Entrepreneur Story: Kimberly Mann

I have just published at WomenHomeBusiness.com a new entrepreneur story that will surely interest those who want to start a business, especially those who are interested in the virtual assistant business. Kimberly is one of the most visible virtual assistants right now -- she is one of the VAs featured in the new book by Diana Ennen and Kelly Poelker entitled "Virtual Assistant the Series: Become a Highly Sought After VA."

The article focuses on how Kimberly started her business BehindtheScenes.com. She talked about the startup challenges she faced, how she markets her business and put her name out there, and what to expect from a virtual assistant business.

Learn about the virtual assistant business

How to Avoid Catastrophe in Your Business

Catastrophes don't just happen. Virtually every disaster is the result of a series of overlooked mistakes - each one set in motion because people simply refused to believe the evidence right in front of them. Will a mistake be fatal to your organization? How you deal with mistakes will determine whether your organization is successful and survives in the long run.

It's called the Mistake Chain, a series of compounding errors that can bring about crisis and front-page status. You will make mistakes, but you can make fewer, less serious mistakes by recognizing a mistake or failure and breaking the mistake chain before it results in a major mishap.

All disasters large and small have in common a string of mistakes - the Mistake Chain. From the Titanic to Firestone Tire, Three Mile Island to "New Coke", all were preventable and the mistake chains that caused them could have been broken.

To avoid a fatal blow to your business, read the article

5 Steps to Creating a Profitable Niche for Your Small Business

Focusing on untapped niche opportunities is often the best approach for a small business. Success is easier to attain if the small business focuses on a more specific and smaller area of its target market, especially during the start-up period, instead of covering the entire spectrum of a particular market. Today’s business environment is so competitive that a cash-strapped small business best bet is to focus on developing niche products where competition from large firms are not nearly as large.

Take the online auction market. With the market dominated by the giant company eBay, smaller start-ups are specializing and concentrating in a specific segment that the big players may not be serving well. There's Playle.com focusing on the online trading of vintage postcards, stamps and other collectibles. Bid4parts.com is an auction site for automobile, parts and accessories. Bidz.com specializes in jewelry and accessories. PotteryAuction.com deals exclusively with potteries. WineBid.com is an auction site for rare and fine wines.

Read full article

Maximizing Effectiveness of Article Marketing

Every day, I receive about 20-30 articles talking about the wonderful benefits of article marketing, where you submit articles to other websites. These articles say that submitting articles can get you a lot of inbound links, targeted traffic, and can even brand you as an expert in your field.

Fine. I am just wondering if those online entrepreneurs making use of this strategy first try to understand where they need to submit their articles. It is one thing to submit your article to a website, and another to submit your article to a website that actually covers the topic of your article. If the website you submit your article to does not cover the topic of your piece, how then can you expect your article to be published?

Today, I got 10 articles about cuckoo clocks. How to clean your cuckoo clocks, where to buy cuckoo clocks, and so on. From one author -- an author who obviously never even glanced at PowerHomeBiz.com to understand that we don't write about cuckoo clocks. Cuckoo clock is a topic that we will not talk about, unless it is about "how to make money from your cuckoo clocks." But design of the cuckoo clock, choosing the color of the cuckoo clock -- forget about it! Those articles were sent to the trash bin and deleted before I could finish saying "cuckoo clock."

One of the first rules of article submission should be to read, read and read the guidelines of the website. Check if they actually accept articles that cover your topic. Otherwise, you are simply wasting your time - and the publisher.

Marketing to the Hispanics

If your business is marketing to the Hispanic population, you may want to check out Direct Marketing Association's recently released report "The DMA 2005 Hispanic Market Report." The report captures key data about the Hispanic-American population regarding its attitudes towards distance shopping, and it identifies current buying trends. It includes a profile of the characteristics and demographics of the Hispanic-American population as well as ways to increase Hispanic consumers' direct response shopping.

