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How to Create a Disaster Plan for Your Home Business

April 17, 2012 By administrator Leave a Comment

Disaster can strike at any time but it doesn’t have to wipe out your home business. Whether it’s a flood, a hurricane or an earthquake, there are thousands of home businesses that manage to get back on their feet quickly and they are then able to support their local community.

How is all of this possible? Well it is all because they had a solid disaster plan for their home business.

Have you ever thought about this? Do you have a plan for unforeseen circumstances? Surprisingly, many people do not. Here are a few precautions every home business owner should take.

Frequently Back Up Your Data

Your data should be frequently backed up and it should be stored in an offsite location. Set a specific time each week to do a complete backup of your system and records. Remember that your backup should be recent enough that if something happened to your computer system, you would be able to get back online relatively quickly.

While there are various ways to perform a backup, a popular solution is an online backup. Provided that the backup company you selected has a good infrastructure, using an online backup will easily allow you to store your data in a safe place. You can do this without worrying about it getting corrupted or damaged.

If you are not comfortable using an online backup, or if you prefer to have a hard copy as well, you can use an offsite storage facility. To do this, you would back up your hard drives and then mail them to an offsite company for storage.

Have a Backup List of Services and Vendors

While you may prefer to use one vendor over another, you should aways have a backup vendor in case you need them. For example, if your home business consists of selling men’s watches on eBay, you need to have a supply available to you. What would happen if your main wholesaler was unavailable for business for a few weeks? If you didn’t have a backup ready to go, your home business would be in big trouble!

By having a backup ready to go immediately you can insure that your home business can stay afloat. While your backup vendor may cost you a bit more, or may not offer the discounts, deals and payment terms that your preferred vendor does, you will at least be able to ensure that your whole business isn’t interrupted.

Having backup suppliers for all the necessities in your home business is crucial. In this example, not only do you want to have backup suppliers for men’s watches but also for your boxes and packaging materials.

If your home business is run online, you should also have a backup host. This host should have all of your data and websites mirrored so that you can switch over to at a moment’s notice if you need to.

Don’t forget to have a backup merchant account! You don’t want to have your that primary account get frozen for one reason or another and not have a backup ready to switch to.

Proper Insurance Is A Must

Purchasing the appropriate insurance plans for your home business can insure that you will be covered against disasters.

You must keep in mind that the cost of insurance becomes insignificant compared with what you would lose if a disaster should strike.

Remember, disaster doesn’t just come in the form of forces of nature. You should be covered for all situations, including lawsuits, a stock market meltdown, employee injuries, a missed bill causing a cut-off of supply, among other things.

Shop around and look through the various insurance plans available to you. Select the most appropriate plan(s) for your home business from general liability to malpractice to disaster insurance.

Above all, do not be caught unaware by a disaster. While it is unlikely to happen, you should still have a plan so that you will know exactly how to respond to minimize the damage to your home business.

Filed Under: Stay Organized

Creating the Perfect and Affordable Space for Your Home Business

April 10, 2012 By administrator Leave a Comment

Running a home business can be very convenient for you and your family. Yet it can also end up be costly. If you are a home business, oftentimes buying in bulk does not end up saving your money. There are many others ways for you to save when preparing your home based business.

Here are a few a tips to take into consideration.

Shop Around For Furniture

While desks, shelving, and chairs can be a necessity for your home based business, they can also be very costly. There are a few ways for you to save on these purchases.

  • Check your local paper for going-out-of-business sales. You can often find closed stores that are selling everything, including the shelving. These sales allow you to pick pieces up for next to nothing.
  • Buy used furniture. Many can be made to look like new with some sanding and varnish, and some will be useable just the way they are.
  • Watch for local yard sales. Oftentimes you can find items that are still in good condition but are being sold just because they are no longer needed.

One thing you should not skimp on is a good chair. You will have a hard time focusing and making it through the day in an uncomfortable seat. Buying a quality office chair for your home business is one item that you want to spend some money on.

