Work From Home Businesses

How to Win
the Advertising and Promotion Game
Copyright © Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy

I am certain that, as a business owner, you have often entertained
the question as to how much to spend and where to spend your
advertising dollars. For most small business owners, these questions
can add to the headaches suffered in the course of normal everyday
operations of their business.

THERE ARE NO SIMPLE ANSWERS

The how much to spend and where to spend it questions have no easy
answers.

Depending on your type of business, many people suggest that the
*how much* should be equal to anywhere from 4% to 10% of your gross
receipts.

The quandary is that a business cannot survive without a fresh flow
of incoming customers. But, a business can seldom generate a fresh
stream of customers without spending money to get the word out about
their business.

THE CHALLENGE OF DEVELOPING EFFECTIVE ADVERTISING

Have you ever paid for advertising and sat back to await the fresh
flow of customers, only to find yourself sitting and sitting and
then sitting some more?

Don’t feel bad about that. It has happened to many of us before.

See, knowing where to spend the advertising money is not enough to
get the job done.

Where to spend the money only begins to highlight the other issues
connected with advertising:

· Marketing Plan
· Advertising Strategy
· Headlines, Ad Copy and Visual Presentation
· Tracking the Success of Your Advertising Campaigns

THE MARKETING PLAN

The Marketing Plan is used primarily to identify your own products
and services, costs, strengths, weaknesses and the strengths and
weaknesses of your competitors.

To learn more about constructing your own marketing plan, visit the
Small Business Administration website for a comprehensive study of
the elements of a Marketing Plan:

http://www.home-business.com/nav/articles/links/sba_plan.html

ADVERTISING STRATEGY

It is important to understand what you expect to gain from your
advertising.

Do you simply wish to get your name known so that when your customer
will need you, they will think of you first? Or, do you wish to get
your customers in your front door on Saturday?

Do you want your customers to come in and take a look around to
discover the next object that they cannot live without? Or, do you
want them to come in and buy a specific widget?

Do you hope that enough people will come in to buy enough products
or services to pay for your single ad? Or, do you expect to gain a
lifelong customer who will help pay for your advertising over the
course of several years?

When you know what you want, then you will better understand just
how to do it.

HEADLINES, AD COPY AND VISUAL PRESENTATION

You might be surprised how many business owners put out advertising
without regard for the quality of the sales pitch or presentation.
The quality of your distribution outlet or the amount of money you
spent to get there will do little for you if the advertising vehicle
is a junker.

Test all of your advertising materials in smaller markets before
blowing your advertising bank roll on it. You must absolutely know
the value of your advertising before putting large sums of money
behind it.

TRACKING THE SUCCESS OF YOUR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS

Tell your customers to save another 10% when they tell you they
heard or saw your ad in such-and-such location. Suggest that they
can register to win a free widget if they fill out a form and have
them to tell you how they heard of your business. Advertise a
specific widget in your ad and track the sales of that widget.

It does not matter how you track your advertising — just make sure
you do it!

IN SUMMARY

The ideal way to spend your advertising budget is to buy a rifle
with a high-powered scope and to only shoot your targets in the
light of day.

If you are not tracking your advertising, then you are shooting a
pellet gun without an attached scope, with blinders on, and shooting
in the dead darkness of night.

Even with a bigger gun, the blinders in the dark constitute the
single largest mistake made by advertisers. If you are unable to
track your advertising to learn what is working well, what is
working somewhat, and what is a money pit, then you are condemned to
repeat your mistakes over and again.

By relying only on gut instinct, you may be choosing to spend more
money in the money pit and to lose all of your money in the process.

When you get down to the nuts and bolts of making money from your
advertising, you should plan, prepare, track and study your results.
You must have factual information on which to base your advertising
decisions. When you are making the right advertising decisions, then
making money from your business might just come easy.

Understanding the Different Methods of Online Promotion
Copyright © Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy

Did you realize there are only three types of online promotion?…
This statement may seem odd and even untrue in your mind, but I am
speaking in more general terms than you might be thinking.

Let me explain.

The three types of promotion are Junk, Active and Passive
promotions.

JUNK PROMOTIONS ARE MONEY PITS

Junk promotions are those that seem to produce results, but by their
very nature are really only illusionary promotions.

For example, let me begin with FFA (Free For All) pages. You might
find yourself subscribing to a submission program that tricks you
into believing you are submitting your links to tens of thousands
search engines.

According to the Open Directory website, they have only approved
1705 search engines and directories for inclusion in their database
(http://dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Searching/).

I like using the DMOZ directory as an example because submitted
links are tested by human beings with integrity, for the honesty
used in site description. Search Engine Watch and other search
watchers tend to show fewer than these 1705 engines, primarily
because a lot of the engines provide very little value.

Yes, you can submit your URL to a FFA page, but FFA’s usually only
permit 100 or 1000 links on their page at any one time. So, if ten
thousand people are submitting a link to an FFA page on a daily
basis, then the average life of your link is between seven minutes
and 144 minutes. I suspect the actual number of submitters is much
higher and the results are much worse. Given that few people surf
FFA pages, the chances of your submission being of any real value is
practically nill!

