BusinessWeek

The taxmen have stepped up their audits on small businesses, and that has many entrepreneurs crying foul
by Jeffrey Gangemi

The tax gap in the U.S., which the IRS defines as the missing amount from taxpayers who don’t file their tax returns and pay the correct tax on time, currently stands at around $345 billion. Mark Everson, the IRS commissioner, has been working to reduce the gap since he took office in March, 2003.

“To make sure that there’s an impression of fairness…,” Everson says he first focused on high-income individuals and larger corporations, but now the IRS is stepping up its audits of small businesses.

In fact, the IRS enforcement increase has already begun in earnest. In 2005, audits of the roughly 5.7 million small businesses the IRS recognizes to be organized as corporations increased significantly, with 17,867 audits, up from 7,294 a year earlier.

Unfair Targeting?
Audits of corporations with assets over $10 million also increased in 2005, but by a much smaller percentage: up 14% from the previous year, to 10,878. Everson says he expects 2006 to reach an even greater rate of small-business enforcement.

Both the IRS and business taxpayers agree that some fraud exists for small businesses and individuals reporting their taxable income. But in response to the IRS crackdown, small-business owners and advocacy groups are crying foul, claiming smaller firms are being targeted with unfair audits that could penalize them for small or unintentional transgressions…..”

Read Full Article from BusinessWeek.com

“If you work from home, you know the importance of having a space that’s just for work. Allowing your job to spill into your house - especially when you have paperwork and files spread across the kitchen table - can make it harder to create a distinct line between work and home.

For most work-at-home professionals, the solution is to set aside a part of their house that’s exclusively designated for work related tasks. In many cases, this is a home office. A work at home office allows you to “close the door” on your job and focus on your family once the workday is over.

But what should you do if you don’t have an extra room to dedicate to office space? With a little creativity, even those with limited space can set aside an area for their work. Try one of these options.

If you missed the first internet wave, it may not be too late. Working with new business models and boosted by investors’ growing appetites for dotcom startups, a second swell of online enterprises is emerging.

Venture capitalist Sam Jadallah of Mohr Davidow Ventures in Menlo Park, California, says that since media giant News Corp. paid $580 million to buy fast-growing online community-builder MySpace.com in 2005, entrepreneurs have been working feverishly on internet business plans they hope will appeal to consumers, investors and potential buyers.

Another reason for the return of interest in the internet: affordability. “The cost to get into business and experiment is dramatically lower than it was in the first boom,” says Jim Fowler, 41, CEO of Jigsaw Data Corp., a San Mateo, California, company founded in 2003 that helps members buy, sell and trade business contact information. Open-source software, offshore programmers, commodity-priced servers and other elements of internet infrastructure are better developed, better understood and less costly than before, Fowler says.

The companies that are part of the resurgence employ an approach labeled Web 2.0. It calls for websites to actively involve users, who build the business by contributing personal pages a la MySpace or valuable information like the corporate executives’ phone numbers and e-mail addresses bartered on Jigsaw.com. “It’s a lot more participatory now,” says Di-Ann Eisnor, 34, co-founder of Platial.com, where users contribute maps of favorite places. “[Users] don’t just come in and read something; they come in and do something.”

Read Full Article from Entrepreneur.com

Hot Holiday Toys offer Money-Making Opportunities!

Whether it was the Hoola Hoop, collectible Barbies, Furbies, Cabbage Patch Kids or the original Atari games of the 1970s, there have always been “must have” toys and games that have generated a frenzy at local stores, especially around the holidays. Today, however, in a new age of consumerism, driven by an “absolutely must have at any cost” mentality, gamers, toy collectors and, in some cases, manipulated parents are not only pre-ordering the latest fun favorites but are bidding them up to 10 times their standard retail price on eBay.

This year, cashing in on shoppers’ demands to have it “now” (or even sooner), retailers are touting their offerings earlier than ever by putting pre-order tickets in the hands of the buyers. But with much of the supply sold before the products even hit shelves, a secondary market is emerging: Smart sellers are capitalizing on the public’s insatiable demand for these hot items by using the leverage they have as owner of one of the “golden tickets” to resell them for an exorbitant price–and pocket the difference.

