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The Editor's Desk - From Beneath the Clutter
Feature Article - Choosing your home business niche
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Getting ready for a vacation here. We're going up to see my grandparents up in Oregon in a couple weeks. No internet, they're in a very small town and don't own a computer, despite the begging of many family members and promises to teach them how to use email so they could get pictures. I've enlisted my sister for moderator of the discussion boards for when we're gone, so they won't be left alone, and I'll have the newsletters ready to go, but it's going to be tough going more than a week without email or internet! But I'm excited to be going. I love the house they have - surrounded by acres of forest, no logging, no hunting on their land.
I'm leaving near the end of the month. It should be a really fun trip, even though it means driving more than 1000 miles. With a two year old. If only airline tickets were cheaper.
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Starting a home business isn’t easy. You need to know what you mean to sell and how you’ll get it. But most of all, you need to know who you want to sell it to.
In an ideal world, the answer would be “everyone.” But unless you’re a huge corporation with name recognition, it just isn’t practical. And even corporations target their ads.
Let’s say you do cross-stitch and want to sell the finished product. You’ve had complements from all your family and friends of all ages on your skill. But that doesn’t mean you can target everyone.
The most obvious target is people who love cross-stitch. But that can be too vague, especially when your business is just starting out. You need to be more specific.
Think about the kinds of cross-stitch you prefer to do. Angels, children’s themes, nature, animals… you could target any of these categories to start. You could even offer custom work if you have the right software and they send you a picture.
So maybe you aren’t into crafts. You can find a niche for any skill you may have. You might focus on other home businesses as an accountant or on parents of small children for party planning. Even if you go into direct sales or MLM you can consider focusing on a niche, particularly if the market is tight in your area. Figure out how people in a niche can use the products your company offers, and use that information in your marketing.
Your focus on a niche can get attention to your business from people who otherwise may not have considered what you have to offer. Part of your job when you run a business is to think of reasons people would want to buy your products. You can’t wait for your customers to tell you (although they may!), you have to at least give them some ideas.
Of course, you do not want to take focusing on a niche to absurdity. Focusing only on people who want blue widgets to use on their palm trees at their second summer home won’t do you a bit of good. Your niche has to actually have a reasonable number of people in it.
The right niche can give you a huge advantage in your home business. It makes advertising easier and gives your customers an extra reason to buy from you.
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. From money saving tips to parenting and marriage tips, to work at home jobs and businesses, you can get information and support here. You can visit the site at http://www.homewiththekids.com/home-business/.
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What were we taught by our parents? Go to school, study hard, get a good education and job with a big company and be set for life. Right? Wrong. Although this worked for our parents, many people today find their monthly wage is just not enough. They’re always ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’. Why is this? Economic times are hard, companies protect their bottom line and make do with less staff, still working for the same pay but doing more work. No such thing anymore of job security. More and more companies are forced to close, shattering the hope and dreams of their employees and their families
So why is it that you find some people getting ahead, if times look so bleak? Do you find yourself asking "who, what, why, and how". Who are these people? What are they doing? Why are so many people interested in working from home? How did they start and how do they succeed?
It’s time to take advantage of the power and reach of the Internet. Doing business over the Internet has changed lives both here in Australia and around the world. Most importantly for home businesses, the Internet creates a level playing field that gives every business, large or small, the same opportunity for success. Indications show that the smallest sector of the business community, home-based businesses, is growing at a steady rate, due to a desire to change lifestyles and escape from the corporate world, plus a redirection of individual investment away from shares and property, encouraging people to take more control of their lives.
In today’s world, it seems unrealistic to expect to remain in one career throughout your life. Most people have several different careers in their lifetime. So, the question is posed – “How do you recognize if a home-based business will be a business opportunity?” The best way to solve this is to imagine you are creating and putting together the pieces of an intriguing, challenging and rewarding puzzle. Fit the pieces of your puzzle together, you will have created the complete image, which will become your answer. You must understand that fulfillment will come to you when pieces of your professional and personal life are combined and become whole. The puzzle pieces to examine:
Identify Your Interests
The best way to understand your self is to stop and ask what it is that you enjoy and what makes you happy? In general, people that share mutual passion with their occupations, tend to be more satisfied and more productive. Many people incorrectly assume that interests are something they can enjoy after work, and that these passions cannot be turned into paid work. For example, are you computer savvy? You could become a consultant and work at home.
Identify Your Values
One’s values, which are sometimes difficult to define, may change over time. Determine which daily decisions will provide you with the greatest fulfillment. For example, what do you value most at this point in your life? If you are a parent is it the ability to stay home with your child and watch him or her through daily routines? Or is it the security of knowing a steady stream of income will be coming into your home? Ideally, you want to match the time in terms of both quantity and quality, you spend on activities with your values and guide your life’s decisions accordingly.
Identify Your Motivating Skills
Think of a few of accomplishments in your life that have given you satisfaction. There is usually a common thread that connects your professional and personal sense of achievement. This link is a motivator and provides you with the desire required to succeed. These motivators help you quickly learn skills which are usually displayed in different capacities, and are generally transferable throughout different fields. Motivated skills make you feel proficient and give you enjoyment.
Identify Your Temperament
Knowing your preferences and learning about other people’s preferences can help you become aware of your special strengths, work values, successes and personal styles. You can also understand how people with different preferences can relate to each other. You should also consider your work temperament. For instance, are you calm, excitable, sensitive, anxious, energetic? These qualities need to be taken into consideration when you think about your career choices. For example, are you very energetic, positive with an entrepreneurial spirit? Working in a very conventional job at a conservative company may not be in line with this temperament and would be mismatched to the environment; it can de-energized you and your creativity.
Identify Your Needs
Getting your needs met is imperative. Our priorities transform over time and it is helpful to identify your current needs. When your desires are met and you are feeling satisfied, you are able to free yourself up and clearly orient your life around your values. For example, needs often change and consequently affected future career choices. For many, thoughts they need the stability and schedule of a company position, become comfort and relied upon. Jobs become effortless. As people grow and mature many begin to view the world in a different perspective, wanting a more creative job, eventually leaving to work at a more entrepreneurial position.
Identify Your Standards
These are your absolute requirements for happiness and fulfillment today. We need to constantly adjust to determine what is acceptable and unacceptable to us. Your requirements are constantly evolving and your professional and career goals should reflect these changes.
After you put all these pieces together, you might want to see if your puzzle is accurate. T here may never have been a better time to seriously consider a home based business opportunity, simply because technology has "levelled out the playing field". You don't necessarily need the skills or capital of a successful entrepreneur. These are things that can be developed PROVIDED you have a system to work to. And secondly, because of lifestyle and environmental factors, it is increasingly obvious that people cannot depend on outside factors for their future. Did you know that statistics say that out of 100 people that start working at the age of 25, by the age of 65, 95% of people can not afford to retire!
©2003, Michelle Bond
Michelle Bond is a successful home based business operator. To learn how to create an income stream from your own home to replace your job and develop true financial freedom, visit: www.123-successful.biz
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