Most of the people telling you that you can submit your site to tens
of thousands of search engines are truly only submitting your site
to FFA pages! Beware of the false promises.

Another junk promotion method is Safe Lists. A safe list is a
mailing group that is signed up to be received by people who want to
submit their own ads. Now, most safe lists have thousands of
subscribers who are able to submit their ads daily or weekly. The
person signed up to receive the list will receive anywhere from
twenty to 140+ messages a day from the list. These messages will be
received by people only interested in promoting their own thing who
do not have the right motivation to open, let alone read Your
Advertising. As a result, thousands of messages go out daily or
weekly that will never be seen by anyone but the sender of the ad.
Where is the value in that? There is none.

ACTIVE PROMOTIONS

Active promotions are the type that require you to go out on a daily
basis or a weekly basis and put out your advertisements. With active
promotions, you will either place your advertising or you will not
sell your products or services. Your choice is simple — work or
starve.

Examples of active promotions include Pay Per Click Search Engines (PPCSE’s),
Direct Email, Ezine Advertising, Solo Ezine Ads, Newsletter
Publishing, Ezine Ad Swaps, Classified Ads, Auctions, Site
Sponsorship and Banner Ads.

Some people are able to utilize these methods very productively,
while others are destined to drop their money into the bottomless
pit of failed Internet promotions.

PASSIVE PROMOTIONS

Passive promotions are those promotions that can continue to provide
results for you long after you have invested the work to make them
available to the Internet community.

Examples of passive promotions include: Link Exchanges, Articles,
Ebooks, Content Exchanges and Writing Testimonials for others.

Let’s look at articles as a solid example of my point.

You are reading an article that I have written to promote my own
business. This article is timeless and therefore could have been
written five years ago and still have been as valuable as it is
today.

Due to the fact that the article is timeless, it can and will be
placed in newsletters/ezines and their accompanying online archives,
on websites and in ebooks for many more years to come.

As a result, this article will continue to serve me well beyond the
time in which I wrote it and submitted it to publishers and
webmasters for public consumption and publication.

This is the best example I can give you of an excellent passive
promotional method.

AVOID THE MONEY PITS

Many try and even fewer succeed to conquer the Internet and to
produce their dreams of online wealth.

My hope is that you will be one of the people who conquer the
challenges before you and to make a nice living while working
online. It will take drive, determination, study plus trial and
error, but you can make it work for you.

Please continue to educate yourself so that you can avoid the money
pits – instead, strive to find the money barrels. It can be done. I
am living proof.

Understanding the Different Methods of Offline Promotion
Copyright © Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy

No business can survive the long run without some form of consistent
advertising. As a result, most business owners will eventually
consider using advertising to promote their business.

The toughest part of the advertising equation is in determining
where and how to spend your advertising dollars. If you do it wrong,
you could plunk down your entire advertising budget and receive
absolutely no return on your investment. But, if you do it right,
your advertising could continue to bring a nice return for years to
come.

HOW DO I MAKE THE RIGHT ADVERTISING DECISIONS

In order to make good decisions concerning how to spend your
advertising budget, you must first have a good understanding of the
different types of advertising and promotion available and what can
be expected to be achieved by each.

· You must understand which markets the different media’s can reach.
· You must understand the demographics of the media’s consumers.
· You must understand the buying habits of the consumers reached
through the media.

WHAT OFFLINE ADVERTISING & PROMOTION MEDIA’S SHOULD BE CONSIDERED

The media’s that people think of most often are television, radio,
newspaper and magazine advertising. Of course, these are the big
boys that big businesses use regularly.

Other methods of promotion include trade shows, press releases,
direct sales, telemarketing, word of mouth, branding and billboard
advertising.

CONSIDERING THE BIG MEDIA OUTLETS

The big boys of advertising media’s generally cost big bucks. Given
certain circumstances, the big media’s can be bought for very little
money.

Take for example, television, radio and newspapers cost big bucks
during their prime times, but can be bought for pennies on the
dollar during non-primetime hours.

Television primetime is between 7pm and 10pm. Radio primetime is
between 7am and 6pm. With newspapers, the primetime is Wednesdays
and Sundays.

If you intend to hit a media during prime time, get ready to drop
some bucks. Primetime means that you will be able to hit more
consumers during these times. So, in most cases, a primetime buy
will enable you to reach more people with your advertising.

Non-primetime hours can still deliver a lot of eyes and ears to your
message, and sometimes, these off-hours can be bought for a bargain
basement price.

GETTING MILEAGE FROM EVENTS

Trade shows and press releases are more event-driven. The trade show
is the event, while the press release generally exploits an event.

Trade shows are an exceptional tool when you deal directly with
potential sellers of your products or services. Other shows are
directed at the consumer, and those can be very valuable avenues for
sales as well.

The press release is aimed towards gaining attention for a business
by distributing newsworthy information about the business.

Sometimes the appearance of a business at a trade show or other show
can provide the necessary angle for a press release. But most often,
a successful press release will actually require more noteworthy
information than the appearance of a business at a show.

Yet, even the most mundane of information could be spiced up to give
the real air of importance necessary to get your press release read
and printed.

