Home-based Business | BizSieve.com

5 Most Effective Tips To Boost Your Home Business

Operating your own home business is certainly exciting, but if you want that home business to be a success it is essential that you are operating that business properly. Not all home businesses will be around in one year, much less 5 or 10. Those businesses that do not succeed are those whose owners were unwilling to put forth the effort required to boost the business. If you want success you have to live success and this means putting forth all of the right skills and techniques.

But, even those who have all of the motivation in the world may not find their home business a success if the right steps and tips are not used. Do not allow yourself to become a part of this scenario. Instead, use these 5 effective tips and boost your business greatly. Success is a given with this enlightening information.

1. Go Social

Social media is where it is at. If you are a home business owner, using social media can put you in the mi
x of thousands of people of all ages and backgrounds from around the world. Each opportunity of meeting these people is one that can help you grow your business. You can reach consumers by building your own page, adding a variety of information, tips, photos and fun to draw in more awareness of your company. Join a variety of sites, update them regularly, interact with fans and build your brand! Thousands of business are in the mix with these social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, and so should you!

2. Use Effective Marketing Schemes

Using effective marketing schemes, such as social media as outlined in tip one, helps you avoid wasting time, money and potentially trust to your business. The marketing schemes best for you are based upon the nature of your business and the people that you are trying to reach. Many forms of marketing exists, so do take the time to examine them all. Some of the most common forms of marketing include text message marketing, advertising via banner, online, etc., social media, radio and TV commercials, t-shirts and promotional items and more. Decide which of these can be of the most benefit to you.

3. Keep up with the Latest Trends

When trends change your business should change, too. The world around you matters the most in the success around you. When you are aware and up- to- date with all of the trends, your home business can benefit greatly. This is a true statement no matter the type of business you are operating from your home.

There are many blogs you can follow to keep up with the latest trends. One of the blog I follow is Jobs8Home where I get the tips on growing my online business.

4. Have a Plan

Going into any deal without a plan is one of the riskiest things that you will ever do. When it is time to find success with your home-based business, this is the last thing that you want to happen. It is simple to create a business plan. Inside of this plan include your projections for profit, loss, and goals for the future. Know what you want to do and how you are going to do it, and put it in writing so that you can easily go back and look at it any time it should be needed.

5. Have a Mentor

Having a mentor who has been there, done that can provide you with a great amount of assurance and confidence in your endeavors.

Look for someone that has been successful in running a home business, whether this person is found locally or online. One great online source to look at is known as SCORE. It is a free service that is used for monitoring and mentoring.

Four Ways To Spend Much Less On Your Small Business

An essential part of running a small business is constantly finding new ways to reduce costs, keeping spending to a minimum. Initially, you may be thinking that by spending less you will have to make sacrifices, damaging your business in the process. However, reducing spending does not always have to equate to a loss. Ultimately, removing unnecessary expenses in your small business will increase your budget, freeing up money that you can invest in other parts of your business.

Online Marketing

More often than not, marketing costs take up a huge amount of budget, particularly for small businesses that invest in offline methods such as direct mail. However, by simply switching or concentrating more on online marketing, you could save yourself a great deal of money, while targeting a much larger market. There are various ways you can market your business online, all of which are often low-cost and very effective. Essentially, you will be paying less for a more
successful method. You can start by creating a profile for your business on one of the many social media platforms. It is free and a great way of connecting to your customers while building up a strong following. Another idea to market your small business online is to start a blog that contains content related to your products or services.

Go Green, Go Paperless

Without realising it, a lot of money can be wasted away on paper through the sheer cost of ink, supplies and postage; not to mention the endless waste of paper. By eliminating the use of paper or even just minimising you can significantly reduce spending. Going digital is said to save a great deal of money, but not only that, it also creates a more organised working environment and is a lot more secure than having a paper trail. You can make the transition by opting for digital invoices, filing information on the computer and completely replace snail mail with email. As well as cutting spending you are
also helping the environment, which is always a positive thing.

