From American Chronicle:

If you are thinking about owning your own profitable home based business, then you need to seriously think about advertising if you intend to build a strong and lasting business.

Most people think that if they have a website, then they already have a booming business. These people could not be more wrong! An online business starts with having a website and a web host, but if that’s all you’ve got, then who else is going to know about you?

The 98% of people who start an online business and decide to pack it in early because it’s “not working” are probably experiencing difficulties partly due to the fact that they have not properly marketed their business.

Full Article

From Bankrate.com:

Whether you are self-employed or an employee, if you use a portion of your home for business, you might be able to deduct the associated costs.

A work at home-office deduction is generally easier for self-employed individuals to claim. But even then, the Internal Revenue Service has certain requirements a taxpayer must meet.

General requirements
First, your home-office area must be used regularly and exclusively for your business needs. You can’t set up a computer in your den, sporadically type invoices and claim that room as your home office.

Secondly, the business part of your home must be either your principal place of business or where you meet or deal with patients, clients or customers in the normal course of your business. A separate, detached structure such as a garage or guesthouse that is used for business also may qualify as a home office.

A few years ago, the IRS broadened the business activities that can be considered in determining whether a home office is a taxpayer’s principal place of business. Now, if a home office is used exclusively and regularly for the administrative or management activities of your business, it also qualifies.

Such things as billing operations, keeping your books and records, ordering supplies or setting up appointments qualify as administrative duties. Be careful here. The IRS cautions that your home location must be the only place where you can fulfill these responsibilities.

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From Small Business Informer:

In today’s world of two income families, rising divorce rates and out of control children, many families are stopping to consider what went wrong and what can be done to turn things around.

The decline of the American family may be greatly due to the overwhelming amount of time constraints placed on parents. Both parents are now expected to work full time jobs while being excellent parents, keeping up the household responsibilities and trying to squeeze in a social life. Time is divided between soccer games, PTA meetings, homework, cooking, cleaning, laundry, shopping, errands, visiting friends, hobbies, home repair, vehicle maintenance, volunteer work, reading, after hours meetings with clients, going to the gym, doctor’s appointments, retirement and college fund planning, quality time with the kids, conversation with your spouse, sex and getting your hair done… Whew! No wonder we are exhausted before ever getting out of bed!

Many families are looking at working from home to relieve some of the stress while still bringing in income. Home businesses allow you to set your own schedule and work at your own pace while considering your responsibilities in all aspects of life. No more explaining to the boss why you simply cannot work over Tuesday night or you will miss your son’s first public performance as a tree (which is actually more important?).

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From Entrepreneur.com:

Bypass some of the most common mistakes made by startup entrepreneurs, and you’ll zero in on a better business plan.

Jessica D. Herrin’s first experience presenting a business plan to investors taught her many lessons, including a hard-knocks course in humility. During the dotcom boom, Herrin’s plan for an online wedding gift registry called for selling products directly to consumers and also through retailers. Herrin, a business school student at the time, lacked wedding industry experience, so she didn’t know retailers would never support a startup that competed with them. “When we presented the plan, people looked at us like we were crazy,” Herrin recalls.

But the 34-year-old Burlingame, California, entrepreneur turned out to be crazy like a fox. She revamped the plan to employ a retailer-only distribution system and eventually got funding for her gift business. And before she even began to solicit investors for her latest business, a custom jewelry maker, she spent time with a retailer partner who showed her the industry ropes. As a result, Herrin was able to quickly raise the $350,000 in seed money Luxe Jewels needed to get off the ground in 2004. Today, Luxe has $1.2 million in sales, 10 employees and a CEO with a strong appreciation for the power of avoiding deal-breaking mistakes in a business plan.

Business plan experts, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs say Herrin’s experience is common. Many business plans sport fatal errors that virtually guarantee a hostile reception from lenders or anyone else who views them. Unwary entrepreneurs plant red flags throughout their plans, from the executive summary to the financial statements, says Linda Pinson, a Tustin, California, business planner and author of Anatomy of a Business Plan. But the most common mistake, Pinson says, is a broad lack of internal consistency. An entrepreneur will, for instance, describe marketing costs one way in the section on marketing, then give another figure for marketing costs in the financial statement. “That’s the kiss of death,” Pinson says. “If [the business plan] doesn’t work, how is the home business going to work?”