The report is quite stiff as it sells for $295 for DMA members and $495 for non-members. (but hey, you can deduct this as a business expense!). Some of the findings of the report include:

• 4 in 10 Hispanic consumers said they glance or skim the direct mail they receive. About 25% review every page they receive, while 4% discard the direct mail piece without even looking at it.
• 50% find email not useful, while only 18% find email to be very/somewhat useful
• When asked for their language preference for advertising mail, 62% opted for Spanish, of which 36% speak mostly (or only) Spanish, and 26% were bilingual

Download the report's Executive Summary (Powerpoint format)

Resources for Marketing Blogs and RSS Feeds

We have made a list of resources to help online publishers and bloggers market their blogs and RSS feeds. The list includes blog directories, news aggregators and content syndicators that can help you reach a wider audience for your content. The list includes the URL where you can make your submissions and request to link your RSS feeds and/or blogs.

Get the blog and RSS feeds marketing resource list

S Corp. vs. LLC: Which Structure is Right for Your Business

Our incorporation expert Chrissie Mould has just updated the article she wrote for PowerHomeBiz.com on S Corporations and Limited Liability Companies (LLC) to incorporate tax law changes for 2006. This is a very good article that talks of how a business can benefit from either of these 2 legal structures, and the differences of the S Corp and LLC structures.

Read full article

Removing a Partner from a C-Corporation

One of our readers sent in this question via our Consult Your Guides

What are the steps and procedures to removing a partner from a C Corp. This partner is both an officer and a shareholder.

Read our incorporation expert's response

How to Get Your Consumer Invention to Market

So you have an idea for an invention? What do you do now? The most successful hair accessory in history, the TopsyTail, made 100 million dollars. This did not happen by miracle or chance. The key was a well-conceived and executed plan. Following an informed approach will help you turn your invention into a bonanza of extra income.

Getting Started:

The Ideabook. Keep a bound ideabook of your invention idea. Date your entries. Draw it. State what it is, how it s done and for whose use? Examine possible variations. Add and define over time.

Read full article

A Home Business Comes Under Fire

Home-based businesses come in different varieties. Some are Internet-based, while others are product or service-oriented. So I suppose a bondage business can also be considered a home business!

One such business operated in a high-income section of Indianapolis has recently come under fire, and the city filed a lawsuit in order to close down the operation. The business owner is fighting the lawsuit, claiming that her business operated out of a dungeon in her basement where she "charges men hundreds of dollars to dress like women and be subjected to bondage and acts of degradation" has not violated any rules.

I frequently talk about zoning rules and how it affects home businesses. This one in Indiana has a different twist - it claims not to have broken any zoning rules and even neighbors have not complained about it. Of course, there's the moral question and what-not. Read this interesting story.

State of the Search Engine Industry Report

Search engine marketing is big business. According to the survey organized by the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) , marketers in Canada and the U.S. spent $5.75 billion on all forms of SEM last year. This includes paid search ads and search engine optimization (SEO) of Web pages for better “organic” search results rankings; paid inclusion—advertisers who paid a fee to have their pages indexed by search engines, without ranking guarantees—and the money spent on search-related technology and outsourced services. Other findings of the survey are:

• Of the $5.75 billion, about 83% or $4.7 billion went for sponsored search ads or keyword bids. By contrast, advertisers laid out only $643 million, or 11% of the total spend on organic search engine optimization
• 80% of the advertisers polled reported using SEO in 2005, compared to 76% who said they engaged in paid ad placement, and about 40% who said they used paid inclusion tactics during the year.
• Lion's share of advertising went to Google (95%) and Yahoo! (59%). The pair lead the paid-search pack, followed by MSN (29%), MIVA (28%), Ask Jeeves (24%), Business.com (15%), LookSmart (13%) and Kanoodle (14%).
• Marketers' objectives in engaging in paid placement are: branding, sales, leads and traffic
• Little SEM funding is newly created; most is shifted from other programs such as affiliate marketing, Yellow Pages advertising, e-mail marketing, direct mail and TV spots.
• Advertisers and agencies are approaching their pricing limits.
• More than half of all respondents said they have at least tested local search. Of those, 23% reported that it “works great”, 31% found it “okay” and 13% were “unimpressed”.

