Has the thought of owning your own business ever crossed your mind? If so, what’s holding you back? Do you feel overwhelmed about starting something new when you already have an already full plate right now? Maybe it could be that you are stuck on what business you would like to pursue and where do you start. I understand that feeling because I felt exactly like that a few years ago. I knew that I wanted to start something but I just didn’t have a clue on what I wanted to start and ever where to start. Looking back, I feel that there are a few tips that I can offer that may help you in your decision. This post is really about what to consider and how to get started on your entrepreneurial journey.

What is your “why?”
If you have been looking into business for a while, I’m sure that you have probably have heard this phrase repeated many, many times. As repetitive as it is, It carries much substance. Before you get started, it is really important to understand your reasons for wanting to start a business. Are you looking for a way to spend more time with your kids or aging parents and need the income as well as a flexible schedule or maybe you need the feeling on financial security and control. What ever your reasons may be, your “why” is what will carry you through those uncertain and challenging times. It allows you to persevere. There will be many times when we will have competing priorities with our business and having a why will allow you to continue to sustain your business.

Begin with the end in mind.
One of the best advice that I received what to begin with your ideal end result in mind. Is there a particular lifestyle that you are trying to create? Are you looking for a opportunities to do more travel? Maybe you are just interested in flexibility of a business. This becomes important especially when you are looking at business models that would be a good fit for you.

What product/service would you like to market
First of all, do you already have a product or service that you would like to market? If that is the case, great, that is one less thing that you have to discover. For those that do not have an existing product or a service to market, there are many other options available where you have the opportunity to market other companies products. These fall into the area of Direct sales and network marketing. One major difference between these two business models is linear vs residual (passive) income. Linear income is primarily from the direct sales model where you are paid based on the product service and each sale is dependent on your time. If you are not there talking and meeting with clients, you do not get paid. In contrast and in general, the network marketing business model is based on leverage. Your income is based on the number of customers that continue to order the product and well as those that purchase existing products.

Before you get started, it is also useful to look at your strengths ,skills, accomplishments, and hobbies (interest and passions). Ask around. Match up your passion/interest to your business. Most home businesses in Direct sales and networking fall into either of these categories: Home/family care products, personal care products, Service/miscellaneous, wellness products and leisure/educational products. Next weeks post will continue on the topic on getting started.

So, what action steps will you put in place to get to your dream?

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The Ultimate Guide To Starting Your Business – Part 1 is a post from: Work At Home Mom Now

Earlier this week, I had a great discussion about Affiliate Marketing with a good friend of mine. I thought that I will spend some time sharing details about Affiliate Marketing in this post.

What Is Affiliate Marketing?
I like to look at home businesses in two ways. Either you are promoting your own product or service or you are promoting someone else’s. Affiliate marketing falls under the category of promoting someone else’s product or service. It involves sharing a product or service that you use or recommend and getting a commission when someone purchases that product or service.

Why Consider Affiliate Marketing?
With the increased use of social media, it is estimated that close to 50% of those who make money from their blogs report revenue from affiliate commissions. (citation).

How Have Others Used Affiliate Marketing?
Picking the right merchant to work with is based on personal choice, your target market’s interest, and how well you feel about promoting a merchants products. It involves promoting products or services though affiliate advertising which can take the form of ads (that appear in the sidebar) or product links which go in the post. When visitors follow your link with the embedded affiliate codes and purchase a product, you make a commission on the sale which could range from 3-12% depending on the program.

To join an affiliate program, it is usually a two step process that involves joining the network if you don’t already belong to it and applying to a specific store program that is relevant to your business or interest. Each store will have details about their commission structure and any other requirements.

What Are Some Affiliate Marketing Site?
Many sites that you are visiting may have affiliate programs. If not, contact the sites to ask if they have an affiliate program available.