The great thing about a press release is that might permit you to
get relatively inexpensive promotion on television, radio,
newspapers and magazines; for far less than what it would cost you
to buy advertising in those same outlets.

UTILIZING A SALES TEAM

Depending on what type of business you run and the consumers you are
trying to reach, you might find direct sales and telemarketing to be
very lucrative ways to drive sales to your business.

Both are very similar in nature. Direct sales can be very expensive,
as it requires a great investment of time to accommodate.
Telemarketing seeks to minimize the time expenditure, but it often
leads to a smaller degree of respect and attention.

Depending on your product or service — and always depending upon
the people you employ to the task — each method will be more
suited to each business on an individual basis.

BRANDING YOUR BUSINESS

I grouped branding and billboard advertising together in my original
list for a reason. I did this because billboard advertising serves
most businesses best by helping to support the process of branding.

Branding is the process of establishing your business as the
supplier of a certain product or service, or in emphasizing a
certain USP (Unique Selling Proposition) as it pertains to your
business.

If branding and USP seems to be a confusing concept, think about
Wal-Mart and their tag line: “Always Low Prices, Always.”

Think about Ford Motors, “Quality is Job One.”

Think about the Visa Card, “It’s Everywhere You Want To Be.”

You see, these top corporations have managed to make their USP part
of their branding.

Even if you are only competing in a local marketplace, your USP can
and should fit snugly into your branding strategy.

NO MATTER THE MEDIA OR METHOD

Whichever method or media you should choose to employ in your
advertising and promotion, you should become knowledgable about your
market, and the consumers reached by each media. It is important to
understand which consumers can be reached by a certain media, and in
what quantities.

However you choose to spend your advertising dollars, you should
always track the results of your promotional efforts. Failing to
track successes and failures will ultimately lead to the failure of
a business.

When you know whom you are trying to reach and how you think you
might be able to reach them, you will begin to learn how to use
advertising and promotion to make your business successful. That is
a good thing — after all, that is why you got into the business in
the first place, isn’t it?

Understanding the Difference Between Marketing and Promotion

Copyright © Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy

Are you an online marketer? Or do you simply promote affiliate
programs? Marketing is truly the most misunderstood word in use
today on the Internet. Let me see if I can clarify this issue just a
bit.

In Marketing 101 at your local university, marketing is actually the
process of Product, Place, Price and Promotion.

PRODUCT

No business can exist without a product or service to sell.

In a nutshell, entrepreneurs are the people who believe in a
product, service or idea, so much that they are willing to invest
their lives into the development of their dream.

Historically, every major corporation in the world was started by an
entrepreneur with a dream and the drive to make it a reality.

However, there comes a time in the life of every corporation when
those who fear the gambling nature of their founder, squash the
entrepreneurial drive that made the company a viable concern in the
first place. The entrepreneur will either submit to the careful
nature of the stockholders, or he will be forced to leave the
company he created.

The only entrepreneurs who withstand the pressure to move more
carefully are those who have maintained majority control over their
companies.

PLACE

In the offline world, place is defined by location. On the Internet,
place is defined by domain name and the web hosting service chosen.

Both online and offline, place can make or break a company without
respect to the quality and value of the product, service or idea.

PRICE

Selecting a price is determined first on a basis of whether the
company wants to be seen as a discount or a value company.

Take for example Wal-Mart and Staples.

Wal-Mart is the lead discounter in the marketplace. Staples on the
other hand is the specialist in office supplies.

Both sell a significant number of office supplies despite the fact
that the lowest price can usually be found at Wal-Mart. As a value
dealer, Staples can afford to charge more for their products than
Wal-Mart.

So the question for you is whether you want to position your company
as a discount or value company.

Testing has shown that products and services can be sold at any
number of prices and still reach a significant number of people.

The challenge of selecting the best price for your product or
service will require a certain amount of testing.

UNDERSTANDING THE PRICING EQUATION

Let’s assume we are selling a product. Let us also assume that we
know that the product can be sold for $10 or $50. Let us also assume
that if the price dips below $10 or rises above $50, then the
product sales fall off significantly.

Our challenge is to determine the best rate at which to sell our
product.

Testing has shown us that we can sell 1000 items a week at $10.
Testing has also shown that we can sell 500 items per week at $50.
And testing has shown that we can sell 650 items per week at $45.

At $10, our projected weekly earnings are $10,000. When we sell the
product at $50, we know that we can earn $25,000 per week. Most
importantly, we know that we can earn $29,250 when our product is
priced at $45.

With the imaginary testing we have done on our imaginary product, we
can easily see that selling our product at $45 per item will earn us
more money over the long haul.

Thus, when we make the decision for a national rollout of our
product, then we will price our product at $45.

Of course, this is a very simplistic analysis of the point I am
trying to make. Though simple, I believe this analogy will help you
understand the methods of developing a product’s prices.

PROMOTION

Promotion, on the other hand, is the process of notifying the
consumers for your product or service of your availability to serve
them.

Methods of promotion vary distinctly and should be arranged to meet
very specific goals.

As with product, place and price, promotion should not be left to
chance. You should test every ad, every media, and every price point
to determine the best bang for your promotional dollars.