Full Article Here

From Macon.com:

Two requests for home occupancy businesses generated controversy at Tuesday’s meeting of the Houston County Commission.

The board approved one request and denied the other, prompting Commissioner Gail Robinson to suggest the board was being inconsistent.

The first request, which was denied, came from Brunetta Childs, who wanted to operate a nonprofit transportation business out of her home on Polly Court in the Eaton Grove subdivison. She said the service is for low-income residents who need transportation to doctor’s offices and for other essential needs.

Planning and zoning administrator Tim Andrews said the planning and zoning board voted to recommend denying the request because it violated provisions of home occupancy regulations. Among those, he said, are the number of vehicles to be used and a stipulation that any employees of the business have to live in the home.

One resident of the neighborhood spoke against the request, saying it violated a restrictive covenant of the neighborhood against operating a business.

The regulations allow only one commercial vehicle for a home business. Childs said she planned to use three. And, she said, two relatives working for the business would not be living in the house.

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From AmericanChronicle.com:

An internet home business needs to be nurtured and nourished in order to make internet income, just like an acorn needs to be fed and watered in order to flourish and grow into a huge oak tree.

Just as an oak tree takes time to grow, the same applies to an internet home business if it is given the attention it needs.

Firstly, ensure that your internet home business website is nestled safely and comfortably in the hands of a respectable and longstanding hosting company where you are allocated plenty of space for the roots of your internet home business to become large and established. You will want to avoid the need to transplant the website to a new hosting company, should the original one become too small, unreliable or simply vanish from the internet altogether.

In order for the roots and foliage of the sapling to grow it requires food and water on a daily basis for its whole life, the same applies to an internet home business if it is to make internet income.

Full Article…

Featurend in Home Business Connection Magazine:

GNLD International, a recognized leader in the direct sales industry, is featured in the most recent issue of Home Business Connection, Special Edition. The magazine tells the intriguing story of this solid company that has been committed to empowering others with its products and home-business opportunity for nearly 50 years.

“Our goal is to share with readers the opportunity to change their lives with a home-based business”

Home Business Connection, Special Edition explores the unique success of GNLD, its “based in nature, backed by science” products, and home-business opportunity through in-depth articles and profiles of company leaders and distributors. “Our goal is to share with readers the opportunity to change their lives with a home-based business,” said Bridey Orth, Editor-in-Chief, Home Business Connection, Special Edition.

GNLD is highlighted as a frontrunner in its industry; the company specializes in vitamins and minerals, protein supplements, energy bars, whole-food concentrates, personal and skin care products, and environmentally friendly home care products. GNLD’s business model empowers distributors to thrive financially while advancing the GNLD brand of industry-tested, consumer-trusted products.

Read More..

From Venturecountystart.com:

Simi Valley will be sending more than 1,800 letters to home businesses that might not be registered with the city, asking them to pay current and up to three years in back taxes.

On Monday night, the City Council voted unanimously to start a compliance program. Letters will start to be mailed next weekend.

If a home business owner does not have what is called a “Business Tax Certificate,” they need to get one, city officials say.

The compliance program is not meant to punish at-home businesses, as many people don’t know the certificate is even needed, said Jim Purtee, director of administrative services.

“One of the council’s directions was to make the letter very friendly,” Purtee said.

State law allows cities to collect the current year business tax, up to three years of back taxes, and up to three years in penalties — equal to the tax.

From Entrepreneur.com:

Sure, it’s kind of a cynical thought, but try and brainstorm a completely new concept, whether for a business, an advertising campaign or even a limerick, and you’ll start to think it’s true. It can sometimes be a stretch to come up with anything that hasn’t already been thought of.

It’s the reason someone once famously said there are only three original jokes and all the others have been derived from them. It’s why Hollywood remakes old movies. And the dearth of original ideas is why businesspeople sometimes pay other businesspeople to come up with a new concept for their own products or services.

Fortunately, if you’re an entrepreneur trying to come up with a new business model, you don’t have to be completely unique. For instance, you probably wouldn’t attempt to sell fingernail clippings in a bag, no matter how groundbreaking and unique the idea is. In fact, if you’re starting a business, you probably shouldn’t do something that’s never been done–after all, think of the learning curve your target market will have to tackle. But you would be well advised to take an old idea and make it new.

