Copyright © 2008 Stephen Malan
Almost any home business idea today involves Internet in one way or another. The good news is however, you can have a totally Internet-based business if you do it right. There are many advantages to this and in this article we want to talk about those.
When you begin to talk about Internet business ideas you first have to consider the product that you are going to be selling. Anything can be sold on the Internet today, but one problem people have is coming up with a product of their own to sell.
Many home businesses make this easy for you by providing a product, training, support material such as websites, and totally automating your business for you by collecting the money and shipping the product. Network marketing is one way this is done and so is affiliate marketing.
Many people choose to start their Internet business as an affiliate marketer, because they can get started for free. Affiliate marketing is an actual way to make money on the Internet today because your product and everything you need to make money is provided for you.
You get paid to make sales and the more you sell the more commission you earn on the products that you do sell. The downside to affiliate marketing is, if you strictly use the marketing materials and websites that are provided free by the affiliate merchant, you will be competing with thousands of other merchants doing exactly the same thing.
What makes affiliate marketing such an excellent home business is that you are able to interject your own personality by starting a website or blog for your product. This allows you to be different than the competition and to create your own Internet business in the way that you want to.
For people who want to work at home, affiliate marketing is appealing because all you need is a computer with Internet access. You don't need any special training, you don't have the inventory products, and you can work the hours that fit into your schedule, because the Internet is open for business 24 hours a day.
This is a very powerful benefit when you compare it to a traditional business. Most traditional businesses are open from eight to five, Monday through Friday and some are open on the weekends. You are really only open for business when either you or your employees show up. With an Internet business it never closes regardless of whether you're working or not.
What makes this truly a fantastic business idea is the fact that everything is Internet-based. For this reason people are flocking to affiliate marketing and looking at it as one of the best home business ideas and so can you.
Stephen Malan is a full time internet marketer based in Las Vegas, NV. USA. For more home business ideas, please visit his blog at http://www.homebusiness-blog.com or his website at http://www.thehomebizmart.com
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Why Home Business Ideas Involving The Internet Are The Best
Is Midlife Entrepreneurship for You?
Do you think that entrepreneurship is just for the young? That anyone past 50 is simply too old to start up a business? That midlife is the time when you should be thinking about retiring and preparing to live on less? If you do and if you are, then midlife entrepreneurship isn't for you.
However, if you are someone who . . .
* has a strong desire for autonomy and independence,
* is a self-motivated starter,
* knows how to evaluate and take calculated risks,
* is highly self-motivated,
. . . then midlife entrepreneurship could be right for you.
I come from a long line of entrepreneurs. My grandfather owned his own business and worked as an electrician up until the day he died. He was 98. My father owned his own private practice and worked as an expert psychological witness up until three months before his passing. I, too, am an entrepreneur. And, like my father and grandfather before me, I enjoy my work, find meaning and value in what I do, and am passionate about making a difference in the world.
What about you? Could midlife entrepreneurship be right for you?
The Changing Face of Retirement
Retirement, and how we view it, has changed dramatically since the beginning of the 20th century. Before pension plans became standard offerings to U.S. workers during World War II, most people continued working until their death, relying on personal savings and family support to sustain them. While 65 is considered the normal retirement age in the U.S., many of today's midlife entrepreneurs eschew that age, preferring instead to remain actively involved in their businesses well into their 80s. With Baby Boomers comprising nearly half the country's self-employed workers (7.4 million), entrepreneurship among seniors is growing (so say reports from AARP and the U.S. Department of Labor). People turning 50 today still have lots of life ahead of them, and each year more than four million men and women join their ranks.
So, what is retirement, then? Is it the time when you stop work completely or is it the time when you retire from one job and begin another? Does it start at a certain age or depend on the number of years you have served in a specific capacity? Is it based on your physical condition or your personal choice?
10 Reasons for Becoming a Midlife Entrepreneur
1. You're healthy with many years ahead of you.
2. You want to stay involved and engaged.
3. You enjoy generating extra income.
4. You get to build a business around something you enjoy and are passionate about.
5. You have a full Rolodex and 20-30 years of experience to back you.
6. You want the independence and flexibility that comes from working for yourself.
7. You have confidence and experience, and know what you're good at.
8. You may already have a pool of money saved to help finance your business.
9. You can do business from home, using the Internet as your storefront.
10. As an entrepreneur, you aren't discriminated against because of your age.
So what does retirement mean to entrepreneurial men or women who have successfully woven passion into what they do as small business owners? Do they plan on retiring when they reach the age of 65? Do they even want to?
If you are happily turning your passion into profit, it's hard to think about stopping. Oh, sure, you could use some time away, an extended vacation, even a more relaxed pace. But do you actually want to retire and cease what you're doing? Or would you rather stay involved, continuing to contribute, and enjoying life fully?
