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Business Plan

Internet Home Business – The 4 Steps To Success

Actually many of the internet home business marketers start from the wrong end of the knowhow curve. It is important to understand, that the learning is the first thing to do, not the promotions. The internet home business is a know how business and before a newbie can promote, he has to know how to do it. That skill comes only through a hard studying.
One method seems to work well in the start. Think about your personal strengths and how could you utilize those in the internet home business. Make some notes about the opportunity to transfer those strengths into useful products or services and who would be interested about them.
1. Pick The Internet Home Business Model and Stick To It.
The method in the previous chapter can shorten your time to find the home business, which will fit to you. Then you already know, what you are seeking for and can direct your efforts to certain areas only. It simply helps you to manage the huge information overload and to find correct marketers, sites and blogs to follow.
But what is the business model, what you have to select? The model means the products or services, the target group and the promotion ways. For instance you can decide to start blogging and to share tips about the business opportunities to advanced online marketers with a target to get as many as possible to write comments and to share their home business ideas.
The blog is a centre of your business model and the monetization happens through product links in the text and through side line banners. Later you can expand the model by creating line extensions, which fit to this model and will further expand the expertise area. A good place to promote them is, surprise surprise, your blog.
2. Remember To Invest In The Education And Effective Tools.
To reach a good level in the know how, you just have to follow certain marketers, magazines, blogs and web sites regularly. If Google will change the algorithms, it is good that you utilize that information as soon as possible. Note, that the internet business market will change with a speed of a laser. New ideas and new fashions come quickly. Those, who use them, when the ideas feel fresh will be the winners.
3. Outsource As Much As You Can.
Many marketers find very quickly, that their own time and energy is very limited. How to handle this challenge? What is your main job? To put it simple, you have to lead the operation, to manage and to control that everything will happen as planned. You must become the leader of the free lancers, who will do the dirty work.
4. Diversify Inside The Present Know How Area.
The online marketers present their hype offers for diversification and it is a great temptation to try something totally new. But can you honestly do that? What happens to your brand? I would say, that the diversification is wise only, when you have managed to build your present business a success and you know, how and why it is running as it is. One thing is utmost important. You should never give up!

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Business Plan

Skills Needed to Work at Home

To run your home-based business successfully, you will need a range of skills. These are described in general terms below. If you lack any of these it does not necessarily mean that you should not set up a business. However, if you feel any of these areas is going to present serious problems, you may need to consider taking on a partner or employee to handle that aspect of the business, or using a specialist adviser or consultant. You might also consider taking other courses to acquire the skills you need.
Technical
These are the skills that you need to actually make the products or deliver the service you are offering. For some types of business you will need to have relevant experience (probably gained as an employee) and perhaps some professional qualifications. For instance, no-one today would set up as a car mechanic without at least some relevant training and experience. On the other hand, for other types of business, specific qualifications and experience may not be essential. Whatever your business, however, if you expect people to pay you for your work, you will need to have the necessary technical skills to deliver a good quality product or service.
Financial
To run a business successfully you will need a range of financial skills. These include skills in such matters as bookkeeping, negotiating credit terms with suppliers, invoicing, credit control, estimating, drawing up budgets and controlling cash flow (the flow of money into and out of the business).
Marketing
Marketing is the process by which you identify potential customers and persuade them to buy your products or services.
Management
If you are going to employ others, you will need a variety of management skills in such areas as recruitment, motivating staff and team building. You will need a knowledge of employment law and health and safety requirements. You will also need to be able to fulfil legal requirements in matters such as deducting tax from employees’ pay.
Organization
Whether or not you intend to employ others, you will need organisational skills to ensure that every aspect of your business runs smoothly. This includes setting up systems for dealing with orders and enquiries, keeping customer records, and so on. It also includes time management, i.e. ensuring that your time is used as efficiently as possible.
Many people think from time to time about starting a business, but frequently it goes no further than that. Often it takes the spur of a sudden change in circumstances for vague plans to crystallise into something more definite.
With the uncertain global economy it’s a good idea to start looking into a small home business venture with low start up costs to help insulate any financial hardship that could arise.