Some common sites include
Linkshare: www.linkshare.com
Commission Junction: www.cj.com
ShareASale: www.shareasale.com
Google Affiliate Network: www.google.com/ads/affiliate network
E-Bay Partner Network: https://ebaypartnernetwork.com
Amazon Affiliate Programs: https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/
Clickbank: www.clickbank.com
Associate Partners: www.associatepartners.com
Affiliate Programs: AffiliatePrograms.com
Affiliate First: AffiliateFirst.com
Google search: TOPIC affiliate, TOPIC affliate products, TOPIC, affiliate programs

What Should You Look For In An Affiliate Site?
There are a few things you should insider as you evaluate affiliate sites. Some of these include:

- Is the product relevant to your business or audience’s interest?
- Have you used the product?
- Are you confident in the product quality and service?
- Is it easy to buy?
- Does the program convert well?
- Does the site look trustworthy?
- Do they provide resources for promotion?

Another thing to consider with affiliate marketing is that you only get paid once and you don’t get paid for any other sales from the person ou referred. An exception to this are continuity programs. Not only do they pay you for the initial sale but also for subsequent sales.

Most importantly, when making decisions on affiliates, make sure that the products or services that you promote are not in direct competition with your business but a compliment to it.

What is your experience with Affiliate programs?

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A Guide To Affiliate Marketing – A Home Based Business Idea is a post from: Work At Home Mom Now

“A man must be master of his hours and days, not their servant.” ~ William Frederick Book

There are a number of different challenges that business owners face and effective and efficient time management is one of them. It is such an important skill that it can either make or break your business. We are all so busy running at a hundred miles per hour juggling the multiple business roles and our families that it becomes a challenge to accomplish it all within a day. In this post, I will share some ideas that can help you accomplish a lot within a short period of time.

Allocate time
Once you have set your short and long term business goals, the next step is to determine the amount of time that you are going to invest in your business (minus family and personal time commitments). Once you have determined how much time you have, the next step is to track your activities and the amount of time it takes to complete those activities.

Track your time
To have a good sense of how you handle the task in your day, it may be useful to track your activities and the amount of time it takes to get those task done. Spend about a week collecting this information. Doing this exercise will give you idea of all the activities you perform for your business as well as give you a good and realistic idea of how much time it takes to accomplish each task. This is helpful in the planning process.

List your tasks
Now that you have kept track of all the task that you do, identify those task that are income producing (high value task) and those that are business preparation task. For example, calling prospects or talking to customers would be considered an income producing activity since it could lead to increased sales. Listening to training calls, etc is a business preparation activity since they do not directly lead to increased sales. Dividing your task like this helps prioritize your activities. You want to spend more time doing high value activities that are high value and less times on low value activities (those activities that do not or negatively impact your income).

Do, delegate, or eliminate
Look at you list of activities. Ask yourself the following questions
Does the task have to be done at all?
If it does, does it have to be done by you?
If yes, does it have to be done now?
And finally, does it have to be done completely, or would partial completion be satisfactory?

Delegate those task that need to be done but not necessarily by you and eliminate those that do not have to be done at all. For Moms, it may mean having your kids contribute to helping out the family by getting some of the household chores done (although it may not be perfect )

Plan by calendaring
Pull your calendar out and block off those important times first. Block off time for your family and personal commitments. Next, find those times that you allotted for business activities. Now that you have a list of task and an idea of the amount of time it takes to complete those task, plug those business building/ high value income producing activities first into those business activity times. Fill the remaining business activity times with business preparation activities. If possible, spend 80% of your available time on business building activities and 20% on business preparation activities. For example, if you have 10 hours to dedicate to your business, spend 8 hours on high value activities and 2 hours on business preparation task.

Are there any other time management systems that you use? How do you stay efficient and effective with your time?

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Can’t Keep Up? 5 Ways To Managing Your Limited Time. is a post from: Work At Home Mom Now

This is the third and final post on inexpensive marketing tools for your business. The previous two post discussed the use of published written tools such as article reprints, brochures and catalogs as marketing tools. This post discusses the use of other more common tools such as audio recordings such as voicemail, toll free calls, CDs, and DVDs,etc as tools.

Audio tools
These include a long list of tools such as phone recordings, voicemail, toll free numbers, etc that that can be used as marketing for your business. These tools allow you to automate a piece of marketing your allowing you to leverage your time for other business activities. It also identifies those with a need for your product or service and weeds out those not interested.