Gearing Up for PS3 & Wii
The latest craze focuses on the forthcoming releases of Sony’s PlayStation 3 on November 17 and Nintendo’s Wii on November 19. Pre-orders at several leading retailers, including EB Games, Gamestop and Toys R Us, allowed those who got in under the early October deadline to secure consoles and even games for the new systems. Some of the early buyers are gaming enthusiasts, but others are “situational” entrepreneurs who are turning around and selling the consoles on eBay, where prices for the 20GB and 60GB PS3s are already topping $2,000 and rising.

Julian Georgescu, a gaming enthusiast who runs the website www.MyWii.com, says prices will most likely hit well over $3,000 by Christmas. “It’s mostly hardcore gamers who are buying them at these prices,” says Georgescu, who camped out overnight last month to pay a $50 deposit for his own pre-order Nintendo Wii. (For full disclosure purposes, you should know Georgescu also works for Entrepreneur.com.)

The retail prices for the 20GB and 60GB PS3s are $500 and $600, but “They’re only shipping a limited number nationwide–I think it’s around 400,000,” offers Georgescu of the reason behind the pre-order frenzy. Nintendo, meanwhile, expects to sell some 4,000,000 units of the new Nintendo Wii by January. Despite that number, the $250 console has seen bids of $500 and up on eBay…..Read Full Article from Entrepreneur.com

Here are secrets to eBay home business success from expert eBayers:

Do Your Homework
1. Set aside a day to browse the entire ebay site. Use the eBay Navigation Bar as your anchor–it’s located on the top of every eBay page. Make a note of the pages you’ll need in the future, such as the “Services” page, which contains a treasure trove of tools and services. -J.G.

2. Get step-by-step guidance. Visit www.ebay.com/education. It teaches everything you need to know to sell on eBay and offers interactive audio tours that show you exactly how to create a listing. -C.S.

What to Sell?
3. Sell what you know first. If you’re into fashion, sell that; if you’re into golf, sell golf equipment, and so on. -M.C.

4. Be observant. Watch for opportunities to obtain items (in quantity if possible) at a low price for resale. Often, they’re right under your nose, such as merchandise your local retailer would liquidate. Make an offer to clear out the retailer’s old or damaged stock. -S.L.

5. Don’t start out with just one product or product line. An effective way to build a customer base on eBay is to offer at least two separate types of items, between which you can cross promote and drive customers from one to the other. -J.G.

6. Spend time on eBay browsing outside your normal categories. Find out what’s hot at www.ebay.com/sellercentral. -S.L.

7. Become a Trading Assistant and sell other people’s items for a commission. As a Trading Assistant, you won’t have the expense of building inventory, and you can build your business on eBay very quickly without having to spend a lot of capital. -C.S.

8. Take some calculated risks. Being too careful can cost you. Do a little research on eBay, and trust your gut when you find potentially salable items. -S.L.

9. If you’re not familiar with the product you’re trying to sell, educate yourself before you write the description. If you describe the item incorrectly, buyers may be leery of bidding. Even worse, buyers could decide not to bid on any of your future items if they’re under the impression that you don’t know what you’re selling. The more correct information you have and use, the more credible you’ll become in the buyers’ eyes. -D.E.

Read Tips 9 through 51…

With a slew of big-city newspapers on its side, Google sets out to reproduce the success of its online ad programs—offline [Great new way to market your work at home business]

Google (GOOG) is rolling out its most ambitious print advertising initiative yet, an online marketplace that will let advertisers place bids on space in more than 50 major newspapers across the U.S.

The search giant will launch an alpha test of Google Print Ads this week. Since last fall, Google has tried at least three small-scale experiments with placing print ads in newspapers and magazines. Some of those earlier efforts were not well received (see BusinessWeek.com, 12/12/05, “Can Google Go Glossy?”).

All Aboard
Google Print Ads is notable for both the number of newspapers that have signed on, as well as the participants it’s attracting. Among the participating papers are some of the nation’s largest and most renowned: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Denver Post. More than 100 advertisers will take part as well. (The test hasn’t yet started, and Google declined to release the names of virtually all advertisers.) Tom Phillips, director of Google Print Ads, says he expects the program to be expanded to include weekly newspapers “sooner rather than later.” He says weekly magazines eventually will be involved as well.

The move cements Google’s central position within the media universe: a ubiquitous entity with which all major media players simultaneously partner and compete.