HEADS UP!

If you are an online promoter or marketer, please factor in the most
important element concerning the cost of your promotions.

What element is that? Your time!

Value your time at a certain dollar amount, and figure in your time
into the cost of your promotional accounting.

I say this because too many online promoters lose sight of this
concept and spend 20 hours to generate one sale while using free
advertising. Even if you rate your time at the federal minimum wage,
then you will have invested $105 of your time for one sale that
might only net you a gross sale of $45!

ARE YOU TRULY A MARKETER OR ARE YOU JUST A PROMOTER?

Most people who run a business on the Internet call themselves
marketers. Yet, most of these same people are really just promoters
wrapped in the label of a marketer.

True marketers do not promote without a lot of advance work. They
spend time planning, testing and measuring their actions and results
to get the most out of every dollar spent and earned.

Entrepreneurs finesse the art of marketing as they build their
company into a major enterprise.

If you are a promoter who does not keep an eye on the total
marketing equation, then you are bound to fail.

If you do call yourself a marketer, then do what a professional
marketer does. Make sure that every dollar spent is spent well. Make
sure that every dollar earned is put to good use. Market well so
that when the people of the next generation look at your life, they
will see a fine example of a successful entrepreneur that they will
strive to emulate.

Networking
Your Home Business within Circles of Influence
Copyright © Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy

When you need an auto mechanic or an air conditioning repairman,
where do you turn for help? Sure, some people turn to the yellow
pages. But most will turn to friends and family and ask if they know
of anyone who can do the work.

The best place for your business to be positioned is to be the
business on the tips of the tongues of the people asked to make the
referral.

THE 300 RULE

Preachers, funeral directors and people in a few other professions
have learned “the 300 rule” through their own personal experience.

“The 300 rule” states that the average person knows 300 people on a
friendly level. Wedding planners tend to make reservations for 300
guests. Funeral directors tend to need to make room for 300
mourners. You get the idea.

DOODLING WITH CIRCLES OF INFLUENCE

Imagine your circle of friends, family and acquaintances, a.k.a.
your circle of influence. Now, draw your circle of influence as a
circle on a blank piece of paper.

Next, contemplate the people in your parents’ circle of influence.
Some people who know your parents also know you. Therefore, you will
share some influence with the people your folks know. Now draw your
parents’ circle of influence on your piece of paper.

Your circle and your parents’ circle will intersect in one area,
although the larger majority of the two circles will not intersect.
If you are like most people, the two circles on your page at this
point looks very similar to the MasterCard logo.

Now imagine drawing a page full of intersecting circles, each circle
representing the circle of influence of the people who are within
your own circle of influence. Imagine trying to encapsulate an
accurate rendering of where your circle and the circle of your
friends will actually intersect.

Some circles will share a large area of space, while others will
barely cover one another.

Actually, you can only imagine at this point what your piece of
paper will look like. The actual layout of the circles imagined in
this analogy is simply too overwhelming for the mind to comprehend.

THE BIG PICTURE

300 multiplied by 300 equals 90,000. By using the analogy of doodles
in the previous section, the average person can actually network
with up to 90,000 people! Even factoring in the overlap, one can
still probably network with 50,000 people through their own circle
of influence!

Simply amazing, isn’t it?

HERE IS THE SECRET TO YOUR SUCCESS

There are 300 people on this planet whom you have a reasonable
amount of influence. Take advantage of this fact. Make darn sure
that every person within your own circle of influence KNOWS that you
are in business for yourself, and make sure they understand what
your business offers.

When your friend is asked to make a referral, they will recommend
you.

PASSIVE VERSUS ACTIVE REFERRAL NETWORKING

When people ask your friends for a referral and your friend mentions
your business, that is passive referral networking.

Active referral networking is when you can get your friends go
directly to their friends and say “Hey, I have a friend who just
started a business. If you are in need of what he offers or you know
someone who will need his services, would you please give my friend
a call or make the referral to his business?”

If you can get even a portion of the people in your own circle of
influence to actively refer your business, then you have built the
foundation to build an advertising campaign even more effective than
the average local television advertising campaign.

Think about that for a moment.

Most people only dream of reaching 50,000 potential customers with
their television advertising dollars. You now have the knowledge to
reach 50,000 people without spending a single penny.

Keeping
Your Email Box Organized & Ready for Business
Copyright © Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy

Learning how to get the most organization from your email software
is very likely the most important skill you can learn to conduct a
successful online home business.

There are three primary email applications on the market that folks
use to manage their incoming POP3 email. Those three are:

· Microsoft Outlook Express
· Eudora
· Netscape Mail

In order to get the most from your email software, there are three
key processes that you should learn. These processes are concerned
with data organization, saving time and email database management.

SET UP EMAIL FOLDERS

Organization is key to any emails that you intend to save. Having
2000 emails in one folder is a sure-fire road map to confusion and
lost communications and information.

You are the best judge as to how to organize your email into topics
that provide an easy method of retrieval of the information when you
need it most.

Fortunately, the primary email browsers make it easy to organize
your information. By allowing you to create folders within your
email software, you can file specific emails into folders dedicated
to the topic of the email.