Getting Organized In Your Home Office

When it comes to shelving, you can save money by opting to put together your own. A few hours worth of work can really help you stick to a budget while furnishing your home office.

While shopping for lamps and accessories, be sure to check sales at your local stores. You can also purchase overstock items for your home business at discount stores such as SaveALot and Big Lots for even cheaper prices.

Save Money On Computer Software & Tools

It is easy to get carried away and oftentimes spend a large chunk of your budget when setting up your computer for your home business. Keep in mind that many programs offer a free trial and if you take a bit of time to search, you can often find comparable programs for free.

Take advantage of free trials – be sure that the program is what you are looking for before you purchase it. Do a web search to find and compare programs that may work for you. It is always a wise idea to try computer software prior to buying it.

While business cards are a must have for your home business, there are many free or low cost templates available online to create your own. You will really save money creating your own in place of having them professionally designed. Money can also be saved by creating your own website. Yes, this can be challenging at times, but it will save the expense of paying someone else’s high prices for the service.

Think of purchasing a refurbished computer and printer. These items often carry a warranty and function just like new for a fraction of the cost. This is a huge way to save within your budget.

Refurbished items are readily available at many large stores, as well as on manufactures websites. You can also find discounted computers and printers for your home business on eBay.

Setting up a successful home business does not have to cost you a fortune. Many of the items you need can be found on sale or used. With a bit of creativity, you can put together a comfortable and functional space for your home business.

Filed Under: Stay Organized

Analyze Your Productivity

March 28, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

As a business owner, you are both the boss and the employee.  Some people can thrive in this type of situation and achieve more than they could in a traditional work environment.  For other people, this situation can spell disaster.  To be a successful home business owner you need to increase your productivity in your business. Every once in awhile you should stop and ask yourself the following questions to ensure that you are staying on track with your business goals.

Are you focused on your business?

It can be easy to lose focus when you work at home, as there will always be other things competing for your attention.  It is difficult to work at home when there are other things that needs to be done also. To combat household distractions, set an hour timer for work followed by a 15 minute break to tend to small household distractions. If the distractions are thwarting your productivity, take your business elsewhere. Mobilize your business and go to a coffee shop or park. With less distractions around you will be able to concentrate more. Remember, it is okay to let the house cleaning wait for a few hours while you work on your business. A clean house can’t pay your bills, but those few hours you put into your business could reap you many financial rewards.

Not only is focusing on business tasks important, but it is important to be focused within your business.  It is easy to get sidetracked with new business ventures and other ideas. It can be hard to spread your time and energy over too many projects. If you find yourself working on many projects, concentrate on the projects that are primary to your business needs. Other projects that are not as tightly woven within your target market can be set aside for the time being. Focus on your business priorities first by write down all your projects and prioritize them by importance.

Are you being productive?

At the end of the day, do you ever feel like you worked all day but accomplished nothing?  Take a look at the tasks you are working on, and whether they are actually important to your success.  If you find yourself getting sidetracked by surfing the web, chatting in forums, or reading blogs, try to schedule time for those activities after your “real work” is done.

On the other hand, if you feel your time is being sucked away by answering email, updating your website, or collecting research for an upcoming information product you are working on, try outsourcing those tasks to a virtual assistant.  This will help you free up some time to work on business tasks that need more attention.

Are you reaching your goals?

If you find that you are constantly missing your goal deadlines, you may want to take the time to revamp your goals.  Create an action plan that will be easy to follow and help you get to your end result.

Filed Under: Blog, Starting Out, Stay Organized, Time Management, WAHMS

6 Time Management Tips for Moms

April 3, 2009 By admin

By: Kara Kelso & Anita DeFrank

Many of you have expressed the challenge of not having enough time to accomplish all your needed tasks and not being organized. Having good organization and management skills is absolutely imperative to your business. Being well organized can greatly affect your success.

Applying a few of the following tips will help you become more organized and make better use of your time.

1. Learn to delegate. Most of us are mothers and as moms we tend to automatically take on everything and are used to doing everything ourselves. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with delegating different tasks.

