Archive for the ‘Home Business’ Category

Getting business through relationship marketing

Tuesday, December 11th, 2007

If you are interested putting up a business of your own, learn from this video the key steps on how to market your services and products in different ways and you can increase your visibility and get more business through the use of the principles of Relationship Marketing.

10 Ways To Strengthen Your Business Relationships

Tuesday, December 11th, 2007

Building a harmonious relationship to others is a very important factor to achieve success in your business. It is one secret method in achieving your goal as an entrepreneur. Because these people around you, may it be customers, employees, vendors etc.. has contributed a lot in the business industry. So, why don’t you try to interact with these people and know them by heart. Holiday season is here once again for you to make your one most important new year’s resolution. Try to take it step by step by learning these “Ten ways you can start strengthening your business relationships in the upcoming year.” by Freyvogel:

1.Learn as much as you can about everyone you work with. Then, act on that knowledge. You need to know as much as possible about everyone from your customers to your vendors to your employees so that when their needs change, you can be there to provide them with what they need to stay happy with your business.

2.Treat your vendors like honorary employees. It’s important to nurture relationships with those people who aren’t necessarily working for you but who service you or your company regularly. This can mean anyone from the package delivery guy who stops by every day to the materials supplier who keeps your warehouse stocked to the designer who keeps your website updated.

3.Know everyone’s birthday. You might be thinking, How much of a difference will saying “Happy birthday” really make? Well, the answer is a big one. People love to be acknowledged no matter the reason. And in a world where everyone is so wrapped up in their own lives, getting a happy birthday wish from the people you regularly come into contact with is becoming a rarity.

4.Encourage a sense of ownership among your employees. Whether it comes from having a voice in major decisions, being able to work directly with clients, or actually owning stock, a sense of ownership will go a long way toward creating strong ties between your employees and your business. Inspiring your employees to love your business as much as you do will strengthen your company’s foundation and your business will be that much more likely to survive setbacks and grow to great heights.

5.Have one-on-one conversations with your customers to find out what you can do better. Most of the time unsatisfied customers don’t approach you with a detailed list of the things they’d like for you to improve on. They just leave you for one of your better-equipped competitors. Therefore, you must set aside some time to ask them what they need from you.

6.Make your start-up loan payments on time, no matter what. Always have enough money in your account to make your monthly loan payments when they’re due. It’s also a good idea to set up a separate emergency account and make sure you put something in it every month — someday you’ll be glad you did. You don’t want to gain a reputation with your bank as someone who doesn’t make loan payments on time. Staying close to your bankers can also help you secure your finances. Set up a safety system with them to ensure that all of your deposits are going through in a timely manner.

7.Contact your mentors frequently. Think about those people who gave you valuable advice when you were trying to get your business off the ground, or that person you call immediately when you need advice. That person is your mentor, and you want to have a close relationship with her so that she is willing to go that extra mile to help you build your business.

8.Constantly recognize a job well done. Everyone likes to be told they’ve done a good job on something, especially your employees. Typically, people who are interested in working for small businesses are driven more by recognition than by dollars. So whether you implement an Employee of the Month plaque or simply say, “Thanks for the great job!”, never miss an opportunity to give your employees the recognition they deserve. And when a client compliments an employee’s work, never steal the credit — indeed, be sure to pass the glowing review along to the rightful owner! And let everyone in the company know. It’s good for morale to know that recognition might be coming their way some time in the future.

9.Be flexible with the people you count on. As a business owner you should know that rarely will a day turn out exactly how you had planned for it to. That is why it is so important for you to be flexible when those around you run into problems and need to change their schedules in a way that affects your business. Maybe one of your vendors needs to make a delivery earlier or later than normal or maybe an employee has to leave to take care of a family problem. Don’t sigh and act annoyed, says Freyvogel, even if it’s very inconvenient for you.

10.Make sure employees have everything they need to do their jobs. Nothing frustrates a high-performing employee more than having to struggle to do his job because he doesn’t have the right computer program or because he must make do with faulty equipment.

“No matter how determined, hardworking, and talented you may be, you simply can’t be a successful entrepreneur all by yourself. It takes a village to run a company. Never forget that fact is critical to your success.”

Source: Business Relations

Top 5 Easiest Online Businesses to Start

Friday, November 16th, 2007

There are several fields of online business to choose from. Here is a list of top easiest online business to put up:

1. Join an Afffiliate Program - Choose top manufactrers to sell,sign up with the most effective affiliate program and try to learn how to drive traffic to site.

2. Sell on eBay - All you need is just a computer and an internet connection to be connected to ebay and sell as well as promote your products online.

3. Use Google’s AdSense - This allows a website to display ads on their site to also promote your product and once a visitor click on the ad, automatically the publisher will earn points to any ad revenue made. You can attract visitors by making your own site to market online.

4. Write an e-Book - Now, it’s easy to download informations online. People pay for the information they get. If you have important or useful informations, write an e-book and publish online.

5. Sell drop-shipped products - Selling online needs no inventories like what we usually do manually on other offline businesses. drop shipping enables an internet merchant in accepting orders of products and pay the manufacturer for the shipment.You’ll need to find a good market niche, a drop-shipper, and a way to drive traffic to your site.

Source: Online Business

5 Easy Ways to Make Money Online

Friday, October 26th, 2007

Here are five ways you can make money online :

1) Join an affiliate program, promote their products/services, and make commissions when make a sale through your affiliate link. This is a very popular way of making money online. Many affiliate programs are free to join. Some ways you can promote your affiliate link are through article marketing, setting up a landing page or e-mail marketing.

