Stay At Home Mom’s Guide To Successful Ebay Selling – Video
March 31, 2008 by Yvonne Russell
My colleague and friend, Suzanne Wells is a successful ebay selling coach. She is an ebay Power seller. Suzanne blogs at Power Seller King and Ebay Selling Coach.
She is the author of The Stay At Home Mom’s Guide To Successful Ebay Selling available from Amazon. Watch the video to learn more if this is a home business idea you’d like to know more about.
Creativity By Necessity – Partner With Other Businesses
March 30, 2008 by Yvonne Russell
When I ran my bookstore, people often remarked about how creative we were with our promotions and approach. As a small business competing with chain bookstores, it was often simply a matter of necessity.
Mary Emma Allen, my co-blogger at Home Biz Notes in High Gas Prices Change Business Methods & Stimulate Creativity suggests partnering with another business. I have long been a fan of this concept.
Partnering with complementary businesses makes a lot of sense. A hairdresser could partner with a nail salon for special joint promotions.
But Mary Emma suggests another option for home business owners. She points out that to save money on gas,
Shoppers combine trips, doing a number of errands in one area at the same time or car pool.
Is there a way you can offer a discount if someone shops at your at home business while shopping at a nearby grocery, etc.?
Can you partner with a business on a geographic basis, not necessarily one related to your focus? So a home hairdressing salon may partner with a local supermarket. Any other suggestions?
- Which businesses in your area could you approach to partner with you – complementary or otherwise?
- If you’ve done this, we’d love you to share your experiences.
© Image courtesy of Yvonne Russell at Grow Your Writing Business.com
Australia Kicks Off Earth Hour – Will You Take Part?
March 29, 2008 by Yvonne Russell
Australia kicked off Earth Hour in 2007 when 2.2 million Sydnesiders switched off their lights for one hour at an agreed time.
In 2008, Earth Hour has gone global. At 8 p.m. March 29th in your time zone, the idea is you hit the lights at home or at your business, and switch off any non essential electrical appliances. It’s a way to raise awareness about going green.
Some city landmarks will be dimmed with only essential lights. The Sydney Opera House and The Sydney Harbour Bridge are two icons which are going green to honor Earth Hour.
What’s happening in your area?
Will you take part?
More info at the official Earth Hour site.
Using Twitter to Boost Your Home Business
March 29, 2008 by Mary Emma Allen
Twitter…how can you use this popular social media site to boost your home business? It’s all the rage and many people find beneficial for networking.
Over at Copyblogger, guest blogger Nathania Johnson has written a very informative post about this social phenomenon, Three Ways to Maximize Your Twitter Time for Networking, Marketing and Fun. Thus, you’ll be using your time for something beneficial for your business and not frittering it away on Twitter.
Here’s another of Nathania’s posts, How Twitter Helped Me Get 3 Solid Job Offers, and shows you just another way to use this platform. (This one appears at Social Media Butterfly.)
Brian Clark, of Copyblogger, also writes about his adventures at Twitter .
How have you been utilizing Twitter to benefit your home business?
(c)2008 Mary Emma Allen
Outsourcing For A Work Life Balance
March 28, 2008 by Yvonne Russell
We feel comfortable with outsourcing tasks to specialists such as attorneys and accountants because we don’t usually have the required skills.
Outsourcing for home business owners does not have to mean high end business tasks.
Outsourcing is equally valid when you
- want or need more time to focus on other work tasks
- don’t have an interest in a specific area
- want to spend more time to relax
- want to spend more time with your family
- want to give yourself some “me” time
- Any others?
An Australian Bureau of Statistics study found that only 13 percent of households outsource gardening tasks, and only 10% outsourced cleaning and ironing tasks.
How about these?
- personal chef (if you’re feeling indulgent)
- personal shopper
- personal home organizer
- personal concierge
- baby sitting
- virtual assistant
- home cleaner
- ironing assistance
- yard work
While your budget may not stretch to too much outsourcing, you can also call on family and friends. Reciprocating is the name of the game. The two way street approach is also true of networking with colleagues – another form of outsourcing if you can all call on each other in your areas of strength.
- What tasks would (do) you outsource to move you ahead with your home business?
© Image courtesy of Yvonne Russell at Grow Your Writing Business.com
Non-Profits Can Be Home Based Operations
March 27, 2008 by Mary Emma Allen
When discussing various types of home based businesses and writing about them, 
I’d never thought to include non-profits. Tom Durso, at 501 (c) Files made me aware of this in his post, A Great Resource for Home-Based Nonprofiteers.
How many nonprofits, I wonder, start at someone’s kitchen table, with a couple of committed people hatching an idea…..
