Home Business

Summary

Marketing isn’t sleazy, yucky, expensive, or phony - unless you make it that way. (And of course, you won’t.) How you market your business will largely depend on the type of business you run and your own personality. But don’t be fooled into thinking that you are marketing because you’ve responded to Internet ads all day— getting out in front of other people is vital. In fact, marketing isn’t really a separate activity at all, but an integral part of how you operate your business.

Here is a list of the posts that summarize what we talked about.

Work At Home Business Marketing

Marketing Your Home Business

Understanding Home Based Business Marketing

Marketing You and Your Home Business

Announcing Your Home Business

Writing Letters For Your Home Business

Tried and True Home Business Marketing Techniques

More Work At Home Business Marketing Techniques

Few More Work From Home Business Strategies

How Much Home Business Marketing Is Enough

Using Professionals to Help You Market Your Home Business

Finding Professionals to Hone Written Marketing Materials

Using Pros to Craft Your Web Presence

Take care and stay tuned for more information on home based businesses and our work from home opportunities!

Press Release

This is an announcement to all relevant media outlets (radio, television, magazines, newspapers), letting them know that you have news. A lot of these are recycled, particularly if they’re little more than, “Yay! I started my business.” Send one out if you really have something newsworthy to announce - but be sure that it is truly newsworthy. What type of story is the media outlet expected to write or air? Why is the beginning of your business newsworthy? Unless you are doing something no one else has thought of, or you are holding a big event, it probably isn’t. And, after you come up with a newsworthy press release, your work isn’t done.

Plan to spend time calling to follow up on each release sent to each contact. The combination of an extremely newsworthy idea and persistence will work. Anything else will fail. (See Appendix A, “References and Resources,” for press release particulars.) Keep this type of marketing in mind. It isn’t likely to be a good fit when you start your business, but you can certainly build your business to a point when you’re ready to do this—perhaps one to three years down the road.

Marketing on a Budget

I hear you scoffing. ”Radio and TV ads? What, when I win the lottery?” It sounds like the marketing plan for some large, multinational business. And here you are - small, new, feeling poor (or actually poor, or both). There are many ways to market your business without spending five or six figures— or even four. Because the touchstone of good marketing is getting out, meeting people, and telling them about your business, many effective marketing techniques take time, but not much of a direct outlay of cash. You will still spend money, but we’re talking tens or hundreds of dollars, not thousands. So it’s now up to you to get out and meet people - or prepare to do so. Remember that list of ways to market my business I’m asked about? Here are the ones that work for me. (Most don’t cost very much.) Choose one, and do it tomorrow. No clients yet? Phone still quiet? Choose another one, and do it the next day. Still no response? Keep going.

Next we will talk about how much marketing is enough.

Continuing on with more home based business marketing techniques that are useful.

Website

If you’re a service business, your website acts as a sort of virtual brochure. It will be rare that someone contacts you strictly after seeing your website with no other contact. Websites are vital, but they work best in conjunction with other forms of marketing. Although updating your website might be considered part of your marketing work, don’t fixate on your website to the exclusion of meeting real people and connecting.

Cold Calling

I’ve never tried this, and quite frankly, never want to. Before the “do not call” list went into effect, my responses to telemarketers ranged from professional but abrupt to downright nasty (for which I’ve done penance). Because most of us feel the same way, why would you want to market your business in such an annoying way? Can you imagine someone barging into your home any time they feel like it? This is what cold callers are doing - barging in, and unilaterally attempting to change the recipient’s calendar and priorities. Because it’s also time-consuming, draining, and rarely the image you want anyway, you will probably want to avoid it in most instances.

How do you get the attention of that ideal client who is a business? If you can’t find a personal connection, send a marketing package (cover letter and brochure minimum - press clippings if you have them) to the key decision maker. Make a follow-up call one week later, asking if he received the package, and does he have any questions. But even here, be prepared for a low return - many decision makers have gatekeepers, and/or routinely discard unsolicited mail. Avoid any “pseudo-cold-calling” strategies. In other words, don’t call strangers and say that you’re conducting a survey, providing information only, or any other strategy used to weasel out of saying that you’re cold calling.

With the Do Not Call registry in place, calling consumers (for example, private individuals) can be a costly mistake. Businesses are not covered by this registry, however, and some exceptions for calling consumers include calls from charities and calls from political organizations. If you’d still like to make cold calls, particularly to private households, be sure to check out the Federal Trade Commission’s Do Not Call website, ftc.gov/donotcall/. Contact a lawyer if you are uncertain whether the specific calling you are doing is prohibited.

Announcing Your Home Based Business is Key

So, here’s one basic marketing exercise to get you started. Go through your Rolodex (or contact manager or address book). Write a letter announcing your business to almost everyone you know - anyone who might conceivably use your business or recommend it to someone who might use it. Put the letter on your new letterhead. Why send a letter to almost everyone you know? Everyone who knows you, and might refer people to you in a positive manner, should be aware of the opportunity to do so. One of the most overlooked chances to get new clients is failing to mention the business - or failing to directly ask for referrals. Why write a letter? A letter provides the recipient with a visual reminder, written information about your business, and (because you will tuck business cards inside this), cards to hand out to referrals they meet. Well crafted, this letter should provide the recipient with key words and (if room) suggestions of people to look for (for example, “Do you know anyone who…”).

