Tips For Success | Home Business Resource Directory

5 Record Keeping Tips for Your Home Business

March 20, 2012 By administrator Leave a Comment

It is essential in all businesses to keep good records. It is especially important for a home based business. Keeping good records throughout the year can save you money on taxes and it can save your sanity at tax time. You can make your home business more efficient by following these 5 tips that will allow you to have accurate, easy to access records, saving you time and attention.

Devise a System for Organizing and Storing Papers

The foundation to good record keeping for your home business is having a filing system for your papers. The system can be organized by date, by type of expense or whatever other setup you want. The most important thing is that you have, and use, a system.

You can use any type of container you want to hold your filing system. A filing cabinet can really help avoid clutter. A desk drawer with dividers would also work well.

Keep Hard Copies of All Digital Receipts

While it may be easier to file all of your digital receipts on your computer, this is not always a wise choice. Computers can crash, and lose your home business receipts and records. Whenever you book a flight, print out your flight receipt. Anytime you make a business-related purchase online, print out the receipt right then and there.

Get in the habit of printing all of your receipts from online business. Doing it right away means you don’t have to go receipt-hunting later.

Designate a Time to Organize Your Records

Even the most organized work at home business person needs to stay on top of their records. You can’t just wait until the end of the year to organize all of your records.

It is best to set aside some time once or twice each month, to go through all your receipts and other records and make sure everything is properly filed. You will also need to enter these expenses into your bookkeeping program. Little tasks can pile up quickly if you don’t have a set time to deal with them.

Keep Essential Papers in One Place

You do not want to find yourself in a situation where you have misplaced an important paper. Papers like W-2s, DBAs, FIDs, NDAs, assignment of IPs, accounts payables and sales records should all be kept in one place together. You should also have a set in an offsite back-up location as well.

Home businesses that get their employee’s W-2 or 1099 when they first sign on and then have to ask for it again later on because they lost it, often end up looking unprofessional to their staff. Even worse, if the papers for a staff member who’s left can’t be found, you run the risk of not being able to write off their expenses.

Outsource Your Record Keeping

If you are earning more than $20 or $30 an hour with your home business, it’s probably time to outsource your record keeping.

Bookkeeping is an important task that needs to be done, but it’s not a rare skill. You should be able to hire someone for $20 an hour to take over the task for you. This will allow you to focus your attention on generating money and managing other aspects of your home business.

Use these five record keeping keeps to get your home business organized this year. They will provide a foundation to help make your life easier and your home business more profitable.

Filed Under: Tips for Success

Quick Tips for Getting (and Keeping) More Clients

April 19, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

As in any business, you live and breathe by your clients, right? Getting and keeping more clients are important to your success. Here is a list of five quick tips for getting and keeping more clients.

#1 Ask for referrals. There’s nothing wrong with doing this. In fact, customers are often happy to refer you to others, they just need to be reminded to do so. And, if you can create a referral program where your current clients receive a discount or credit for your services, then all the better.

#2 Be professional. If you’re an excellent person to work with, you’ll keep your clients – even if your rates are a bit higher or your timeline a little bit longer than others. The truth is, we place a high value on our business relationships, at least the clients you want to work with do. And if you can build a strong relationship with your clients, you’ll keep them for the long haul. They’ll also talk about you, and word of mouth is a great, and free, marketing tool.

#3 Communicate on a regular basis. You don’t have to have an opt-in list or an email marketing campaign, but if you regularly connect with your clients, you stay in the front of their mind when they have a need or when someone asks them for a recommendation. Here are two approaches to client communication that you can utilize to fit your business. They are:

- Promotional Email – Send your client list an email once a month, or more often if you like, highlighting a promotion. For example, “10% off any orders of $50 or more for the month of April.”

- Informational Email – Send your client a note when you’re thinking of them. For example, “I saw this article and thought of you.” This helps build a relationship to them and it’s a great way to stay connected.

#4 Get Social! Participate in social networking, blog and be a guest blogger. Generate awareness about you and your services. One new client can turn into many new clients over the course of a year – just through social networking.

#5 Be helpful. Be willing to help and inform others in your community even when there isn’t any apparent reward. Whether you believe in the law of attraction or not, when you give to others, they give back. This doesn’t mean you give away your services; what it means is that you’re willing to help others by providing insight, information and a listening ear when they need it without expecting anything in return.