To create new folders:

OUTLOOK EXPRESS: 1. Click File – Folders – New —
alternatively, you may also right click an item in the Folder window
— and then type in the name of your new folder. Highlight the
folder above where you would like your new folder to be placed, and
then click OK.

EUDORA: Click on Mailbox – New — or right click on Eudora
in the folders window and then click on New. When the window opens,
type in the name of your new mailbox and click OK. If you want to
create a folder to place other mailboxes into, click the checkbox
before clicking OK.

NETSCAPE MAIL: Click File – New Folder. Then from the
drop-down menu, select the folder that you wish to be the folder
directly above your new folder, before clicking OK.

FILTERING EMAIL

Email filters are a tool to help you save time and frustration. Have
you ever lost an incoming email under the deluge of email coming
into your mailbox? With filters, you can direct the important email
or not-so-important email into certain pre-ordained folders.

As part of the war against spam, most ISP’s use filters every day in
an attempt to keep the spam out of your mailbox. In fact, I even use
filters to sort my incoming mail trying to catch the spam my ISP
missed.

Don’t be fooled into thinking you need some special software to
filter your email. Setting up filters is actually quite easy.

To setup email filters:

OUTLOOK EXPRESS: Click on Tools – Message Rules – Mail. A
wizard will open to help you create your new email filters. Just
follow the instructions provided to direct mail based on certain
criteria into certain folders.

EUDORA: Click on Special – Make Filter. Once again, just
follow the instructions in the Filter wizard.

NETSCAPE MAIL: Click on Edit – Mail Filters. Then click on
New in the wizard. Once you click on New, you will be taken to a new
wizard window. Follow the instructions here, then when you are done,
click on OK. This will return you to the first window where you will
set up the sorting order of your filter.

CLEANING AND COMPRESSING YOUR MAIL DATA

This is an important part of your email management. When you no
longer need an email, it should be deleted. When you first delete an
email, your software will send the email to the Trash Bin. Your
email is not actually deleted until you first empty your trash bin.

Emptying your trash bin compresses the mailboxes from where the
email was originally filed. This is absolutely paramount to the
protection of your email data. If you go too long between
compressing your email data, then your email data could become
corrupted and you might need assistance in recovering your email
data.

Even after you have emptied your trash, Compressing Folders is a
recommended step to prevent other data corruption. Once you
understand that an email does not actually move from one folder to
another until the folder is compressed, then you can better
appreciate this advice.

As an example, when Email A comes into your main Inbox, the data
connected to Email A appears in two files. One file contains the
header and body of the email. The other file contains only the email
header information.

When an email is moved from one folder to the other, only the header
information is actually moved. The body information will not be
deleted from the original folder until which time the original
folder is compressed.

This explains the purpose of emptying the trash AND compressing
folders. If the email was simply moved from the Inbox to another
folder, then emptying the trash is not enough. The original
placement of the email is not actually removed from the file that
contains the body information until the message has been designated
for compression.

To empty your trash:

OUTLOOK EXPRESS: Click on Edit – Empty ‘Deleted Items’
Folder. To compress the remaining folders, click on Tools – Options,
then click on the tab for Maintenance. Then click the button that
says, “Clean Up Now”. Once the compression is completed, click OK.

EUDORA: Click Special – Empty Trash. To compress the
remaining items that need compression, then click on Special -
Compact Mailboxes.

NETSCAPE MAIL: Click on File – Empty Trash Folder. To
compress the mailboxes, click on File – Compress Folders.

I cannot stress enough how important it is that you utilize the
tools for emptying the trash and compressing the mail folders.
Protecting your email data on a regular basis is good practice for
avoiding disaster in your mailbox.

So many of us rely upon our email software to keep our online
business running smoothly. Once you master the tools provided in
your email software, your online business will run smoothly also.

Let me share one important lesson I’ve learned about computer
software. One should never be afraid to try new things. Learning how
to get the most out of your software relies upon your willingness to
dig in and learn how to use it.

Once you learn how to use your software to its full potential, then
your life will be greatly simplified and your effectiveness will be
dramatically improved.

Children
in the Home Business Environment
Copyright © Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy

Operating a home business is seldom easy and interruptions come in
all shapes, sizes and forms.

Between the family, friends and neighbors who call or come by, and
the telemarketers who insist on ringing your number off the hook,
getting through the workday can be a real challenge.

When you introduce children into the home office environment, your
productivity and patience can be seriously tested.

For example, right now my three-year old daughter is pulling on my
shirt and begging me to read her a story. Clearly, I’m in the middle
of something important here, but how can I say no to those eyes? Ill
be right back…

Ok, that wasn’t so bad was it? She’s happy, I’m happy (having bonded
with my daughter) and now I’m back to continue my conversation with
you What’s the lesson here? Flexibility is a major key to
balancing your home business priorities with your family’s needs.

I can tell you from first-hand experience that maintaining a deep
level of concentration on work in a home business for long periods
of time is next to impossible. Naptime does offer some reprieve, but
any break from the kids is usually short lived.

Even with older children, summertime introduces new challenges with
kids running in and out of the house all throughout the day.

