Article Excerpt from Entrepreneur.com:

“I love talking about choosing a great home business idea because it’s one of the most exciting and fundamental parts of starting a work at home business. But thinking up a great idea is just the first step–it’s critical that you take the time to thoroughly examine the idea that’s to become your future livelihood. As most business owners eventually learn, it’s not the person running the business, the marketing or the employees that make or break a company’s success–it’s the quality and profitability of the idea behind the company.

When you go into business, you have to look at the idea or business opportunity driving it from a different angle than you might assume. Most people wrongly choose a business based on one of two personal biases:

It’s a business they already know. The hairdresser opens a salon, the lawyer his or her own practice and so on. Generally, a huge mistake. They’re thinking about the job–not the business. Just because you’re a good chef doesn’t mean you know how to run a restaurant. More important, it doesn’t mean a restaurant would be successful in your market.

It’s a product or service they’ve fallen in love with. Again, just because you love something doesn’t mean a profitable business will come of it. This is especially true for first-time entrepreneurs. Learning to run a business is hard enough; you don’t need to make it any harder by doing something you love rather than something customers love paying you a good profit for.
How can you be sure your intriguing idea is also something from which you can truly make a profit? Read Full Article Here.

Article Excerpt from BusinessKnowHow.com:

“You had high hopes when you started your work at home business. You figured you’d get all the business you need for your fledgling startup by running an ad or two in the newspaper and telling all your friends and former business associates about your new home business. But customers have been few and far between. And most of the people who express interest in your product or service, don’t want to spend the money to buy it.

What can you do? How can you keep your home business dreams alive? What are successful home businesses doing that you aren’t doing?

Here are several home business marketing suggestions to help.

Expand your network. Your friends and family may be supportive of what you’re doing but they may not be the best sources of referrals. Consider who would make a good customer and then look for ways to meet those people. Chamber of commerce meetings, PTA meetings, local civic associations, regional trade shows, professional conferences, and phone calls can all be effective. So, too, can networking online through message boards and mailing lists. Don’t spam the boards or lists with links to your products. Just participate and contribute to the groups that are likely to include prospects for your services and you will get known.

Read Full Article Here

Book Review: Working for Yourself: Law & Taxes for Independent Contractors, Freelancers & Consultants:

Be your own boss — easily, efficiently and successfully — with this bestseller! Whether you’re an independent contractor, freelancer, or consultant, it all adds up to the same thing: You need to be more aware of laws and taxes than the average person.

Fortunately, Working for Yourself provides all the information you need to stay on top of it all. An independent contractor himself, Stephen Fishman shows you everything you need to know to:

*meet business start-up requirements *pick a business structure *set up home or outside offices *obtain permits and licenses *price your services or products *comply with strict IRS rules *establish sound business relationships *avoid unfair contracts *draft good agreements *keep good records *get paid in full and on time *and much, much more.

Learn More About Home Business Taxes.

“If you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always gotten!”

Awesome words of wisdom. Think about that for a minute. Realize that your work at home business will not grow magically and if you have been struggling in building your home based business you are not alone.

Too often, we get stuck on a great idea or strategy that just does not work for us. But rather than change what we are doing, we continue to do what we have always done.

Unfortunately, most of us also expect a greater result. We get stubborn and refuse to change what we do. Then we become frustrated because we are not getting the results we expect and deserve.

So how do you get the results you know you should get and the results you deserve. The answer is simple. But simple is not always easy. We are often afraid of challenge or difficulty in change, so we continue to do what we have always done.

The bad news is unless we change and start doing something different in our work at home marketing, we will never achieve our desired results. Change MUST take place in your attitude and in your marketing plan to help you become the success you want to be.

Begin with a 30 day plan of action and track your progress. Even if you are uncomfortable, that is okay. Changing habits and forming new ones is often difficult. Well, after you track your progress for 30 days, create a 90 day plan of action. Use your statistics to help you plan and forecast your work at home business.

Realize that no one can change you or your habits except you. Building your home based business and becoming successful in all you do is YOUR responsibility. Keep in mind that you must make change and form new habits of success if you want the results you desire. Know that no matter what you do, “If you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always gotten!”

Book Review: How to Start a Home Based Travel Agency

How to Start a Home Based Travel Agency has just been entirely updated. The effects of September 11th, 2001 and the resulting aftermath has had a dramatic effect on the travel industry and further enabled home-based travel entrepreneurs. The January 1st, 2003 printing of How to Start a Home Based Travel Agency is the most up-to-date information available about operating a travel business in this exciting industry.

Issues such as the elimination of airline commissions, the implementation of service fees, the fabulous growth of the cruise industry and all of the changes that have evolved are discussed and analyzed. This edition of How to Start a Home Based Travel Agency is a must have if you are considering entering the travel industry or are an agent going home-based from a storefront.

