14 Tips to Build a Profitable Home Business

Are you running a home business or you are about to build one? Do you know anyone struggling to build a home business from the scratch? Just take these here tips very seriously if you want to build a profitable home business of your own.

TIP 1. Be mindful always that building a successful home business takes time, regardless of whatever strategies you choose to adopt. Do not expect instant gratification. You must firmly resolve to work hard at the business at hand at all times until you get good results.

TIP 2. You must always think through and be very clear about your business objective making sure what your business does is easily describable in very few, short and catchy sentences. 


 
TIP 3. You must always prepare for work at home in the same manner you would if you were leaving the house. That requires some discipline. Even though it can be extremely fulfilling to have a home business of your own, your self-esteem tends to suffer for it if you habitually place work before your own needs particularly family needs.

TIP 4. You must settle for a business niche you are interested in and are passionate about. If you go into business for something you don’t really like and you are not sufficiently inspired about, chances are, you’ll be less likely to put forward the right amount of time, resources and energy needed to do well in the business.

TIP 5. You must always differentiate your personal time from work time by having regular working hours and be sure to stick to them. You must make a conscious decision about what point each day you are going to stop taking business calls and at what point you must face squarely your home business. That requires some discipline as well.

TIP 6. The flexibility of private lessons is attractive to many business people who do not really want to be tied to the schedule of a regular school. So, it can be profitable for your own business if you make it a habit to teach other people to do something you excel at doing yourself.

TIP 7.  Business Affiliates can be of immense help when starting a home business. So, if you let other home businesses know about your affiliate links, you benefit when they share theirs with you in return.

TIP 8.  The average human being likes rewards for efforts. You can thus offer incentives to customers who refer others to you. Such good offers quickly spread around thereby enhancing your word of mouth advertising.


 
TIP 9.  Very important! Before attempting to sell something to anyone, be sure you have a basic understanding of the going price range for the product. You must therefore have a very keen eye on your competition’s prices then price your products within the same range or more competitively if possible.

TIP 10.  Be sure to always have some business cards handy anywhere you go. You never know who you may run into that you may wish to quickly introduce your business to.

TIP 11. Settle only for a business that you know can be really profitable. Diligently researching and reviewing market conditions to determine potential saturation of any product can help this decision.

TIP 12. Always be sure to know how much your competitors are charging for the same product/service you are providing. You can then fix your own rates along same lines while remaining competitive in comparison.

TIP 13. No doubt you are aware that sitting at home, behind your computer, working on your business for long hours may not be very good for your health. You need regular short breaks for tea/coffee and some exercises to safeguard your health.

TIP 14. You need real determination in order to build/run a profitable home business. The zeal and staying power matter a great deal here.


 

Expert Blogger Marketing Tip: Build Your Email List

 Email marketing may be old fashioned but it still gets results. According to experts’ parlance, there are two things you own completely: Your website and your email list. Even though social media outlets may come and go, and algorithms may change, but your list is yours. It is always there for you to use as you please. Many successful bloggers know the power of email marketing, so they use it to maximum advantage.

For best results, most successful bloggers routinely do many things in common when it comes to email marketing. Some of such things are:

They treat their contacts as serious human beings.

They respect their contacts.

They are thoughtful in the way they communicate with those on their email list.

They don’t overstep their welcome by emailing too frequently.

They don’t email irrelevant information.

They build relationships with their followers with consistent, high-value email content.

They habitually give more than they expect in return.

They let it be known that it is more about the list and not the list owner.

Bloggers who fail or neglect to follow these best practices, suffer a very high unsubscribe rate.
Everyone is after results so good bloggers always keep very keen eyes on the numbers. That is why successful bloggers are deliberately strategic in using email in their marketing campaigns. Besides consistently sending valuable information, they use links to bring readers back to their website. They make it easy for readers to share their emails by using social share buttons. They offer content that isn’t readily available anywhere else but via email. They ensure that their subscribers are treated to the very best information. The real reason they are very successful in what they do.

