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The Editor's Desk - From Beneath the Clutter
Feature Article - It’s Time to Work Toward Your Goals
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Guest Article - Five Ideas that Kill Home Businesses
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Happy New Year!
Hope you have all had a great holiday season. Had a little stress in mine when my grandfather was hospitalized with pneumonia (again), but things have turned out well. Otherwise, we had a lot of fun.
I'm working on my new computer now. Had a bit of a time getting it set up properly, since we wanted it networked with the old one, but they're both working wonderfully now. I have to be careful, though. This one has Windows Media Center on it, and that means I can watch television on the computer as I work. You can imagine how dangerous that can be!
The one thing this computer still needs is a good keyboard. My mother has ordered it for my Christmas present. She's getting me the Microsoft Natural Ergo Keyboard 4000. I've been using the Microsoft Natural style keyboard for a few years now and I love it. It is so much more comfortable than traditional keyboards and much easier on the wrists. I can hardly wait for it to arrive.
Don't forget, you can contribute your articles or tips anytime for consideration. Just use the contact form.
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No matter what you do in life, it’s important to have a goal to work toward. It gives you something to focus on and something to be proud of when you reach it.
This is especially true when you stay home with your kids, whether or not you work at home. It’s so easy to lose sight of everything but raising your family, forgetting your own interests and dreams. But with a little bit of work you can do better not only for yourself but those you care about.
What are your goals? It could be to start a home business, lose weight, be a better parent, start a hobby... there are all kinds of goals. Some will take only a little time to achieve once you decide to go for them, while others may take years.
Finding time to work toward your goals isn’t always easy. You will probably have to cut back on something else. It’s always a matter of finding the right balance for your life. Most people spend more time than they need to on something that really matters less to them than reaching their goals, if they’d only stop to think about it.
Take a look at your daily activities. Do you spend a lot of time watching TV, chatting on the phone or wandering on the internet? Any of these activities are likely to hold some degree of interest to you, but are they a real priority when compared to your goals? Could you cut an hour or even just 15 minutes a day from one of these activities to work towards one of your goals?
The hardest part of getting things done sometimes is changing old habits. It’s so easy to keep doing the same thing. Find what will help you to keep trying. For some people keeping a calendar and writing down what they’ve achieved will help while for others it will be enough just to know what they’ve gotten done.
Obviously, for parents it’s very important to maintain that balance that keeps your family running. However, many goals can include the kids or the entire family. My daughter loves to exercise, for example, and will come running up to my desk to see if it’s time yet.
You could also try working toward your goals as the kids do their homework. It may help them to see you use the self discipline you want them to have about doing homework in order to achieve your goals. Children of all ages learn a great deal from example, and working hard on different things at the same time can be a wonderful experience and a way to share.
Don’t forget to reward yourself when you reach your goals. It doesn’t have to be much of a reward, but it is just nice to have a way to tell yourself that you’ve accomplished what you set out to do.
Stephanie Foster is the owner of Home with the Kids, a resource that knows that there's more to staying home with your family than just business. For more stay at home tips, visit the site at http://www.homewiththekids.com/ and subscribe to the free newsletter.
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There are lots of ways to get off to a bad start with your home business. As a Home Business Consultant and Coach I've heard the five listed below most often. Starting off with any of these common misconceptions can cause you a lot of grief as your home business starts to grow.
1. With work from home businesses like mine, having the lowest price is the best way to enter the market and get customers.
I can't think of a idea that is more widespread among the owners of new work from home businesses. Starting out at a lower than market price might get you some early attention, but it does nothing to improve your chances of success in the long term - and you are in this for the long term, right?
The truth is, you get the customers/clients you court. If you focus on people who are looking for bargains, or who are very price sensitive, those are the people you are going to have as your customers. When you try to move to market price at a later date, most of them are not going to move with you. Instead, they'll be looking for the newest low-price kid on the block.