Book Review: How to Buy, Sell, and Profit on eBay: Kick-Start Your Home-Based Business in Just Thirty Days

The eBay phenomenon may be the greatest opportunity for home-based entrepreneurs ever. With close to zero start-up costs and a worldwide customer base of 150 million people, the little guy can now compete on a level playing field with huge corporations. Although TV infomercials and eBay itself are teeming with hucksters trying to sell advice, wholesale lists, and auction software to help you jump on the eBay bandwagon, 99 percent of it is junk and unnecessary.

In October 2001 Ginsberg had a modest business selling high-end pool tables and tried selling one on eBay on a dare. For him, the rest is history. He now runs a million-dollar eBay business and ships pool tables all over the country. This quick read is a pretty straightforward primer on the do’s and don’ts of starting your own (serious) eBay business. Since Ginsberg seems to hold back somewhat on the finer points of advanced online business management and product sourcing, you will have to do some of your own homework, but there is plenty here to get you started.

Article excerpt from Startupnation.com:

“Blogging puts a personal face on home based business in a world increasingly focused on impersonal Internet advice and e-mail. “If I can’t spend as much time with someone as I’d like,” Shenker says, the blog “creates the impetus for dialogue.

“It forces a business owner to focus on their philosophy. It’s like when you were in elementary school and the teacher said you have to write about an experience that changed your life.” Maintaining a blog keeps business owners sharp, “making them articulate on a regular basis what it is that they do. It keeps them very, very focused, very sharp and hopefully very compelling.”

Learning the Steps to Dance the Blogging Boogie:
Once you decide to jump in, take these tips and use them well:
1. Choose a host. Bodnar says outside hosts like TypePad, WordPress and Blogger are easy and cheap, “but you’re limited to storage size and features.” You get what you pay for, he says, when it comes to adding audio, video, links and content other than text.
2. Hire a dedicated blogger. “Find someone who’s interested in it and will oversee it,” Briguglio says.
3. Collect links up the wazoo. Both inbound and outbound links are vital - collect some “link karma” by directing your traffic to relevant sites, and you’ll see it coming around in the form of inbound links to your blog. The more inbound links, the more traffic and visibility you get. Briguglio recently blogged about Hershey’s Kisses and linked to the Hershey site.
4. Set up an RSS feed. Really Simple Syndication is a code-based system that allows Web users to “subscribe” to their favorite sites – including your blog – for up-to-the-minute action and updates. On that note…
5. Update constantly. A blog’s success depends on the regularity of its posts. “We have so much information on our blog that we rank very high on search engines,” Bodnar says. Searches find frequently refreshed, keyword-rich sites first.
Read other blogs and comment on the posts. Get involved in the blogsphere to learn what makes a good one. A great way to start: enter “entrepreneur” at Technorati, a search engine now tracking 56 million blogs. You’ll find more than 200,000 examples of how it’s been done. ”

Read More from Startupnation.com

BOOK REVIEW: “Making a Living Without a Job: Winning Ways For Creating Work That You Love”

“If you want to chuck your job and you’re looking for a good self-help book to help you become an entrepreneur, consider “Making A Living Without A Job: Winning Ways For Creating Work That You Love” by Barbara Winter. Winter says people can be “joyfully jobless” by developing “multiple profit centers.” Rather than depending upon a single source of income, Winters says people should diversify their sources of income. Winter likes the variety of doing different things.
In addition to being an author, Winter publishes a newsletter, gives speeches and seminars, and finds other creative ways to earn a living. Because she has an interest in tea, Winter earned money teaching people how to have afternoon tea parties.

Winter writes that many people find “producing a tea a mysterious process.” (Don’t you just put the little bags in a cup of water?). In addition to enjoying teaching tea, it gave Winter the opportunity to travel to England and deduct travel costs as tea research. One of Winter’s goals was to travel to England. She emphasizes that we should merge our personal goals with our business ideas, if possible.”

Read More

Article excerpt from BusinessKnowHow:

“Working from home is entirely possible, but it takes work and planning to make it happen. That simple question – do you want a job or do you want to launch a work from home business – is very, very big. You can’t have any ambiguity about it. You can’t take one step forward until you clearly answer that question.

The crux of the decision is money and credit. If you want to start a home business you need money. You also need to accept the fact that you’re going to spend countless hours each day building the work at home business. Yes, you can do it while taking care of kids – I can testify – but it’s not easy, and unless you buy an at-home franchise – and there are many – you will walk into some terribly nerve-jarring risk. Franchises are not nearly as risky, but they cost money and they require just as much work as any other start-up.