 

How Results Define Business Success

“It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop.” ~ Confucius
Success in business is not about pace. It is about results. Favorable results that is, no matter how long it takes to get them provided you get them. Every perfect job, every perfect business requires time to accomplish. If you are determined to achieve maximum success in what you are doing right now, you must respect the natural principle that progress is made one step at a time. Even if you are building a skyscraper, you need to add a brick at a time until the magnificent super structure is ready.  Every big accomplishment is a series of little accomplishments added one at a time until the job gets done. Even in some sports like football, games are won a play at a time over some time. Time is also of essence if you want to build a department store. You will discover that you can only grow it and make it bigger one customer at a time. This is the natural order. Recognizing this natural order and deploying the knowledge to your business helps your way to success.

If you run a business, first you have yourself to compete with before anybody else if ever. You are you and nobody else. You are not competing in a sprint event with anyone. Take your time and pace to get things done your own way provided you get good results at the end. So, it does not really matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop, you will get there. Slow and steady progress somehow manages to guarantee more and better success than rushing through things and crashing out soon enough.

Get busy right now because…. “No pains, no gains. To get the prize, you must pay the price.”

How Businesses Can Encourage Work Friendships

It is now known from Gallup research efforts that when employees have good friends at work, it positively affects company profitability, safety, inventory control and customer loyalty. That when employees have best friends at work, they are less likely to leave their jobs! Great benefits if you ask me. But, inspite of these benefits of making close friends at work, many businesses are still falling short in terms of helping employees connect. That is a bit surprising though. Granted it may not be prudent to force relationships on people, there are very many things employers can do to encourage friendships among their employees. Some of these things involve having to provide more opportunities and the right environments for them to get to know each other and develop friendships naturally. In that regard, here are some of the activities that are practical and effective on employees’ friendships.

01. Provisions for group snacks and lunch. Yes, people love to eat and eating together and at the same times allows room for small talk and social interaction. Talking over a meal is a great way to build friendships.

02. Encourage employee attachments. In his book “The Audacity of Hope” former US president Barrack Obama is reported to have met his future wife Michelle in some form of work attachment to Michelle when Barrack was an intern in a law firm in Chicago. Many companies still use such a buddy system to welcome new employees. That is a way of pairing an employee with another who can show them the ropes, both formally and informally. That encourages real friendships and much more, even marriages as in the case of the Obamas.

03. Encourage group excursions/holidays. You can select and put some employees in charge of choosing, planning and organizing occasional events like excursions and even group cruises or holidays. Friendships grow easily from such group events.

04. Schedule some meetings offsite. It is always very exciting for employees to have meetings offsite their normal work environments. Workshops and seminars in a cozy resort or hotel away from home come in very handy here. Maybe once or twice a year, getting your team offsite for a day or a weekend is beneficial for them to socially interact and build friendships.

05. Form games teams. Company tennis, golf or volleyball team in a local recreational league can help build bonds of friendship among employees outside of work. With such teams playing in organized tournaments, even other employees who aren’t athletic can participate by cheering their co-workers on. Everyone thus catches some fun as a result.

06. Play games together. Games which help employees to bond are highly beneficial. Everyone gets to know and like the company champion in chess, tennis, and even champions in trivia games. 

07. Schedule road works or hiking together. To keep fit, every employee needs to get active. Left alone, many people never get around to doing things which help them to keep fit. In groups, it is fairly easier to get employees to do road walk or go hiking together to help them keep fit. Employees can even be encouraged to go dancing at weekends to engender bonding. In most cases, doing silly stuff together helps to loosen people up and build bonds of friendship.

From the foregoing, you can easily discern that what works naturally is to have regular beneficial opportunities to do things socially together. Bonds of friendships naturally grow more easily that way. Employers must do things to make these activities happen for the overall benefit of the business. Yes, there’s work to be done, and there always will be. But it’s also very important to build relationships with and among the people who help you do the work.

How to Help Your Affiliates Build Their Downlines

Permit me to refer you to SFI Success Rule 3. It says “Lead by Example.” That means if you want the affiliates in your downline to sponsor affiliates, then make sure you are doing so yourself. You must be able to sponsor affiliates and become proficient in it before you can show and teach your affiliates the best ways to do so. You must realize that in the key area of duplication, your affiliates are definitely watching! Show them what it means to be a strong, active sponsor and they too will become strong, active sponsors and help you further your growth and profits. Whatever you want your affiliates to do, you must habitually do it also, because they are following your lead.

Encouraging your downline affiliates to do what you are doing is the best way to teach them how to build their downline. That means, if you are unable to build your downline yourself, you can’t possibly teach anyone how to build their own downline.