Business Consultants

Author Archive

Owning your own business of any type is going to require some amount of networking. Networking is a method of building awareness of your business, among people who may be likely at one time or another to use your products, your services or to refer someone else to your business. Networking is all about getting to know other people, and locally your best bet in finding additional network contacts is going to be with other business owners.

You can find many types of networking opportunities around you. Every club and every association that you belong too is going to be a part of your network. From there, every person you come into contact with and every person you talk with is going to be part of your network.

Make a lasting impression
You can make a lasting impression on the people that you meet by talking about what you know best, and by talking about topics that are vital to your business. If you are not sure about a topic that is being approached during a conversation, ask questions. This will show you are part of the conversation and that you still want to know more. Just listening is going to keep you out of the conversation and will not make a lasting impression of you on any one.

Make your voice known
Join local chambers of commerce; join local men and women’s associations. Join the local PTA, the sports boards, and join clubs that interest you. If you don’t find a club locally that does interest you, create one and build your local network from that point. The more people that you can put yourself into contact with is going to increase awareness of yourself, of your business and what you have to offer. Even if you are selling online, you have to be proud of what you are doing, and talk about it as often as possible to build a network of people that will call on you when they need your products or services.

Once you have built a good network it is important that you maintain and set goals for yourself. As you have set goals, you need to keep them. This means, that if you strive to meet one new person a week, or to make it a point to call one person you know each week that is not a current customer, you are going to increase your business. Think about this, for every five calls you make, and only one turns into a sale, that is one more sale than what you had. Increase exposure for your business, and use this for your personal success.

It is many people’s dream to work from home, by starting a business from scratch or joining a legitimate work at home business opportunity, affiliate program or franchise. Working at home means you can work at something you enjoy, “sack” difficult clients, put difficult bosses behind you, and avoid a lot of the daily stress faced by employees. The home based business industry is expanding rapidly and research suggests that revenue from home-based businesses will increase by up to 17% a year for the next five years. Home based business can mean a consultancy, franchise, affiliate program, network marketing, party plan, internet sales, and many more.

It’s a big step from being employed to working for yourself, so plan as far ahead as possible. You will need to think about the effects on all areas of your life to prepare yourself, before you actually leave your job. With corporate cutbacks, redundancy can be the trigger for starting a home based business, and in this case you may have no scope for planning ahead. If you are made redundant try to negotiate as many extra benefits as you can from your employer: for example pay in lieu of notice, use of company equipment such as mobile phone or computer. Also see if there is any training your employer could pay for, to help you in your business, such as internet skills.

If you have no other income, you will need some savings to carry you through your business start-up period: work out basic living expenses for six months and try to put at least that sum aside. Don’t forget that you will need to provide for benefits you may have received from employment, such as health insurance, pension contributions or a use of a company vehicle. Of course, if you have a spouse or partner who is employed and is willing to provide these necessities during your start up phase, you are buying yourself extra startup time.

Of course you will want a comfortable and quiet work area, ideally away from the rest of your household. This is important not only to reduce noise, but also to create the psychology of being “at work” and not “at home” when you need to concentrate. While some lucky people do manage to start their home business from the kitchen table, you’ll find the separation will help you run your business much more efficiently. Don’t forget to allow space for storage and meeting visitors, if your business involves this.

When you are working from home to help your business succeed, sometimes long and unusual hours, it is easy to ignore both your physical and mental health. The usual advice applies – proper diet and exercise, and even if you don’t have a family at home, don’t work all the time. Entrepreneurs often report that the one aspect they miss in home working is the contact with colleagues, so be sure to maintain a social life, possibly through a business networking or support group. Try to surround yourself with positive, supportive people, and be sure to explain your business idea fully to your family. They will be a critical part of your support system. Those who love you the most aren’t usually trying to stand in your way – it’s just that starting a home business may be something unknown to them, and like everyone, they tend to be fearful of something they don’t understand.

Benefits of a home based business
Working from home is a different way of life from 9-5 employment and offers benefits – monetary or lifestyle – that can far outweigh those found as an employee. Whether you work at home already, are thinking about it, or your life circumstances now make working from home necessary or possible, be sure to think these benefits through as you choose your employment options.