The full report is available at sempo.org to its members (non-members only get to peak at the press release).

Postcard Power! How to Instantly Generate More Business With Powerful & Inexpensive Postcards

Postcards can be valuable marketing tools for any business. Here are a few ideas that will help you get the most from your own postcard marketing campaign.

The magic of these eye-catchers is that they deliver short, concise messages in the minimum amount of time - perfect for the "time-poor" society we live in today. They get the important information across rapidly, with a quick and easy flip of the wrist.

Read full article

Master Your Money Type: Using Your Financial Personality to Create a Life of Wealth and Freedom

We have published an excerpt (with permission from the publisher) of this interesting new book that discusses the various money types of people. Read chapter 1 of the book "Master Your Money Type: Using Your Financial Personality to Create a Life of Wealth and Freedom" by Jordan E. Goodman.

Read Chapter 1 - The Money Type Promise

Finding Your Niche: Online Dating Market

The online dating industry is said to be slowing down. According to Jupiter Research, the industry grew by 73% in 2002 and 77% in 2003. But in 2004, as the number of users actually started to decline, the market grew by only 19%. In 2005, the industry will grow by just 9%, to $516 million.

To capture the still-large numbers of new users that are flowing into the industry every year, some entrepreneurs are focusing on niche areas in the online dating industry. There's MeetSingleRunners.com for morning joggers and marathoners. FarmersOnly.com focuses on farmers, ranchers and country folks. Even pets are getting in on the action with DateMyPet.com. I'm sure there will be sites focusing exclusively on mature daters as the number of mature folks go online to find their love match.

The dating industry illustrates that small businesses may stand a better chance sometimes by focusing on untapped niche opportunities within an industry, rather than compete head-on with the big boys.

Breaking Chain Of Mistakes Prevents Business Disasters

The Ancient Greek tragedies invariably told the story of a character who came to grief through a series of mistakes that all started with a failure to heed strong warnings. The Titanic, Three-Mile Island (TMI) and NASA’s space shuttles Challenger and Columbia are all modern examples of "corporate tragedies" that occurred because of assumptions that were incorrect, systems that were misunderstood, and actions that exhibited extraordinary lack of preparation and insight. Above all, they were the result of reckless disregard of alarming information.

Almost every business disaster is the result of not one mistake, but a succession of mistakes. At many points along the road to ruin, that chain could have been broken and the situation corrected—if only people had seen and believed the evidence that sat in front of their noses.

Read full article

7 Poor Reasons to Get Involved in MLM

Network marketing, or "MLM" can be a great way to earn everything from a small additional income to a generous full time living.

However, many people join MLM type opportunities without really knowing what they are getting themselves in to. This is probably one of the biggest reasons for the fact that some people have very low thoughts about this type of business.

MLM works if you do it right. Period. That said, here are seven really poor reasons for enrolling in a network marketing opportunity:

Read full article

Small Business and Employee Theft

To lose money due to a bad investment decision is one thing, but to lose money because a trusted employee embezzled funds from you is like a double whammy. Losing $100,000 due to employee theft may be peanuts to a big corporation, but can mean the very survival of a small business. It can be an accountant pocketing the money, or an assistant writing checks and forging the business owner's signature. Whatever it is, loss from employee theft -- for a small business -- can be devastating.

Employee theft in small businesses is prevalent, but hard to detect. A survey done by Auditors Inc. of about 1,000 CPA professionals find that as many as 40% of small businesses have experiencd employee theft in one form or the other. However, only about 2% report the crime. Small businesses are ripe targets of employee theft mainly because of size; they do not have measures and safeguards to protect itself from employee theft.

Ruth S. Crane of Auditors Inc. in Wheaton, Maryland has released a book entitled "Embezzlement 101: How to Embezzle from your Employer and Not Get Caught and How to Detect It." Crane says following the principles will only take an hour of work per week and will virtually guarantee a small-business owner can catch the fraud within 30 days.