Audio tools are also less intimidating for potential customers. People are more likely to dial a number for information for initial information rather than talk to a live person. This is where the use toll free numbers are great tools cas the customer can receive the information without paying for it. You can also consider using voicemail as an informational tool. Use it for existing customers to inform them of the latest product or service updates.

CDs and DVD
These tools are probably the most commonly used in the business. These can be used as informational tool for initial presentation and for following up with potential customers. They are great for engaging your audience more than any printed material. When using these tools, take the customer’s learning style into consideration. Does the customer prefer reading information verses watching it?

Tailor the tool to the event and customer. DVDs are great for party planning events as it keeps everyone engaged. CDs are great for those who spend a majority of their time in the car. The success of these tools is based on having them listen or watch the information. This can be accomplished by presenting the tool as a valuable solution to their immediate need. How can the information benefit them?

Video conferencing (Webinars)
Video conferencing is another great way to share information and educate others about your product or service. These tools target multiple senses (auditory and visual) making them effective teaching tools. They are effective because they can be interactive. There are a number of different video conferecing services. The most common are Webex and Gotomeeting.

As you can see, there are so many promotional tools available that you can use for marketing purposes. There are so many other available tools such as samples, bookmarks etc, that can also promote your business.

How have you used these tools in your business?

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Inexpensive Ways To Use Promotional Tools to Market Your Business – Part 3 is a post from: Work At Home Mom Now

In the previous post, I discussed a few inexpensive ideas of marketing your business using tools such as testimonials, research studies and article reprints. This post will continue with the same subject and discuss the use of other tools such as business cards, brochures and catalogs to market your business.

Business cards
Business cards when used correctly can be another way to market your business to your target market. To use this as a tool, you need to avoid using it like everyone else by including information such as your business name, logo and contact information.Your business cards can be another inexpensive way to inform others about the benefits of your products, service, and business. Turn your cards into a form of print advertising. The key is to get prospects to take a specific action instead of just providing boring contact information. Have you business card include an irresistible offer and provide a way for your prospect to get additional information by providing a link to a report, white page or internet landing page. If your products or services target different ideal clients, you want to make sure you have one card for each one with a message that targets each specific group. It should concentrate on one specific hot button for one specific ideal client.

Brochures
Brochures are another great tool to use because they contain comprehensive information about your company, product, and opportunity. These tools also provide information on the benefits and testimonials from others that happy customers. Brochures are great because they can be useful tools to address the most frequently asked questions about your products, service and business. There are also inexpensive marketing tools because most companies sell them in bulk and all you have to do is add your contact information.

These are also great tools to use with someone you just met or as a follow up tool to provide information on the benefits of your product or service.

Catalogs
Catalogs have been used for many years by many large traditional companies. This marketing tool continues to grow as statistics have shown an increase in people who shop using mail order catalogs. These tools are great because it exposes your prospects to the wide variety of products or services that your company offers. You can use these as drop off tools in waiting areas of places where your target market “hangs out.” You just want to remember to include you contact information on the catalogs so those interested have a way to contact you.

How have you used these tools in your business? What success have you had using these as marketing tools?

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3 Inexpensive Ways To Use Promotional Tools to Market Your Business – Part 2 is a post from: Work At Home Mom Now

What stage are you in starting your business? Are you just getting started or have you been in business for a while and have exhausted your warm market and are looking for alternative ways of marketing your products or opportunity? In these next series of posts, I will share some low cost ideas of marketing your products and opportunity to potential customers and partners. This post will address the use of promotional tools such as testimonials, research studies and article reprints to grow your business.

As you develop your business plan, it is important to include the different tools and marketing resources that you will use to spread the word of the benefits of your product and opportunity to potential customers and partners. There are a number of different promotional tools that you can incorporate into your marketing strategy to build your business. Today, I will share some ideas on how you can use testimonials, research studies and article reprints as marketing tools.

Testimonials
Testimonials are customer’s reviews and feedback of a product or service that they have used and have had positive results. Positive feedback from others not only provides education about the benefits that product, but also provides third party validation for its use. How many times have you purchased a product based on word of mouth and positive reviews?