Telephone and Web Conferencing

As a small business, spending large amounts of money on conferences, presentations and meetings really will make a significant dent in your budget, as there are a great deal of expenses involved, including travel and food. To reduce the costs, opting for a teleconference or web conference service is a great idea as you will spend a lot less for a good service than you ever would with face-to-face costs. Additionally, using such a service will allow you to connect to colleagues and clients globally.

IT Managed Service

As hiring an IT guy is a luxury to many small business, using managed services is proven to be a wise decision; you have access to IT expertise at a fraction of costs.

Managing Your Team

As your business develops so will your team, but it is essential that you manage this process carefully if you want to save money. Within a small business you need to ensure that you are regularly assessing your team’s productivity, making sure that most of your employees’ time is spent on value creating activities. Also, there are way
s that you can get the job done without having to hire an extra employee, including using interns and freelancers.

5 Most Important Legal Issues To Consider When Setting Up A Business

Setting up your own business will take a lot of hard work and determination. You need to ensure your finances are in order and there is a lot of paperwork to take care of as well.

To make this process easier here are five of the most important legal issues you need to consider when you are setting up a business.

1. Choosing Your Business Structure

The most important thing you decide when setting up your business involves your business structure. There are many different structures to choose from and picking out one will have legal and financial implications.

You can get to know all of your options at the comprehensive guide by the Entrepreneur. It is really important to understand the implications of each of these options and thus talking them through with a professional is a really good idea.

2. Protecting Your Ideas And Products

You also need to consider taking care of patents and copyrights. These are really important in order to keep your products and ideas safe from copycats. If you have really good and innovative products you want to make sure you will have the market advantage of not having to worry about other businesses copying your products directly.

This also means you need to look into trademarking your business name. It might not be possible in some cases but if you can, trademarking is a really viable option to consider. Make sure your business name is also not already in use to ensure you don’t get any problems later on.

3. Ensuring You Are Licenced

Depending on the area your business works in it is really important to make sure your business is appropriately licenced. This can save you from a lot of hassle later on and is also very important to keep your business up and running.

Having legal certificates can also increase your credibility among your customers and thus you should look into this area as early as possible.

4. Non-Disclosure Agreements And Contracts

When you are setting up a business you will start hiring staff as well as drawing up business contracts with other companies. Thus it is essential to take care of non-disclosure agreements to guarantee you are protected in case someone would give away important business information.

It is really important to have these ready so that whenever you are getting a new client or hiring a new person you can quickly get these issues out of the way. When you make a legal agreement and a contract it is essential to get it professionally photocopied to ensure you all have the document in multiple copies. Look at Silver Fox Legal and their colour photocopying services.

5. Getting A Solicitor

Hiring your own solicitor won’t be a viable option for small businesses but it is a good idea to get an outside company to help you out when you are setting up, as well as being available in the future. Build a good relationship with the company to ensure you have a reliable legal advisor you can turn to if you ever have any issues.

About the Author: Peter in interested in corporate law and wants to make all the legal hurdles seem a little bit easier for small business owners. When he needs to get his mind away from legal issues he likes to enjoy some time with his family and is especially keen on playing board games with them.

How To Promote Your Business With Calendar Printing

Despite the fact that we live in an age of technology, many people still like to have a calendar on their desk or wall so that they can keep track of appointments. It’s much easier to just pencil something in as it comes up than it is to boot up a computer, open a program, and make a note. So, it’s not surprising that printed calendars are still popular. If you are a business owner, you should take advantage of that popularity. So, here’s how to promote your business with calendar printing.

Pick a Printing Company:

There are many professional printing companies available. A quick search of the Internet will give you dozens, or even hundreds, of results. However, not all printing companies offer the same options, features, or prices. So, you need to pick one according to your needs and your budget.