I would like to share with you some of the tips I have discovered to
help manage your home office with children in your midst. Since
children of different ages pose different challenges, I will present
my tips in terms of age groups.

OLDER CHILDREN AND TEENS

We will look at older children first since they pose the least
challenge to our work productivity.

Children, who are old enough to understand the idea of schedules and
chores, are old enough to understand the needs of your home
business. Explain to your children that you do your work at home so
that you can be near them when they need you. But also be sure they
understand that you must do your work so that you will have the
money necessary to keep your house, feed the family and to provide
them with money for entertainment.

Once your children understand the necessity of your work, then
outline a work schedule and explain it to them. Do make sure they
understand that emergencies are definitely an acceptable reason to
interrupt your work. Then make sure they understand that between
hours x and y, you will be doing work — and then hold them to
respecting your schedule.

INFANTS

Infants will never understand your needs for work. But fortunately,
babies do well under a schedule or routine. Instead of expecting
your child to work around your schedule, schedule your work around
the needs of your baby.

It is simple. Babies eat, sleep and poop. Sometimes they play.
Fortunately, babies sleep more than they do anything else.

Naptime offers the best advantage for getting your work done. Get
your baby into a routine of eat, sleep and play, and you will
experience unexpected levels of productivity.

TODDLERS

If you have a toddler running around the house while you are
operating your home business, then you may find that your hair
turning gray or disappearing altogether. But, gray hair is a sign of
character, right.

I am venturing to guess that the person who devised the door lock
for the inside of the house did so because he had toddlers in his
own home. Inside door locks should only be utilized when you are
making that important phone call and your toddler is screaming for
your attention. At all other times, your door should remain unlocked
with your door open.

Develop a routine with your children for meal times, naptimes, and
play times. Work these times into your work schedule and adhere to
them. If you fail to keep appointments with your children, your
children will have less respect for your work and do more to prevent
you from the completion of your work.

Don’t be afraid to let your children sit in your lap while you are
working. It helps them to feel wanted and it helps them to be a part
of your daily life. There are times when it is okay for them to be
sitting in your lap while you work, and at other times you need them
out of your lap. Don’t be afraid to tell them to get down and go
play or read a book so that you can resume your work.

Permit your children to have their toys in your office. Often they
will sit contently and play while you work. Just knowing you are
near is enough to keep them happy.

Be prepared to take an hourly break to deal with your toddler. Try
to do potty breaks at your hourly break and to do drink refills.
This can help your child grow into a routine that will work well
with your home business. At each break, spend a few minutes with
your child giving hugs and kisses and talking with your child about
what he or she wants to talk about.

Toddlers don’t always do well with the routine, so be prepared to
take a few minutes when needed to give the attention that your child
so desperately needs in the moment.

IN CONCLUSION

I hope these tips serve to help you in the challenge of operating a
successful home business.

My home business permits me to fulfill my financial obligations
*AND* see my children grow up. I would never contemplate trading my
home business for another kind of business. Even with the added
challenges of dealing with toddlers in my home office, the upsides
far outweigh the downsides.

Growing my own home business with children around has definitely
given me a new respect for all people who successfully run a home
business with kids in the work environment. I tip my hat to you…
You deserve it!

Advertising Your Home Business on a Budget
Copyright © Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy

When you are starting out in a new home business and no one knows
who you are, one of the greatest challenges you will face is how to
drum up new business.

If there were not people in your community or marketplace that you
knew who needed your products or services, you probably would not
have started your business to begin with. But, once you have talked
to those who you personally knew who needed your what you offer,
then your next task is to find others who will help keep your doors
open.

Many people know that they must turn to advertising at some point in
the future, but they hope that day will be long down the road. For
some, this utopian concept will come to fruition. But for the rest
of us in the real world, we must come up with creative solutions for
meeting our home business advertising needs while working within our
budget.

Most people have a misconception about having to spend lots of money
in order to advertise their home business. When you start out, you
honestly will not have much money available for advertising, and if
you do, you should still spend it wisely.

Before you jump headfirst into the world of advertising, let me
share some of the lessons I have learned concerning this most
important topic.

LESSON #1

It does not have to cost an arm and a leg to advertise your home
business, unless you fail to plan and fail to test.

As much as is possible, you should always test your advertising. If
you jump in and start dumping tons of money in to advertising
without first testing your advertising, you might find yourself
broke and without sales at the end of the road. Most people who
commit this error write off their failure on the home business they
chose or the economy or any of a hundred other excuses. But, if they
are unwilling to take responsibility for their mistake, they will
never learn from their mistake. Don’t let this be you.

LESSON #2

All testing should be done in blocks. If you begin to advertise
simultaneously in newspapers, radio and television, how will you
know which advertising is bringing people to your cash register? You
won’t. All you will know that something might be working, but you
will not know what is actually doing the trick.

Even if you tell people in your advertising to tell you how they
found you, my experience shows that fewer than 10% of the people
ever will tell you anything — and those people who do may not even
get the facts straight! You cannot rely on your customers to tell
you what advertising is working for your home business. You must put
in the extra effort to know for yourself.