These tools are great because they also cost nothing to acquire. Most companies provide testimonials that you can use or you can build your own collection of testimonials by asking current customers about their experience with that product or service. Chose the best testimonials to include in your own marketing handouts. Use these testimonials as follow up tools to continue to educate on the benefits of the product or service and to connect and network people with similar experiences to share their stories and insights.

Research Studies
Depending on the product, the use research studies as tools builds buyer confidence and trusts. Providing links to abstracts and publications on studies performed by Universities and research facilities provides another form of validation. Automating the setup to notify you of new studies is pretty easy to do. To set up, select key words for your product. Use search tools such as Google alert and Pubmed (National Library of Medicine resource. For medicinal products) to search and notify you of new research related to your keywords. In addition, the National Institute of Health has a website called CRISP that publishes any new clinical trial on any medicinal or device products. Having these alerts set up will notify you via email of any studies published with your selected keywords.

Article Reprints
Articles about your product or industry also make great marketing pieces. These articles can be featured in journals, trade magazines, online resources etc. When including extracts of these articles in your marketing pieces, be sure to give proper credit to the article’s author and media source.
The search for new updated articles can also be updated using tools such as Google News Alert When properly setup, Google will automatically alert and email you when there are news articles containing keywords related to your topic or industry that show up online.

Regardless of which promotional tool you use, organize these resources by creating folders or files to collect and include in your marketing pieces. Use these marketing pieces as hand outs, online and as educational resources to build your business.

How have you used these tools to market your business?

Please provide your comments and feedback below.

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Little Known Ways To Use Promotional Tools To Market Your Business – Part 1 is a post from: Work At Home Mom Now

Social media is a hot trend that every business wants to have piece of the action. It is a great communication and networking tool that millions of consumers are using as a means to interact with others and meet others with similar interest. There was a recent question on a forum asking if others are using social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook to grow their businesses. I felt that the question should have asked if these social media tools are right for every business and if so, how are businesses using these tools strategically. In this post, I will address the pros and cons of social media and ideas on how to strategically use these tools to increase your marketing efforts.

There are many pros to using social media for marketing your business. The little investment to get started and the possibility of reaching a large number of people makes it very attractive. On the other hand, the cons of using social media as a marketing tool is that it requires a long term commitment. For the most part, results do not happen overnight. It also requires a significant amount of time to start and maintain a marketing campaign. It is also increasingly popular and so for that reason, it is so difficult to gain visibility among its hundreds of millions of users. If you do not have the time to consistently contribute or expect fast short term result, it probably is not the best tool for your marketing efforts.

To use social media strategically as a tool, it is important to address these key points.

1) What are your business objectives?
Begin with the end in mind. Before diving into the social media space, it is first important to have a good understanding of your business goals and objectives. What is your business looking to do? Are you looking to identify and attract new customers, to build your brand, to build relationships, or to increase your sales revenue? Having these goals and objectives upfront, sets you up for success as you can use the most appropriate tools to reach them.

2) Who is your target market?
Instead of spending your marketing dollars on everyone, you will be in a much better position to focus your social marketing efforts on those people that are most likely to buy your products or services. Who is your ideal customer? What are your customer’s demographics characteristics? Where do they live? What do they do online? Tools such as Quantcast and Alexa are useful in providing demographic information about your target market.

3) Where is your target market “hanging out”?
The right marketing message to the wrong crowd is as ineffective as the wrong message to the right crowd. You want to make sure that your messages are connecting with the right people in the right space. It doesn’t make sense to target baby boomers and send out messages in a social media space where they don’t participate. Flowtown is a resource that provides you with information on social media demographics and who is using which social media sites. Participate in their industries, affinity and interest groups.

4) How will you measure the effectiveness of your objectives?
Lastly, it is important to measure the effectiveness of your marketing methods based on your objectives. Are your objectives to increase traffic, conversion, sales, or other objectives for branding, relationships, search ranking etc. There are great tools that are specific for certain social media sites and other general tools such as google analytics.

To decide if social media is right for your business, decide if the pros outweigh the cons and approach your marketing methods in a strategic fashion.

What made you make the decide that social media was right for you?