Start by determining how many calendars you need. Some printing companies will give discounts on larger orders. So, if you are ordering your calendars in bulk, choose a company that has that sort of offer. Some companies also offer free shipping on larger orders. You should watch for those deals as well, if you want to get the most advertising for the least possible investment.

It’s also important to pick a printing company that offers the type of calendar that you want. Are you looking for a small desk calendar, or a large wall calendar? Would you like some of each? Those are all good questions to ask yourself, as you are choosing a calendar printing company.

Consider Your Calendar Images:

?You also need to consider your calendar images. You should try to customize your calendar to appeal to the majority of your clients. So, ask yourself whether your clients are business executives, or more casual. Are your calendars going to primarily wind up in offices or homes? What ages and genders are you trying to appeal to? Once you have those answers, you can choose a theme and photographs for your calendar. Your chosen printing company may offer such images, or you may have to supply them.

Make Your Calendar Handy

You should also make your calendar handy. For example, be sure that there are big enough blocks that each of your clients can write in their appointments. Clients won’t look twice at a calendar that has no room for them to write in their schedule. Large blocks will encourage use. The more your clients use the calendar, the more they will look at your company’s name, logo, and contact information.

Make Your Information Memorable:

The most important thing to remember about custom calendar printing is to make your company’s information memorable. Be sure that the company’s name, logo, and contact information are prominently displayed. You may also want to include a catchy saying that will make your clients think of you. Many people will also display their calendars in such a way that their friends, family members, and business associates will see them. So, the more memorable your calendar is, the more clients it will bring to you.

Featured images:

License: Image author owned
License: Image author owned
License: Image author owned

About the Author: Guest post by David Dobson – Using my 30 years of experience in the printing indusrty to pass on business marketing

Empowering Your Small On-Line Jewelry Business

Creating a small on-line jewelry business with the help of using various E-Commerce friendly websites such as EBay or Etsy is now easier than ever. But beginning jewelry makers may find that opening their online store is the easy part and getting noticed and actually selling goods is very difficult, sometimes almost impossible. Many talented your creators simply give up without being aware of the fact that there are several easy to use self promotion techniques that can help them to get their designs and work noticed.

Let’s take a look at how you can empower your on-line jewelry business by using social media and accumulating positive customer ratings.

Getting People to Notice your Work

A lot has been said about the usage of social media to actually get your work noticed and there is no doubt that the potential they present is almost limitless. That being said, if you are not the kind of person that can get hundreds of Facebook friends, promoting your online store to an adoring crowd of five family members will not do the trick. Just like in real life, some people are good at easily making friends and promoting their work socially, while others are shy and will need someone to help them do that.

If you belong to the first type, don’t hesitate to push your new business via Facebook and ask friends and family to share and promote your work. Also, make sure you regularly post and update new work and designs and be active on a daily basis.

If you belong to the second type, you may want to consider hiring the services of a professional to help you. If Google based search engine optimization used to dominate the market in the past, today it is combined, and sometimes even entirely replaced, by social media based promotion. A professional will be able to asses the commercial potential of your new on-line jewelry business and present you with opportunities to promote it for you.

Accumulating Positive Online Reviews

Getting as many positive online reviews as possible will provide you with two positive results – it will be easier for you to sell, as more people will trust you and you will empower your online presence.

Most E-Commerce online shops buyers will hesitate to purchase items from new sellers or sellers that have few positive reviews.

This means that as a new seller you need to go the extra length in order to get customers to make the first hundred or so purchases and transform each and every one of those sales into a positive rating. I always recommend for beginners to start out with really attractive prices and discounts. This will attract buyers to visit and inspect your store page. When you get customer requests for information, be sure that you are lightning quick with your positive and reassuring replies. Once a transaction is completed, no matter how large or small it is, you need to provide flawless service. Try to ship the item the very same day in which it was purchased and update the customer when you do. This is an almost certain way to earn you some positive ratings and pave your way to success.

About the Author: Doron Heifetz is an expert designer, jeweler and the owner of the BPJ Name Necklaces website.