Starting a home based business is not a very difficult proposition but what matters most is marketing your business if you want to succeed in a competitive environment. Marketing is an ongoing process and you should ensure that your home based business and your image is in the limelight all the time.No business can succeed unless you create sufficient awareness and get people talking about your product and services. The strategies given below will help you in your endeavor to succeed.1. Word of mouth is one of the best forms of promoting your business. As soon as you start working from home, pass the word round to your friends, colleagues and acquaintances about your new business and the quality products you offer. This news will spread around the community much faster than you ever dreamt about. Jeff Bezos the founder of Amazon places great emphasis on this-”If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.”2. However small your home business might be an online presence is essential today. It is important that you have a professional looking website for your business. A well designed website will make your business appear big, professional and organized. Having a website has several advantages such as free advertisement for your products, informing customers about changes in products, information about specials, promotions and discounts available.3. Put the URL of your website, your home based business address and your telephone number on all printed matter that goes out of your business such as letters, envelopes, labels, faxes and invoices. This is an easy way of advertising your business and keeping your image in the public eye constantly.4. Advertising in the local media can play a vital role in promoting your home business. Small classified ads do not cost much money. These ads will certainly create awareness about your business in the local community. Send out regular press releases. Get the local press interested in your home based business and get them to write a news story how it benefits the local community. This will without doubt give your business a great boost. If you have the necessary funds, marketing your products through the radio can be even more effective.5. An inexpensive method of marketing your work at home business is by distributing Flyers. Flyers are easy to produce and in fact can be produced by you in your computer.Provide all the details of your business in brief including the address and URL. Similarly attractive and well designed Brochures are great marketing tools. These can be prepared and placed in clubs, libraries and supermarkets where people gather.6. One of the best marketing tools often ignored or overlooked by most new business entrepreneurs is the Business Card. A business card projects your image and credibility. Whenever you meet people at seminars, trade fairs, conferences and other functions, take the opportunity to exchange cards with them. They are influential people who can be very useful in promoting your business in several ways.Marketing your home based business has to be viewed in the right perspective and your success will be greatly dependent on how efficiently you handle this most important aspect of your business.
Home Based Businesses Numbers Continue to Grow
Home based business opportunities are growing daily, along with a new spirit of entrepreneurialism and independence. Today’s technology is making is making working from home far more common today than just a decade ago. Through the general consensus is that more people are working from their homes than ever, finding solid data to prove this can be difficult.Because things change so quickly, much of the data, collected two to four years ago may be inaccurate.The latest statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor are from 2004, but already show a growing trend for men and women working primarily at home. In that year 20.7 million people worked, at least part-time, from their homes most working for another company. About 7 million of those were self-employed as home based business owners. The average work week for someone working at home, according to the study, was 25 hours, and most were professionals, such as people who offered consulting services or sales related businesses. Another huge chunk of the at-home pie are those working in the construction industry.Though the general belief may be that women far outnumber men working at home, this is not the case. Men and women were about equally likely to work out of their home, and there are more parents working at home then singles.According to the Labor Department, home based business are operated by educated individuals. Individuals with a bachelor’s degree or higher were more than 6 times as likely to work out of their homes than those without a college degree. This maybe because it is easier for someone with a management background to transition to a work-at-home job. It may also be easier for someone with a background in computers or web design to operate a small business from home.This trend of working at home is partly due to advances in electronics. Most homes have computers with high-speed Internet connections. Most people have the basic computer skills to put together a rudimentary website. There are even software packages available with some computers that will build your website with just a few clicks of a mouse or keyboard. Information and resources are readily available for individuals looking to start a home based business. It is becoming more and more acceptable in main stream business to work from home at least part time if not full time.The Small Business Administration estimates that 52 percent of all small businesses are home based, and small businesses (those with less than 500 employees) represents 99.7 percent of all employers. Due to lower expenses, particularly in rent and labor costs, the average home based sole proprietor consistently gained a higher return on gross revenue at 36 percent, versus 21 percent for the traditional business model.Statistics from the NBBTA.org, the online division of the National Black Business Trade Association, show that home based business represents a $427 billion industry. This number exceeds the pharmaceutical, food and consumer good industries combined.While getting accurate reports on home base businesses is difficult, one thing remains obvious. Home based businesses, in one area of the U.S.economy that will continue to grow. This is especially true during an economic downturn where traditional jobs are more difficult to find.
Are Christian Home Based Business Opportunities Better?
Are Christian home based business opportunities better than the other work at home offers on the internet? Well, they should be, but you cannot throw your common sense out the window just because someone puts the word ‘Christian’ in their ad. You still need to research every work at home opportunities to see if it is legitimate and to see if it is right for you.
One thing you may find with a Christian centered organization that you might not find with other business plans is a strong mentoring system and a true desire on the part of people already in the business to see you succeed. Building a business is not all technique – which just as many Christian programs as mainstream ones seem to claim is failure proof – and having the right product. There will be many times in starting any business opportunities when a word of encouragement or a bit of advice will be very welcome. Not everyone is comfortable with selling a product, and there are opportunities online that do not involve getting someone to buy something.
For example, you can work for a christian organization that seeks to place foreign exchange students with private families in the United States for a school year. The goal of the company is to expose students from other countries to the foundational principles of the nation as well as to the modern culture. You earn a commission for a successful placement. However, sales make the economy go round, and sales is where the big money is. There are many products out there that you can represent to others with a clear conscience, knowing that the product is as represented and that the company will manufacture it and deliver it as promised. Since you will be looking for customers mainly among your family (including your church family) and friends, at least at first, you need to find a product you truly believe in.
Those who succeed in christian home based business opportunities projects have dedication and self discipline, and a certain amount of ruthlessness. Not everyone who tries a home based business will succeed. If you have a product you believe in and do everything you can to be sure that a new recruit understands the program, with its risks and its potential, then you must turn them loose to rise or fall. This does not mean that you do not try to help, but it does mean that you are not discouraged if only twenty percent of your down line succeeds. Some people do not like this fact of building a business, so think about it ahead of time before you sign up yourself.
Sometimes you can find a program that allows you to do something you enjoy anyway, like making jewelry, for instance. Companies that sell you supplies will also often buy the finished items from you, but will encourage you to retail them yourself to make ‘even more profit’. This means that relying on the company to buy your work back will not make a very good return. If you have an outlet for your merchandise, well and good, but otherwise you must get enough satisfaction out of the process to make it worthwhile even if you make a small return.
Companies with a track record that extends over several years are safer than new ones, so you don’t want to worry too much about a ‘ground floor opportunity’. True Christian home based business opportunities will NOT be a scam where the top person is planning to take the proceeds and run, at least. With care, you have a fair chance of finding work you can be proud of with a Christian outfit.