mommy bloggers promoting eco-friendly home appliances. They pay at the rate of 10% per sale and they have a wide selection of green appliances.

LinkShare

Believed to be the largest affiliate network, with at least 10 million affiliate partnerships, Linkshare has some great premium advertisers who are dedicated to their network. Claiming number 1 spot in 2012 top 20 best affiliate networks, LinkShare has amazing affiliate programs such as:

  • Nick Jr. Shop – offering 6 – 10% of every sale and Nick Magazines paying 25% of every sale/
  • HBO Store – for a wide selection of merchandise at the rate of 10% of every sale made.

How to Build a Successful Soap Making Business from Home

One way of being successful in any business is through invention, finding something that works for you and capitalizing on the market gaps or existing opportunities. Making soap can be full of fun, and if you are creative enough, you can turn it around into a thriving home based business. And the good thing about it is that it doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg to begin. Indeed this is one of the most hassle-free businesses, which you can even start from your kitchen. Here are some of the most important steps towards building a successful soap making business from home.

Specialize to satisfy your target Market

Before you start the hunt for raw material and putting in place other logistics, you need to think about your target market. If for instance you want to provide an inexpensive alternative to luxury or a classic gift sharing idea, you may want to plan in terms of using organic ingredients and cozy designs. The type of the market you choose will dictate your soap’s scent, color, oil base and other ingredients. Do you for instance intend to have a special design for children? In that case you may want to use natural ingredients to produce gentle soap specifically for babies. Ideally, you want to make soap that appeals to your target market.

Choose your Soap Making Process

The type of process you choose will among other things determine how much soap you can make within a certain period. You can decide to use hot process – melt and pour method or cold process, both of which require mixing lye with oils. Melt and pour method is the easiest process and requires less time to make your soap for it involves buying pre-manufactured soap in bulk, where you can later add your choice of scent, fragrance and other additives.

For cold process, you have to make your soap from the scratch and it can take you up to three weeks before your soap is ready for sale. The advantage is that you have full control of your soap making process. You should consider having reliable suppliers of oils, lye, organic ingredients, molds, colorants and fragrances.

Plan for Equipment

To set up a successful soap making business from home, you’ll need to have the right equipment. This will largely be informed by your choice of soap making process. The types of equipment you need to plan for include blenders, mixers, pots and a microwave.

Marketing Your Soap

Before you start selling your soap, it’s important to make sure that you have complied with your local government trade requirements such as licenses, insurance and so on. To sell your product online, you should also consider having your own website, a merchant’s account or even selling on other famous online stores such as eBay among others.

To test the market, you should start selling to the local shops and craft booths. You may also want to organize promotional drives such as setting up a hand washing stand at fairs, festivals, farmers’ markets and so on.

Make use of such opportunities to advertize your business to your potential customers. Unleash your brand through giving out catalogs bearing your logo, website and any other information about ordering your home made soap.

How to Manage Distractions when working from Home

There’s no doubt that working from home presents convenience and flexibility that one wouldn’t have when working at the traditional office. You have a quiet environment, free from interruption by noisy co-workers and visitors. Indeed, that gives you the advantage of accomplishing much more than when you’d be working from a regular office.

That however doesn’t mean that you don’t get distracted when working at home. There’s a fair share of interruptions when working at home, sometimes to a higher degree than when you’d be working in the office. That said, you can manage home office distractions and achieve high productivity by being well organized and observing a high level of discipline. Here are some easy yet effective steps on how to manage distractions when working from home.

1.     Organize your work Environment

It’s important that you choose the right environment for your home office and organize it in a way that helps you to concentrate. While your bedroom would be a quiet environment to work from, you’d have to deal with the enticement of taking a nap after working for a while. You should choose an environment that supports a real work setting. Make sure your desk is free from unnecessary clutter that would keep on shifting your attention from work schedule. You may not be able to focus when working in a disorganized office space.

2.     Craft a Work Routine

Although working at home is supposed to give you freedom, ideally being your own boss, you’d need to craft a work routine that suits your lifestyle. It doesn’t have to be a tough program. You simply want a routine that works for you and helps you to increase productivity. You may for instance train yourself on waking up early in the morning where you can answer your emails, peruse through headlines and update your social media accounts. You may want to have a few minutes for exercise after which you can work for about three hours before taking a break and so on. Whatever routine you adapt, make sure it works towards your goals.

3.     Scale down on Watching Television

While watching TV makes you feel connected to the outside world, too much of it can be addictive, thus affecting your productivity. You also don’t want to focus too much on the news as this can be stressful and affect your concentration. The best thing would be having a scheduled time for TV such as during your lunch break or after working hours.

4.     Handle one task at a time.

While multitasking sounds like a good idea towards accomplishing much task, there’s a downside to it. The tricky part is that you end up failing to accomplish your tasks unlike when you’d be handling one task at a time.