Yes, many non-profits start this way. Some remain home based operations while others expand considerably. They may set up in a corner of a room in one’s home as excited organizers pursue a cause or raise funds.
Tom also points out that non-profits can benefit by much of the information we provide for home businesses at Home Biz Notes.
(c) 2008 Mary Emma Allen
Taming My Email Overload – Early Steps Are Paying Off
March 26, 2008 by Yvonne Russell
Earlier in March I vowed to take small steps to tame my email overload. I’m pleased to report it’s going well.
Step 1:
I’ve unsubscribed to most of my RSS and email feeds. I notice some don’t have an unsubscribe option, so these are proving more tricky.
Step 2:
I’ve also unsubscribed to all my Google Alerts. This takes care of about 60 emails per day.
Step 3:
I’ve deleted all my empty, duplicate and obsolete email folders. Why I had them in the first place, I’m not sure.
Taming my email overload will be a big job, but I’m committed to it. I’ll report back as I go along.
My main ongoing issues are too many stored emails (just in case I need them), and the ever present spam. I’ll set up rules for the latter and see what I can do about tightening this.
How about you? Any tips for taming email overload? How do you handle emails you want to keep?
© Image courtesy of Yvonne Russell at Grow Your Writing Business.com
Keep It Simple – Productivity & Common Sense
March 26, 2008 by Yvonne Russell
Jennifer Hoffman at My Organized Biz hosts a roundup of b5 business channel posts about Elegant Simplicity In A Sped Up World.
There’s some great information here about keeping things simple in business, plus some great productivity tips.
Jennifer also features our Home Biz Notes post, Smiles & Thankyou’s – The Low Tech Way To Positive Business Connections.
In April, at Home Biz Notes, Productivity will be a sub theme. We’d love you to share your productivity tips. If we feature your tip we’ll credit you and link back to your site. What are you waiting for?
Just email us or leave a comment here. Contact details are in the sidebar.
Image courtesy of Yvonne Russell © at Grow Your Writing Business
Media PR for Your Business…Plan a Strategy
March 25, 2008 by Mary Emma Allen
You can develop a business, acquire products and be ready to provide services. However, if no one knows about your home business, you’ll simply sit there.
So you need to develop a PR stragegy.
Over at Biz Chicks Rule, you’ll find a great post by guest blogger, Shannon Cherry, concerning Why every woman should seek out media coverage for their business.
Although this blog may seem to be focused on women in business, you’ll find many principles to apply in any business. Check out Shannon’s post for ideas on media PR and the necessity for it in spreading the word about your business. She elaborates upon six ways publicity can benefit you and your company.
Also, Shannon says, In the story [from the Wall Street Journal that she refers to], many companies turn to PR after they have unsuccessfully spent money on advertising campaigns that produced little or no results.
Media publicity may help you, too, rather than spending a great deal on advertising…or help you develop a balance between the two.
What media PR have you found effective?
(c)2008 Mary Emma Allen
Bed & Breakfast Business – Do You Have What It Takes?
March 24, 2008 by Yvonne Russell
HomeBizNotes.com
Many of us who work from home go elsewhere for meetings because we don’t want our home on show, or don’t want clients in our house for any number of other reasons.
There are 20 000 licensed Bed and Breakfast owners in the US alone.
Their home is their business in every sense. Clients don’t come for meetings. They come to stay.
Do you have what it takes to run a financially successful bed and breakfast?
For the right person, couple or team, it can be a rewarding home business.
21 Brainsparks For Prospective Bed and Breakfast Owners
- Do you enjoy dealing with people?
- Do you have private space in your home?
- Do you have some time to yourself?
- Do you take pride in your home and gardens?
- Are your children at a stage where your bed and breakfast business and family needs are compatible?
- Does your home lend itself to a conversion or do you need a ready made bed and breakfast?
- Will it be in your area or will you relocate?
- Have you checked out your competition?
- What are the local regulations for home businesses?
- What are the local regulations for bed and breakfast businesses?
- Have you stayed in bed and breakfasts yourself?
- Have you spoken to bed and breakfast owners?
- Have you joined a bed and breakfast association or done a course?
- Will you operate year round?
- Will there be enough clients in your area?
- What is there to draw clients to your area?
- What is your point of difference?
- Are you able to set a routine for yourself?
- Are you able to be flexible?
- Are you a member of local networking groups?
- Have you read recommended books on the topic?
How to Open a Financially Successful Bed & Breakfast or Small Hotel is a great practical business reference with solid information and a bonus CD with forms.
INVITATION:
If you own a bed and breakfast business (or any other home business), and would like to be interviewed for Home Biz Notes, I’d love to hear from you.