These days retirement is what you make it. At present, the Baby Boomer generation is redefining retirement, shunning the conventional traditions of stopping, ceasing, and leaving in favor of staying involved, continuing to contribute, and following their passion. Like so many of them, you, too, might find that there are some very compelling reasons to either become or continue being an entrepreneur, well past midlife.
Successful Small Business Start Up Coach, Consultant, & Author takes the fear out of starting up businesses by providing value, inspiration, and direction to entrepreneurial women transforming lives and making a difference in the world. Accidental Pren-her™ Blog is where entrepreneurial women come to embrace their Inner Samurai.
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Give Your Business a Great Name!
Deciding on a name is one of the most exciting parts of starting up a business.
The only problem with choosing the name of your business is that so much rides on your business name. It's a little like choosing a name for your baby. A little like? Make that a lot like! It's no easier choosing a name for your business than it is choosing a name for your baby.
What's in a business name? You want it to be everything. Sadly, many business names are nothing. Deciding on a great business name takes time. It takes thought. Moreover, getting it wrong could spell disaster for your business. Getting it right, however, will give customers a reason to hire you, connect you to your niche market, and save you thousands of marketing dollars.
You want your business name to have a big impact on people. This, in turn, will have a big effect on your market. A name that's too far out may make it difficult to brand. A name that's too generic and common is easily ignored. Naming your business "Sarah's Cookies" may make all the sense in the world to you. In most cases, however, your own name means very little to your customers because it says nothing memorable or of distinction.
The key to picking a great name for your business is to make it memorable. Make it distinctive. Don't make it silly or cute. Your name should reflect your market niche and identity and be able to reach your customer base easily. So don't mess it up!
Top Five Characteristics of a Great Business Name
1. It's short.
2. It's specific and reflects a specialized business: Jiffy Lube, Home Depot.
3. It's unique. Consider using words that are not in the dictionary: Alkamae, Google, Squidoo.
4. It's creative. Don't copy, borrow, or modify existing famous brand names. Got Milk? has its own branding. Leave Victoria's Secret to Victoria.
5. It's an easy name to say, spell, and remember. Use proper English construction so that when put in a sentence, it will work: "I just purchased a book from Amazon."
Five Popular Business Naming Trends to Avoid
1. Don't abbreviate your business name. Though it may make communication and correspondence easier, acronyms are sterile.
2. Avoid anything that ends in "global", enterprise", or "Inc." They're passé.
3. Avoid using your own name. Build your brand on your company, not on your name. That way, if you decide to sell your company one day, it will be easier to sell.
4. Don't hyphenate your business name. It makes remembering and writing it difficult. Plus, a hyphenated web name is hard to read.
5. Avoid geographical names unless you're trying to create a strong local affinity. The name "Willow Oak Center for Arts and Learning at Robertson County" works because this is a business targeted specifically for Robertson County in Tennessee.
Once you've found your name, consider trademarking it through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and registering it through the Secretary of State offices. If your business operates on the Internet, be aware that domain names are not registered through state or local government, so just registering them at domain registration sites is not enough to protect your great business name.
There is more to naming your business than just coming up with something that sounds good, is clever, or you just happen to like. Naming your business is a serious matter. Your business name reflects your image, your brand, and your position in the marketplace. Because your business name is crucial to your overall branding success and marketing efforts, make your business name count.
Make it great!
Small Business Start Up Coach, Consultant, & Author takes the fear out of starting up businesses by providing value, inspiration, and direction to entrepreneurial women transforming lives and making a difference in the world. Accidental Pren-her™ Blog is where entrepreneurial women come to embrace their Inner Samurai.
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Effectively Creating a Strategic Marketing Plan
Copyright © 2008 Christian Fea
Strategic marketing is an excellent means of propelling your business to the next level of revenues. Indeed, the adage, "no man is an island" is particularly applicable in strategic marketing; the more islands you align yourself with, the greater your network, and the more powerful your revenue earning potential.
Yes indeed, we all know that strategic marketing is powerful. But how can you create an effective strategic marketing plan? Strategic marketing is a term that is thrown around casually and frequently, but how many people actually know how to execute a successful strategic marketing plan? In this article, I shall happily walk you through the steps of incorporating strategic marketing into your business arsenal.
Step 1: Understand your target customer base
The fundamental goal of strategic marketing is to utilize each other's strengths to reach a larger audience base ' perhaps one that would not be available to the individual companies without the strategic marketing endeavour. Evaluate your current base of customers, and envision your ideal future mix of clients. Based upon this analysis, you should then consider which companies already possess the client base that you desire. Or, what company would be able to work with you in order to help you both obtain a client base that was individually out of reach.