2. Set business hours. One way to keep yourself and your business organized is to set regular business hours. You know Monday through Friday 1 – 4 or whatever times works best for you and your family and try to stick to it as much as possible.

3. Keep your office organized. Have a place for everything keeping like things together.

4. Group like activities/errands. Keep track of errands that need done and try scheduling most of them on the same day.

5. To-do lists. Having a to-do list keeps you motivated and lets you know what needs done at all times.

6. Plan for tomorrow. Make it a habit to review the following days schedule at the end of each day.

Take a few minutes right now and start a list of everything you need to get done. Take that list and re-write it by placing the things that most need accomplished and place them at the top of your list. Once you’re finished get back to work and cross off tasks as you go. Not only will you find yourself getting more accomplished you’ll also find a sense of fulfillment.

Article Source: http://www.homebusinessresourcedirectory.com

About the Authors: Kara Kelso & Anita DeFrank are two busy wahms, and the owners of Direct Sales Helpers. Learn how you can be successful in your company by visiting: http://www.DirectSalesHelpers.com

NOTE: You may use this article for reprint ONLY if you do not change the article in ANY way, AND you keep the source and bio IN TACT with ALL links ACTIVE!

Filed Under: Stay Organized, WAHMS Tagged With: , , ,

What's so scary about Business Planning?

April 3, 2009 By admin

By: Anne Maybus

“So you’re in business for yourself?  How did you start off?” “Well I had an idea and then I did a business plan to see how I could make it work.”

Oh-oh.  Just mention the words ‘Business Plan’ and watch the conversation fizzle out right in front of you.  You can hear the trample of feet dashing to the exits and smell the scent of fear in the air.

What is it that makes people glaze over or disappear when you mention those words? In particular, why does it make women flee?

Visited a Business Forum yet?

Have you ever visited some of the online business forums?  These forums are the place to hang out for people who are in business, or are looking for a start.   Take a look at the topics on the message board.   What is one of the quietest topics?  Yep, business planning.   Yet if an aspect of business planning is listed under a different heading, for example ‘marketing plans’ it can be rushed with responses.  Is marketing so much more glamorous than Business Planning?   Why the fear?  These are the very people who need or have a business plan.  This should be an active topic.

What is the purpose of a Business Plan?

A business plan will help you to decide if the business is viable before you even start.  It could save you thousands of dollars by thinking it through before you rush in.  How much money do you have to set up your home based business?  If you’re like many of us the answer is little or none, so why waste the little you do have on a business venture doomed to fail?  A plan will also paint a picture of where you are heading and why.  Simple.

The statistics.

Business Victoria shows that 95.7 percent of Victorian businesses are small businesses (96.4 percent throughout Australia) and that at June 2001, an estimated 181,800 (65.2 percent) of all Victorian small businesses operated from or at home.  We know too, that home based businesses make up over two-thirds of the total small business picture in Australia.

That’s a lot of businesses plugging away to make an income.

Figures from the mid 1990’s show that 6.1% of businesses ceased operating in Australia for reasons other than a change of ownership. 6% isn’t very high, but 23,200 businesses sounds a lot more, doesn’t it?  Remember too, that these figures are 10 years old and we’ve had phenomenal growth in the area of small and HBB since then.  Scary thought, isn’t it?

Many HBB’s probably never even make it to the statistics as they are so small and invisible. So if they fail, who will notice?  Did they have a business plan?

Image problems.

If a business plan is so worthwhile then why do so many people shy away from it?

Business Plans have an image problem.  They’ve been associated with big business and high finance for so long they deserve to have their own little collar and tie.  Doing a business plan involves financial projections, cash flow, and all those hard to work out figures doesn’t it?

Short answer?  No, they don’t always have to involve the numbers.

If you need a start up loan, a grant, or an investor, then yes, you’ll need to do the numbers.  After all, who’s going to give you money when you can’t tell them how much you will need?  Find yourself a good accountant to help you with the financial side of the plan because that’s what they are good at.

