How to Get Your Home Business Off to a Good Start

Here are some tips to help make sure that your business is off to a good start

1. Make sure that your family is 100% solidly behind your decision to start a home-based business.

It is important to have your family's support when you start a home business. It may be that you will need to tighten your purse strings as you jumpstart the business, especially if you are leaving a job to launch the business and the family loses one steady income source. The family must believe in your vision for them to allow you to use the family's savings and assets for this business. Or it may be that you will need your spouse to continue employment to ensure that the family still has health insurance and benefits.

I also interviewed an entrepreneur who had to get her famly's approval because her business required huge quantities of supplies and inventories. Her business took over one of her children's bedroom and garage, in addition to another room for her home office. She said it came to the point where her business supplies even spilled over to the family room, and it was a case of boxes here, there and everywhere. Luckily, the business took off and after a year she was able to move the business to a Main Street store, clearing her house with all the supplies and inventories.

2. Make sure that this home business is what you really want to do.

Starting a home business is NOT easy. For your home business to succeed, you need to invest significant amounts oftime, effort and resources. So you better make sure that this is what you really want: that this business is something you'd like to be doing for the next five years, and that you really want to work from home.

Don't get carried away with the initial rush of excitement of this new home business. Instead, try to think of how you will feel about doing this business in the long term. Is this a business that you think you will still love to do a year or two from now -- even if your initial expectations are not met?

Also make sure that you can actually work from home. I talked to an entrepreneur who started a business with his best friend. They worked in their respective homes during their startup phase, and kept in touch during the day to compare notes or plan their next activities. Unfortunately for him, he learned that he did not like working from home solo the whole day. He craved for human interaction, and being cooped the whole day in his basement while working on the business drove him nuts. After six months, and seeing the business start to show growth potential, he convinced his partner to rent an office downtown instead.

3. Know what you are REALLY getting into.

This seems very basic, right? In reality, however, there are many entrepreneurs who decide to start a business, but have absolutely no clue what they are getting into.

Take for example the many Adsense publishers. With the popularity of Google's advertising program, many folks decided to launch online businesses by starting Web sites or blogs. They then applied to Google Adsense (or other ad programs) thinking that they will start seeing thousands of dollars per month, only to find that their sites could only earn pennies per month. So what went wrong? They went in and started their online businesses without really understanding what works best for Google Adsense. They made false assumptions with the program, and failed to take into account the responsiveness of their audience to ads, their topic, their topic, and placement of ads.

Read books about the specific business. Visit forums to find what others are saying or experiencing with the business you want to start. The Web has also made it very easy to research competitors and how the strategies they are using. Be a sponge willing to absorb anything and everything about your business. Remember, research is your best friend!

Insurance for Small and Home-Based Businesses

Starting a business is very risky. In addition to the possibility of failure, there are a lot of things that can go wrong and small business owners need to protect themselves and reduce these risks. Examples include:

• Loss of property (building, office furnishings, computers, inventory, etc.) due to fire or theft
• Lawsuits arising from defective products, an error in service
• Damage to your business vehicle resulting from theft, accidents, flooding and other events
• Employees injured in the workplace
• Customers injured in the business premises

The State of Wisconsin’s Office of the Commissioner of Insurance has put together a comprehensive guide on the types of insurance that small businesses and even home-based businesses need. While the guide focuses on Wisconsin laws, it’s still a great read if you want to know some of the insurance products your business might need.

Another great resource is the Insurance Information Institute’s Insuring Your Business: Small Business Owners' Guide to Insurance . It is another comprehensive guide that walks you through each of the insurance products your business may need – risk management, property insurance, business vehicles, workers compensation and life insurance for key employees. The best part of the Guide (other than it’s free to access on the Web) is that it discusses the insurance needs of specific types of business, from artisans to retail stores to manufacturers to ecommerce.

With regards to home-based businesses, the III Guide states that one of the common mistakes of home business owners is thinking that their homeowner’s policies could actually cover the insurance needs of their business. But a typical homeowner’s policy may not provide enough coverage as “the usual limit is $2,500 for your business equipment while at home and $250 when it’s off the premises.” That is certainly not enough if you’ve got a lot of equipment and inventory inside your home.

After reading these two guides, consult and insurance representative to find specific products that your business may need.

Tips on How to Select the Right Collection Agency

Collecting receivables is an important step in ensuring a healthy cash flow for a business, and more so for a home-based business or solo entrepreneur. However, account receivables collection is a time-intensive process that most small businesses just don’t have the time, know-how and energy to pursue. Hence, many turn to third party collection agencies to collect the debts and amounts owed to them.

But how do you choose the right collection agency to work for you?

American Profit Recovery suggests making sure that the qualities are factors when deciding to retain a third-party collection agency:

• Member of ACA International; The Association of Credit and Collection Professionals. Make sure the collection agency you are talking to is a member and that they subscribe to and follow their Code of Ethics. http://www.acainternational.org/.
• Personal Referrals: As with anyone looking for someone to do business with, always ask around. Talk with other business owners or members of your local Chamber of commerce to find an agency that others you know may have used.
• Educated Workforce: When interviewing the representative from a collection agency, ask them their philosophy of who they hire. Do they hire college educated people or do they just bring in anyone to fill a position?
• Different Approaches: Does the agency you are talking to have several methods of collecting on past due debt? The agency should offer a low cost flat-fee structure along with other proven methods.
• Record of Community Service: make sure the collection agency you are hiring has a record of community service. The agency should have a track record of giving back to the community in some way.
• Background Check: It is imperative that the agency you are dealing with and may be calling on your customers pursues background check as part of their normal hiring practices. Anything less is not acceptable.