Learn More at BusinessWeek.com

MSNBC Small Business

“Although there’s no secret recipe to balancing work and motherhood, there are thousands of women out there who have learned to do it successfully, women who’ve taken on this challenge before us and have come out on top.

I’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to interview many, many entrepreneurial moms. And without fail, at some point during our conversation, they all say the same thing: “When I’m working, I feel like I should be with my kids. But when I’m with my kids, I feel like I should be working.” But that guilt doesn’t stop us from striving for success in both work and as a mother–we want to be able to do them both and do them both well. And if you ask any mom entrepreneur, they’ll probably tell you what they’re doing now is the most rewarding thing they’ve ever done. It’s certainly not easy, but it’s worth it.

I know for a fact that any one solution won’t work for everyone. But I’ve found some common themes among the successful working moms that I know, and here are their 10 tips for being both a terrific mom and business owner.”

Read the Tips

A market in its entirety is too broad in scope for any but the largest companies to tackle successfully. The best strategy for a home business is to divide demand into manageable market niches. Small operations can then offer specialized goods and services attractive to a specific group of prospective buyers.

There are undoubtedly some particular products or services you are especially suited to provide. Study the market carefully and you will find legitimate opportunities. As an example, surgical instruments used to be sold in bulk to both small medical practices and large hospitals. One firm realized that the smaller practices could not afford to sterilize instruments after each use like hospitals did, but instead simply disposed of them. The firm’s sales representatives talked to surgeons and hospital workers to learn what would be more suitable for them. Based on this information, the company developed disposable instruments which could be sold in larger quantities at a lower cost. Another firm capitalized on the fact that hospital operating rooms must carefully count the instruments used before and after surgery. This firm met that particular need by packaging their instruments in pre-counted, customized sets for different forms of surgery.

While researching your own company’s niche, consider the results of your market survey and the areas in which your competitors are already firmly situated. Put this information into a table or a graph to illustrate where an opening might exist for your product or service. Try to find the right configuration of products, services, quality, and price that will ensure the least direct competition. Unfortunately, there is no universally effective way to make these comparisons. Not only will the desired attributes vary from industry to industry, but there is also an imaginative element that cannot be formalized. For example, only someone who had already thought of developing pre-packaged surgical instruments could use a survey to determine whether or not a market actually existed for them.

Learn More from SBA.gov

Save up as much money as possible before starting.
All too often, people go into business without any savings, exclusively using loan money from friends, banks, or the SBA. They except to be able to start paying the loans back right away with their profits. What these business owners don’t realize is that it can take months or years to make a profit. And once a lender discovers a business isn’t as profitable as expected, the lender is likely to call in the loan or refuse to renew it for another year. Often new business owners then have to take out home equity loans or use credit cards to pay off their loans (which puts their home and credit rating at risk). For more information, see Business Financing FAQ.

A better plan is to save up as much of the needed investment money as possible, including your living expenses for the first year, or even two. Odds are that your business won’t be profitable for one to two years. Even if you get plenty of business coming your way — and your customers pay you on time, which isn’t always a sure thing — you’ll want to be able to invest most of that money back in the business for space, equipment, advertising, and insurance needs.

Start on a shoestring.
Think small. Don’t rent premises if you can work somewhere else, and don’t hire employees until you can keep them busy. (You can hire independent contractors or temps in the meantime.)
People who start their small business on the cheap, often in a garage, den, or some other scavenged space, and create their first goods or services with more sweat than cash, have the luxury of making their inevitable rookie mistakes on a small scale. And precisely because their early screw-ups don’t bury them in debt, they are usually able to learn and recover from them.

Understand how — and if — you will make a profit.
You should be able to state in just a few sentences how your business plans to make a substantial profit. For starters, you need to know your costs: how much you’ll spend purchasing inventory, paying the rent, compensating any employees, and covering what is likely to be a surprisingly long list of other costs. Then you can figure out exactly how much you need to sell each month, for how many dollars, to cover those expenses and have an adequate profit besides. These numbers are all you need to create a “break-even analysis.”
Read More from Yahoo Small Business…

Craigslist is a centralized network of online urban communities, featuring free classified advertisements (with jobs, housing, personals, for sale/barter/wanted, services, community, gigs and resumes categories) and forums sorted by various topics. You can also advertise your work at home business opportunity, but only in the Small Biz ad category.

