Building your MLM residual income opportunity requires a long term strategy. Whether your are looking to start a new MLM business, or you are seeking to expand your exiting business, good planning is the key to building a substantial residual income. This article will give you the important issues that you need to consider, and provide answers that have proven to be successful.

Your success with a MLM residual income opportunity depends upon the MLM company and upon your own business plan.

MLM Companies for Stable Residual Income

To enjoy residual income, you want your company to still be around twenty years from now. Favor a MLM company which has a history of at least ten years of successful operation, with stable earnings growth. You want your customers to order monthly on auto-ship, so you are looking for highly consumable products, and excellent customer service.

The compensation plan needs to give you substantial commissions on sales of your downline at several levels, and allow you to retain your commission privileges without excessive personal sales volume. Finally, have a close look at your company’s terms and conditions for distributors, and the experiences of other distributors. You don’t want to find yourselves terminated on minor technicalities.

MLM Business Plan Options

Your long term goal is to build a growing downline of successful distributors that will generate the residual income you desire. There are two approaches to choose from:

Leading with the Opportunity

This works well if you have a large downline already and can position yourself as a successful business owner. This will attract prospects to you because they are seeking someone who can show them how to be successful.

Once you have signed up your new distributor, you want to train him how to duplicate your success and stay with you. If you cannot do that, he is likely to drop out within a couple of months. You can handle a high drop out rate if you have a large downline with a steady stream of referrals. When you are starting up, however, you need to have people stay with you and help to accelerate the growth of your business.

Leading with the Products

In the beginning stages of building upon your MLM residual income opportunity, leading with your products has two advantages.

First, you can easily position yourself as an expert in product related benefits, even if you don’t have a flourishing business yet. This gives you the all important competitive advantage.

Second, product customers will stay with you as long as they see benefits in using the product. Regular follow-up with your customers is a simple way to keep them aware of their benefits, stay with your products, and even generate referrals.

Direct Marketing Strategy for MLM Products

Leading with the products is highly effective, if you adopt direct marketing strategies. There are three features that distinguish direct marketing from the conventional MLM approaches, and that make it the strategy of choice for building upon a MLM residual income opportunity.

First, you are not marketing the company or the products, but you are marketing yourself as an expert and a trusted solution provider. From this position, you build a list of personal leads who know and trust you, and to which you can now market your products on a more personal level.

Second, not everyone is your prospect. Marketing yourself as an expert requires that you choose a profitable niche within the wider market for your products. In fact, the more details you can find out about your particular audience, the more direct you can address their needs and desires, and the better the response that you will get. Plus you will find less competitors in a narrower market.

Third, in marketing yourself to a specific target market, you are not restricted to your local area. You are now able to use the phone and the internet to reach thousands of prospective customers with your targeted marketing message, and put them into you sales process for follow-up.

MLM Residual Income Through Direct Marketing

As you can see, the best MLM residual income opportunity is one that you can approach by leading with your products through direct marketing. This allows you to build a profitable product based MLM business, and thereby establishes you as a successful business owner. New distributors will be drawn to you, and you can now train them in using the marketing tools and strategies that you have developed. They will duplicate your own success, and stay with you, generating a growing stream of residual income.

This is a proven “underground” approach that is now being used by hundreds of successful home business owners. It will require that you invest some time and resources into the right training; an investment that will transform your MLM residual income opportunity into a solid continuous income stream.

Dr. Kai Druhl is a well respected network marketer. The “underground” marketing strategies that he is revealing in his sought after reports and videos have generated more than $14,000,000 in profits, for networkers just like you.

Discover how to apply the powerful MLM marketing strategies from this article to your business step by step, starting right from where you are. Click the link now for your free MLM marketing reports and videos.

Author: Dr. Kai Druhl
Article Source: EzineArticles.com

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Everyone is looking for the golden chalice. Internet businesses abound. The world wide web is flooded with this opportunity and that opportunity. When asking yourself “what can I do to earn a little extra money” you might turn to the idea of an internet business as a possible solution. So you start looking. Finding some websites that look promising, you start requesting some information by giving out your name and your email. Your email is flooded every day with offers for you to make money on the internet confusing you more and more every day. You start the process of “opting out” because the number of emails is overwhelming and taking up way too much of your valuable time. The information overload that is occurring is astounding! The search for the right residual income opportunity to fit your needs can be simplified if you follow the basic principles presented in this article.