If you want a job, your options are much more limited. If you have a solid profession that can be practiced from home – tax accounting, even journalism – your chances of getting a decent work-at-home job are reasonable, even if slight. To get there, it will take considerable research and daily attention to job sites and professional postings.”

Article Continues Here…

Article Excerpt from BusinessKnowHow:

“Like many aspiring entrepreneurs, you may have decided to break free of your job to live your dream of working from home. You’re ready to seize the opportunity for freedom, unlimited earning potential and chance to live your life exactly the way you want.

One of the biggest challenges you will face during the first two years will revolve around cash flow and money management.

In order to give yourself the best chance possible of surviving the first two years so you can thrive from that point on, it’s imperative that you achieve mastery in five areas:

1. Gain control over your spending today
2. Create a personal and business budget
3. Increase your financial IQ
4. Explore sources of capital
5. Think like a successful business owner…..”

Article Continues Here

Article excerpt from BusinessKnowHow.com:

“Working from home is a great way to supply the additional income often needed for one spouse to stay home and raise their children. Sadly, many people are scared away from doing so because of the many scams that are so prevalent today. While it can be hard to tell fact from fiction, it is possible. With so many excellent work-at-home opportunities available today, it’s well worth the time to explore so you can be able to start your own business and enjoy the many benefits the business provides.

Here are several tips to avoid work-at-home scams:
When researching companies that hire home-based workers, the best place to start is the Better Business Bureau (BBB). The BBB will have information on that business if there have been disputes or other problems. You’ll want to look for a pattern of “Unresolved” or “Unanswered” disputes, which will be an indication that there is a problem with the company in question. The business does not need to be a member of the BBB to have complaints filed against them.”

Read Full Article

Excerpt from StartupNation Article:

“So you’ve started up that home-based business and can’t wait to make calls and seal deals in your slippers and sweats?

Nothing wrong with that, but the fact is it’s not going to inspire confidence in your clients, customers, referrals or anyone else in the outside world if they know you’re proofreading your key presentation while accelerating on your NordicTrack.

For you to function best as an entrepreneur, it’s probably necessary to set up some borders between your business and home life by creating a separate environment that encourages focus, efficiency and professionalism while you’re on the job.

Here are some ways to create a professional structure, inside and out, for your home-based business:

Organize your time….
Present yourself and your home-based business professionally…..
Maintain good records and credit for your home-based business…..
Make your home-based business high-tech…..
Keep in touch with other professionals….

Read Full Article Here

One of the most important ingredients of home business leadership is integrity. It is the integrity that lies within you which can fuel your home based business toward developing leaders who follow your lead and duplicate downline.

With all the hype in the industry, it is easy for us to fall victim to taking on approaches to building our business which tear down any integrity we may have built up. It is extremely important to take a stand today and begin building with integrity.

You should not approach building integrity by telling others you have integrity. Integrity MUST be earned. To build integrity, it begins with you doing the things you say you will do. You must live your work at home business by taking on personal responsibility for your success before you can lead others.

Keep in mind that the more credible you become by leading with action, the more confidence people will have in your ability to lead them. The more people are confident you can lead them, the greater the results you will begin to have and the more duplication you will begin to experience in your business.
Know that you must never waiver from a solid core belief within you of who you really are. Do not lead with hype nor mislead your prospects or downline. Integrity comes from within and leading from the heart is where it begins.
Integrity not only builds confidence, but it also builds trust. Integrity has a high influential value and can facilitate high standards. Don’t wake up and say, “I have integrity” ~ Rather wake up and Earn IT!!

TIP - Integrity is a part of your character and without good character, you can never build long and lasting relationships.

Below is another great article excerpt from Entrepreneur.com:

“Starting a low-cost home business on the weekend is one of the easiest and most risk-free ways to dip your toe into the waters of entrepreneurship. It only takes your free time, a small investment in marketing materials and business supplies, and some hard work.

Michelle Anton and Jennifer Basye Sander interviewed more than 100 people living their dreams through weekend home businesses when they wrote Weekend Entrepreneur: 101 Great Ways to Earn Extra Cash (Entrepreneur Press). Here, we excerpt four great ideas for people who love to work around the house. If you’re already spending your evenings and weekends cleaning, organizing and improving your home, why not put those skills to work in a part-time business?

Holistic Housecleaning With Allergy-Free Products
Did you know that approximately 50 percent of Americans suffer from some kind of chemical sensitivity? Or that nationwide, every single day, 32 million pounds of household cleaning products are poured down the drain? Kind of makes you stop and think, doesn’t it?