It was founded in 1995 by Craig Newmark for the San Francisco Bay Area. After incorporation in 1999, Craigslist expanded into nine more cities in 2000 (all of them in the U.S.), four each in 2001 and 2002, and 14 in 2003. As of June 2006, Craigslist had established itself in approximately 310 cities all over the world.

As of 2006, Craigslist operates with a staff of 22 people. [1] Its sole source of revenue is paid job ads in select cities ($75 per ad for the San Francisco Bay Area; $25 per ad for New York and Los Angeles), and paid broker apartment listings in New York City ($10 per ad).

It serves over 4 billion page views per month, putting it in 30th place overall among Internet companies world wide, 7th place overall among Internet companies in the United States (per Alexa.com on July 8, 2006), to 10 million unique visitors. With over 10 million new classified ads each month, Craigslist is the leading classifieds service in any medium. The site receives over 500,000 new job listings each month, making it one of the top job boards in the world. [2] The classified advertisements range from traditional buy/sell ads and community announcements, to personal ads and even “erotic services”.

Craigslist received a ton of traffic, so if you don’t spam your opportunity, it can be a very helpful free home business marketing tool.

“Concentration is the discipline of focusing on a chosen project and ignoring irrelevant
matters.” - Sam Horn

A problem many people encounter is a failure to concentrate. As we build our work at home business, we are often challenged with many things which can keep us from concentrating and getting the job done. Whether it is a family illness, children wanting your attention, or even an unsolicated phone call… we can easily find ourselves out of focus.

The word problem, as we talk about the problem of a lack of concentration, does
not necessarily need to be negative. It simply means the existing situation is
not your ideal situation.

A lack of concentration can misguide us many times. To help us concentrate, we
need to have purpose and vison for what we do. We need to have a plan of action
and an understanding that challenges happen to everyone.

While some distractions are out of our control, most distratctions that cause
a lack of concentration are avoidable. The key is to work from a plan and take
consistent action. This will help you develop a habit of focus and concentration. As
your habits develop, so will your motivation and confidence.

NOTE: Success requires a sustainable motivation. A sustainable motivation is
like the Energizer battery… “it keeps you going, and going, and going!” Having
a sustainable motivation will allow you to overcome the ups and downs of building
your own work from home business without getting derailed from moving toward your main objective.
Begin developing your sustainable motivation today by reading at least ten
minutes a day. Read something uplifting and positive!
Developing a sustainable motivation builds confidence and confidence is important
for keeping you on track and focused in building your work at home business.

Unleash Your Work at Home Genius with Leaders Club

Wikipedia.org

A Home business or home-based business is any business where the primary office is located in the home quarters, garage or basement. This is generally old school thinking. The acceptance and popularity of such an endeavor may be the realization of a more suitable location, such as an adequate home office partition, or even home office addition.

These days as we think of home-based business owners as working at home, that’s not necessarily the case. Computer trainers, truckers, and interior decorators are just some good examples of business owners who may run home-based businesses, but have to travel to provide their services. The Lure of Entrepreneurship far surpasses this tradition!

Recently more people are choosing to run a home business than ever before. In the past many online home based businesses were suited to an ever-increasing common of professional travel agents aliened with corporate entities, operating home-based businesses, while in turn working for someone else. The modern day work at home professional is more inclined to setup their own affiliate based home business program or marketing venue, in order to sustain a hands on approach to being their own boss!

Read More…

Increase Home Business Knowledge with Online Training Courses

Successful home business owners are always looking for ways to stay ahead of the curve and ways to stay current on home business trends. But few work at home entrepreneurs have the time to devote to traditional college business courses.

The solution could be Online learning via the Internet, with courses in entrepreneurship. Most college business courses take 15 weeks to complete, but it is possible to find the same high quality courses online, where completion may be a fraction of the time.

Since online courses are not issued at the same time as all students and faculty, you will have the benefit of setting your own schedule around the demands of your home business.

Read Full Article

Inc.com

Five years ago, Jim Poss, a 28-year-old environmental studies grad from Duke University, was determined to make a living in renewable energy — he had the science and the passion, and a vague idea about selling geothermal energy. What he didn’t have was the slightest clue about starting a business. So, he enrolled in Boston’s Babson College, taking a 12-month intensive program that puts students through the rigors of launching a new business venture.