Download the 14-page PDF report

13 New Profit Opportunities for Retailers

Cynthia R. Cohen, President of Miami-based consultancy Strategic Mindshare and an authority on consumer trends and strategic marketing, listed 13 profit opportunities for retailers and consumer product companies. Calling them as "trendfluences," these are major trends with significant influence on consumer spending and buying behavior

1. Brand dominance
2. Convergence of retail, entertainment and publishing
3. Content is king
4. Individualism is embraced
5. Mega Growth of Microsports and Hobbies
6. Dedication to Health, Age Minimizing, and Life Enhancing Practices
7. Home Living Spaces are Reallocated
8. Consumers Become Wireless and Stores Become Wired
9. Turbo-Scheduling is Adopted
10. Cravings for Community and One to One Interaction
11. Retail Becomes Experiential
12. Hispanic and Global Influx of Influence
13. Generational Divide

I have pointed to some of the above in a recent article I wrote entitled Profit from 5 Growing Niches for Your Home Business , and some of them are really old (e.g. "content is king" is a concept that's been around since the Net started) but she has some additional insights that may prove useful to your business.

Get the list

Writing Gramatically Good Web Content

I receive hundreds of article submissions everyday, and one of the things I look for as an editor is the quality of the writing. I've seen some articles with excellent content but atrocious (and I mean really bad) grammar! If it just means changing the "is" to "are" I just edit the article and publish it on PowerHomeBiz.com. But some requires major overhaul, and I would just rather find another article than spend half a day rewriting the whole thing.

I'm not the best writer; heck, I've received my fair share of "are-you-a-foreigner-because-your-English-is-so-bad-my-eyes-got-dizzy" emails from readers (some of whom turned out to be copywriters peddling their services LOL). But those who want their articles published on other websites should ensure that they have proofread their articles several times. It will make their effort of writing the article and using that article to market their business all the more worthwhile.

What is Your "Money Type"?

Next on my reading list is a book we just received a few days ago entitled "Master Your Money Type: Using Your Financial Personality to Create a Life of Wealth and Freedom" by Jordan E. Goodman. Being a financial consultant, Goodman has encountered all sorts of financial problems and the way people deal with their finances. His work experience showed him that people have "financial personalities" and a person could be a:

• "Striver" - about acquiring, achieving, and letting others know how much you have
• "Ostritch" - baffled, intimidated, or embarrassed by money
• "Debt Desperadoes" - always coming up short
• "Coasters" - most financially stable
• "High rollers" - money is about the grand gesture infused with bravado and a belief in the long shot
• "Squirrels" - motivated by a fear of loss

The book aims to explain your dominant financial personality type. Warner Books (the publisher) allowed us to use excerpts of the book and you can read Chapter 1 in our PowerHomeBiz Home Business Bookstore

Obtaining Equipment Financing When Credit is Bad

A visitor sent this question through our Consult Your Guides, a free service to PowerHomeBiz.com newsletter subscribers:

I am co-owner of a small print shop in Chicago. We've been in business for about two years now and are really close to becoming full time. There's one piece of equipment that would definitely push us over that edge and get us running full time but it isn't in our budget. We've talked to several equipment leasing companies who said that our business credit and past bankruptcies would not be a problem. Then they turn around and decline for a lack of business credit and past bankruptcies. We talk to a financial expert who said that for the amount we need ($16,000) we shouldn't have any troubles. So what now? - Kenton Franklin, IL

Read the response

How To Start A Partnership

A partnership is fairly simple to set up. Two or more people get together with the intent of going into business; they get the appropriate licenses and file the necessary papers with the State and you are in business. When the areas of expertise of these people compliment each other the situation is ideal. Although each partner is taxed on an individual basis they all are liable for the debts of the business.

The partnership is treated like a separate entity in some ways as it can own property and execute documents, however, when it comes to payment of taxes or debt liability the owners are responsible. When a partner dies the company must be dissolved. If the survivors want to continue the business they must form a new company.

Read full story

New Year Resolutions of a Home-Based Entrepreneur

2005 was a very busy and fruitful year, but I expect 2006 to be even better. We have great plans for both PowerHomeBiz.com and WomenHomeBusiness.com that will surely benefit our visitors and our loyal readers.

