My guest post, Take Your Writing on Tour , appears at Grow Your Writing Business.  Here I give tips for realizing the potential of speaking to earn additional income from a writing business.
However, most any home business owner can turn to speaking.  This becomes enjoyable, helps promote your business, and can develop another stream of income. 
Opportunities for Speaking – They’re out there, everywhere, if you’ll use some creativity and ingenuity (and utilize some of the suggestions in my post at Grow Your Writing Business).  Some of these speaking invitations may not result in paying gigs at first, yet will generate publicity and name …read more

  I’m pleased to announce that guest blogger Yvonne Russell is joining me here at Home Biz Notes as a co-blogger.  Yvonne hosts the very popular Grow Your Writing Business blog and has written several guest posts for Home Biz Notes.
Yvonne writes from Australia and is knowledgeable about traditional businesses as well as online ones.  If you’ve read her guest posts, you’ve already learned about her expertise. 
These posts included:
How to Get the Most Out of Your Advertising Flyers -  Basic Test Marketing  
Start Your Own Specialist Home Based Bookstore
Yvonne will begin posting this week and will include more information for you …read more

Spread word of your success.  Don’t keep it hidden under a bushel.  You can do this without seeming egotistical…simply let others know wherever appropriate. 
This is difficult for some of us because we may come from the generation where I still hear my mom saying, “Don’t toot your own horn.  People will think you’re bragging. ”
However, if you wait solely for others to discover what you’re doing, the world won’t hear about your or your business.  You can share, as I call it, without seeming egotistical or “pushy.”  You can announce over forums and round-ups of success stories, as well as doing the …read more

Are you making the most of your advertising budget? Let’s look at using basic test marketing to get the most out of advertising flyers.
What Is Test Marketing?
John Wanamaker, one of America’s first department store owners, famously said “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. The trouble is, I don’t know which half.” The good news is with test marketing, you don’t need to waste half your advertising budget.
Test marketing tracks and measures which advertising channels are most effective for you. Are you reaching your customers? Is this converting to sales? We’ll use a home based quilting business as …read more

We generally like to learn about other’s success stories that give us the feeling…
“Ah! If she/he can do that, I can be successful with my business” 
Or…“What a great tip!  I’ll have to try that with my home business.”
Over the existence of Home Biz Notes, I’ve interviewed and mentioned numerous home business.  I’ll round up some of these in case you missed them…or are at a point in your business where some of these tips now will inspire you.
*Mark Allen operates an online business through the utilization of CafePress as his “store.”
*Dorothy Thompson has discovered that the Internet offers her the opportunity to …read more

Yvonne Russell, of Grow Your Writing Business, and I were discussing the length of blog posts and how they varied with different topics and blogs.  She discussed this with other bloggers and mentions our ideas on her post, How Long Should Your Blog Posts Be?  You may find some helpful ideas here for length and style of your blog.
I also mentioned that the length of blog posts is something like the length of a speaker or preacher’s talk or sermon.  “When you’ve covered your topic, stop talking [writing] or you’ll lose your audience [ readers] and they’ll simply remember sitting …read more

In a previous post,Yvonne Russell,  of Grow Your Writing Business, wrote a post, at Home Biz Notes , about developing your home based bookstore.  She also contributed information at Alzheimer’s Notes that resulted in questions from readers.  
So I asked Yvonne to answer questions that an Alzheimer’s Notes’  reader, Kathy of KnowItAlz.com, asked about obtaining books for an online bookstore.  Even though Yvonne specifically addresses Kathy’s question about Alzheimer’s books, the information she gives is universal for any bookstore.  
If you’re considering this type of business, you’ll certainly want to check out Yvonne’s post, Your Specialty Home Based Alzheimer’s Bookstore – Publisher Discount Basics.  You’re …read more

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 …read more

By Guest Author – Yvonne Russell
Many people dream of owning a home based bookstore. Can you compete with Amazon? Absolutely! You can find a little corner of the market and make it yours. What you need is a well thought out and well researched point of difference. You may not reach everyone Amazon reaches, but with a specific target market, you have the potential to reach a lot of people other web based or brick and mortar stores don’t.
Check Out the Competition
How? Most large bookstores focus on the latest bestsellers (new releases) plus tried and true standbys …read more

Yvonne Russell, blog owner of Grow Your Writing Business, will be a guest blogger here at Home Biz Notes, tomorrow, Monday, August 20. She will discuss ideas for to Start Your Own Specialist Home Based Bookstore. Yvonne operated a bookstore in Australia for a number of years, along with other business ventures. She has many tips for the book store owner. However, as with most home businesses, you can learn basics from one business to apply to another, even if yours is somewhat different. So….keep tuned!