Step 2: Evaluate what your customers need
When you think of your business from the customer's perspective, it is often quite different than yours. Instead of evaluating what products would be easy for you to sell to them ' consider what products your customers need. This will help you find a strategic marketing partnership that can fulfil what customers' needs. In addition, look at the bigger scope. If you are trying to reach a larger audience base, what type of packaged advertising would be most compelling to their needs? For example, if you are an accounting firm, then would your clients possibly also need legal service? A successful strategic marketing plan is based upon clients' needs.
Step 3: Analyze the marketing tools to use
Marketing avenues abound, meaning that you can carefully pick and choose which marketing tools you use. Will you use offline, online, and/or word-of-mouth advertising? Decide if you want to create email marketing, PPC, or blog campaigns. Will you collaborate together on publishing articles, or perhaps split a booth at your industry trade show? Would you sponsor an industry event together, or perhaps publish a white paper jointly? The options for traditional and creative marketing are endless. It is important to create a strategic marketing campaign that will highlight the strengths of both companies ' and most effectively reach the target audience.
Step 4: Implementation!
Once you have laid the groundwork for the strategic marketing plan, it is time to implement the excitement! Working together with a partner can open up significant more doors, in both revenues and market share exposure. Make sure that your plan is well thought out, and that you both are on the same page, and you will be ready to push the "go" button on an endeavour that can take your business earnings to the next level.
Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A strategic Collaboration Marketing consulting firm. He empowers business owners to discover and implement Integration, Alliance, and Joint Ventures marketing tactics to solve specific business challenges. He demonstrates how to create your own Collaboration Marketing Strategy to increase your sales, conversation rates, and repeat business.
Contact: christian@christianfea.com
http://www.christianfea.com
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Business Plan Should Show Action Beyond The Plan
Putting together a business plan can be a time-consuming effort in futility if you forget the main ingredient of the plan. Before any plan can be effective, it has to have the means of providing the execution to make the plan work. With prescribed actions to execute the steps in the business plan, all it will be is a list of hopes and dreams.
For example, a business plan may stipulate the company will sell a thousand widgets every day in order to bring in enough money to meet payroll and other expenses. It may even go so far as to project who will sell them but if the plan does not stipulate how they will be sold and, more importantly to whom, the plan is nothing more than a dream. Execution is the principal means behind any valued plan, detailing who will do what, when and how to allow the plan to be scripted completely.
On the other hand, any business can be planned to death. Meaning entirely too much time is spent on putting a plan on paper and never putting it into action. Even a great business plan is useless unless a timeline is attached to every step of the plan to put it into motion and follow through on making it work.
Another example is in assigning tasks to a group under the supervision of one person. By sitting down with that person and discussing the project, it can be agreed as to what tools will be needed to get the job done, how many people will be required to complete it in a specified time frame and at what cost. By enlisted the help of the individual in charge in putting the plan together, that person has a vested interest in making sure it is done on time and within budget.
Once the plan is on paper and put into action, there has to be a certain amount of follow-up to insure the project is going as planned and if any adjustments are needed they can be made before it is too late. After the first few days, the supervisor can be asked about the project and if everything looks good and they claim everything is going according to plan and is on schedule, it probably is. If they hedge about being ale to get done on time and admit there have been underestimates made about how long it will take, they can have input on what else is needed to remain on schedule.
If the supervisor continues to express optimism of being able to get done on time and the owner sees that it is becoming more obvious it is not going to happen, they may need to reassess their choice of the person in charge and hold them accountable for not being on schedule. With their buy-in from the beginning as part of the planning stage and their help in determining what is needed, they cannot pass fault back to the business owner for not giving them what they need to get the job done. It would be their failure to execute the plan to make it work and should be held responsible.
About the Author:
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To find the best home based business ideas and opportunities so you can work at home visit:
http://www.pluginprofitsite.com/main-21471
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Can You Really Make Money At Home?
There are many people that get online every day looking for ways that they can use to make money at home. There are so many ways that a lot of people don't even realize you can do. If you are serious about having your own internet business then you need to make sure that you take the time to find the right business for you. When you like what you do you will find that becoming successful with it is so much easier.
Anyone can make money at home if you are willing to work hard, put in the time and effort and don't ever give up. That is basically all it takes, besides patience, to make money online with your own internet business. You won't be able to become successful if you expect everything to be handed to you or done for you. You have to work to make it happen for you just like all the other successful online business owners have.
When you are serious about having your own successful internet business, you want to make sure that you do your research. Look at as many different ways to make money at home as you can. Save the ones that interest you so you can go over them thoroughly later. This is very important because you don't want to rush your decision. If you do then you will find that you will end up jumping from one business opportunity to the next, instead of building one business to be successful.
Once you have found the right internet business for you, you need to take some time to learn as much as you can about it. That way if your customers ask you questions, you will look like a professional and be able to help them. If they don't feel like you know what you are talking about then they will move on to deal with someone who does. So always make sure you know your business as much as you can.
Then you just need to start advertising your business. This is the one thing you have to do if you want to be successful and make money at home. People have to be able to find your business website, if they can't you will never make any money. So you want to make sure that you advertise as much as you can every day.