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Is Social Media Marketing Right For Your Business? is a post from: Work At Home Mom Now

It’s just a few days before the beginning of a new year. There’s something clean and refreshing about the new year that allows us all to start anew and make plans on what we would like to accomplish for 2012. Goal setting seems like such a straightforward and easy task to do, yet very few people actually meet the goals that they set in various aspects of their lives. This past year, I spent time searching for the missing principles of goal setting in my life. In this post, I will share the principles and philosophies that I have learned about setting goals.

1. To have more, you must become more.
In the past, I have always thought that goal setting involved making a list of those dreams you want to achieve and making sure you have SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound) means for accomplishing those goals. Although this is mostly true, the missing piece to the puzzle is that you have to determine who you must become to achieve those goals. Success is not a doing process; it is a becoming process. It is something you attract by the person you become. What habits, character, attitudes, philosophies must you have to accomplish your goals?

2. Map it out and chunk it down
Now that you have determined what habit, character, philosophies and activities you need to have in place to reach your goal, map it out by creating out a course of action that you need to develop those characteristics and philosophies. Do not fill this in a logical order. It is a creative brainstorming session. Creating a map helps to break down where you are right now and where you need to be. Each path represents an action, a task to complete, research to do, a person to talk to etc. You can determine the necessary steps by speaking to leaders, getting advice from others, researching the topic, reading about how others accomplished the same or similar goals etc. Map out the actions you need to take, the resources and tools you will need, and the resources and tools you need to address any obstacles in getting there (example mentoring, coaching, training, etc.) and start taking action. Make sure you chunk it down into smaller steps to make it actionable.

3. Develop good habits.
Once you have determined the key habits and activities you must have in place to accomplish your goal, work on implementing it on a daily basis. Try doing that habit for 21 consecutive days. It takes 21 days to develop a new habit.

4. Be consistent and track your progress
Track your new good habits and activities daily. Tracking allows you to measure your activities and makes sure you are doing the necessary actions to accomplish your short term and long term goals.

I hope these ideas are useful and will help you as you prepare to accomplish big things in your life next year. I hope that you will also take some of these principles and apply them next year. If you think that this information would be useful to others, “Tweet”, “Like” or “Share it” at the top of the page.

Happy New Year All )

What are you doing to accomplish your 2012 goals? Please provide your comments below.

The Little Known Secrets To Accomplishing Your Goals. is a post from: Work At Home Mom Now

In a previous post, I discussed one of the advantage of home based business is the tax advantages you get by qualifying for a number of home office deductions. Having a home based business entitles you to a wide variety of legally deductible business expenses as some of your personal expenses can be converted into valuable business deductions. This is different than being an employee, where you have limitations on what you can legally write off. To qualify for these deductions, you must prove that you are operating a legitimate business out of your home. In this post, I will discuss the criteria you must meet to qualify for these deduction and provide you with a resource that will provide additional tax information as well as appropriate tools for documentation and tracking.

1. Home office space
There are a few misconceptions around what qualifies as a legitimate home office. To qualify for a home office deduction, you do not necessarily have to use an entire room exclusively. You can use a portion of a room as far as it is exclusively used for business. This is considered a “visually identifiable space.”

2. Working your business regularly and consistently
To qualify as a bona fide business, you need and to provide proof that you are working your business actively and regularly. You must prove that your business is not just a hobby. To prove regularity, it is not the total amount of time that you spent on the business that counts but showing that you are working the business consistently even if it is just a few minutes a day (30mins everyday). The time and effort put into the activity indicate an intent to make a profit. Calendar documentations could be useful as proof of activity.

3. Intent to produce a profit
Another important criteria is to prove that you are running a legitimate business out of your home is to prove intent to be proactively involved in earning a profit in your business. There are a few things that you can do to prove a profit intent. These include:

- Proof that you are taking an active effort of obtaining the necessary knowledge needed to carry on the activities of a successful business. This can include attending company trainings, company conference call, etc.
- Providing proof that you depend on the income survive financially
- Documentation showing that you have changed methods of operation to improve profitability. For example, changing sales and marketing tactics to improve product sales.
- Proof that you have made a profit in similar activities in the past
- Documentation that your business activities have made a profit in some years
- Proof that a profit can be made in the future from the appreciation of assets used in the activity

If there is a business loss, you just need to show that the loss was either
- beyond your control or
- Occurred during the startup phase of the business

There are a few things that you can do to solidify your documentation
- Having a business plan (link to resource) in place can be part of your proof that you are actively working your business
- When documenting deductions, make sure that you can produce evidence that you incurred the expense and prove that the invoice was paid.