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Business News Articles

Use a Marketing Study to Evaluate Your Business Idea

Entrepreneurs tend to have dozens of business ideas rolling around in their heads at any given time. The trick, of course, is selecting the right idea to start up at the right time. To evaluate the viability of an idea, especially a new or innovative product or service, conduct a limited marketing study. A comprehensive marketing study should be completed before launching any business, but the basic steps can be modified for a basic analysis of the potential of a business idea.
 
The first step in evaluating a business idea is determining your market. Consider who is most likely to benefit from your business idea and why. Jot down ideas regarding the demographics (age, gender, income range, job, hobbies, etc.) of your target group. Then, conduct some basic research to estimate the approximate size of your market. Once you determine that your business idea is logically viable, you will need to conduct more in-depth research into who your target is and how to reach them, but for now you just need a clear picture of whether there are enough potential customers to support your venture.
 
Once you are clear on who your target is, look into the alternatives they have for filling the need your product fills. That is, what are they buying now to get the same benefit? Your direct competition are those businesses that sell pretty much exactly what you sell, your indirect competition sells products that provide the same benefit, but in a different manner. For example, an organizational consultant has direct competitors in other org consultants, and indirect competition in organizational books, training videos, websites, and retail stores that specialize in organization.
It is important to look closely at the existing competition for several reasons. Knowing your competition will provide greater insight into the tried and true methods for running your type of business. It is also critical to know how crowded the market is. If there are 50 Mexican restaurants in a 5-mile radius, the market is probably too crowded to support another. To gain market share for a new product, it is important to distinguish your version in some significant way from the other options. Whether your unique selling proposition is based on quality, price, features, or some other factor, you can’t promote that difference without a clear understanding of the competing products available.  
Knowing your industry is also important. Just about every industry has professional associations that keep their members up-to-date on the future and changes happening within the trade. A viable business idea should be in the early stages of the product life cycle — building a market base and increasing demand. These associations also generally compile averages for their industry, an excellent tool for developing reasonable estimates of profitability. Generally, new entrepreneurs grossly underestimate the cost of actually running the business and develop profitability estimates far beyond the realistic. Well-researched industry averages will generally help you develop a more accurate picture of the profit margins that can be expected in your specific industry.
Once the basic background information is gathered, test what you know. One of the best ways to determine whether a business idea is viable is to go to the source — your potential customers.  Develop a survey to evaluate your idea that addresses the actual data you need to know. The questions you include should be relevant to the product only, not the demographics of the people you ask (segmenting your target market is a critical step, but should be done in detail later in the planning process). Avoid leading questions like “Do you like pepperoni pizza better than anchovy?” Instead, construct questions that illicit the respondents’ actual opinions or habits. Follow up yes and no questions with whys, how often, and the like. Keep each question limited to a single point — that is, do not ask if they like pizza and salad, rather make that two questions. Be sure the questions are easy to understand. Provide clear answer options, when possible, and be sure to include a space for “other” answers.
 
Keep the survey relatively short and to the point. Be sure the overall responses will tell you what you need to know about whether your idea will fly. Once you are satisfied with the questionnaire, select people from your expected target market to survey. Running the survey by your family and friends is good for quality purposes, but your moral support staff is not going to give you a realistic understanding of the viability of your idea. Be sure you are asking the right people the right questions.
 
Don’t be offended or defensive about negative responses. Instead, probe for more information about why they think your idea won’t work. It is very common for successful business ideas to change dramatically during the planning stages, so be alert for legitimate criticisms and look for ways to improve on your idea.
 
Performing a simple market analysis like this isn’t the end of your marketing research, but it can be very effective in weeding out those ideas that are not likely to succeed.