Anyone can make money at home if you are willing to take the time to find the right internet business for you. Too many people don't do this and then wonder why they are always failing. Don't be one of them. Do things the smart way from the start and you will soon find that you have a successful home business.
Paul Jesse invites you to visit his make money from home online website today. His Work At Home Directory was created for people who want to make money online, make money at home, or simply start a home based business. To learn more internet marketing tips please click here now: ===> http://http://www.sheamarketing.com/
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How to Sell Successfully in a Recession
The debate is on whether we actually are in or still approaching a recessionary period. If you have been paying attention to the newspapers and television news, then you know that our economy is in a tailspin. The media-painted news is bleak as each new day reveals an additional economic issue. It seems that both consumer confidence and spending are down, mortgage foreclosures are up, savings are down, the unemployment rate is up and consumer prices of just about everything are rising. What is there to do when you are a salesperson needing to make a living in such a mess?
Downward trends are indeed a stressful time posing numerous challenges, yet they do indeed present many opportunities. You might ask a certain real estate agent how his business is; he responds saying it is the worst market he has seen in years and does not know what to do. Ask another and she might tell you that she is excited and it is the best market opportunity that she has seen in years. It is truly a matter for one's perspective. For those clients who are financially able, now is an outstanding time to acquire property at a huge discount. She chooses to focus on those clients looking for bargains. The other agent already gave up, saying "woe is me."
I am not at all suggesting that the current economic scenario is that simple to overcome in all markets. There is no single answer to all these complex issues, yet there is a single superb approach. The keys here are "current scenario" and "downward trends." There will always be hills and valleys in every economic cycle. The tide will certainly turn at some point and a general wellspring of opportunity will spread over the marketplace. But for now, we must adapt to the current conditions.
What can you do now to help ensure your income stability and peace of mind?
1 Re-train. Become the local expert in your field. Learn more about the other products you have in your arsenal.
2. Study new markets that provide somewhat consistent opportunities for growth such as food production, pharmaceuticals, hospitals, utilities, laboratories, safety and ergonomics, etc...
3. Make more of an effort to brand yourself. Establish yourself as a valued expert. Focus and specialize.
4. Market yourself: Publish a blog, provide a regular newsletter, write articles, and utilize email marketing to better stay in touch with clients.
5. Believe in yourself and the unique value that you bring to the selling table.
Forget about being a generalist and become a specialist. Focus on one particularly profitable niche in your industry and become the "go-to" person in your marketplace. We all have a unique product line or service that offers greater value and superior profit margins. Learn all you can about them. Establish your expertise and publicize it well. Get the word out. Be confident of the value that you offer.
I recently utilized this strategy at a local Tier 1 automotive supplier by seizing an opportunity to help them with a unique problem. They were impressed by my response and ability to remedy their situation. I asked about similar areas of their plant and the opportunity to address their issues before they became problems. They liked my pro-active approach and allowed me to proceed. That success soon generated others. In fact, their plant manager sent me an email this past week asking me to meet with him to discuss multiple opportunities for our products and services in their plant.
That company has quickly become a major account. I have been successfully designated their "go-to guy." We have demonstrated our capabilities and proven our ability and expertise. Interestingly, I started working with this account a mere six months ago. I have a goal to develop five more similar accounts over the next six months. Each one is already identified and a strategy has been implemented.
There are great opportunities; plenty of them, regardless of the state of the economy. Do not give in to the negativity presented by the media. Focus on your core strengths and decide which clients need your expertise. Select prospective companies that are in a strong financial position to weather this downturn and get busy. Be assertive. Become their "go-to" person and don't ever look back.
Daniel Sitter, author of both Learning For Profit and Superior Selling Skills Mastery, has garnered extensive experience in sales, training, marketing and personal development spanning a successful 25 year sales career. Experience his blog at http://www.idea-sellers.com
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How Much Do You Know About Naming a Business?
How Much Do You Know About Naming a Business?
Find out how much you know about business naming.
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Is e-commerce for me?
Copyright © 2008 Adam Nowak
Small businesses run up against the same obstacles on the market as big corporations. They also have to respond quickly to any changes and meet the clients' needs. Big firms can afford expensive promotion and media advertising. For small enterprises e-commerce is nowadays an important development factor. .
One report announced that, according to research carried out in September, an average Briton had spent around 250 pounds on the Internet while the average of all countries polled amounted to 123 pounds. In the USA each consumer spent on shopping the equivalent of 119 pounds. Another good news is, this year more people decide to shop online compared with last year. Shopping is obviously one of the possible options of running business online.
