Another reader sent this question through our Consult Your Guides feature I am creating an information website about a particular niche in the travel business. This is something I want to start part-time but hopefully grow into something lucrative. How do I generate business out of a content based website? Thanks, Tricia (Baltimore, Maryland) Read my response to Tricia’s question

A reader from Canada sent in this question through our Consult Your Guides feature: My brother and I want to go into business from home at first. We have this salad dressing/ marinade that we want to sell. I checked supermarkets and compared and we think that ours is better. How do we start? – Elke, Canada Read our advice to Elke

Today, I got a heartwarming email from an official of the Department of Health and Human Services. The email was in response to the advice I wrote in our Consult Your Guides section entitled “Free Government Grants to Start a Small Business.” . HHS is one of the member agencies collaborating on Grants.gov, the government portal for federal grants. The email reads: I truly appreciate your response to the question regarding where to find grants for small businesses. As a member of Grants.gov, we consistently receive these type of inquiries. It is really hard to dispell the myth that there

I encourage every business person to watch the show The American Inventor. It celebrates creativity and ingenuity of entrepreneurs, young and old. From the totally brilliant to the downright stupid, American Inventor showcases the best (and well, lamest) results of creative thinking. The show is also highly educational: it feels like MBA education in action. You learn how best to pitch your product, how a potential investor may judge your product (whether you agree to what they say or not) and how the market may see a particular product. It provides lessons on determining product viability, and what challenges the

One of the new articles we have for March is entitled “Ten Entrepreneurial Mistakes” by Paul Lemberg. While I strive to minimize putting in PowerHomeBiz.com articles that have already been widely syndicated elsewhere, I just feel that this is such an informative article that every reader planning to start a business should read. From focusing on single customers to lack of capital to failing to consider return of investment, the article looks at various reasons why small businesses fail. Read full article

One of our subscribers sent us an interesting question — which is preferable, start a business with own capital or investor’s money? He said that he has been thinking of the right approach for his business, given that he has no resources to start his business. He is confused whether he should go start a business now through the help of an investor, or wait until he has saved enough to start the business on his own. I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer to this; it just depends on your own goals and ambition. Some wants full

We get a lot of questions from our readers on what is the best home business for them to start. Even over at Yahoo Answers, I see this question asked almost every day. The thing with this question is that the “best” home business that one consider may not be the best for the other. Take for example a daycare business. There may be people who loves the idea of starting their own daycare business, while others may just freak out at the idea of taking care of 50 kids! Or that one may enjoy operating a bed and breakfast

Exact Target has released its 2005 Response Rate Study, based on data from 4,000 organizations, 230,000 email sends and 2.7 billion email messages. The study includes interesting data on the overall open, click-through and unsubscribe rates, as well as day of week comparisons, list size and target audience. Here are some of the findings of the study: Open rates are declining — no surprise there with the email blocking, spam filters, etc. Friday was the best day for email opens, and strong for clickthroughs — this one is a surprise having been conditioned that early part of the week was

Someone sent a question whether a video rental business can be a viable business for a small scale operations. My first major business was a video rental business, long ago when Betamax and VHS were still in vogue (and DVDs were non-existent). I started it mainly because of my passion for movies; I was a big movie addict and watched all the movies shown during the week. The business went well for several years until I sold it off, but had I known what I knew now about the business, I wouldn’t do it. For one, the video rental business