This year, Seahorse Power Co., a business Poss started at Babson which manufactures and sells solar-powered trash compactors, is poised to break $1 million in sales with customers from New York to Sydney, Australia.

“My home business plan today really hasn’t changed from when I wrote it at Babson,” Poss said. “I totally owe it to that program for getting my feet solidly on the ground.”

That kind of success — on top of a surge in the number and size of endowments from wealthy entrepreneurs — is sparking a boom in entrepreneurial education at business schools from coast to coast. In the early 1980s, only 300 universities in the U.S. offered courses in small business and entrepreneurships, according to a survey released in June by the Indiana University’s Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Today, there are over 2,200 courses available at over 1,600 schools nationwide, complete with 277 endowed faculty positions, 44 academic journals, and nearly 150 research centers, the survey found.

Read More…

Become an eBay Trading Assistant
Are you a stellar eBay seller? Consider using your expertise for a profit.

Everyone knows eBay is a shopping hot spot. It is the source for everything from hard-to-find collectibles to great deals on used merchandise to new and used cars.

eBay currently has 193 million registered users, 575 million listings and annual sales consistently rising at a double-digit pace. But most of the users are buyers. What many people don’t realize is that there is an even bigger opportunity on the sales side of the equation.

eBay spotted that opportunity back in 2002, when it began receiving calls and e-mails from people asking for referrals to experienced sellers, says Skip McGrath, eBay PowerSeller and author of How to Start and Run an eBay Consignment Business. In response, the company created the eBay Trading Assistant program. Today, being an eBay Trading Assistant is a great way to profit by helping others sell their products, either from your home or a retail location.

Trading Up
Trading Assistants are individuals with an eBay account in good standing, have proven their familiarity with the eBay sales process by listing at least 10 items in the past 90 days, and have a feedback rating of at least 100 (meaning they completed at least 100 transactions), with at least 97 percent of it positive. These individuals can be listed in the Trading Assistant directory, which connects prospective sellers to profit-motivated sales help.

Read More…

Do you know the number one reason that approximately 90% of people who join an affiliate program or business opportunity never make the kind of money they expect to?

Here’s the reason: HYPE

There’s way too much hype on the Internet. Most of you who have been around the block a few times with affiliate programs know how to see through the hype, but many people who are new to affiliate and network marketing do not.

As a result, they come into a business opportunity with unrealistic expectations, they get discouraged easily, and they end up not doing much for the growth of your organization.

Think about it for a minute.

If you’re using an advertisement that says “Earn $5K per week for doing nothing! I’ll build your downline for you while you sit back and cash your checks!”, that might attract a larger number of prospects than an ad that contains no hype, but is that really a good thing?

Full Article: How to Find Affiliates Who Will Work Hard

Business success isn’t just about getting new customers–it’s about holding onto the ones you’ve got. Technology can help.
“Entrepreneur.com”

Many entrepreneurs spend a lot of time and money trying to land new customers, an extremely important goal if you’re trying to grow your work at home business. But what are you doing to keep the customers you already have?

Customer retention is vital to a company of any size, for several reasons. First, it’s generally more expensive to land a new customer than to keep an existing one. That’s because wooing new customers often entails a higher level of costly marketing and advertising efforts and sales promotions to create awareness of–and desire for–a product or service. In contrast, existing customers already know who you are and what you offer (unless you’re introducing a new product or service, of course).

Second, existing customers who are satisfied with your product or service are likely to become repeat customers. And they’re apt to recommend your home business to friends and colleagues. In our global, extremely competitive business environment, holding onto your customers has never been more critical.

So how do you inspire customer loyalty? One way is through customer relationship management technology, or CRM. Technology may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you consider ways to ingratiate your business to your customers, but in fact, CRM technology provides small businesses with a wealth of innovative, effective tools that can help you build better relationships with your customers.

Read More…

Here’s a great article from awhile back from Entrepreneur.com

Don’t believe everything you read. Before you invest in an opportunity, make sure it’s legit.

Q: I’d like to work from home, and I’m currently back in college learning Web design. But right now my inquiry is in regards to a company* that I saw a sign for on a telephone pole–I checked out their Web site, and it mentions a positive reference from Entrepreneur magazine. Before I go headfirst into this or any other business, I want to know if such an article was ever written. Are there companies like this that I can start from home?