Product
How to recognize if it is the right time to start online activity, too? To find out what goods and services are most frequently offered via the Internet and which are not it will suffice to look through the websites of firms and shops. Selling on the Web has its advantages and limitations. There is nothing new about mail-order sales or remote-order service. The advantage is that firms using the Internet carry out their activity at a low cost. A mail-order bookstore does not have to incur lease related costs of a well situated establishment, neither does it employ staff. A warehouse, if needed, can be located a long way from the city centre, where space related costs are low. You can reach clients from remote areas or even from abroad. As in almost every mail-order system, shipping costs constitute a problem, though. Furthermore, some goods are only advertised rather than sold directly via the Internet, like for instance cars, complex equipment, and machinery. It is also difficult to sell online the goods covered by regulation, e.g. black powder guns. Some chemicals or services including direct contact with the client (massage therapist, plumber and the like) constitute a problem as well. In this case the Internet will remain only a form of advertising, unfortunately, not so efficient as local press since you should not expect someone to come from the far end of the country to buy goods. Certainly it is always worth having a website, although you cannot expect miracles of it.
Taking attractiveness to potential clients into consideration, one can divide online goods and services into two groups. The first one includes these elements which have to compete in terms of price and product range with the offer of traditional stores. The other covers rare goods, not that easily accessible, unique, and intended for a special consumer. Here online sales has a great potential.
Do your customers use the Internet?
It is worth wondering who buys my products and uses my services. Naturally, the majority of people who buy software, computers, and electronic gadgets of all kinds are the potential Internet users, whereas goods for the old may not sell well this way. The same will apply for local market goods. You can always try to expand the target group of consumers by offering also online shopping; however, you should consider the costs that are worth incurring in this case, including both direct ones and labour related ones (updating, introducing new products and the like).
The services that do not require direct contact with the customer are also recommended for online selling, as in case of tourist or financial services,. There is no need to send any products here but for the confirmation of signing the contract via traditional mail. It is worth paying attention to developing services, such as e-consultancy, e-training and the like.
Among frequently bought items are also printer accessories,, basic office equipment, or vacuum paper bags. They can be bought in many places, nevertheless, in an online shop a wide range of products are available round the clock. What is more, the shops which "remember" what their customers bought facilitate further shopping.
We launch e-commerce
Each new way of selling is a challenge for a firm. It is reliability that matters to the client. It is unacceptable that when an order via the Internet is received, there is no assigned person who is going accept it and prepare goods for shipment. First, you should consider the outsourcing of running the website and shop. If you decide to have your own website, it is worth using the services of an expert agency, whose specialists will support us with drawing up a marketing plan or advertising and preparing the visual site identification and competition analysis. A correctly built online shop should as well be able to handle such problems as: how to facilitate the process of placing an order for customers and how to prevent the phenomenon of abandoned shopping carts.
The websites of firms which begin their Internet adventure contain the elements that can negatively influence the way companies run their business. For instance, such firms boast about the producers and distributors they cooperate with by putting names on a site as well as links to their websites. Taking a small company starting its business into account, we show the potential customer where to look for the item which they are interested in (our offer may not prove to be the best).
Good websites certainly bring measurable benefits to firms. They reduce advertising and promotion costs, broaden the group of potential customers, create communities of loyal clients and support brand-building. It would be a pity to give them up.
This article was translated by mLingua Worldwide Translations, Ltd. mLingua provides professional language translations into and from all major Western and Asian languages, software localization and web site translation services.
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Overcoming the First Hurdles of Starting a Business
Copyright © 2008 Frankel Desdunes
Starting a new business venture is never easy. Still every day people pave out their own paths to success in the business world. It seems that there always is a big hurdle for anyone who is making the decision to take the dive to start his or her business, but the obstacles and concerns can vary among individuals. If you have a family, starting a new business can be risky business. You may worry that if the business fails, then your family will suffer. You might also wonder if you have enough business knowledge to succeed. Selecting an appropriate business niche may be a big concern, as you try to find a business segment that is not already oversaturated.
You may ask yourself if you will have enough money to keep your business afloat during those first trial months. Another huge challenge may be to target, attract and retain customers. These are just a few of the worries that may enter your mind as you pursue the path of an entrepreneur. The greatest hurdle to overcome is in making certain that these worries do not stand in the way of your business goals. Before taking that first step toward starting a new business, you should look at the bigger picture over the long term. As the saying goes, "Rome wasn't built in a day" and neither is a successful business. Naturally, there will be challenges, along with those days when it may seem easier simply to throw in the towel. But the key to success is in not to give up, but rather to move past the hard times. It is true that you certainly must consider the risks of starting a new business. It is not a choice to be made lightly. However, you should not allow yourself to become discouraged easily and then give up your dream of starting a new business. If you are aware of the kinds of challenges that lie ahead, it becomes easier to take that first step towards starting a new business.
Starting a new business will empower your life and bring opportunities that you may not even imagine. You must be motivated to succeed. If you have the determination to reach your business goals, you can take that first step to planning and then launching your new business. You must want to achieve your goals and cannot give up no matter how difficult the road ahead.
