As an entrepreneur, I built my party plan business with two solid ingredients; me and my ability to understand my customers needs. This may sound obvious, but the fact of the matter is, when you are passionate about your product and you can convince other people that they need your product, you will have a successful business.
I have been a big fan of a selling technique called “Consultative Selling”. By definition, consultative selling is finding out why this person could use your product and showing them how your product can fulfill their needs.
Okay, right from the beginning, I want to squash a myth. There is no free money from the government for small business startups. Now, I’ll preface that by saying that the government does, very rarely, hand out free money for businesses if they directly meet an environmental or specific government need. However, in those cases, the government will probably have so much control of your company that it won’t even feel like yours anymore. So, with that being said, 99% of the time, you won’t get money from the government (yes, I’m including the SBA).
I have had a business partner for last 7 years and with good communication and clear boundaries, a partnership can work well with a multitude of benefits. There are a few key ingredients to a successful partnership:
#1 DEFINE your jobs. This may seems like a no brainer, but the problem in many partnerships is that both partners are good at the same thing. You don’t need a partner if you can do it all! In my company, I headed up the sales division and my partner headed up the operations division. There was a clear division of responsibilities. If there was a problem in either of our divisions we could consult the other, which we did many times. But, we didn’t step on each other’s toes because we both knew that we couldn’t do the other’s job as well as she could.
Sometimes, the hardest parts about being a work-at-home mom have nothing to do with work at all. Because you might be operating from a home office, kitchen table, or spare corner of the couch, it can be difficult to get anything done while keeping an eye on your kids. Since letting them run free, or missing deadlines on your work projects, isn’t exactly a feasible option, what’s the best way to move forward?
Well, depending on the age of your kids and type of work you do, one way to tame them – and your project list at the same time – is to simply get them involved. In other words, make them a part of your “office team.”
By having your kids help you file documents, shred papers, organize folders, or do other small kinds of routine tasks, you accomplish a few things at once: first, you keep them busy. Secondly, you let them see what your work-at-home job is all about, and make them feel like they are involved in the process. And finally, you can even help to set good example of being working and productive – something that can help them in school, and in life.
If you constantly feel like you are being torn between keeping an eye on your kids and getting something done, why not try to combine the efforts?
The internet has changed life as we know it. I often sit back and think, “How did I ever get by without the internet?” If you are home based internet business owner like me, then the internet has even more of an impact on your life because it is probably directly related to your financial well-being. The goal of any online entrepreneur is to get to the top of Google. The two best, most powerful ways how to advertise your business are paid advertising and SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
SEO is great because once you’re ranked on Google’s first page, all the traffic you get is free. There is no other form of advertising that can even come close to offering a better marketing solution for your home business than that. With that being said, getting to the top of Google can be a challenge especially because some of the criteria Google uses to rank sites are kept secret by them in order to preserve quality and relevance.
In an attempt to always provide a better search engine experience, Google rolls out updates on occasion which aim to bring the best possible content to its users. Google Panda is Google’s most recent update. Google Panda made a huge splash in the internet world when it launched in February 2011, and many big name sites that experienced a long life of high ranking on Google suffered severe consequences.
What made the Google Panda update so dramatic was the criteria for ranking high in the SERP’s was determined by human quality testers who gave their feedback on what they thought made a site valuable, or not valuable, and worthy of search engine ranking.
It used to be if you had a site with relevant content, lots of backlinks, and some domain history, then the answer to “how to advertise your business online?” became very simple because that’s all you had to do to rank your site well on Google. These criterion, however, gave way to “link farms” aka “content farms” where one could purchase hundreds or thousands of “backlinks” to point to their site, and then reap the benefits of high ranking. Google caught on, and now it’s a different ball game for the aspiring internet entrepreneur. If you’re wondering how to do well with the new Google Panda changes, here is what you need to do:
1) Make Sure Your Entire Site Is Search Engine Friendly
So, I’m not going to go into on-site SEO tips here, but, simply put, every page on your site needs to have good relevant content not just the home page.
2) Original Content
Make sure every amount of text on your site is your own. If you copy and paste text from somewhere else online, trust me, Google will find out and penalize you for it. Make sure your site has a healthy amount of content that is not only original, but also valuable. Ask yourself, “Would you enjoy visiting your own site?”
3) Non-Computer Generated Site
If you are forced to have an affiliate site, or some other site that is auto-generated, you’ll be fighting a losing battle with Google Panda. Your site needs to be developed by a human and have a unique quality to it.
4) Not Too Much Advertising
This may not apply to you, but if you decide to advertise on your site, just do it in moderation. If your site appears to focus just on “ad stuffing”, you’ll need to fix that to do well.
5) Monitor Bounce Rate
If you don’t have a Google Analytics account set up for your site, this is an absolute must. It’s free to sign up, and you’ll be able to see exactly how people are using your site. One of the factors Google Panda looks at is “time on site.” If people tend to click-on and immediately click-off your site, this is not good and is an indication that your site is either not relevant to what they are looking for, or your content is not worthy of their time.
In conclusion, mold every facet of your site around what’s in the best interest of the site visitor. If your desire is to satisfy your site visitors and less on just self-promotion, you’ll do well. Keep at it. You’ll be rewarded soon enough.
Brandon Jones is a Google Adwords Certified Partner and internet entrepreneur. His blog www.MyGoogleMarketing.net offers free tips on how to succeed online.
Time is limiting factor for a lot of work at home moms. If they had more of it, they could earn more money. But time can’t be manufactured out of thin air… can it?
Unfortunately, that’s not a trick we have mastered just yet. But one valuable piece of advice we can give you can make you feel like you’ve doubled the amount of working hours in your day: only work when your energy levels are high.