Full Article from Entrepreneur.com

From PowerHomeBiz.com:

Vivacious Inc launches a free online program that lets anybody manage their media collection online.

Most people with a large media collection will be familiar with the problem of not remembering whether or not they liked a certain book, where to find their favorite quotes, or what to cd to purchase next.

ManageThings provides an easy and convenient solution for all those, and many more, problems that book, music and movie lovers may encounter. Users of the website can catalog their entire collection using an intuitive search interface. All items in a user’s library can be customized with favorite quotes, overall opinion of the item, a summary and much more.

Learn More Here

From PowerHomeBiz.com:

“Determined in helping small business owners successfully advertise online, AdsThatBounce.com has created an Internet first by building a site that puts online ads in full motion. Ads travel along and bounce within the website to maximize ad exposure.”

In trying to help small business owners succeed, AdsThatBounce.com has created an Internet first of putting online ads in full motion by bouncing them along the full length of their website.

The idea behind AdsThatBounce.com was to develop a website that would help small business owners successfully advertise their ads online. The goal was to have the ads receive continuous exposure for a simple one-time fee based on the size of the ad.

Read Full Article

Press Release from FastPitch:

Home business opportunities are every where on the internet and its difficult to know who to trust when you are considering joining. Now The Wealth Director has its own Live business center where you can talk to specialists within the organisation

Working online in a business that can offer you the opportunity to attract clients effortlessly because of the services on offer is something that Worldprofit has always been able to do.
Now, with the release of its new live business center you can not only attract people to your business but also provide them with an opportunity to talk to senior executives within the organisation live on the site, including the founder and internet millionaire Dr Jeffrey Lant.

Diane Corriette who lives in the UK and runs The Wealth Director, a site dedicated to supporting anyone looking to build additional passive income, is excited by this new development. “I run my own offline business too and don’t always have the time to make contact with potential new associates who are thinking about joining our free program. Now I don’t have to worry about finding the time because there are other people who able to do that on my behalf”

Read Full Press Release Here

From Entrepreneur.com:

Protect your business by getting familiar with some of the more creative scams entrepreneurs are falling prey to these days.

They contact you by phone, fax and e-mail. They’re ready with invoices for you to pay, services for you to order and PO boxes to collect your money. Modern scammers have thought of everything: The only thing that stands between them and your money is keen awareness on your part.

What types of scams are most popular these days? From overpayments that need a refund to inquiries about selling your business, the following “smart” approaches are luring even cautious entrepreneurs.

A “Heavy” Pre-Pay Shipping Scam
“As soon as the TTY operator told me the call was coming from Nigeria, while the woman had me on hold, I knew something was up,” notes Bruce Webber of Webber Floor Covering in Maple Heights, Ohio. Webber had received calls from TTY operators before, working on behalf of the hearing impaired. In this case, it was a call from a woman who wanted to order tile for a church in Alaska. But when she put him on hold for a few moments to try to send him an e-mail, Webber commented to the operator on the lengthy wait.

“I’m not sure if she did it on purpose or just let it slip…typically they don’t tell you where the caller is calling from, but she did” says Webber, who had read in a floor covering industry magazine that such scams were going on. The idea of using a TTY operator is to make the call untraceable and possibly to play on the sympathy of the victim, who believes he or she is helping someone with a hearing disability. When Webber told the operator he didn’t realize the call was from overseas, the caller overheard him and quickly got off the line. She never rang back.

Read Complete Article

News from thenewsherald.com:

The letter begins: “It has come to our attention that you have been conducting a business at your home.”

And in that moment, thousands of individuals each year learn they are just as big as the Big Three when it comes to filing the right state tax forms.

Home-based businesses, one of the few growth sectors of Michigan’s economy, have now come under new scrutiny from cities, townships — and the state — looking to plug budget holes.

Armed with a wide range of formal and informal sources of information, local tax assessors are searching out these small businesses that might have been — unknowingly — violating state tax law.

The result: Unsuspecting sole proprietors — and even telecommuters — may now be filing their first-ever Michigan Personal Property Statement.