It takes hard work to launch a new business. In those first months, you may put more time into your business than you ever put into your old career. Fortunately, the end results can be well worth both the work and risks involved. It is easier to overcome that initial hurdle if you are ready and willing to put in the time and the effort. Failure must not be an option in your mind if you want to run a thriving business.
You really can create a new business and have the potential to be highly successful. The first step is in recognizing that although the path may not be easy, the opportunities may be endless.
Frankel Desdunes is an Online Network Marketer with over 6 years of experience under his belt. He generates anywhere from $500-$10,000 on a daily basis! To learn more about what's generating so much cash for him visit: http://www.mypathforcash.com
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Branding - Make Your Business Unforgettable
The branding of your business identity will increase public awareness of your company. By being "brand aware", you will provide a higher level of consistency and continuity in your advertising and marketing materials, and you will become more memorable in prospective clients' minds.
It is important to carry the same theme, message, and "feel" throughout all of your marketing and promotional materials so that your company is easily recognized. The goal of consistent branding of a market identity is to make your company and its products stand out from others, and are easily recognizable.
Make Your Visual Identity Unforgettable
Your marketing materials represent you and your company when you are not present. With an effective visual identity, every letter, business card, and brochure you present serves as a mini billboard for your company.
Do your marketing materials draw a second glance? Do they create interest that someone receiving them will be interested in reading further what you have to say or learning more about you? Your graphic image needs to be unique, attractive, and full of impact. Make it stand out from all the other symbols and designs in the marketplace. Be consistent in portrayal of your design throughout ALL of your marketing materials!
Collect some of your competitors' marketing materials and study them. What do you like or dislike about them? Are they interesting? Can you create a design that stands out from theirs?
What's Your Name?
Your company name is the centerpiece of the identity of your business. It is the first thing that you hope "pops" into peoples' minds when they need a product or service you provide. Avoid names that are:
Vague - like ABC Associates, Moonlighting, Inc. (what do they do?)
Similar - Joe's Restaurant, Mike's Restaurant (I forgot which one I liked!)
Forgettable - not easily recalled, such as Executron
Hard to spell or pronounce - Hors De'ouvres Catering (You try it!)
Sounds bad - Stinky Simmon Catering
Your name needs to clearly identity what you do. If it does not, it has little marketing value. If people have to make notes on your business card, that's a sign that your business name and business cards do not clearly identify what you do.
Creating a Recognizable Company Identity
When creating a recognizable brand for your company, consider the following:
* Who are you trying to attract?
* What is your vision of how you want to be perceived?
*What do you want people to think of you?
* What five attributes best describe you?
* Do you have a tag line for your business that is benefit-driven, inspirational, and descriptive.
* Do your marketing materials convey the image you want them to? * What colors describe your company? (Green-ecological; Gold-finance; Blue-water, Red-high energy)
Be Unique
You can also differentiate your marketing materials from your competitors' in several ways. Some examples include:
* Classy - Present marketing materials in a custom- designed folder with gold leaf lettering rather than a plain two-pocket.
* Mini billboard - Don't waste valuable real estate! Print additional information on the backside of your business card. Or, use a custom-designed and sized card. Example: for a personal chef your business card can be the shape of a chef's coat.
* Substance - Use heavier, thicker paper instead of standard 60# weight.
* Stand out - Use a custom-designed envelope that is larger the standard to "stand out" in the mail stash.
* Presentation matters - Deliver materials, brochures, etc. in a box with a custom tag with your company name attached by a ribbon or cord. OR punch a hole in your business card and attach!
Remember...
Branding your business identity is a marketing tool that helps create a consistent and memorable image of your company.
Set yourself apart from the crowd and pay special attention to crafting the visual identity of your business. A graphic designer can assist you in developing a professional image, as well as assist you in working with a printer.
Copyright 2007, 2008 Bonita L. Richter and Profit Strategies.
Bonita L. Richter, MBA, founder of Profit Strategies, teaches entrepreneurs and business owners how to start and grow businesses, attract more clients, and market their businesses to increase sales, business success, and generate wealth. For FREE tips on how to craft the successful business you desire, visit Profit Strategies.
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Top Reasons to Work at Home
Copyright © 2008 Kerry Johnson
With the internet and online capabilities becoming a more and more dominant force in the world, it has increased the popularity of people starting to work at home. There are, like anything, reasons not to work at home; it's not for everybody. But, depending on your career and lifestyle, it can be the best option available, and is starting to be that way for more people everyday. Below are four of the best reasons to work from home.
Closer to your family
The most important people in our lives are our families, right? If you work at home, 99% of the time you will be closer to them. Schools that your kid(s) goes/go to will undoubtedly be closer, and you'd probably be closer to your spouse's job location, too. This is especially important because by working at home, it essentially gives you the power to set your own hours of work so you can be more available to your family if they ever need you. You do not have to be afraid to ask your boss to leave for any reason, because you are your own boss.