Christmas Light Installer
This is a great seasonal business that specializes in providing the labor for holiday decorations. Once a year an opportunity to make excellent extra money arrives–installing and then later removing decorative outdoor Christmas lights for people who just don’t have the time or the energy to do it for themselves. Jennifer recently went to a spring dinner party at the home of a distinguished couple in their late 70s. Although it was May, the house was still hung with colored Christmas lights outside. These folks and others like them, busy or not quite in physical shape to remove their own lights, are your target audience.

House Staging
Have you ever been inside a house for sale, and although you liked the house itself, the furnishing and decorating gave you the willies? Some real estate agents insist that empty houses sell better; it allows a prospective buyer to “see” themselves living in the space when it isn’t all cluttered with the current owner’s things. “Less is more” when it comes to staging a house for sale, and an objective eye can help cut through the clutter that the longtime owner can’t see anymore.”

Read More from Entreprenuer.com

Here’s a great article excerpt from BusinessKnowHow:

“One of the biggest challenges you will face during the first two years of your home based business will revolve around cash flow and money management.

In order to give yourself the best chance possible of surviving the first two years so you can thrive from that point on, it’s imperative that you achieve mastery in five areas:

1. Gain control over your spending today
2. Create a personal and business budget
3. Increase your financial IQ
4. Explore sources of capital
5. Think like a successful business owner

First things first. Gain control over your spending today - Honestly evaluate your spending habits and identify where your money is going. Are you living beyond your means and buying things you don’t really need?

Read Full Article Here

Most women hate the idea of having to leave their children with a babysitter or day care center at a very young age. Unfortunately, the financial obligations for many families these days leaves them little choice. Unless you could earn a significant income working at home. The solution for those moms who want to stay at home with their children and still earn money is to participate in the perfect opportunity - freelance jobs.

Freelance jobs are ideal for the stay at home mom because it offers flexibility, the ability to work from home and still earn a decent living to help tackle those family financial obligations. Plus, stay at home mom’s can get money-saving tax benefits for their families through their freelance jobs. This further reduces the financial strain by increasing their incomes.

Finding and participating in freelance jobs is very easy for stay at home mom’s compared to other home based business opportunities. There are many freelance job websites on the internet where you can go and apply for freelance employment. These sites should provide plenty of work to keep you busy while still caring for your children….Click Here to Read Full Article.

If you are considering telecommuting and are currently searching for a home based opportunity, then you need to research freelance home based jobs.

Many home based opportunities are scams and do not provide a significant income for someone wishing to use telecommuting avenues. Freelance work provides great home based jobs that are risk-free and give you the chance to work from the comfort of your own home while still being assured of legitimate employment from companies who will pay you for your services. In our opinion, freelancing is the best home based opportunity.

Freelancing allows you to search home based opportunities through submitting applications on available positions that people are offering where you can telecommute or simply work in your own home office. If you have the skills then you have a great chance to find a home based job that fits your talents and expertise….READ MORE…

Blogging is the latest innovation to take the web by storm. According to blog tracking firm Technorati, there are currently 14 million blogs with 80,000 more being added every day. And 30 percent of all 50 million internet users are blog readers. In short, a lot of people are reading and writing blogs.

Yet despite their popularity, you may be one of those people who doesn’t really know what a blog is or what relevance blogging has to your home based business. In this article, I hope to answer those questions and cover the basics of using blogging to deliver favorable business results.

So just what is a blog and why should you care? Basically, the word “blog” is short for web log, a frequently updated web-based journal that’s intended for general public consumption. So what do people write about? Anything from personal stories (from the mundane to the bizarre) to theme-centered creations (finance, politics, parenthood) to businesses (philosophies; updates; branding methods) to…you name it!

Read More from Entrepreneur.com

Procrastination is the #1 killer of work at home success. When we are uncomfortable in doing a task, we will often turn to do the things in our home business which we are most comfortable doing. Such as checking our almost non-existence downline reports or reviewing product information.

Such busy actions, which are the things we feel most comfortable doing, will never allow us to fully achieve our full potential. Keeping busy versus taking the necessary actions (i.e. prospecting, recruiting, follow-up, etc.) will always keep us wishing for work at home success rather than achieving our success.

It is our procrastination which keeps us in the comfort zone of our busy-nest rather than allowing us to be in action in our home based business. It is only after you break the curse of procrastination by stepping into the uncomfortable zone that you will begin to progress toward your goals and dreams.

Taking action in your work at home business will help you to become more comfortable with what you currently are uncomfortable doing in your business. The more you do the things you know you need to do, the more you will develop those skills and you will begin to see yourself succeeding.

Realize, success will not come overnight. In fact, your skills and abilities will not develop overnight either. You MUST take small steps and it is these small steps of progression that will help you create the long term success you deserve.

No one can build the home based business for you and this also means no one can take the action steps for you. You MUST make a commitment to consistently take action and take the action regardless of how difficult or uncomfortable you feel.