A: Thank you for your questions. This company* does not sound familiar to me, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s either good or bad. In any event, even if this company is a legitimate franchise or business opportunity, Entrepreneur would not endorse it, per se–we would merely provide as much information as possible to our readers, based on disclosure documents and/or other relevant data provided to us by the company, such as growth rate, size of the system, number of years in business, number of operators and so forth.

We don’t get all this data for every company in existence, however, because disclosure requirements vary based on whether it’s a franchise (for which more disclosure is required, in the form of a Uniform Franchise Offering Circular) or a business opportunity (which has fewer regulations in place). In short, when it comes to franchises and business opportunities, our best advice is always this: Proceed with caution, and conduct your own thorough investigation.

If it’s a franchise or business opportunity you want–meaning you prefer to invest in a proven business concept rather than start your own company from scratch–your job at this point is to separate the legitimate opportunities from the scams. Be wary of any work at home business opportunity that promises you’ll get rich quick with little or no effort. (And it probably wouldn’t hurt to be wary of any company that markets via telephone poles.) Any legitimate work at home business will require time and effort on your part to build it and realize a profit.

Read Complete Article

“I doubt that we (or future generations) will ever again witness the revolutionary change in the MLM work at home industry that has transpired over the past five years. Today, there are so many companies, so many products, so much information and so many opportunities worthy of our efforts. There has been an increasing number of successful and street-smart MLM distributors as our industry matures. But there are still huge numbers of distributors who struggle to make MLM work.

Many distributors feel overwhelmed by the details that surround the business. They have trouble understanding and managing the various sales tools, marketing systems and compensation plans. And with the technology-driven information and support systems thrust on them by progressive MLM companies, it’s no wonder so many people become confused and disillusioned, and drop out way too soon. Since you’re just getting started, here are a few words of advice:

You can’t do it all or learn it all in a few weeks or even a few months. Think about this: We go to school for 12 years and college for four years to get a job that pays us $30,000 to $50,000 a year. But when we join MLM, if we aren’t making $10,000 per month in short order, we’re ready to quit. My evaluation of the most successful MLM distributors has shown me that they view growing their MLM business knowledge and earning that subsequent success as a lifelong process.

That doesn’t mean that as a newcomer you can’t be relatively successful right away. Same for an old hand at the game who is still trying to find the right formula to make it work. Keep in mind that a lot of the legwork has already been done by others. The problem for most people new to MLM is picking the right company with the right product and the right system that suits their personal style, interest and skills.”

Read Full Article

Here area 20 profit-producing network building tips from GDI’s newsletters that will make your network marketing business a fast success!

1) Write down your goals. They’re your road map to success. Be specific and refer to them every day.

2) Commitment is the key to attaining your goals. Commit yourself to enrolling five first-level leaders within two weeks of starting your business. Commit yourself to enrolling a minimum of two new distributors per week for the next year. Teach your marketing team to duplicate your efforts.

3) Ask yourself “Why am I in this business?” The answers will help you define your goals.

4) Ask yourself “What do I want to achieve from my network marketing business?” How fast do I want to achieve it? Be specific and write it down.

5) Develop a marketing strategy that fits your personality. Consider all the techniques of lead generation: on-line advertising, off-line advertising, trade/consumer shows, fairs, fund raising, etc. Whatever method you choose, do it consistently. Persistence pays. Never go to bed at night without taking a minimum of five active steps to promote your business.

6) Always assume that a person WILL BE INTERESTED. To do otherwise will end up costing you a fortune. Remember that everyone is a viable prospect for either the retail product or the work from home business opportunity, or both.

7) Be prepared to present the product or business opportunity to anyone at anytime. Always have promotional materials close at hand. Make sure that you have a minimum of three complete sets of literature in your briefcase, your purse, in your car, at your desk at work.

Read the rest: Network Markeing Business Tips

The road to startup doesn’t have to be rocky: Being aware of these all-too-common mistakes can help you avoid them. Entrepreneur.com

Every day, literally thousands of regular, sane and normal people take the plunge and start their own work at home businesses. As they survey the hazardous landcape, little do they know how easy it would be to avoid the traps that so many of us have fallen into.