Saves Money
Working from home can, and will, eventually save you untold amounts of money, depending on your situation, of course. If you have young children, you can watch them yourself while at work and forget about worrying about daycare. The most obvious reason would have to be the money saved on gas. Obviously, by commuting to work everyday, that costs a lot of gas, and, with the state of the world and global warming, you help lower car pollution in the process. Even if you take public transportation, you would no longer need to buy a bus pass. This also leads to time saved, which is the next reason to work from home.
Saves Time
If you are discipline enough to get work done when it needs to be, you can use time to your advantage. A big part of the time-saving comes from getting ready for work, and commuting to and from it as well. Again, as long as you are efficient enough, you can start when you want, end when you want, and take breaks whenever they suit you best.
No Dress Code
Working at home gives you the power to wear whatever you want, which saves time and stress, to a certain extent. If you are more comfortable just working in your pajamas or something like that, then it increases the chances of your work being better because of it.
Kerry Johnson is site owner of Skosha Online Business Opportunities. your Online Business Ideas site.Sign up for his free Online Business Opportunities Newsletter and receive free affiliate marketing and home business related ebooks.
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"A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts."
~ Richard Branson
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"I don't care how much power, brilliance or energy you have, if you don't harness it and focus it on a specific target, and hold it there you're never going to accomplish as much as your ability warrants."
~ Zig Ziglar
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Are You an Entrepreneur or a CEO?
Many people really confuse being an entrepreneur and being a CEO. They think they are the same thing, but over the years I've learned that they are actually two VERY different things.
An entrepreneur has a mind that is creative. Entrepreneurs are full of ideas, they're eager beavers - and they are often hard to "control." There are exceptions, of course. But all entrepreneurs tend to have that "pioneering" streak in them - and they never really lose it.
When an entrepreneur starts a business, he/she is the CEO by default. But many entrepreneurs are not well suited to remain the CEO over an extended period of time. (I'll explain why in a minute.)
So after their company gets some success, many entrepreneurs hire a "professional CEO." Then the entrepreneur assumes a different and more targeted role, doing what he or she does best. The role might be in marketing, inventing, creating, innovating...or it could be technical in nature.
Of course, there are also many entrepreneurs out there that have proven to be great CEOs. Every day, I work hard to be that entrepreneur-turned-great CEO (and I must say that I've done a pretty good job at it so far). But it does require a lot of concentration!
That's because a CEO is basically a manager. A CEO should have a talent for building organizations, structuring, overseeing the details, watching the financials, and in general keeping the company in the black.
Also, a CEO's job is to keep the company moving forward. The single biggest responsibility of a CEO is to build "shareholder value."
And the fact is, most entrepreneurs don't want to think about shareholder value. Often an entrepreneur just wants to paint on the canvas - not worry about selling the painting, advertising, and fulfillment. Often the last thing an entrepreneur wants to do is figure out how much to charge for his or her masterpiece so the company makes a profit and doesn't go broke!
One of the biggest differences I have personally witnessed between an entrepreneur and a CEO is this: the entrepreneur is FULL of new ideas and is eager to implement them, while new ideas are the stuff of nightmares for a CEO. New ideas challenge structure and organization, and they can mean a whole lot of extra and tedious work for a CEO.
Of course there are many entrepreneurs-turned-CEOs who can do both. Sometimes a "start-up" kind of CEO can be creative and full of ideas, but still have the very structured mindset of a good business person.
So an entrepreneur-turned-successful CEO is still an artist - but business is his art. Real artists never paint with the selling price of the painting in mind. Real artists paint to fulfill an inner need.
Business is the art that fills that inner need of a CEO.
The Mystery CEO is a young entrepreneur who started a company now doing close to $2 Million a year right in his DORM room!
Now he lets you watch over his shoulders as he learns more about entrepreneurship. You can even listen-in when he interviews CEOs who manage $100 Million+ companies!
Read his entrepreneurship blog right away for all the entrepreneurship training you'll ever need! http://www.MysteryCEO.com
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3 Things You Must Do To Earn Money Online
Earning money on the Internet is never as easy as it sounds. Regardless of whether you have seen ads, or even been on websites where you are told how easy it is going to be, do not believe them. We could write a book about the many things you must do to earn money online, but in this article we are going to talk about three specific things everyone must do.
1. The first point we want to get across is that you are going to have to advertise and promote your business or product. The biggest reason people do not earn money on the Internet today is they do not have enough visitors coming to a website to see what they offer.
Think about this, if you had a grocery store full of groceries, and nobody knew where you were located, where the food spoil before you sold it? Of course it would, yet that is exactly what Internet marketers do every day.