If your client is trying to resolve an issue and you can help them with your experience, help them. They’ll appreciate it and you never know when they’ll be able to return the favor.

Much of the art of keeping clients has to do with building relationships, and it’s also intricately linked with getting new clients. Word of mouth from satisfied clients is a wonderful way to fill your schedule with your ideal clients and projects. Connect!

Filed Under: Blog, Business Coaching, Customer Service, Tips for Success

5 Ways to Use Private Label Rights Articles and Content

August 26, 2009 By admin 1 Comment

So, you’ve bought some PLR content, added a few articles to your site and now you’re done, right? Maybe you’ve got stacks of PLR sitting on your hard drive collecting dust? You can do more with that private label rights content!

Here are some ideas:

1. Your Website – Add private label rights articles and content to your website. Make sure when you add the content that you use it with purpose. Will you add an affiliate link? Will you promote a product you sell or point to a service you offer?

2. Newsletter Articles – If you publish a weekly newsletter, you can use PLR articles or break up a PLR eBook to use as articles for your newsletter.

3. Draw Traffic – Instead of emailing a full article directly in your newsletter, you could also use a short snippit of the article in an email which you then use to direct people to your site to read more.

4. Blog It – Sometimes it’s not easy to come up with blog content. Using PLR articles or a PLR eBook broken into articles can help you keep your blog updated on a regular basis. This is turn draws more search engine traffic with targeted, quality content.

5. Ebook – You can find PLR eBooks ready to use. These can either be sold on your website or given away to use for viral marketing. If you decide to give away your eBook, you’ll want to use it to direct people back to your website and increase your traffic.

These five ideas are just to get you started with PLR content. There are many uses and I’m sure if you think about it you can come up with some creative ways to use the content for your business and websites. The important thing to remember is, as long as you are providing something your visitors are looking for and appreciate it doesn’t matter if you didn’t write every word yourself.

About the Author: Wendy Wood is working hard to bring you quality private label rights e-books every month. Each month you’ll have access to a quality PLR e-book, sales page, graphics, ecourse to promote your e-book, and so much more! Learn more and sign up for MomPLReBooks.com.

Filed Under: Blog, PLR Tagged With: Content, PLR

EBooks: A High Profit, Low-Maintenance Business

August 24, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

If you are serious about making money online, there are a number of ways to do it. One profitable idea is eBooks. They require very little cost upfront and can provide lots of revenue for your business.

What are EBooks?

EBooks are digital reading media that is easy to pass along to others. Many are opting for electronic books over printed books these days for several reasons. One, eBooks are shorter versions of more traditional books that can be created and published by you.

Secondly, eBooks are easy to use and store. They fill files on your computer instead of space on bookshelves in your home. EBooks can be read in PDF format online or printed to take with you. Unlike traditional books, as soon as you order an eBook, you can have access to it in minutes.

What does that mean to you?

Do you like to write? If you have a way with words and a talent for enticing readers, you can use eBooks to bring a profit to your blog or website. Use your niche as subject matter for your eBooks. Since you already have knowledge about, say, Internet marketing, put your experience to work by offering it to others in the form of an eBook.

The cost to you is negligible. With a blog or website, you already have access to the Internet and a computer that is probably filled with software that is needed to work with eBooks: Microsoft Publisher, Adobe Acrobat and Microsoft Word. It is not a matter of creating the inside of the eBook. There are books and online articles that give tips for writing eBooks people will want to read.

EBooks vary in size. You may be able to charge more for longer books or you may command a good price for shorter ebooks that provide very concise and valuable information.

An eBook can be composed in a Word document on your computer. Use Microsoft Publisher to format your work and add extras to attract readers. Turn your Word document into a PDF file for easier downloading and printing by customers.

Selling EBooks

Now that you have created this eBook, you’ll need to find a way to get it into people’s hands. Marketing your eBook follows the same lines as marketing your website or blog.

Use article marketing to draw attention to your eBooks. Create an article series based on your eBook. Submit these articles to article sites and on your blog or website. Give just enough information in the articles to have the reader wanting to know more. In the resource box, mention the eBook and link to your website. Submit articles to social bookmarking sites with links to your website page showcasing the eBooks.