Choosing the Right Recipients for Your Work At Home Business

Because I said ”almost” everyone you know, there are, obviously, a few exceptions. You might not want to send the letter to

• People who know you but don’t like you. Stick to people who respect and admire you.

• People who simply are not in a position to refer your business to others, such as those who are seriously ill or in prison (unless those groups are part of a key target audience for your business).

• What about people you know who are students or unemployed? These are judgment calls. Generally, students are not good referral sources unless they are in graduate studies or working as interns. Unemployed people are likely to be so stressed over their job search that they won’t think to refer you to someone—and it might even be awkward. (“Well, because I blew that interview and you won’t hire me, how about using a friend of mine? He just started his home business.”)

• In general, the closer a person might be to your potential clients, the more likely you should send him a letter. So, a retiree who stays in touch with the corporate office is worth the letter. But a retiree who is out on the water jet skiing, having eschewed contact with former colleagues, should probably be skipped. Although your list can be winnowed, don’t overlook people simply because of how you know them. Yes, you know Betty because you both have kids in the “Mommy and Me” class you both attend. But Betty isn’t restricted to that role even though she might be a full-time mother. She still knows people, stays in touch with them, and could be extremely helpful if she knows the details of your business.

Marketing You and Your Business is very important.

One of the more interesting questions I get is the question, “How do you market yourself?” or “How do you market your business?” Perhaps the question itself isn’t as interesting as the implications that go along with it. The person asking the question is awaiting my answer, expecting it to be succinct. He is hoping to find the one silver bullet that will kill the need for any constant marketing efforts, the one-step, easy routine to riches. Usually, he is disappointed. I tell him to think of a dozen ways to market himself, and I have probably tried them (and gotten clients from most). No, Virginia, there is no microwave dinner style solution to marketing. But this is a good thing. Most of the time, you don’t have to pursue a lot of options that just don’t fit your business or your personality. (There’s one big exception here; most marketing requires getting in front of people sooner or later. But just about everything else is negotiable.) first, let’s look at some basic, tried and true marketing ideas that every business can benefit from.

You’ll need list for marketing you and your home business.

- Address book/Rolodex listing of business contacts, associates, friends

- Computer and word processing software

- Business plan

- Calendar

The Marketing Cycle: A Typical Story

John is a friend of your favorite aunt. He heard about your business, and is considering hiring you. It is late January. You and John talk on the phone. You both like what you hear - he’s your ideal client, and to him, you are his ideal service provider. So, you arrange to meet in early February. There you are in February, snow swirling outside your favorite coffee shop, discussing possible projects and getting to know John a bit better. After an hour or so, the two of you come to the next step. John would like to see what you discussed in a formal quote, with a contract.

You race home from the meeting and prepare the quote and contract. John receives it, thanks you, and says he’ll review it - but he’s going on vacation, so it will probably be early March. He calls you on March 3 and says all is going well. However,

he’d like to expand the use of your services. Would it be possible to rework the quote and present it to his business partners as well? The two of you agree on a date when you will go to his company and make a presentation. It is now late March. Although you are nervous, the presentation goes extremely well. Everyone checks their calendars at the end of the meeting.

Tentatively, you could start on the project in early April. You’ll receive the signed contract, and a deposit, in the mail shortly. Have you noticed that more than two months went by from initial contact to signed contract? Depending on the size of the project, the time could be more or less. The client, too, might be very busy, and simply not as attentive as John was in the previous example. From the time you make first contact until you close, the business could be months, if not a year or more.

This is why marketing your home based business opportunity or program every day, day in and day out, is important. You need to work on your marketing today in order to have business coming in next month, next season, and next year. Plus, John might not have turned into a client. Something might have gone wrong, or you or John might have realized that there wasn’t a good fit. That can happen, and it might happen after you have prepared a quote, made a presentation, and performed other marketing work.

Say the word “marketing” to any group of people, and you’ll see reactions akin to eating a sour lemon. People tend to think of marketing as some sleazy, hard sell gimmick or game that lures the unsuspecting into purchasing something they neither want nor need. But that isn’t necessarily marketing (and it certainly isn’t good marketing). Marketing is simply letting everyone know about you and your business in order to attract clients. And because you will be doing the marketing, and representing your home business, your marketing will have your personal imprint. Here’s the most important thing to know: Next to the actual service you offer, marketing is the most important thing to do. If you don’t market, you won’t have to worry about bookkeeping (well, not much, because not much money will be coming in). You won’t have to worry about expanding, organizing your office, or filing. Without marketing, your home business is nothing more than a well-kept secret.