They spend hours and hours getting their website and blog looking all pretty and packing it full of products to sell. In reality, they would be better off come up with one really good product, and get busy attracting visitors to their website. The only way you will ever make any money on line is if you advertise and promote what you offer.
2. Secondly, people underestimate how much work is going to be involved in building a business to earn money on line. If you have not been told the truth in the past understand this, there are billions of websites and blogs on the Internet today.
You are going to have to work hard at getting traffic and converting it if you are ever going to make any money. You cannot work one day for two hours and take two days off, and then come back and work three hours for two days, and then take three days off.
Your boss would fire you if you do that in your real job and you should fire yourself if that's how you treat your home business. You must work hard and be consistent in your effort.
3. The final thing we want to talk about is the importance of educating yourself on the skills of doing Internet marketing. Nobody is born a professional Internet marketer. Certainly some people seem to be better at it than others, but you will find they have taken a lot of their free time and learned how to properly earn money online.
This is three things you must do to earn money online. If you are not willing to do all three of these you may as well give up now and go do something like get a part-time job or start a hobby and have fun.
Rich Ramalho and Patrick Sheffler invite you to visit their offical Top Abunza Team website to learn how to earn money online. Discover how you can make $947 or more paid out daily and start online in 3 easy steps. To learn more and get started today please click here now: ===> http://www.teamabunza.com
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4 Ways To Make Money At Home
There are many different ways to make money at home. As you surf the Internet you will run across so many that you may not know which way to turn. In this article we want to talk about four things that you must do regardless of product or program that you choose to represent.
1. Your product is important when you look at ways to make money at home. It is important that you represent a product that you believe in. Everything that you do from this point out will be geared towards getting people to believe that you feel you are selling the best product on the market today.
Taking this approach is much easier than just sending prospects to a website and hoping that they buy or join you.
2. So how do you get across your point that you believe in your product. You do this by creating a landing page. This is where you present the product that you have and then offer free training in exchange for contact information.
Pre-selling is what will make you stand out from your competition. This is where you get to offer your personal testimonial and endorsement of the product that your visitor is looking at.
3. Once you have presold your product your capture page should contain a sign-up form that leads to an autoresponder. Your auto responder must contain a series of messages are designed to educate your prospect on the benefits of your product or program.
This is known as dripping information and it allows you to develop credibility with somebody who is just getting to know you.
4. Filling an auto responder with names is an excellent way to make money at home because you now have a list that you can follow up with over and over for years to come. Once you understand this basic concept you will be on your way to building a large list and making more money.
If for any reason you decide to promote a different program or product you now have a list of people to immediately contact. This is an asset that can be worth thousands and thousands of dollars to you in the future.
There are many different ways to make money , but the most proven system is the one we have just listed. Choose a good product, pre-sell it in a testimonial landing page, use an auto responder to follow-up, and build a large list.
This is a way to make money at home that anyone can do regardless of the product or program they represent.
Rich Ramalho and Patrick Sheffler invite you to visit their offical Top Abunza Team website. Discover the best internet home based business and how you can make $947 or more paid out daily. To start online in 3 easy steps please click here now: ===> http://www.teamabunza.com
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4 Important Things To Do Before Starting A Home Business
Starting a home business is not as hard as most people think it is. There are many things that you can do online to make money.
What is hard is actually getting a system in place that works for you. Many people start and fail businesses on the internet everday.
So here are some things that you have to figure out before you start your internet business.
One: Figure out what your hobbies and interests are. When you can start your internet business doing something that you are passionate about you will find that it is much easier to make money.
This makes sense when you think about it. You may be able to create a product around your knowledge fo something and sell it online. If you have a hobby perhaps you could tunr that into a money making business and fun doing it as well.
Two: Write down your reasons for starting a home business. It doesn't matter what they are because they are only for your eyes.
You also want to write down your goals. These two lists will keep you focused and moving ahead towards success.
Three: Figure out what your budget is for starting a home business. There are a lot of opportunities that you can start your business with for free but you will still need to know what kind of money you have to work with for advertising purposes.
If you need to get some tools for your business right away that you can't find for free you can use some of your budgeted amount for them. Knowing what money you have to work with will help you a great deal when you are promoting your internet business.
Four: Figure out what your strengths and skills are. This will help you know what you need to learn in order to make your internet business successful.
Nobody knows everything when they start. Being a quick learner will go a long way towards helping you make money quicker.
Plan on learning how to blog for example. You may need to learn how to write sales copy or articles for article marketing. You may even need to learn basic HTML.
These are things you will need to do before you starting a home business. It is also part of an ongoing list of things that you will do over and over in the future success of your business.
Aaron Givens invites you to visit his best marketing home biz website today. If you are searching for a way to earn money you can feel safe and secure in knowing he offers the best opportunities that have passed an extensive screening process. To see his Top Pick for starting a home business please click here now: ===> http://www.marketinghomebiz.com
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