A statement that could lead to hundreds of dollars in property taxes being paid to their hometown, their county, their school district and the state.

Read More…

Press Release:

Edmonton, Canada, February 22, 2007 –(PR.COM)– As more women increasingly start their own businesses, the number of stay at home moms in this industry increases. Including those choosing to trade their business suits for more casual clothing in order to be with their families. And the home business industry is a great indicator that there are stay at home moms looking for business and moms work at home too.

“The most common reasons I hear from women wanting to start a home business are: they want to spend more time with their kids, and they want to keep their mind active. And as much as they love being at home with their families, they also don’t want to get bored,” said Mick Lolekonda, President of the Elite Marketing Group.

So how can these moms still closely attend to their children and also bring home the bacon? An alternative is to start a part-time internet business.

When it comes to work for moms at home, an internet home business offers the possibility for moms to schedule their daily activities around their home business or vice-versa. Which gives them a chance to efficiently attend to their children’s needs or hers. Usually a home business doesn’t require more than 2 hours of their daily attention.

Read Full Press Release

From YahooNews:

New Brunswick, NJ (PRWeb) February 21, 2007 — The television infomercial company ITV Direct® has created a marketing company called ITV Ventures™ which is being called a unique combination of the television infomercial advertising business and the network marketing (or multi level) business. By merging these two business models ITV Ventures™ emphasizes that it has removed the biggest obstacles to success for most network marketers and in the process has created a unique home business opportunity.

Learn More

Article excerpt from Entrepreneur.com:
Attracting customers online isn’t so different from attracting customers to a retail store. Here’s a real-world example. Last week, I went to a mall to find a pair of jeans. Jeans used to be a simple purchase, but today they come in so many shapes, styles and sizes, it’s hard to keep track of them all. There was no one to help me through the maze of options in the store I first walked into, so I left empty-handed and went to another. There, I was immediately approached by a very helpful salesperson who explained all the varieties of jeans to me, and I bought a fancy pair of jeans at that store–at retail price! (Now that I know my size and style, I can buy them for half-price on eBay.) But which store do you think I would return to when styles change?

Expanding my jeans shopping experience to eBay, the lesson is, any item sold on eBay deserves more than a title, a picture and a one-line description. How many times have you found an item through a keyword search just to click on it and find no further information? Plenty. It happens to thousands of prospective buyers every day. As a seller, if you’re going to invest the money to list an item, give it a fighting chance for a successful sale.

An item’s description tells the customer what to expect about their possible purchase. Mention size, manufacturer, material, condition–basically, anything and everything to give the buyer more information about the item. Lucky media sellers get the advantage of eBay’s license of the Muze database, which supplies further details on books, movies, games and music. But believe it or not, some sellers don’t even take the time to click their mouse to include it in their listings–all you’ll see in their descriptions is “New and sealed.” Wow. What you should do is tell the customer what they’ll get and what to expect. Then take some time to sell yourself–tell them why they should buy from you.

Read Complete Article

From Entrepreneur.com:

11 tips to act on now that’ll help you keep your work at home business going well beyond the startup phase.

If starting a business were easy, everyone would do it. But they don’t. Only those of you who know deep down inside you’re entrepreneurs at heart will ever take these steps–even if you’ve denied that entrepreneurial spirit burning inside you for a long time.

Using that burning desire to grow your business, however, is a far different task from simply lighting it. Most people start with the odds stacked so much against them that it’s difficult for them to fan the fire beyond the first few months or years. Here are a few pieces of advice I can offer to help you keep your new business growing in size and profit:

1. Hire people who are better at the job than you are. It’s a fact that companies are built by people, and the best people build the best and most profitable companies. Put simply, great employees may cost you 20 to 30 percent more in wages, but they can be twice as productive as mediocre employees. Invest in good people.

2. Place high urgency in everything you do. Always do everything you can today. When I started each of my businesses, I’d work constantly until I just had to go eat and sleep. Too many people treat their businesses as nine-to-five jobs. Never put something off until tomorrow if you can do it right now.

3. Get customers coming back. The road to profitability is through repeat business. Too few business owners set themselves up for long-term success. Your business grows when you add regular new customers on top of existing regular customers. Think of it this way: What if every customer you ever got stayed for life? How many regular buyers would you have?