During this first day of the year, you may want to think of ways you can improve yourself and your business. Think of this process as your "strategic planning" session, rather than the often futile exercise of listing new year resolutions (which often goes unfulfilled, if you're like me). Here are some of my own that you can also use:

1. Seek more learning opportunities. One thing I learned is that you can never stop learning. Learning opens your mind to potential opportunities that you may not initially see. It allows you to get to know your industry and competitors better. I've met a lot of home-based entrepreneurs who seem to live in a cocoon, thinking solely about their business and forever preoccupied with running it that they don't give time to learn about things. Learning can mean subscribing to trade and business publications, reading on the Web and subscribing to worthy newsletters, participating in forums, borrowing books from the library, or even attending a class in a community college.

2. Get a better understanding of what customers want. This seems like a no-brainer, but many entrepreneurs (not just those home-based) create products or services that they think people would want -- because that is what they know and think. Alas, what you want is not necessarily what the customers actually want. There is sometimes a disconnect (whether you like it or not). While big corporations have money to spend on market research (even for something seemingly mundane as doing market surveys on whether potential customers prefer to see the logo on the right or left), small and home-based entrepreneurs do not. But there are ways you can know what your customers want -- either cheaply or for free. You can devise a system whereby you gather feedback about the product from the customer, whether it is an email several days after the sale or by routinely interviewing buyers. Or you can run a market survey yourself - services like SurveyMonkey allow you to create surveys for only $19.99 a month (survey can either be emailed or embedded in your website as a text link or popup).

3. Know where your business is heading. I know of some entrepreneurs earning 6 figures a year who either hate or simply refuse to do accounting or bookkeeping that they only know how much they earned for they year (and how much expenses they had) by the time they prepare their taxes! This situation is unthinkable for a large corporation and for the larger small businesses, but all too common for home-based and solo entrepreneurs. They do so much during the year that keeping track of their financial records is the last thing on their minds (as long as money keeps coming to their bank accounts, that's all they care about). They also don't trust (or don't know) accountants who can help them.

4. Use resources you have more judiciously. If you are a web-based entrepreneur, you most likely have access to your website statistics whether offered by your web host or a third party application you use. But do you actually analyze your traffic patterns and implement your findings? Web traffic analysis is more than about pageviews or uniques. It is about what marketing campaigns are effective (and what you should junk). It is about what pages are bringing you the most cash if you rely on advertising. It is about knowing if there are any loopholes in your sales process that needs to be plugged. It can tell you what your web visitors are looking at in your site, and how they are arriving to your site. This year, make it a point to sit down and pour over your web statistics (and if your current web stats are crummy, get a better one!). Combined with customer feedback, web statistics can be a powerful tool in understanding your customer.

5. Do not be afraid to get help. Let's face it, you can't do everything with the same high quality all the time. Do what you do best (whether to write content, or market the business) and get help with other aspects of your business. For example, if you are a harrassed work at home mom, you can get a baby sitter for a couple of hours to watch your kids in order to be able to concentrate on working, instead of waking up at 2 am and losing sleep in the process. Believe me, that baby sitter is the best $20 you will ever spend on. If you need help keeping track of your accounting records, hire a bookkeeper or accountant. If you need help developing more quality content for your website, hire a writer. If someone other than you can do a better job in creating a more professional brochure, then find a graphic artist to help you. Remember, business expenses are deductible from your taxes!

6. Do not forget yourself. Always, always remember to give time for yourself. Your business is nothing without you. Take a vacation or week off from business. Pamper yourself, even if it only means staying in a bath tub longer with scented candles. Give yourself a massage. Or just forget about the computer for an hour and snuggle with your husband (or dog, whatever the case may be) for a couple of hours while watching TV. Go out, take a walk or go to the mall and shop. Whatever it is that you do, you need not be consumed by your business 24/7. Give yourself a break, and believe me, you will feel refreshed and enjoy more what it is that you are doing.

Here's wishing everyone a great Happy New Year! Good luck to all of us.