LESSON #3

Only when you have a proven and solid advertising portfolio should
you venture to drop big bucks in an advertising campaign. Even then,
you should be careful to keep further measurements to determine how
much the maximum advantage of an ad would be. Sometimes you might be
able to reach ten times as many people, but depending on the kind of
media and other factors, the additional exposure will only generate
twice as many sales. Keep your eye attuned to situations like this
to get the most from your advertising dollars.

LESSON #4

As Lesson #3 illustrates, sometimes your best advertising investment
may actually cost you less money. When you are first starting out,
whether you are running a home business or a business outside of
your home, you need to be able to get people talking and thinking
about your business.

If you are busy testing ads in media’s such as the newspaper,
magazines, radio, and television, you need to learn ways of
promoting your business that do not require large cash expenditures.
A few examples are:

· Word of Mouth
· Business Cards
· Press Releases
· Non-Primetime Ads on Radio and Television

Here is more information about each type of low-cost advertising:

WORD OF MOUTH

This of course is the cheapest kind of advertising on the planet —
it does not cost you anything. Ask your customers if they know
anyone who could also use your products or services. When they are
happy with your offerings and service, they will be willing to tell
you whom you can contact, and they will pass the word for you.

BUSINESS CARDS

You can usually pick up 500 business cards for about $20. When you
do, hand them out. Do not give more than a couple of cards to each
person. If they need more cards from you, they will ask.

Some people are known to network with others on a regular basis.
Some of these people are also known to be always looking for an
extra few bucks. With these people, you can suggest to them that if
they write their name on the back of one of your business cards and
the card is presented to you, then you will pay a referral fee to
them. You do not have to offer much — sometimes one dollar is
enough. Look at your home business and your offerings and decide how
much would be a good referral fee.

PRESS RELEASES

Press Releases are a good source for generating news about your home
business. The business editor at your local newspaper is always on
the lookout for a good business story to fill the business news
section of the newspaper.

Of course, the business editor understands the economics of running
a paper and is more inclined to run your story if you buy
advertising in his/her publication, but will still print stories for
special events and openings.

The important thing to remember about Press Releases is that it must
be constructed in the form of a news story. Even if you are a sole
proprietorship, quotes from you should be written in a third person
format: John Doe said, “Your quote here.”

A Press Release should pack the most important information at the
beginning of the copy, and leave extra details towards the end.

You should always provide the reporter who gets the task a simple
and easy way for him/her to contact you directly. Often the reporter
will want to contact you to get details that will enhance their take
on your story.

To learn more about creating Press Releases, you may check out Rusty
Cawley’s site: http://www.PRrainmaker.com/

NON-PRIMETIME ADS ON RADIO AND TELEVISION

Believe it or not, some of the best rates for radio and television
are on the overnight and non-primetime venues. These target times
are not a total waste as they can easily keep the infomercial people
in business.

These off-hours are just less populated than the primetime hours.

Don’t be afraid to check your local radio and television rates for
non-primetime hours to see what bargains may exist. With television,
primetime is 7pm to 10pm. With radio, primetime is 8am to 5pm. This
sure leaves a whole lot of hours available to advertise your home
business at discount rates!

IN CONCLUSION

When it comes down to it, there is a lot to understand about
advertising, but when you have the basic knowledge down pat,
everything will fall into place and bring more dollars to your bank
account.

Your Home
Business: Turning Pennies into Dollars
Copyright © Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy

Henry Ford taught us that to simplify the manufacture of
automobiles, that the best way to do so was to install the assembly
line. That one change revolutionized the auto manufacturing industry
permitting the industry to build cars at a cost whereas the average
person could afford to buy one.

The lesson we should take from this is that having the ability to
improve the process of getting the job quicker and cheaper, without
compromising the quality of the job being done, will help catapult
the person who simplified the process to the top of his/her field.

Pennies saved in your home business can turn into dollars at the end
of the day, and dollars can quickly multiply into hundreds or
thousands of dollars over time.

Doubt me if you will, but let me ask you a question. Do you think a
saving of two fifths of a penny could make any real difference in
the profit margin of a home business? Of course the right answer is
“it depends on how many transactions are done in a year, utilizing
the savings of the two fifths of one penny.”

You only have to think back a couple of decades to really appreciate
this question. Do you remember the nut that lived and died in a Las
Vegas hotel room? You know the one who was a billionaire, and was so
worried about germs that he died of starvation? If you guessed
Howard Hughes (1905-76), pat yourself on the back.

Now Howard did not make all of his money on his two fifths of one
penny. He did however make a ton of money from his two fifths of one
penny. It seems Howard owned a can manufacturing company. And one
day, Howard’s team figured out how they could make one minor change
in the design of their food can to reduce the amount of tin
necessary to make a single can.

As the story goes — if my memory serves me correctly — the
reduction in tin usage equaled a saving of two fifths of one penny
per can. Howard — being the really smart businessman that he was
— decided that he would not be so greedy as to keep all of the
savings for himself. What Mr. Hughes did do was to keep half of the
savings for himself, and give the other half to his customers. The
incredible thing about Mr. Hughes decision is that by saving his
customers an extra one fifths of one cent per can, he managed to
take more market share away from his competition — netting his
company an additional and substantial portion of the total market
share in the canning industry.