For customer ease, link your eBooks with your checkout process. Once the customer pays (PayPal, credit card, debit card) they will receive a link via email or automatically where they can download your product.

EBooks cost you next to nothing to produce so the money you make is all profit. Turn your writing skills and expertise in a certain area into money for your business.

Mom PLR eBooks Membership Site Tour

Filed Under: ebooks, Featured Tagged With: ebooks

One Change to WordPress Blog Can Help You Rank Better with Google

June 24, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

There are many things that must be done in order to obtain a better ranking with the top search engines like Google. However, one change can make a world of difference.

First, if you do not have WordPress self hosted already, I highly recommend it. I have done it all…builders, html, blogger, you name it. In the end a self hosted WordPress blog is the best all around. Period. (Click Here if you want some help with hosting or design)

A WordPress blog allows you to do so many things easily. One of them is to optimize your site for search engines.

One Change for Better SEO on WordPress

Simple…USE the SEO tools that are provided and available!

What are they and How?

1. Download the all in one SEO plugin. Follow the simple directions and you will be in a much better position.

2. Use categories to the fullest. When you create a new category, add proper keywords to description area. Just keywords separated by commas.

3. Repeat above with post tags.

4. Have good titles for posts. Make them at LEAST five words long.

5. Permalinks. Change them to custom or at least so they have actual names and not the default numbers.

Seriously, this one area of attention will make a world of difference. SEO is not the all in all of having a successful website or blog. However, it is one very important piece of the puzzle and this part of SEO is vital.

I have implemented them on all of my sites and am already seeing the fruits of my labor.

A website or blog is like a baby. It needs attention and care. If you give it those two things, you will be well on your way to success, and with success comes profit!

Filed Under: Blogging, Business Coaching, Featured, Google, SEO/Traffic, Web Design Tagged With: Blogging, Business Coaching, Google, SEO/Traffic, Web Design, Websites

Good Customer Service is More Important than Ever

May 21, 2009 By admin 1 Comment

In an ailing and uncertain economic future, businesses must be even more aware of customer service. Potential customers are limiting their spending and are less likely to spend if the do not feel appreciated.

Customer service had begin a huge decline in recent years. Fat wallets and fat bellies gave businesses a false sense of security. However, with the current financial climate, businesses need to up their customer service…big time!

Buyers are watching their pennies and will not tolerate poor customer service any longer. Companies, both big and small, better wake up if they want to stay out of the ever growing pile of fallen businesses.

Tips to go the Extra Mile in Customer Service

Happy Customer Equals Profitable Business. Never, never, under any circumstance let your customer walk away unhappy. Do everything in your power to earn each customers respect and loyalty. Kindness goes a long way.

Appreciate Your Customers. You need your customers way more than they need you. Make them feel appreciated. Have great sales and give freebies to repeat customers. Be creative and make sure they know that you appreciate their business. After all, they are spending their hard earned money and they deserve respect.

Proper Communication. Make eye contact with customers. Shake their hands. Walk them to the product. For Online companies, return emails immediately, call them, send thank you and/or Christmas cards. Keep in contact with your customers. Do not stalk them, of course. LOL!

Train Your Employees to be Customer Service Savvy. This is important. You can have the best customer service skills and still fall if your employees do not give customers the same level of customer service as you do. Train them. Make it a mandatory part of employment and do not tolerate anything less then the best from your employees. Period.

If we take our customers seriously, listen to them and make them feel like they matter, we will have a better chance of not only making it through this economic nightmare, we will gain a loyal customer base that will hold for a lifetime.

Filed Under: Customer Service, Featured Tagged With: Business Coaching, Business Tips, Customer Service

Should Your Business Have a Blog

May 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Blogging has become extremely popular in this modern society. We have even advanced to vblogging (video blogs). The questions is: should your business have a blog? The answer to this questions is simple. Yes, I think that all businesses that have a website should have a blog as well.

Why Every Business with a Website Should have a Blog

Update Customers. A blog gives you the opportunity to let your customers know what is going on. You can tell them and visitors to your website about new products, upcoming sales and events, and much more. It is a great tool for any business, and in most cases free with cpanel hosting. Or definitely free through Blogger. However, keep in mind that it is best to have it on your own domain. Or, at the very least a redirect.