Work From Home Business need list:

- Business plan

- Calendar

- Rolodex, address book, or contact manager (however you keep track of people you know and their contact information)

Understanding Real Home Based Business Marketing

We’re going to start at the end for this home business section. Here’s the maxim you need to remember: You should be marketing full time or as close to full time as possible. Whenever you are not working on a project for a client, you should be marketing. Whenever you have nothing scheduled on your calendar, you should be marketing. When you have a quiet afternoon, you should be marketing. Marketing should take up a full work week until you get your first client. For the first one to three years of your business, you might spend 50% or more of your time marketing. After three years, that might drop to 35%. No matter how busy you are, you should still spend at least 20% of your time marketing. If that sounds like a lot, let’s consider the marketing cycle. Using the preceding definition, (“letting everyone know about you and your work at home business in order to attract clients”), let’s run through the typical marketing cycle in the next post.

Myths of Work From Home Self Employement Summary

In this article, you took a moment to calculate the benefits and costs of leaving your current job and becoming your own employer. By objectively calculating the cost of regular employment, you have a list of realistic, actual costs you are currently incurring. By comparing these against the costs you will now need to assume as you start your home business, you will gain a realistic sense of the financial
advantages and disadvantages when you compare the two situations.

As you learned in this article, however, assessing the risks is a bit more difficult. How much did risk impact your employment? It’s tough to calculate that, particularly if you were “almost” laid off or “nearly” part of a merger. Likewise, business risks aren’t always easy to pin down. Putting a price tag on months and months of worry over what “almost” happened can be tough to do as well. The better suited you are to self-employment, the less risk such an undertaking represents.

Be sure to check out our other 3 posts to reference what we are talking about the myths of home business self employment.

Myths of Work From Home Self Employement Summary

Home Based Business Job Information

Work From Home Business Risks

Be back soon with more great information on the home business industry!

Over the past few days I have talked about how a home business start up is supposed to take place and how the preparation is needed.

Home Business Summary

At this point, your office is set up, your phone log is waiting to be filled, and you have probably
given notice. Now is the time, if you have any doubts or questions, to go back and reread any
section in the website, to rerun your budget figures, or to revisit an issue about which you solved yet
are still feeling uncertain.

If you are ready to go, you are probably wondering what you are going to do now. After all, you
have no clients - just a sparkling business plan and a new home office. Be sure that you set the alarm clock for your regular waking time. Even if the phone never rings tomorrow, you will need to put in a full day at your home office.

You can find the previous posts below!

How Long Should I Keep These Records?

The length of time for which you must maintain your business records varies by type:

• Client contact information. As long as a client is active, all contact information should be readily available. Records for clients who are not active, but with whom you are on good terms, should be kept, too - these contacts are excellent sources for mailings, and provide additional value should you choose to sell your business down the road.

Working files should be kept for at least several years - long enough to be sure that the service or product provided has been paid for and its value not called in to question. What are working files? They are the notes, drafts, papers, and other items you accumulate as you work on a project. They are not the finished project itself, but the preliminary drafts, discussions, and note that lead to the final version.

If there are legal, ethical, or other considerations in your profession, you might need to keep your working files longer. (For instance, attorneys, accountants, and insurance agents might be required, either by laws or the ethical canons of their profession, to maintain records for a set period of time. If you are in these businesses, you should know these regulations quite well.) Personal preference comes in to play, too. I know some writers who still have working notes from stories published 20 years ago - and I know other writers who toss all papers as soon as a story is published and they are paid.

Keeping working files for at least three to five years, however, is not a bad idea and will help your work at home business.

• Financial records should be kept as long as you own your business. Because it is relatively easy to maintain a lot of records on your computer, you can keep the basic information there while archiving physical paper files to a storage facility after several years. If the electronic files get too cumbersome, move them off your computer and onto a CD-ROM or DVD. It seems odd to keep years and years of financial records handy, but as you run your business, you might want to have these files readily accessible. Even if you move the records to some type of electronic storage each year, keep the records handy. The information stored in them is valuable to you, as you watch for year-to-year trends, and compare each year with prior years.

Setting Up Your Home Based Business Office Space

You have your record-keeping functions in order; now you’re ready to set up your office space. But before you connect all that shiny, new equipment from the last article, make sure that these items are in order:

• Is your electrical system up to the task? Are the outlets where they need to be? Are the phone jacks near the actual phone base? Is the wiring “iffy”? Then have it inspected and upgraded before proceeding.

• Is your office space dry and free from water leaks? Leaks can damage costly equipment, so address the problem right now.

• Give your home office that extra coat of paint if needed. Buy a new rug, hang your favorite painting, and make it comfortable. You will be spending a lot of time here. Make it comfortable!

• Your home office might have been the family junk room before you took it over - end that pattern! Furniture, wall hangings, or knickknacks that just don’t fit in other parts of the home are not allowed in your office.

Get your physical home business office as ready as you possibly can. You will want to start operating out of this office right now (if you haven’t been already).