2) Start a blog on a particular subject. Pick a subject that your visitors would find interesting, and give them useful information on a regular basis. Keep your blog focused on your topic, and update with new information and articles on a regular schedule. On your blog, you can promote and review affiliate products and/or make money with a program such as Google Adsense. You can start a blog for free with a service such as Blogspot.

3) You can make money purely on Google Adsense, or another related program. Set up a site providing useful information about a certain subject, then drive traffic to your site. Place Adsense ads on each page of your site. Be sure to follow their terms of service. When people click on those ads you make money, so a lot of traffic is key.

4) Another way you can make money with your computer is through internet auctions, such as eBay. Millions of people search eBay daily looking for any kind of product you can imagine, and there are millions of transactions through eBay daily. There are people who make fortunes just from selling on eBay. A way to make money is to buy items at wholesale price and sell them at a higher price on eBay. However there is much, much more to learn in order to make money from online auctions.

5) Creating your own informational product and selling it through the internet is yet another way to make money online. Information has got to be the most common form of product sold on the internet. Research what kind of information is in high demand in the market, and write an eBook report on it. Perhaps you know information on something that a lot of people do not, and people are willing to pay for that kind of information. A similar method is to obtain the master resell rights for a product, and sell the product for yourself.

Building an E-Store

Friday, October 26th, 2007

Multi-channel retailing is becoming increasingly crucial for businesses to survive in an online age - Rebecca Spicer explores the options and steps required to build a successful e-store.

Thanks to the spread of broadband and wireless services at home, online business are growing rapidly, urged on by confidence in online brands such as eBay and Amazon.

The global ACNielsen Online Consumer Opinion Survey conducted last October found the vast majority of Australian internet users (87 percent) made a purchase over the internet. “Our ongoing e-commerce research clearly demonstrates an upward trend in Australian and global online shopping,” says Richard Sandlant, ACNielsen’s director of customised research.

So, how can your business tap into this growing market? While businesses may already
have websites to promote their business and provide additional information, it may be worth considering actually selling online as well.

David Lammey, general manager of business and consumer at web and application hosting company WebCentral, believes the decision for a business to expand online will be based on increasing its turnover and making the business more profitable. “What businesses are trying to do is sell more with less effort, and an online store can do that,” he says.

However, before embarking on developing your e-store, Lammey suggests asking yourself the following questions:

1. Is my product really going to sell; is it applicable; are people going to buy it on the internet? Anna Carosa started her accessory business, msAnna, just over two years ago. After successfully selling via mail-order catalogue she decided to launch online a year later. Selling mainly handbags and jewellery, she knew these were viable products to sell online. “I find with handbags, it’s more of a visual thing,” she says. “People know roughly what their style and taste is so most can buy jewellery and fashion accessories online relatively easily.”

2. How do you want to brand and structure the shop; do you want it to be a link off your main business website or a separate entity?

3. How am I going to do it? Analyse your current financial position—resources, costs, and so on—then ask yourself, can I afford this additional distribution channel? You’ll need to consider the extra resources needed to fulfil online sales and maintain the website, as well as set-up charges, ongoing maintenance and trouble-shooting costs.

4. Will you build and maintain the site in-house, outsource the job or use a combination of both? Deciding which way to go will depend on your time and resources, and how much risk you’re willing to take.

If you’re planning to sell online, the best research starting point would be to shop online yourself. Have a look at how other e-stores function and you’ll get an understanding of what consumers expect in terms of usability and security.

More on how to build your e-store: Building an E-Store by Rebecca Spicer, DynamicBusiness.com

11 Ways To Promote Your Home Business

Thursday, October 18th, 2007

Marketing is the most important tool of any business may it be online or offline. It’s the only way that you could introduce and promote your product to the public. and educate them about what you are selling.Home based businesses are no exception when it comes to marketing, even the smallest of work at home internet businesses needs to have a marketing strategy. Perhaps you will get some new ideas to promote your business with these tips.

1. Personalize your business cards with a company logo and include your email address and website URL on the front of the card.

2. If you sell a product, carry several samples with you. Attach a business card to the front. Hand them a sample along with your contact information so they know how to get more.

3.Collect email addresses from everyone.Contact information can be as good as money in the bank.

4. Start a monthly newsletter filled with updates and special promotions for your products and services. Snail mail it and email it out to every address in your data base.

5. Learn to write good copy. If you don’t have time to educate yourself, hire an exceptional copy writer to assist you. Good copy makes a difference between booming business and lost sales.

6.Request testimonials form experts in your line of work, than use them to promote your business.

7.Publish your business in every available marketing directory in your area.

8. Word of mouth can make or break a business. Talk up your business when in public and enlist friends and family members to do the same.

9. If you don’t have one already, get a website. Keep it low key, professional, easy to navigate and full of quality content. Don’t overuse graphics and flashy plug ins that slow down the time it takes for your page to load. Spend some time creating a catchy headline or slogan for your business. Now would be the time to use the copy writer again. List your web site with directories like Google , Yahoo and Inktomi. Make sure you read the webmaster’s guidelines and ensure that your website conforms to the search engines terms of service.

10. Get the word out about your business online by joining discussion forums related to your area of business. Post links back to your website and exchange links with other businesses that compliment your service. Avoid associating your site with fly-by-night or shady businesses. Only allow your links to be posted on high quality, reputable sites. Only post links on your site to businesses or websites that you have researched thoroughly. This can improve your page ranking and help you move up on the search engine results page.

11.Procure advertising space in your local newspaper “above the fold”. Check into hiring a professional speaker to read a specially prepares script advertising your business (once again, consult that excellent copy writer) and have your new radio commercial played during prime listening times. If you can only afford a few minutes of radio time, it is still a good investment.

Source: advertising homebusiness marketing