The decision to become an affiliate of any residual income opportunity is entirely up to you. Never forget that! Your search should be based on your own personality traits and desires, not necessarily on the suggestions and sales pitches of others. Think in terms of what you would like to do. The “how am I going to do it” will come naturally if you write down your goals and aspirations. One of the key benefits of choosing your own residual income opportunity is that you get to do it your way for a change. You are your own boss!

Understand the nature of the residual income opportunity customers. Any business survives because it’s customers keep coming back to buy more. Your customers provide recurring income when you take care of them. Offer discounts and specials that will retain your customers. Your downline is part of your customer base!

A residual income opportunity is viral. As an affiliate for a particular business line, each of the respective affiliates that are a part of your immediate downline have their own franchise, their own downline. They build their business pretty much the same way you build yours, one affiliate at a time. In time, you could see your downine and all of the affiliates in your organization grow into thousands! If a member of your downline decides to opt out of the business, their downline is still considered part of your downline. A good analogy of this is grafting a branch onto a tree. Their branch remains part of your tree. It never stops growing, even after your own retirement.

Any residual income opportunity should offer passive income. Your business, if set up correctly, will grow and generate income on a regular basis on auto-pilot! This comes from building the number of members in your downline. Many affiliates put their focus on team building. You can be the Director or CEO of a business where you spend most of your time answering emails, going to meetings, and speaking about how you built your business. Or you could be enjoying yourself by spending more time with your family, going on cruises to far away places, and living the life you have always wanted. And all the while, your residual income business opportunity is working in the background very hard. When you get home, the check from your residual income opportunity is in the mail or direct deposited to your account. Time for another cruise!

A residual income opportunity needs to be marketed effectively. The internet offers uncounted ways to market your business. The more common ways include Google adwords, blogs, websites, article directories, forums of many kinds, email lists, ebooks, search engines that you can submit to, and many, many more. It’s so easy, you can do it yourself or hire a company to do it for you.

A residual income opportunity should be optimized. It does not make any sense to expose a product line or opportunity to someone who wants flowers if your business is not about flowers! Optimization techniques for your residual income business require correct search engine optimization of your website, ads, articles and emails. An example of this is keywords. If you want to sell flowers, one of your keywords should be “flowers”. Your residual income opportunity will get a better response if your customers are targeted.

These are just some of the aspects of a good residual income opportunity. This business is flexible. This business is exciting! It is truly the only business opportunity that can be taken up by anyone, from any walk of life.

Leonard Bartholomew Is An Authority On Developing Home Based Internet Businesses. Get more Information On Residual Income Opportunity Building.

Author: Leonard Bartholomew
Article Source: EzineArticles.com

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Internet Home Business For Beginners – How to Avoid Failure

By Jwe Wee

Each of us have own reason of starting an Internet Home business. Most of us don’t like working under supervision, hate meeting the clients, hate working long hour, hate going to the office early morning, hate the rush hour but we do love making lots of easy money. Most people see Internet home business is the perfect gateway for all these.

When it comes to making money over the internet, people have the tendency to think “Less work but more money”. That’s where many people got it all wrong about online businesses. That’s a common mistake made by many typical beginners. They have the wrong picture of what online business is about. It’s kind of stupid to operate a machine if you don’t know how to make it work. The same thing goes with running your own business. Knowing what you will have to face along the way is the best way to avoid failure.

How to avoid failure in Internet home business:

Get ready to work more.

Nothing will happen without hard work. Starting a business means lots of thing need to be done, so more work to do. If you think running your own business is the solution to your problem with working long hour, then you are about to see yourself fail. Owning a real business is going to be most far way ahead if you don’t see the needs to dedicate effort to grow the business.

Breast yourself with online marketing skills.

The biggest challenge of running a home business online is to make people notice your present. The only thing stopping most online business owners from stand-out in the World Wide Web is lacking of online marketing skills. This is the skill that every Internet home business owner will come to learn to embrace in order to move forward.

Your ability to market your business is all about desire to acquire the knowledge you need to know. If you decide to skip that part, you must hire others from Online Marketing Service Company to do it for you. However, making effort to learn the skills for yourself is going to give you more advantages in the long run. You will need to market your business all the time; you should at least know the basic skills of online marketing so that you are not lost in performing a major task of running your business as a whole.

Set your mind to it.