That sounds obvious, but it’s something that few of us actually pay attention to. Instead of working and we feel most energetic and productive, we tend to chip away at projects when other people are in our offices, or long past the times when we started feeling tired. This is usually an inefficient approach, though; not only does it take us longer to do what we need to, but it leaves us less enthusiastic about the next hour, or the next day.
Rather than working straight through the day, try this: set aside a few hours when you normally feel great to finish a project. Then, once it has been completed, take the rest of the day – or at least a few hours – to relax, go be a mom, etc. If you can keep up this habit for a few days, a funny thing will happen: you’ll start to look forward to your work more.
If you can double your productivity, with only half the stress you’re used to, it’s going to make a big difference in your work at home profitability. Keep that in mind, and try to finish tasks while you’re fresh.
Regardless of what kind of work at home business or freelance career you have, finding new clients and customers is probably an ongoing challenge. You can take some comfort in the fact that you aren’t alone – from Fortune 500’s to shoestring startups, keeping the cash register ringing is usually the toughest priority.
However, you can make things a lot easier by taking the focus away from what you want, and putting it squarely on what you can do. In other words, don’t concentrate your efforts on finding customers; instead, find a problem you can solve for your clients, and then advertise the fact that you can solve it.
Unless it’s a luxury product, like a foreign automobile or the latest electronic gadget, most of us aren’t all that enthused about buying things and spending money. Neither do we look forward to paying vendors. What does get us all jazzed up, though, is having a nagging problem taken off our plates. Once we find a person or product that can do that, we stop thinking about the reasons to do without the expense and get excited about the solution.
To make your work at home business or career flying success, become a master of explaining how you can make other people’s lives easier. It’s a lot easier than marketing yourself… and a lot more profitable.
While working at home, either through freelancing or owning your own online business, might allow you to live on less money than you would make that a traditional job, there’s no law that says you have to take a pay cut to work in your pajamas. And often, the difference between a work at home mom who is just getting by and one who is moving upward through new income brackets is one of perspective.
With that in mind, ask yourself this question: are you self-employed, or the CEO of your own small company?
On the surface, these would seem to be the same thing. Look deeper, though, and you’ll notice that one is focused on someone who does work, while the other is concerned with management, profits, and even strategic vision.
It’s important, if you are going to thrive in your work at home role, that you learn to see your business is a business. You need to learn to spot unprofitable agreements, find opportunities to save time and money, and think about how to raise the prices of your products – even if those are just your billable hours.
Take a little bit of time each week to put on your CEO hat and think about the direction your company is taking. You might not be running an empire yet, but the first step in that direction is to stop thinking like an hourly employee.
When you are just starting out with your work at home business, few things are as important as picking the right specialty. This is especially true if you plan on freelancing as a writer, photographer, transcriber, etc. Choose the right one, and you can do lots of work you love for great pay; get it wrong, and you could find yourself making less than minimum wage while struggling over projects you can’t stand.
So how do you know when you’ve found the right freelance specialty? There are two things to consider: what you love, and how well it pays.
While it’s important that you have both of these, also know that they should come in that order. That is, too many work at home moms get things backwards – they try to take something they think will pay well, only to discover they hate it. Don’t make that mistake. Think about things you know you love doing, or might be interested in doing, and start there. It’s always easier to find a way to make money from your passions than it is to struggle through the day-to-day drudgery of projects you hate.
Once you have identified a few things you might like to work on, find out what kinds of rates you can get. The Internet is a great place for this, of course, but so is your local library. Or, if you are feeling truly bold, contact a professional who’s already working in the field and find out what they charge. You’d be surprised how many people are willing to help you out when you starting your own work at home business.
Finding a profitable specialty is an important part of the work at home process, so don’t rush it. Think about what you love to do, and then find a way to pay your bills with it. It might take a little bit of research, but you’ll be glad you did.
Thirty years ago, or even less, if you were to ask your employer if you could work from home, you would have certainly been laughed at. With the internet boom, however, came the opportunity for men and women to work from home, however, initially the so called “opportunities” weren’t all that great. The internet has certainly provided a means for the aspiring entrepreneur to have a great medium through which to promote and start a business, but what about a stay at home mom who just wants to work from home for an employer and get paid by the hour? Are there really jobs for stay at home moms?
Yes. There are. While our economy has taken a turn for the worse, the amount of online consumer activity has soared. This is due to the fact that it’s easier and cheaper to shop online. As a result, this has created many work opportunities for stay at home moms. 1-800-FLOWERS, for example, hires people to answer phone calls and take orders for their website right from the comfort of their own home. American Airlines hires booking agents to work from home, and they may even give you a computer!
Do a simple search online, and you’ll find a plethora of other opportunities. So this is great news! If this type of employment is something you want to pursue, then you need to take some time to evaluate a few things in order to find the best jobs for stay at home moms. First of all, you need to assess the time you need to fulfill your other responsibilities like taking care of your children and tending to the needs of the home. How much time do you really have to focus on a job? What hours of the day are you able to work? Look for employers, like About.com, for example, that allow you to make your own hours. This may be the best option for you.
Furthermore, make sure it is clear what your compensation will be. An offer may look really appealing until you do the math and figure that you’re only making 35 cents per hour! No thanks. Finally, if you’ve never worked from home before, please know that it can, at times, become very mundane. I say that to say this – find something you enjoy doing.
In conclusion, take time to narrow down exactly the type of work you want, and then find the job offers that fit your criterion. Finding an at-home job is no different than finding any other job. Be persistent, apply to as many opportunities as you can, and your diligence will pay off.
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Brandon Jones is a Google Adwords Certified Partner and internet entrepreneur. His blog www.MyGoogleMarketing.net offers free tips on how to succeed online.