Build Traffic. Many people who obtain a website for their business think traffic is just going to come. Unfortunately, that is not true. Traffic is a fickle thing and requires patience, time, and the addition of good quality content on a regular basis. What better way to add content then with a blog? You can use it as a venue to write about your niche, product, targeted audience, etc.

Get Search Engine Attention. For some reason, blogs get crawled more and traffic just flows better to them. I know this first hand. I have actually transferred all of my websites from a CSS format to WordPress (self hosted). Since I did this, all of my sites are doing much better traffic wise. WordPress is a blogging platform that allows you to have all the benefits of a blog and and a website all in one.

Build Contacts. The blogging world is a huge and loyal community. If you run a good blog and update regularly, you will begin to have regular readers and people to exchange links with and who will tell others about your site/product. Free advertising.

Reviews. Trade reviews with other bloggers and business owners. You scratch their back and they will scratch yours. Keep it in your niche, but not a direct competitor. Make sure you will be benefiting each other not competing.

As you can see, a blog is a great way for a business to promote itself, stay up to date, get noticed, share with customers, grow more business, gain quality niche traffic and create a steady flow of readerships. You will be doing yourself and your business a favor with a blog.

Filed Under: Blog, Blogging, Customer Service Tagged With: Blogging, Business Coaching, Business Tips, Marketing and Promotion

Twitterpated

May 13, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

No, I am not talking about Bambi and Friend Owl’s description of being love struck. LOL…well…maybe a little love struck! I am talking about Social Networking. Social Networking is in right now and Twitter is one of the many venues for it.

I love to Twitter. I use it to vent, share, network and promote. It’s FREE. A free way to advertise and promote. Amazing, huh?

Twitter really can be a useful tool in promoting your website or business. Twitter is like having a live mini IM/blog that can reach many people. It can be a great way to get the word out about your product or service. However, you need to make sure that you are not spamming your followers!

Post on it throughout the day stuff that is going on in your day. Work, family, news, etc. Then, when you do post a few “ads,” they will not seem like you are an ad crazy twitter spammer! LOL!

You can add Twitter right to your browser. I use Fire Fox, so I have Twitbin. It sits right to the left of my screen so I can see new posts from people I follow. And, so I can add a post when the mood arises. It is totally cool!

Pay attention to what is going on with the people you follow. Participate in conversations so that you are involved and not just a voyeur. If all you do is post about you, no one will be interested in you! Be a true blue twitter friend.

I have made many new friends on Twitter. If I never got twitterpated, I would not have met them!

So, get twittering! Oh, and feel free to follow me!

Filed Under: Featured, Marketing, Social Networking, Starting Out, Tips for Success, Web Design Tagged With: Business Coaching, Business Tips, Marketing and Promotion, Social Networking, Twitter

The Power of a Sale

May 5, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

In this uncertain economy, a good sale may be just what your business needs to increase profits. Having a sale will attract more customers and make you a viable option for those potential customers that may be on a tight budget.

Tips for Making a Sale Productive:

Promote: Never assume that people will just find your sale. Send out fliers, postcards and use word of mouth. If the Internet is used in your business, take advantage of social networking, viral marketing, email campaigns, advertising, etc. The point is tell the world you are having a sale!

Make it a Good One: If you are going to take the time to promote and have a sale. Make it worth your time and your potential customers. Go all out. Buy one get one free. Half off. Freebies with purchase. Free stuff attracts everyone! LOL! Make it big.

Be Creative: A good theme for your sale can work wonders. Use events going on around you to help you. Some examples are; Tax Cut sales, Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter sales. You can also have holiday and anniversary sales. Think about your product and how you can use life and events to work with your sales.

Know your Customers: In order to have a productive sale, you need to know your customers. What do they like? What do they need? If you have a mailing list, ask them for feedback. Find out what your customers want in a sale!

Time: The sale cannot go on forever. So, make sure your potential customers know that this is a “limited time” event and they should jump on it while they can!

A good sale can be just what your business needs to get back into the game. Be creative, set yourself apart and cater to your customers. If you do, I am certain you should have success!

Filed Under: Blog, Business Coaching, Customer Service, Featured, Tips for Success Tagged With: Business Coaching, Business Tips, Customer Service