AllBusiness.com also recommends that:

• Choose members of the American Collectors Association or the Commercial Law League of America., as both associations require that their members adhere to a code of ethics and are familiar with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Both associations also provide ongoing education for their members.
• Ask for proof of insurance. Most licensed collection agencies are required to carry bonds for their particular state and Errors and Omissions insurance, which protects both the agency and client for any errors made by the collection agency.
• Ask about the recovery rate of an agency. Ask for references to verify the percentage.
• Check to see how long it took the agency to collect and if they collected the whole debt or just a portion of what was owed

There’s also an article over at EzineArticles.com that discusses what to look for when hiring a collection agency and here are some of the recommended factors:

• The best thing to do is to network within your community or within your profession to see who other creditors are using that they like.
• Ask, "Out of every $1,000 that you collect exactly what will I receive?" Asking the question that way eliminates the possibility of additional fees that you did not know was going to be included.
• Ask the agency for a list of references. Then call some of them to see if the agency is doing a good job for its existing clients.
• Ask for a 10-day demand letter service. With that service, the first thing the agency will do before it takes over your accounts is send your debtors a letter. The letter will say that your debtor has ten days to pay you before the collection agency gets involved. If your debtor pays you within the ten day time period the collection agency will not get involved and the agency will either charge you nothing or charge you a nominal amount to send out the letter.
• Ask the agency about what kind of regular reporting you can expect to receive from the agency. This way, you can get feedback from them on how the agency is progressing in collecting the debt.
• Ask the agency when you can expect to get paid. Will it be on a certain date every month, or is it inconsistent?
• Finally, with a new collection agency you have never worked with before, it's a good idea to give the agency a limited amount of time to work your accounts. Just say, "Let's try this on a trail basis and see how it goes." Two to three months is plenty of time to know if the agency is going to be able to do a good job for you.
  

How to Earn Money from Home

There are many opportunities for earning money from home – from buying into a turnkey business opportunity system, finding work at home employment, starting a home-based business, or even buying a home-based franchise. The key is to know what interests you, what you’d like to do, and what your resources can allow you to do.

Here are some opportunities for earning money from home:

Start a home-based franchise. There are a number of franchises that you can operate from your home, from business consulting to home-based pet services to home services. Home-based franchises typically have lower cost to entry compared to traditional franchises given the lower franchise fees. The fact that these franchises can be operated from home allows you to save on the overhead costs of running a storefront.

Turn your hobby into a revenue source . It's great to delve into an interesting hobby such as artwork, photography, or crafting paper jewelry. It's even more exciting (and financially rewarding) to turn your special talents and passion for your hobby into a successful home-based business . If you are an amateur photographer or simply someone who loves to dabble in photography, you may be able to earn money from your stock photography images. If you have created a blog or web site to talk about your hobby,consider turning the web site into an income generating vehicle by putting ads or affiliate programs . If you love to shoot videos, consider turning this hobby of video production into an income-generating opportunity

Turn your skills into an income-generating opportunity. The skills that you employ (or used to employ) in your day job can be used to help you earn money on the side. Whether you are doing web design , writing, desktop publishing , or computer repair , you can use these skills and work on the side, possibly on a part-time basis. However, be sure to read the policies of your employer particularly if you have a non-compete agreement (just make sure that you are not touching their clients and that you find your own customers).

Participate in market research. Market research pays, though not very much. You can get paid from participating in marketing research panels and studies, plus get the chance to know about upcoming products or services. The amount you earn will not get you rich, but the income may allow you to at least put some loose change in your pocket. You can sign up as a mystery shopper where you can pretend to be customer in order to evaluate customer service metrics of businesses such as restaurants or clothing shops. Or you can sign up with legitimate online paid survey companies (be careful of the scams out there) and be included in their consumer panels and be paid answering market surveys. . Another way is to participate in focus group discussions , where a small group of participants selected from a broader population is gathered and interviewed .

For more ideas on how to earn money from home, visit PowerHomeBiz.com Earn Money from Home
channel

Internet Marketing Lessons from eBoot Camp Book

eBook Camp: Proven Internet Marketing Techniques to Grow Your Business" by Corey Perlman is an excellent primer on internet marketing and search engine optimization for beginners. The book covers all the essentials of Internet marketing, from the effective use of metatags to the right way of using the social networks to the steps needed to generate links to the site. It focuses on low-cost and easy-to-implement strategies that can increase search engine ranking and boost the traffic of a web site.

The strong point of the eBook Camp book, and what sets it apart from similar basics of Internet marketing books, is how it concretizes the must-learn lessons of the book. Every chapter has Tips for Success section that summarizes the important lessons that the reader should take away from the chapter.

Read the article Internet Marketing Lessons from eBoot Camp Book