You’re enthusiastic about a project.  You’re excited you have another customer.  You try to make an impression and agree to finish a project or perform a service in less time than usual.  Or you don’t allow time in case you run into a problem.

Take Eric Eggertson’s advice in this post from his Common Sense PR blog…Quick Tip: Don’t Promise More Than You Can Deliver.

Eric talks about resolving problems, but the advice applies to performing services and supplying products for customers.  If you find you can’t keep to the time frame or get the material agreed upon, let the customer know immediately.  Don’t delay, make false promises…and hope everything turns our okay. 

Good communications make for satisfied customers…or as satisfied as you can make them.

Home business owners, whether online or offline, need customers/clients.  How does one get them?  In general the methods vary depending on which type of business you’re operating.  However, with more businesses having some type of online presence, online methods are of great interest.

Online business owners often get caught up with buying lists of guaranteed visitors to their site.  Cynthia Minnaar, in an article in American Chronicle, How to Drive Targeted Website Traffic to Your Internet Home Business, differentiates between building versus buying home business traffic.  Even though buying traffic may seem to be the quicker way, it doesn’t work, Ms Minnaar maintains.

“Building [traffic] takes time, perseverence, persistence and dedication.  You can’t cut corners and expect to build your internet home business in a week or month and generate massive targeted traffic and create online income in a short space of time.”

Then she goes on the describe some free ways to build your business traffic.

Coming in September the b5media Business Channel will sponsor a “Jump Start Your Business” contest.  Keep tuned for details as everything becomes finalized.  There will be numerous prizes and business advice offered.

Kelly at Taxgirl has some details, with more forthcoming there and at the other Business Channel blogs shortly.

Here’s an interesting idea for businesses with a shop in the home where customers stop by?  How do customers know you’re open for business?

You probably have a sign.  Is it homemade (a piece of plywood smeared with paint or poster board with lettering in permanent marker) or is it professional looking.  When I operated a dressmaking business and gift shop in my home, Mea’s Boutique, I did go to the expense of having a professionally made sign to place in front of our house.  It more than paid for itself by attracting customers and giving the impression that I was a professional.

At Art Biz Blog, we learn how to carry this one step further in the post, Do they know you’re open for business?  One of Alyson Stanfield’s readers, John T. Unger, mentioned the success he had by purchasing inexpensive red, white, and blue  “Open” flags and placing them in front of his studio. 

I see so many of these as I go about our town or travel around various areas of the country.  I’ve never thought to ask a business owner if they really worked and brought in more business.

(Make sure, if you place a sign in front of or on your house, as well as the flags, that they’re premitted by zoning regulations.)

Laurie Neumann, at Christian Home Business Connection, continues to offer useful information and tips for the home business owner, or someone considering starting a business from their home.  She spends a great deal of time researching legitimate business opportunities.

At her web site, you’ll find a very helpful feature, an archive of articles on home business topics.  You, also, can sign up for her free newsletter with it’s business tips.

You may want to check out Laurie’s web site and blog to see what information applies to your situation.

I was asked to write a guest post, Virtual Blog Tours – The Latest Innovation for Promoting Your Writing,  for Yvonne Russell’s Grow Your Writing Business.  Going on a virtual blog tour has become a popular technique for promoting one’s writing business and books.  I’ve hosted a number of writers at my author blog, Mary Emma’s Potpourri of Writing and encourage writers to try this method of promotion.

I’ve also interviewed blog tour coordinator Dorothy Thompson on this blog, as she developed this as a home business.  If you’d like to learn more about blog touring or hosting, check out my post at Yvonne’s blog.

When we mention press releases, or getting news out about our business, a new product or service, we think of sending them to as many publications or media sources as possible.  However, Eric Eggertson of Common Sense PR mentions another technique in his post, If You Can Give a Journalist Exclusivity, the Payoffs Are Big.

“Information about your organization [home business] has relative value.  The more journalists you send the information to, the less value it has for each of them.”

Eric discusses the value of a well-placed story rather than diluting it through numerous short pieces in many media sources.  This is something to consider when you’re introducing something new about your business.

We’ve often talked about setting up a business plan for starting your home business.  However, you also need a marketing plan.  If you’re in a business, then that assumes you need customers or clients.  You need someone to purchase your products and/or services.

Over at Startup Spark, Steve discusses this topic, Writing a Marketing Plan – Series Overview.  This series addresses large and small businesses, those with employees and without, so gather ideas from it for your business and see what you can accomplish in refining the marketing plan you already have…or start a definite one if you haven’t considered this before.

What do you have for a marketing plan?  Do you have some success techniques that have worked for you…or strategies you’ve found you had to change?

We’ve mentioned here several times the need to check out zoning regulations pertaining to your home before you decide to set up a home business, particularly one that involves customers/clients coming to your home.   (However, online business might be affected, too, in some areas.)

 I just read a news item, License Denied for Existing Home Business, that concerned this topic.

The aldermen decided, according to the mayor’s statement ” they’re running a business in a residential area and we can’t approve that.”  He did say if the owners moved their lawn mower service business to a commercially zoned area, the license would be approved.

There were very few details in this news story, so we don’t know:

*how long this business existed at the owner’s home

*why they didn’t check out zoning and licensing

*are there other home businesses in that area

*is the business an obvious eye-sore, with lawn mowers and parts all over the place

*have licensing and zoning regulations always been followed strictly or are the aldermen suddenly becoming more stringent

However, no matter what has happened in the past or what the owners did or didn’t do, it points out that you should check out zoning and licensing requirements before becoming involved in a home business.  If your business has been operating from your home and new regulation are placed into effect, a “grandfathering clause” regarding existing businesses usually is in effect.  In other words, those in existence, can continue to operate.  However, the business, if sold, could not stay there.  If you stop operating the business for some time, then decided to start up again, the grandfathering clause probably would not be in place.

So…before starting a business, find out the regulations for your area, your town, county/provomce, state and country.

Resources: 

Yvonne Russell also mentioned this in her guest post about establishing an online bookstore, Start Your Own Specialist Home Based Bookstore.

I refer to this topic in Insurance, Taxes & Licensing Issues for a Home Business an mention Karen E. Klein’s article, Before Setting Up Shop on eBay that talks about this topic, too.)

Laura Spencer, at Work From Home Momma, has a helpful post about offline promotion, Five Tips for Promoting Your Home Business Offline.  So many people concentrate on online promotion (which is great).  However, they forget that offline promotion is still valid and, in most cases, necessary.

One item Laura mentions is the business card.  I had one business owner tell me she finds business cards unnecessary these days because her promotion is entirely online and her communication by e-mail.  Nevertheless, I still use business cards for my online business because I encounter many people in person who are interested in what I do and who may become customers.

I can see that one may use fewer business cards that they once did, now that so much business and communication occurs online.  However, that “good ole” business card does come in handy when someone needs your phone number or e-mail.  Also, I often use them for writing the other person’s name/address on the back side.

My daughter and her quilting friends usually have pictures of their art on the business cards…so these are eye-catching and may be regarded as a “freebie” piece of art for the recipient.

Anyway…check over Laura’s post for some ideas you should find helpful.