4. Make decisions quickly. New companies don’t have the time or resources to stand still. General H. Norman Schwarzkopf once said to me, “When placed in command, take charge.” He also believes it’s better to make a decision and move than it is to stand still.

5. Deliver more than you promise. If you tell a customer it’ll be three days, deliver in two. If you think it’ll be two hours, say three hours and surprise them. This is the best form of marketing ever.

Read Full Article

Article excerpt from Entrepreneur.com:

“Computers and computer accessories are some of the best-selling and most reliably profitable items on eBay. Thousands of people visit eBay every day to browse and shop for new PCs, printers, networking components, cables, monitors and many other computer-related items. Many savvy eBay sellers have already recognized and capitalized on eBay’s large and hungry market for everything computer related. With some research, foresight and careful planning, you can join their ranks.

Though selling on eBay is a great way to earn money, it is not a get-rich-quick miracle. Care must be taken when conducting all your transactions and dealing with bidders. eBay’s feedback system is a double-edged sword. It will, at once, boast to the world how great a seller you are, while revealing to the world exactly where you are lagging behind. It takes a lot of work to make and keep buyers happy. If you’ve ever had a job that deals directly with the public, then you know this already. If you do not have the time or interest to devote to taking care of the details of doing business, such as getting packages to the shipping store on time in the middle of a snowstorm, or answering buyer e-mails after a long day of crunching numbers in your cubicle, then selling on eBay is not for you. Your feedback score will suffer, and soon buyers will shy away from your listings. However, if you’re ready and excited for the possibilities eBay presents, then you will have a rewarding and profitable experience.

PowerSelling vs. Selling as a Hobby
The first step in selling on eBay is to decide your commitment level to this endeavor. There are two levels of commitment when discussing selling on eBay: hobby seller and PowerSeller. The hobby seller sells casually for extra cash when she finds time in her schedule. The PowerSeller has made selling online her career. The tips found in How to Sell Computers and Accessories on eBay will help both the hobby seller and PowerSeller become more successful, but the initial planning for these two commitment levels is decidedly different. The differences are discussed throughout the book, but for now just think carefully about whether you want to depend on selling computers on eBay as your only income, or if you’d like for it to supplement what you’re already earning elsewhere.

Read Full Article from Entrepreneur.com

Article excerpt from Entrepreneur.com:
The basis of home business network marketing is building networks of people who buy and sell products. What better place to build a network of people than on the ultimate worldwide network–the internet? According to Internet World Stats, as of 2006, there were more than 1 billion people online worldwide. It’s no wonder that the internet is the place to go to build a network marketing business.

The benefits to building your home business online are extensive–you can work in shorts and a T-shirt, you only talk with people who are highly interested, your business is working for you 24/7, your maintenance costs are low, and it’s easy to expand internationally. Most important, anyone can do it–you don’t have to be a computer genius to find success.

Your first step is to create an online presence. Before you begin building a site, you need a domain name. You could secure your personal identity site (yourname.com), which is always a good idea. Another approach is to pick a domain that relates to the name of your network marketing group or team, for instance, wealthteam.com or prosperitygroup.com. Or you might want a domain that says something intriguing, such as increaseyourwealth.com or massiveincome.com. Come up with a bunch of ideas, then check your choices on a registry site until you find one that’s available.

Once you have a domain, you’ll need to buy hosting services and then begin to build your site. If you don’t know how to design a site, you can either hire a designer or use a site builder that offers pre-made templates through your host. No matter which method you choose, your site should include the following: [Click Here to Read Full Article]

Home businesses are catching on fast in the modern world. With so many ways to communicate instantaneously (phone, fax, PC), it is now easier than ever to create viable earning options at home. We can do everything from our home office now that we could previously only do in a corporate environment.

Home businesses allow a person to be his or her own boss. So many people dream of being able to start a business, but are simply unsure of how to go about doing it. Fortunately, there are resources out there to get people up and running.

Work at home opportunities can be incredibly successful to those who bring energy and enthusiasm to the endeavor. It’s a smart time to look into a home based business opportunity, with its many rewards and the joy of creating one’s own schedule and business goals. Franchising has really been taking off in the past few years, and provides the ideal opportunity to explore one’s business potential.

