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Start a home based business on the internet |
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Starting a home-based business: For those starting a home-based business, the following checklist gives the most important points: Create a business plan: Even if you are the only one that will ever read it, it is important to plan out your business and the important milestones you hope to accomplish. Establish your business entity: You will need to decide if you want to run your business as a sole proprietorship, a partnership, or a corporation. Get your business license or reseller certificate: Make sure You are in compliance with your state laws and get a business license or a reseller certificate if your state requires one. Check with your local zoning commission: You do not want business shut down prematurely due to zoning laws. Make sure you can legally run your business from your home before you put in too much time and effort. Purchase insurance: Determine what kind of insurance you need, and purchase this before you actually open your new business. Organize your office: A well-organized office space leads to a successful business. Make sure that your office is in a place in your home where you will be able to focus on running your business with minimal distractions. Purchase your equipment: Make sure that you purchase any required office equipment ahead of time. You will avoid embarrassing moments if a customer wants to fax you an order and you do not have the proper equipment ready. Set up your Web site: You will need to purchase a domain name and set up your Web site so that it is ready to go live when you open for business. By planning your Web site concurrently with starting your business, you will be able to include your domain name on your promotional material. Make your schedule: Even if you do not want to work 9 to 5, you will need to create a schedule that follows somewhat normal business hours to ensure that your customers can reach you. They may not be aware that your business is in your basement and you have to get your kids to soccer practice. Organize your inventory: If you plan on stocking merchandise in your home, you will need to make sure it is well-organized to facilitate a quick turnaround time. Make sure that they are easily accessible and free from dirt and debris. If you are a smoker, make sure you store your inventory in a smoke-free area. Get your shipping supplies ready: You should not have to scour your house for a padded envelope when you get your first order. Gather all of the supplies you will need, such as envelopes, boxes, bubble wrap, shipping tape, and labels ahead of time. Open your virtual doors: Now that you are completely prepared, you are ready to open your business up to the public. Marketing on the internet: Here are some of the popular and cost-effective ways that you can advertise your business on the Internet. Internet advertising can be broken down into three main categories: Cost-per-click, where you only pay for actual clicks or leads for your advertising. Cost-per-impression often referred to cost-per-thousand impressions or CPM, where you purchase a set amount of views for your ad. Set-price advertising, where you can purchase a specific amount of advertising for a given length of time. Cost-per-click advertising offers small business owners great value for their advertising dollar. Cost-per-impression advertising is waning in popularity, but it can still be an effective way to advertise your business. These ads are usually in the form of banners or buttons, and are sold by cost-per-thousand impressions, or displays of your ad. This means that if you purchase 5,000 impressions, your ad will display 5,000 times. There are no click guarantees, which make this type of advertising less popular than pay-per-click advertising options. Most cost-per-impression ad campaigns have fairly steep minimum buys, which also makes them less attractive to home-based-business owners. An ad campaign will often feature more than one of the approaches above, and sometimes will utilize all three kinds of advertising. If your advertising budget allows it, try several different kinds of advertising, and see which performs best. No matter what advertising you employ, insist on performance data. Without that information, you will never know which forms of advertising are effective and which are not. You dont have to spend a lot of money on ads, brochures, Web sites and the like to market your home-based business effectively. The very best source of new customers for almost any business, including home-based businesses, is your current roster of happy clients. When your customers are pleased with the job youve done for them, theyre usually happy to tell their friends and business colleagues about you and that often means more business for you. The best way to get these word-of-mouth referrals from your current customers is to do great work for them stay on time and within budget and provide a high-quality product be reliable and dependable, and thank or reward your customers whenever they give you a referral. Final Thoughts: Once you've written your business plan, it will become your "battle plan," as well as the tool you'll use to measure how close you are to meeting your goals--or by how much you're surpassing them! A professional-looking business plan will give you credibility simply because most businesses never take the time to prepare one. Writing out a business plan can be a great way to get things moving. It's also an excellent way to evaluate how good that idea of yours really is. And be sure to make your business plan a perpetual "work in progress." Go back and review it every three months, and make changes where necessary. If your sales are twice what you expected, go back and update the figures in your business plan. This ensures that your map to profitability is always up to date. Other Articles |