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Money

Business Lesson From A 13 Year Old

Actually the 13 year old in question was me – in 1974!
I guess I had an entrepreneurial streak even then. In 1974, Britain was in recession. The miners’ strike had resulted in a national fuel crisis and on many evenings the electricity was shut down at about 7pm. I did my homework by candlelight.
It was also the year I had my first business – and my office was the school school’s system was that every Monday morning, we would all queue up in the assembly hall and buy five pale green plastic tokens. Each token cost 12p, and so every pupil would buy 5 tokens to last the week for a total cost of 60p. We’d then exchange one of these each day in the canteen to pay for our school dinner.
The idea was that this meant the kids didn’t have to carry cash on them whilst at school and would be ‘committed’ to eating a school dinner each day. It also meant the canteen could operate without handling any cash directly.
By Thursday or Friday however, there would always be a surplus of these plastic tokens in possession of the kids. This was because not everyone would have their lunch every day. Some would have been absent for a day or two, others chose to buy sweets or chips in the nearby town instead. So at the end of each week, I could buy dozens of these plastic tokens for about 3p each.
Come the following Monday morning, my school mates could either buy 5 tokens from me for 50p, or buy the same thing from the school for 60p. Inevitably, my supply could never meet the demand. As a result I was always by far the wealthiest kid in my class.
Looking back, there were a number of interesting aspects to this. Some I can explain, others not. The first inexplicable fact is that no-one ever copied my idea, even though all the other kids knew exactly what I was doing. They were just happy when they got to me quickly enough to buy from me on a Monday morning and could immediately pocket the 10p they were saving. I guess the lesson from this is that the majority of people don’t think long term (even if by long term we mean 3 or 4 days). They just want a quick and easy deal today.
Secondly, this was a business with no investment required, no overheads and huge profit margins, which just couldn’t meet the demand. Not that I worried about this, I was doing just great thank you. The lesson here is that a good business always creates happy sellers and happy buyers, and this was exactly what I was doing.
Thirdly, in hindsight I guess there was a risk for me. If the school had ever discovered what I was doing, I would probably have been expelled, rather than praised for my business acumen. So I took measures to ensure that the school could never pin anything on me. My ‘stock’ was hidden in a variety of secret locations. I was never caught and the risk never materialised. This lesson is that although we can never eliminate risk completely, we can take effective steps to minimise it.
You might argue that I was robbing the school and even devaluing their ‘currency’, and it’s true that today this moral aspect would prevent me from adopting a similar business model. But then I was only 13 and learning the ropes! It would be quite a few years yet before I was being invited to speak at business schools.
The last and perhaps biggest lesson is the great feeling I had from helping my friends save money. My business made me a lot more friends than I’d have had otherwise. And that’s the most important thing. A good business is about satisfying your customers needs in a way that they love. If you can do that, you’ll always keep them coming back for more.

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Business News Articles

Web Wonders And Opportunities

Isn’t it wonderful we have the internet, suddenly getting in contact with old friends is so easy. It used to take between 1 to 2 months for a letter to be received in America from a Third World Asian country. Even governments had to suffer inconveniences of postal services which are now appropriately termed “snail mail”. But please do not misjudge or undervalue postal service. It has its own uses.
A mid-19th Century man would have considered it supernatural to have his mails reach their destination and vice versa in seconds, in contrast to the modern person getting exasperated and frustrated not to be able to get his in 24 hours, a time span still “superfast” for the previous-century human being. It would have been stupefying and unfathomable for him to be able to send multiple “superfast mails” to a hundred different recipients all at the same time. He would have felt the same way or even more strangely than Rip Van Winkle did.
Aside from “superfast mails”, we get to enjoy online chatting or video conferencing, an unthinkable proposition that would have baffled even the likes of Alexander Graham Bell or Thomas Alva Edison. Social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Google+ are ubiquitous conveniences and tools that are used by flirting teenage girls and business people alike. The utilitarian and trivial uses of the Web are so copious that opportunities and possibilities are dizzyingly vast for the modern man who has sufficient knowledge of the facility and enough mettle to venture into unchartered territory of innovative business enterprise. Even the average techie has equal access to cyber and internet opportunities. Even the ordinary business person who stumbles upon a novel business idea can make him and others in his employ rich and famous.
Cybernetics and the Internet penetrate even the deepest recesses of wealth of the filmmaking industry especially in areas that involve use of intensive graphics and animation. Steve Jobs proved that, after his downfall when he was kicked out of Apple, the company he co-founded and nurtured to greatness. His wizardry in graphics and animation made possible the rise to fame and fortune of his Pixar Animation Studios which debuted perfect animation full-length Academy-, Golden Globe- and Grammy-Award-winning movies such as the Toy Story series, A Bug’s Life, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, the Cars series, Ratatouille, WALL-E, and Up.
It may not be possible for us all to become like Steve Jobs but… who knows?