Home Businesses Are Taking Off!
A legitimate home business opportunity provides a chance to explore one’s visions and goals. There has never been a better time to start a business, given the prevalence of computers, telephones, and personal computers. Wholesale merchandise can provide exactly the platform one needs to enter the marketplace.

From: Gery Carson, SFI Founder & President

2007 has arrived, and we are so excited. I don’t think we’ve ever started a year where all the key pieces were aligned so well. For those of you who may not have been keeping up on SFI, here’s why I say 2007 is going to be such a fantastic year:

1. New enhancements to the comp plan

On January 1st we unveiled some powerful enhancements to SFI’s T-Net compensation plan. We simplified it. We made it pay out more and faster (including instant-pay commissions). We also lowered the qualifications so that the biggest bucks are now realistically attainable by ALL.

And in maybe the biggest enhancement of them all, we’ve brought back the Powerline to SFI! Every affiliate you refer to SFI will now have hundreds of new affiliates placed under them every day…automatically. And every affiliate added adds to the commissions that your affiliates can earn!

Powerline is the proverbial “800-pound gorilla” and this big boy now works for EVERY SFI affiliate, not just the heavy hitters.

Complete details on the T-Net 2.0 compensation plan are now online for you at the SFI Affiliate Center.

Special note: The new comp plan index now includes a cool, new Earnings Calculator. Just enter a couple numbers and it’ll tell you what you can expect to earn monthly in 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, and 24 months. Try it out!

After I started selling on eBay, I was approached by friends without computers who wanted me to sell their items for them. They had heard stories about the outrageous prices items some ebay auctions brought. They knew I could get more money for them on eBay than they could get selling the items themselves. An added incentive to them was I did all the work. All they had to do is say “I don’t want this anymore, sell it for me;” and within a few weeks I converted their castoffs into cash.

I was already selling on eBay, and I had developed a system for listing and dealing with sales that allowed me to list lots of items in a short time. The chance to make a few dollars without any investment was too much to pass up. I made some good money doing this and because I didn’t have to tie up my money buying inventory I was able to use it to grow my train business.

Consignment Selling Is The Perfect Way To Start Your Own eBay Business.

There are no set up fees or investments. You won’t need to risk your own money buying items to resell. You don’t need a detailed knowledge of antiques and collectibles. You only need to know how to find the right category, write an adequate description and take some high quality photos.

Read Full eBay Consignment Article Here

Believe it or not, eBay is the ‘BEST’ home business opportunity you can use right now to make money online in the dropshipping business from the comfort of your own home.
Thousands of people just like you use eBay auctions on a daily basis to sell and buy products on the Internet; now it’s your time to START your own dropshipping home-based business and succeed in the eBay auctions ‘game’!

There are no special skills required for this dropshipping business, all you need is a computer, Internet access and some basic computer / Internet knowledge.

Dropshipping is when you sell products on the Web, forward the orders to the dropship supplier and, in return, the dropshipper ships the product to your customer (buyer).

You act as the middleman between the dropshipping supplier and your buyer. You can take orders by credit card, PayPal fax or any other method you can think of. You can sell via your own Web Site, Yahoo store, or even through e-mails.

Your profit is generated on the difference between your selling price and the price the dropshipping supplier charges you.

Thanks to dropshipping you can start making money ‘instantly’ without any investment in inventory, warehousing, shipping, equipment, employees or office space.

Read Full eBay Dropshipping Article

Book Review: “Home Business Tax Deductions: Keep What You Earn”

Tax deductions are essential to any business, but even more so when your office is also your home. You can spend thousands on an accountant — or you can turn to Home Business Tax Deductions and do it yourself! Home Business Tax Deductions will help you write off:

*your home office *start-up expenses *operating expenses *vehicles *travel *entertainment *meals *health insurance *medical bills *inventory *equipment *and much more

Home Business Tax Deductions is comprehensive yet easy to read, with many interesting and relevant examples. It also provides basic information on how different business structures are taxed and how deductions work. Best of all, it keeps you on the straight and narrow, helping you avoid run-ins with the IRS.