If you’re really serious about building a business then it makes sense to do some numbers anyway.  It would be nice to know if you’re going to make a profit, wouldn’t it? Keep it simple.  If you know you have a profit of $5 per item and you need to make $100 per week, then you know you need to sell 20 items every week.  Can you do that?  If the answer is ‘no’ then you’d better look for something else to do.

The Living business plan.

I divide business plans into two distinct categories.  There is the Traditional business plan which is so loved by banks, and then there is the Living business plan.

The Traditional business plan is the one you keep in your filing cabinet after your merchant facilities or start-up loan have been granted.  The Living plan is the kind of plan you can use on a daily or weekly basis to keep you on track.  It should set out your ultimate target, list the goals you will need to achieve along the way, and some strategies you need to have in place to meet your goals.  It doesn’t have to be set in concrete; neither does it wear a collar and tie!  It doesn’t have to be typed or printed.  It just has to mean something to you.

My favorite Living business plan is a collage of images all representing things the owner is striving to achieve both personally and professionally.  It has a series of images beneath it depicting the steps along the way.

How inspiring is that?

My own plan is in the shape of a step ladder with my Ultimate Business Heaven at the highest point.  On each rung I have listed the things I will have managed to do by then.  That gives me a map to my goals and also allows me to see when I have reached each rung.   When I have another of my ‘you-beaut’ ideas the plan will help me to see if the idea will take me up or down the ladder.  I am very attached to my great ideas, but why waste my energy on them if they won’t get me where I want to go?

Your choice.

Business plans are a necessity; there’s no question about that.  The only decision you have to make is why you want the plan.  If you need to show it to someone else, then go the whole way with a traditional plan.  If it’s for yourself, then do what really means something to you.

Just because it’s in pictures doesn’t mean it isn’t a business plan.

So what’s scary about that?

Now let me talk to you about statistics………….zzzzzz

Article Source: http://www.homebusinessresourcedirectory.com

About the Author: Anne Maybus [B.A., GradDipBus (HRD)] has 15 years experience in human resources.  She is the owner of www.cleverstreak.com.au, a website aimed at increasing the confidence of women returning to work, and is the creator of a  business women’s network at www.businessbyplan.com.au.

NOTE: You may use this article for reprint ONLY if you DO NOT change the article in ANY way, AND you keep the source and bio IN TACT with ALL links ACTIVE!

Filed Under: Starting Out, Stay Organized Tagged With: ,

3 Easy Steps To Improving Your Business

April 3, 2009 By admin

By: Kara Kelso

I know we are all on the look out to try the newest marketing method or jump in to another way of promoting. Before you do start some new method of promotion, read this first.

Not only will this help you stay better organized, but give you direction as well. Follow these steps to build a better business right from the start.

1. Make a list
Start by making a list of what ideas you would like to put into motion. Go over your current marketing plan. Do you have a newsletter? Build it more. Do you have a website? Tweek it so it converts better. Do you book parties? Set a goal to book more. Regardless of what methods you are working on, focus on building on them.

2. Organize your list
Take your list, and put those ideas in order and decide where you should start. For example, let’s say you have a personal website you want to work on, a newsletter, and you also want to work on bringing more visitors in to the site. Your first task should be working on the website to make sure it’s pulling in enough sales. Working on increasing your traffic is going to be a waist of time until your site is working like it should.

3. Stick to it!
With so many marketing ideas out there, it’s hard to focus on just one. However, making a goal to work on just one type of idea can be a huge benefit.

If you are lacking in ideas or direction, you may consider picking up a copy of Direct Sales Success Kit to help get you organized. Good luck!

Article Source: http://wahm-articles.com

About the Authors: Kara Kelso & Anita DeFrank are two busy wahms, and the owners of Direct Sales Helpers. For more Direct Sales Success Tips, visit: www.directsaleshelpers.com/newsletter.html

Filed Under: Stay Organized, Tips for Success Tagged With: ,