Financial benefits are not always the prime motivator. Many people are willing to take a reduction in income to enjoy the lifestyle benefits of working from home. There is a huge sense of freedom in being able to plan your own timetable. You can make appointments, do your shopping, and run other errands without trying to fit everything into a lunch hour or on the way home from work when everyone else is doing the same thing. You can take advantage of a glorious day to take your dog for a long walk, or stop to watch sport for an hour in the afternoon. You may need to start earlier or finish later to compensate – but the point is that you have this freedom when working for yourself.

In addition to time freedom, another big benefit of working at home is a reduction in stress. Of course, any business will bring its own pressures, but there are certain stressful situations that can be avoided by working at home. and the less stressed you are, the more energy and enthusiasm you have, energy that can be spent on your family or business! The daily commute can literally be a few feet to an office or other work area. You can avoid the stress, time and wear and tear involved in the traditional daily commute, and literally add two hours to your working day.

Choosing the right business for you
Many escapees from the corporate world don’t have a clear, transferable set of skills that they can use in their own business. For example, an engineer can see a number of uses for the skills used in their former job. For the rest of us a little more imagination may be needed.

The key to success is to keep an open mind and do not dismiss an opportunity because it is different form things you have done before. Look around at the opportunities available for online and offline businesses, surf the net, visit sites that offer advice. Also remember that you could be involved in more than one business.

There is a wide range of business opportunities to consider, including Affiliate programs, Internet based businesses, retail sales, network marketing, party planning. Many are highly reputable companies with successful track records. It’s important to find out as much as possible about the company and to contact those already involved so you understand any risks you may be taking, how long before you can reasonably expect to make serious money, and what amount of work is required to make that money.

Be practical in your expectations of a homebased business: enormous income in a very short time is unrealistic, and a legitimate home business will not promise this. However, many offer a steady income stream that can increase gradually. It takes a certain amount of time to build any successful business. By starting and maintaining a legitimate home-based business, you can achieve your dream of being your own boss.

How would you like to hire someone that is more motivated and more qualified to do the work and costs you less than your average employee? No, I am not talking about hiring someone illegally. You can accomplish this simply by employing a telecommuter. Let’s take a look at 5 very good reasons, why it makes sense for you to consider telecommuting from an employer’s perspective.

1) Less Overhead
How much is all this office space, furniture, computer equipment along with your IT department to maintain them, utility bills etc. costing you? Telecommuters do not require any of the above, which will cut your overhead cost tremendously. Telecommuters use their own office, their own equipment from computers to paperclips; use their own power, phone and Internet connection. If their computer acts up, it’s up to them to get it up and running again.

2) Less Benefits To Pay
Most telecommuters are independent contractors. You do not have to provide for health care, workman’s compensation or paid vacation. Consider the tax benefits as well; there is no employer portion of federal and state tax to pay.

3) Hire Experts When Needed
Do you need someone to write the occasional press release and maybe come up with a revision to your brochure every once in a while? Instead of hiring someone fulltime as your marketing person, consider outsourcing the tasks to a freelance telecommuter. You will pay per project, or hire your freelancer for a few hours per month, instead of creating a marketing position. Freelancers give even small businesses the opportunity to hire an expert for almost any task.

4) On Demand Work
Do you expect a temporary increase in your workload, be it seasonal, or because you just landed a large project? Why not pick up a few telecommuters for the task instead of working with inexperienced temps, or hiring in-office personnel that you may not need three months down the road. Telecommuters combine the flexibility of temps with the on-the-job experience of permanent employees. You get the best of both worlds.

5) More Motivated Workers
Telecommuters have a very good reason why they want to work from home. Whether that reason is being able to stay home with the kids, a disability, or avoiding a long commute, being able to work from home makes them happy. As you well know, happy employees are more motivated, don’t count the minutes until they can leave the office and overall get more work done.

If you haven’t already done so, I encourage you to give telecommuter a try the next time you need a highly motivated, experienced worker, but aren’t in a position to create a permanent onsite position. Once you have experienced all the benefits a telecommuter brings to your organization, you may even consider converting even more positions to telecommuting.