With solid documentation of your business activities and your day to day business income and expenses, you have the necessary proof to qualify for home office deductions. If you are interested in additional information about home business tax savings and other tax resources and tool, I highly recommend home business tax advantage. The book itself is a great resource that explains home business taxes in easy to understand terms.

If you think that this information would be useful to others, “Tweet”, “Like” or “Share it” at the top of the page.

I would love to hear your thoughts, insights and feedback. Please comment below.

What Everyone Ought To Know About Home Business Deductions is a post from: Work At Home Mom Now

So you have done your due diligence and have picked the right company to work with….now what? In this post, I will share a few ideas on how to get organized and start your business on the right foot.

1) Understand your “why”
Before undertaking any major task, it is really important to understand your reasons for starting your business. What are you looking to accomplish? Did you decide to start you business because you are looking for away to earn income so that you could be home with your kids or are you looking for a way to become your own boss? There are many different reason why people decide to start their own businesses but it is important for you to really understand your reasons because this is what will drive you to keep moving forward when you hit those dips and challenges in your business.

2) Meet your support team
The beauty about this business is that you have a whole team of people to support you through your journey. Don’t be shy….pick up the phone and introduce yourself to others on your team. You will be surprised by the amount of support you will receive. Your support team has a vested interest in your success and so they want to make sure they provide you with the tools and resources that you need to succeed.

3) Work with your support team to build your business plan
By building a plan, I’m not talking about a ridged plan with numbers and details but more along the lines of determining what you would like to accomplish (what is your goal), how will you fund your business, how much time can realistically put into your business, and understanding what systems your support team has in place to market your business. Your plan should include calendaring, your action plan and tracking. Set a schedule and establish a daily, weekly, and monthly routine that fits your lifestyle and is realistic for you.

Also, involve your family with your plan. They need to be involved in the process so that they have an understanding of what you will be doing and how you will need their support in the process.

4) Set realistic expectations
I know that I just addressed it in the last bullet point but I think that this point is so critical it warrants repetition. Don’t have unrealistic expectations of becoming a millionaire overnight. This is a business and it requires treating it like a business and not a hobby. Remember that this is a marathon and not a sprint.

Become a lifelong learner. There may be skills that you will need to develop, ideas you need to experiment and implement. Be patient with yourself and be persistent and consistent in your activities. You’ll have a great story to tell in the end.

5) Create a Tax file – track income and expenses
There are amazing tax advantages when you own a home based business. In most cases,these tax savings can help pay for your business expenses. Take the time to learn more about the tax advantages of having a home based business. One great resource is the Home Business Tax Savings Learning Center. This site has many resources and tools that you can use to learn more about tax savings and tracking your business’s income and expenses.

Make sure you have a list of business expenses you should keep track of and have a system of collecting and organizing your expenses. There are other great financial tracking programs such as Quickbooks, Quicken and Mint etc. There are also a number of paper based systems that you can use to track your expenses. Any system works just as far as it allows you to keep track of your business’s cash flow.

6) Build your “other” support team
Your “other” support team should consist of a lawyer, accountant, financial planner etc. Counsulting with your team of professional advisors will help you determine the legal and financial implications of operating your business (sole proprietor, partnerships, limited liability corporations etc). Ask others in your business who they would recommend. Make sure you work with someone who has experience with home based businesses.

7) Set up a separate business work space
Try to separate business and personal space. Not only will this be helpful in your productivity but also helpful in tracking business expenses for tax reasons.

These are a few ideas to help you get started on your exciting adventure. If you think that this information would be useful to others, “Tweet”, “Like” or “Share it” at the top of the page.

Are there any others that you would add to the list? I welcome you comments below

7 Tips On Getting Your Home Business Started The Right Way is a post from: Work At Home Mom Now