Let us return our thoughts to your home business. Have you ever
gotten the feeling of excitement — when you read something or
thought of something — that you could not wait to implement this
new idea? This could be one of those moments…

In every home business, there are certain processes that we do over
and again. Sometimes it may be possible to trim the time or expense
of a process which in turn will add pennies or dollars to your
bottom line. If it is a process that you do hundreds or thousands of
times per month, then your savings will multiply into hundreds or
thousands of dollars in monthly savings.

Imagine what running a home business was like BEFORE the computer…

Before the personal computer, we had to hand type all letters and
invoices. Now, we can setup a letter or invoice that we send out
quite often, and we can save it in our word processor so that when
we need to use it again, we can print it quickly and efficiently.
There is no longer a need to type the document again from scratch.

The computer has simplified our business communications and has
provided us the opportunity to reduce our costs of doing business.

Think about all of the other processes that the computer has enabled
us to do for far less expense than what we could in the past.

In this case, the computer is a tool that permits us to save time
and money.

So, my challenge to you is to begin examining the processes in your
own home business and look for ways in which you can save yourself
time and money. It is far better for you to contemplate on this
matter than it is for me to do so for you. Simply put, you know your
business better than anyone on the planet does. Therefore, you are
in a better position than anyone to find those extra dollars that
will decrease your costs and increase your profits.

The extra pennies and dollars you could extract from your business
could spell the difference between success and failure for your home
business enterprise.

How to
Stay Focused on Your Home Business Goals
Copyright © Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy

When you are the owner of a home business, you will find hundreds of
distractions that vie for your time, energy and focus.

Common distractions include: children, family, friends, neighbors,
pets, phone calls, mail, household chores, video games, television,
neighborhood children, visitors, and so many more.

As an owner of a home based business, you must always remember your
purpose in bringing your profession home. What was your reason for
wanting to own a home business? Was your goal to work from home so
that you can share in the lives of your children? Was your goal to
be out from under the rule of a tyrannical boss? Was your goal to
have the freedom to work when it is convenient for you? Was your
goal to make tons of money working for yourself?

Here’s a few good tips that will help you stay focused on your home
business:

TIP #1:
Whatever your reason for going out on your own, you must keep your
reason in the forefront of your mind. If you forget your reason for
starting your own home business, you will not be working for
yourself for long. It is far too easy to let circumstance drive your
activities — and when circumstance is in the driver’s seat, you
are more likely to crash and burn.

TIP #2:
Remember — your own business is a lot like a real job. Some people
go to work to play, some go to socialize, and others — most often
those who are paid in a commission or tip environment — go to work
to work and to make money. When you work for yourself, your salary
is directly proportional to your productivity. Therefore, wouldn’t
it make sense to stay focused on getting as much done in as short of
a period as possible?

Go to work to work and to make money. Leave playtime and recreation
for when your workday has ended.

TIP #3:
When you are dealing with family in the course of your workday, it
is important to schedule your activities as much as possible. With
small children, you must take time when you must, but you should
also work hard to make sure you dedicate a specific number of hours
to your workday.

With older children, it is much easier to tell them that you will be
working between the hours of x and y. Your children and your friends
must understand that certain hours of your day are devoted to the
activities of your business.

TIP #4:
Don’t permit your friends and extended family to run over you. Many
people get the blind idea that if one works from home then they are
not actually working.

Well-meaning people may try to fill your doorway to bring advice
about getting a real job. Others may simply believe that if you are
at home, then you are fair game for chitchat and socialization.

You must stand firm. You must make certain your friends and family
understands that when you are working, then you ARE working! If they
wish to socialize with you, then they need to do it during the hours
that are not dedicated to your home business.

You are the only one who can stand up for you. Your friends and
family will seldom be able to appreciate your dedication to your
home business, unless you make the effort to make sure that they
have the same respect for your business that you do.

TIP #5:
You should allot a certain portion of your day to email and to
regular mail. For example, allot one hour in the morning and one
hour in the afternoon to handling your written communications.

Unless you dedicate certain times to the handling of these
communications, you will soon find yourself on the downward slope of
decreased productivity.

TIP #6:
When you find yourself spending too much time doing non-productive
activities, then you should seriously consider finding a third-party
service provider who will assist you in those non-profitable
business activities.

As an example, you might be in the mail-order business. You might
believe that your time is best spent writing ad copy and setting up
your advertising, but you find yourself spending far too much time
taking care of your books to take care of your advertising in the
manner that you should. In this event, it might make more sense to
hire a bookkeeper to handle your financial records for you.

CONCLUSION:
In the end, the success of your home business is entirely and
completely reliant upon you and the decisions that you make.

You had your reasons for deciding to start your own home based
business. You must always keep your reasons in the forefront of your
mind. You must always be able to rely upon your own self and your
dedication to the success of your business.

Your friends and family might be annoyed that they cannot come visit
upon their own whim, but when success comes to you and your
business, they will better appreciate you for putting your foot down
when necessary.

Success is within your reach, if only you can stay focused on your
goals. You must decide to reach for your goals, and then, you must
have the discipline necessary to reach them.