If you’re in the initial phases of starting your own home business, then I must warn you: Avoid these mistakes as if your life depended on it. Because it does–your financial life, that is.

Let’s look at the pitfalls I’ve seen entrepreneurs have to dig themselves out of all too many times:

1. Buying a job rather than a business. Yes, you’ll have to be involved in the daily operations at the start, but remember that the ultimate goal is to grow your home business into much more than just a job where you work hands-on every day. Work on the business, not just in the business.

2. Being a great plumber but having no idea how to run a business that sells plumbing.Your former jobs are all an apprenticeship to running your own business. Be an apprentice in all areas, not just in the trade or profession of your business. Most important, be sure you’ve paid attention to all aspects of business in your past jobs, no matter what they were, so you’ve done your basic, “how to run a business” apprenticeship.

Read the Full Article

Why There’s Never Been a Better Time to Start Your Home Business… and the Top 5 Strategies and Cool Tools You Need to Know About.

I was surprised to hear at a recent seminar how many people think that the Internet is just too saturated for new online home business owners to be successful — and that if you didn’t get in on the ground floor, you’re out of luck.

Well, we did get in on the ground floor, and we’ve seen all the changes, so I can tell you this: Nothing could be further from the truth! That’s why I wanted to write this article to show you why NOW is probably the best time in Internet history to start a wildly profitable online business.

Sure, there’s more competition on the ‘Net these days. When we first opened our doors in 1998, there were only 130 million web pages in existence… now there are well over 313 billion (eMarketer)! But there are also a LOT more potential customers online, too — 1,022,863,307 of them in fact! (Neilson/Net ratings March 2006.)

And if online sales are any indication, the number of people who are actively shopping online is also on the rise. According to Forrester Research, online sales reached a staggering $172 billion in 2005 — a number they predict will rise to $329 billion by 2010!

Read More….

You can’t have a successful eBay business without a way to ship your goods. Here are some tips and tools to help you do it right.

The first impression you make with your eBay listing is crucial to your online success, but the lasting impression you make with your packaging and shipping can help secure a continued customer relationship. Check out these tools and tips to help you keep the customers you work so hard to get.

Shipping Calculator: Use eBay’s free Shipping Calculator in the “Sell Your Item” form and Turbo Lister to help your customers determine the actual cost of shipping to their location for domestic or international, flat or calculated shipping rates. Always give your customers as many options as possible by choosing three speeds for domestic and three speeds for international shipping. The Shipping Calculator shows your buyer a total cost that includes handling. Bill Cobb, president of eBay North America, recently announced that sellers who charge excessive handling fees are no longer welcome on eBay. Charge enough for handling to reasonably cover your costs, supplies and time.

Read More…

10 Marketing Tactics Under $10 - Entrepreneur.com

Sometimes it only takes a few dollars to make a marketing idea go a long way. If you’re looking for some new ideas, here are a few to consider. If one of these works, do it again. If it works a little, fix it or adjust it, and then do it again. If it doesn’t work, just try another one of these low-cost ideas. What do you have to lose when your tactic costs just $10?

1. Instead of putting a 39-cent stamp on an envelope, put 39 1-cent stamps on the front of an envelope. One of the principles of direct mail is to stand out to get the attention of the receiver so your mail isn’t thrown away or ignored. Attention, interest, desire and action lead to a successful direct-mail program. And anything you can do to get attention increases the probability of action being taken. Best of all, in this case, you won’t even rack up any additional costs.

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Call it what you like. Procrastination. Fear. Necessary preparation. Regardless, the fact is that many new business owners fall into the trap of spending days, weeks and months staying “busy” without actually doing business. Designing business cards and setting up spreadsheets are just some of the tasks that, though necessary, make it tempting to put off doing business. After all, it’s more fun to choose fonts than to make cold calls.

It’s true that starting a business requires a certain amount of preparation, or as Robert Spiegel, author of The Shoestring Entrepreneur’s Guide to the Best Home-Based Businesses, prefers to call it, “pencil sharpening.” Luckily, we’re here to give you 10 specific ways to move past pencil sharpening and put those pencils to work……

……Emotion can kill a business before it even gets off the ground. Human nature dictates that we are first drawn to the things that bring us pleasure, and business tasks are no different. By getting responsibilities that seem distasteful out of the way rather than avoiding them, we can more fully enjoy the other parts of business ownership.

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