If you want happy, loyal customers at the market price, or even at a premium to the market, have the confidence to price yourself there on the first day you are open for business. If you just can't bring yourself to face your competition without lower prices, offer an introductory special that is clearly indicated as a temporary mark down from your regular prices. Once the time period for your intoductory, or grand opening special has passed put your prices back where they belong.
2. My product/service will sell itself.
Have you ever heard of Coca Cola? How about McDonald's? Is there likely a person alive in the industrialized world who hasn't been exposed to the product of these two giants? If any product could sell itself, it should be likely that products with the reputation, recognition, and market acceptance of those offered by Coke and McDonald's would fit the bill. Yet, both Coca Cola and McDonald's market extensively.
Coca Cola, alone, spends over $1.5 billion US dollars every year to sell their product, and it's safe to asssume McDononald's has a similar budget.
Now why do the people in charge of these two highly successful businesses waste all that money on marketing? Because no product sells itself. Work from home businesses are no different. You need a marketing plan and a sales effort if you want to succeed.
3. My business is too small to need a business plan.
D-Day was the largest coordinated military action to take place in the history of the world. Within one month of the original landing (in which 4,000 ships participated) 1 million men, over 150,000 vehicles and 1/2 million tons of supplies had entered europe. When they asked General Eisenhower how important the invasion plan had been to his success he said, that the plan was unimportant. No military plan survives the first five seconds of contact with the enemy. But the planning process, was invaluable.
OK, you are a little home business, not the D-Day invasion. Why waste time on a plan? Because the planning process will be invaluable for you as well. You will learn things you didn't know, see things you hadn't seen, and realize things you thought were true for your business are just plain inaccurate.
It's the process of investigating the plan, and setting your goals down in black and white that matters. You can throw the thing away once its done if you have the heart, but don't miss building it from the ground up. Its a foundation stone of your future success.
4. I'm going to use word of mouth to market my business
Sorry... can't be done. Word-of-mouth is the result of excellent marketing, combined with an excellent product, or service, delivered with excellence. It can't be your marketing plan - because it is the result of your marketing plan plus your product, or service.
It's true that word of mouth advertising is probably the most effective advertising work from home businesses can get over time. The problem is, the only way you can get it is to; FIRST, market your business well so you have some customers (if you don't have customers who is going to spread the word?), and SECOND, impress those customers with your quality product, or service.
If you market well, and provide excellent customer service you'll build the positive word of mouth you deserve.
5. My friend/girlfriend/son is building my website for free.
I've heard 100 people say this and 90 of them are still waiting for their friend, girlfriend (fill in the blank) to finish. Eight of them had to pay a web design professional more to fix the mess they received than it would have cost to hire them in the first. A couple, of course, did get a good website, but the odds were never good.
The best way to approach your website, by far, is to put in the time and effort to learn this skill yourself. With the tools available these days anyone can do it. Some products are so "turnkey" they include Keyword Analysis and Search Engine Optimization - essentials in driving traffic to your site.
Even if you went the full route and bought a top of the line WYSIWYG editor like Microsoft's FrontPage, or Macro Media's DreamWeaver, and then took a few classes to learn how to use it, you expense would likely be under $1,000 - about the price of a competent web designer's time for a basic site. If all you are looking for is a basic brochure site, many ISP's offer quite adequate editors as part of their hosting package. You can also buy templates for around $50 USD that can be modified to fit your business needs.
If you just can't face the learning curve required to build it yourself, and you don't want to mess with modifying templates, the world is full of web designers that will build you an excellent, professional site at a price that is about the same as printing a thousand full color brochures.
There you have it. The five most commonly held misconceptions of new home business owner's. If you recognize one of them lurking in your thinking get rid of it now. You'll save yourself headaches and speed up your journey to success.
Jess Huffman is a Business Consultant and Coach working from his home office in Calgary, Alberta. Jess specializies in home based busineses and has helped hundreds of clients start their own work from home businesses.
http://www.home-business-and-entrepreneur-tools.com
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