5.     Set Goals

Sometimes you may find that you have a lot to do and you don’t know where to begin, because probably there isn’t enough time left before the deadline. It happens to everyone and unless you have set goals or targets that you can accomplish within a specific duration, then you’re going to be working under pressure most of the time.

6.     Exercise and Have Enough Rest

Lack of exercise and enough rest can lead to fatigue or low energy levels, affecting your productivity. Make sure you have enough sleep, go out for jogging or a walk and remember to take plenty of water to remain hydrated. This will help you from feeling exhausted and increase the level of concentration.

How to Brand Your Home Based Business

One of the best ways of improving your sales is through having a business, product or service that stands out from the rest in the marketplace. Every interaction with your client contributes to your image, unveiling to them who you are and what you represent. By representing yourself in the right manner makes you believable, builds your identity and increases customer loyalty.

While home based business setting provides several advantages such as cost reduction, time freedom and so on, it also requires efforts when it comes to building one’s brand identity. Unlike with traditional office setting, where you’d have interaction with regular and potential customers, a home based business does not always have such exposure. That’s why it’s important to be thoughtful from the word go on the right fundamentals of building your business identity. Here are some of the best ways of building a brand for your home-based business.

Choose a name that represents your product or service

The first step towards building your identity is through developing a name that clearly represents your product or service. Pick a name that can give your clients the idea of what you’re selling or what service you are offering every time they see it.

Develop an Outstanding Logo

The purpose for having a business logo is not only for helping your clients to recognize your brand but more importantly for creating a positive association between your clients and your product. Your logo should be simple, yet captivating, to help your clients have a quick grasp on your brand identity.

Have a well thought Packaging

Whether you are shipping a physical product or selling through internet, packaging plays an important role in promoting your business brand. If you’re selling your own product or reselling a product through a merchant’s website, you can promote your image through enclosing a greeting card with the product or consider having your logo on the box.

Be consistent

Being consistent in everything you deliver or communicate to your clients is an effective way of building a positive image. If you sell products that require being physically shipped to your customers, then you have to honor your word. Your behavior represents who you are. That’s why you or those who represent your business or company must be consistent with clients in all levels of transactions – from product marketing to its delivery.

Position Yourself

All businesses owners should have a clear way about how they position themselves to their clients. One of the best ways of achieving this goal is through having a clear, well spelt and laid down objective. This clearly distinguishes your values, shows your clients what you stand for and defines how they perceive you or your products. Do you for instance market yourself as the most reliable, or the most trustworthy? What is unique about you, your product or service? What comes to the mind of your clients every time they see you or your products?

You can for instance have a clear objective through making sure your clients are satisfied. This could be through giving guarantee on the delivery of the product, following your orders with emails or even having your products backed with a money-back guarantee.

How to Succeed in a Home Based Business

Everyone has his or her reasons why they want to start a home based business. Whether you feel tired of your traditional job, or you simply want to be your own boss, one thing is clear – home based businesses provide platforms to dream big. But dreaming is not enough. Unless you wake up and make your dream a reality, it will just remain that – a dream. Here are some undemanding, yet important techniques on how to succeed in a home based business.

Invest in time

To succeed in a home based enterprise, you’ve got to take your time and plan. Most people who fail in self employment do so because they are out for a get-rich-quick plan. They’re ever looking for hot tips to get them success, only to get frustrated after jumping from one plan to the other. In a home-based business, you can and you’ll indeed make a good income. But you need to take your time, study your niche market and analyze the pros and cons of several interests and so on before throwing yourself into the ring.

Prepare a Vision Board  

To stay energized and focused on your goal, you need to have a clear plan in your mind about what you want your business to accomplish for you. One of the best ways of doing this is through preparing a vision board. This could be a normal sheet of paper, board or a cloth imprinted with writings or images of top priorities you’d want money to fetch for you. Perhaps images of your dream car, a trip abroad or even a family vacation you’ve always dreamed about. Have your vision board placed at a strategic position where you can see it every day with ease.

Choose your product wisely

Your aim is to provide a product that can make you good profit. You also want to be sure that you have a ready market for your product or service. You don’t have to offer what everyone else is offering just because they claim to be making huge returns. Look for a product that’s targeted for a specific, smaller market instead of plunging into a niche that’s already saturated.

Develop skills for Handling Distractions

Working from home requires a high level of discipline. Interruptions from family, friends or stuff that you like doing while at home can limit the success of your business. Have a daily working schedule that you can stick to, put off gadgets that could unnecessarily interrupt you and let your family or friends know you’re unavailable – unless for emergency.

Have a Separate Financial Account

Proper accounting is a no brainer for any home based entrepreneur. The best way of keeping good financial record for your business is by having a separate account where you can track all your transactions. Don’t forget to account for monies spent on entertaining visitors. Many people forget that such expenses are part of legit business expenditures and forget to deduct them when reconciling their accounts.

Lastly have a back up plan, if your business is web based – just in case something unforeseen happens to your website or if for some reason your products orders are delayed.