I know you want to run your own business because you want to make more money, so does everyone else. But does everyone is in the right mind set of running a business? When you run a business from home, you can decide how to make it work but might run the risk of sacrificing your own personal time. Some people find balancing time for work and personal needs can become stressful. If you have a family you might find yourself into an argument about the extra time you spend doing work. That kind of situation can hold you back that is why you need to think about where you will place the line between work and personal life. Maximize the time that you have secured for work- plan what need to be done and stick to it.

Give your business a solid chance to earn significant income. You will have to face some difficulties before you finally see how everything makes sense. If you have set your mind on building an Internet home business, you must make yourself accountable and plan how to tackle these challenges so that you can avoid failure.

If a stay-at-home mom can turn what she do for fun into a profit-potential Home Business, so can you.

If you do not know where to begin, visit me at Legitimate Home Business for Beginners to see how I did it.

Article Source: Internet Home Business For Beginners – How to Avoid Failure

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There are many reasons why a person starts their own home based business. They simply want to add to their current income in order to help make ends meet, or to purchase something special like a car, or to build a college fund for their children. Others start their business to replace their job so they can spend more time with their family, or because they do not have a retirement plan. And some have a desire to be wealthy and independent.

Almost immediately, they run up against one of the three major reasons why most people fail to succeed in their home business.

They Do Not Have Enough Time

We know that many people start their home business while they are still working a regular job. Soon they discover that there just is not enough time to do all the tasks required to be successful in the 2 or 3 hours they set aside each evening. One major cause of failure is the seemingly endless hours required to phone strangers, or cold calling.

They Do Not Have the Skills

Most people have never been trained in the basic skills necessary to build their business. One example is cold calling. Most people are scared to death of the telephone. They do not know what to say that will get the interest of a total stranger. They do not know how to overcome objections. And, they sure do not know how to close the sale. They are simply not a professional sales person!

They Do Not Have the Money

Leads are the lifeblood of any new business. Only from leads can they get prospects and eventually customers or partners. Leads cost money – either by buying expensive lists, or by buying expensive advertising. Most people find very quickly that they do not have the budget for these costs.

What if there was a way to eliminate these three main obstacles? Well, they cannot be eliminated, because they are essential to the success of any business.

A Proven Home Business to make your first $1,000! Some sites claim you will make $50,000 this month. I say “give me $1,000 this WEEK and I’ll be happy!” If you agree go http://www.hngleng.com/. 

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Lot of people tries to find way to make extra money so that they can have a much better and a more comfortable lifestyle for themselves as well as for their family. Online making money is one method which is gaining lot of popularity. So what do you need to get started?

First step is to find a genuine method or strategy which is easy to understand and is appropriate for you. Internet is full of scammer trying to lure you but will not help you earn instead they are meant to only help the owners make money. Some of the other system might be authentic but aiming at much experienced internet marketers. Ensure that you invest in the right kind of program.

Once you have found the right program, the next step is to create your own webpage. It is no more complicated to design your own webpage as there are many applications available which will guide you through each step and you can create beautiful layout in matter of few hours. These applications are free to download and easy to understand.

Focusing on the content of the website you just created is a very important factor in promoting the website. Hence the subject should be interesting and well written. There will be lot of visitors to your website if the content written is interesting. The term affiliate marketing is a technique of making money online by promoting others product and services in your webpage.

If the traffic to your webpage increases the more money you will generate through it. Keep your web content updated in order to rank high on the search engines. Blogs and post should redirect the visitors to your webpage, also be aware of the more popular term that people use to describe their search need and incorporate it to your webpage so when they look for it your website appears in the top.

If all this seems a bit difficult to understand do not worry as soon you will be able to understand how the internet marketing industry works. As soon as you get a reliable program or course and follow it fully you will be earning money in no time.

If you are thinking of making money without putting any effort, it cannot happen as that is how lazy people think. So be ready to explore and learn about making money online through affiliate marketing.

Initial success will not happen overnight. It will require hard work, commitment and constant efforts. Do not give up at the very beginning because the probability of hitting the jackpot at the first attempt is very low. So be more practical in your approach and you can earn a massive amount of money on the internet over a period of time.

A Proven Home Business to make your first $1,000! Some sites claim you’ll make $50,000 this month. I say “give me $1,000 this WEEK and I’ll be happy!” If you agree go http://www.hngleng.com/.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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