So often your customers are rushed and stressed this time of year as they finish their shopping, attend school holiday programs, do extra baking, wrap up year-end reports at work and often deal with stormy weather.
How can you make them smile and feel less stressed when they shop with you or visit your online store?
1. Smile of course. Often a smile will bring one in return.
2. Put smiley faces or cheery design on e-mail correspondence with them.
3. Tuck little cards, no larger than a business card, into their packages with an uplifting saying. This works for online …read more

“Back-to-School” is the selected topic for the b5media Business Channel Theme Day hosted by Miranda Marquit at Yielding Wealth.   Home Biz Notes participated with a post, 5 Ways Back-to-School Affects Your Home Business. 
Now that youngsters are back in school, parents who operate home businesses, as well as those who shop, will find some changes in their lives and businesses.  I share five ways you might be affected.

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 …read more

  Many home businesses, especially those doing business online, utilize the PayPal banking services for receiving payment and purchasing.  This is a quick way to undertake these transactions.  You also can transfer payment deposited into PayPal to another bank.  Or you can withdraw money from PayPal by having them send you a check, for a fee.
PayPal does charge slight fees for their transactions, but you generally have to pay fees for other types of banking, too, especially when they involved other countries. 
PayPal continues to expand its services so that more and more companies are using it, making international banking and …read more

Many people want to work at home and even set up a business at home.  However, they may soon find they’re easily distracted and aren’t so effective as when working for someone else. 
As has been said, “The good news is…you’re your own boss.  The bad news is…you’re your own boss.”
Now isn’t that contradictory?
Not necessarily.  As your own boss, you can set your own schedule, generally work at something you enjoy,  and work at or from home.   However, as your own boss…you must have the incentive to be effective and productive…or your business will fizzle away.
At Contract Worker, Rico refers to 9 …read more

More and more networking for home businesses and other business occurs online nowadays.  This seems to be the growing trend even if your business isn’t an online one.  Business owners begin to find the Internet and e-mail a great way to communicate with customers and to promote their products and services. 
As Mark Allen said in the interview about his online home business, “The great thing about an online business is that the world is your market.”  Likewise, the great aspect about online networking and promotion is that the world is your audience.  You can meet and work with people around the …read more

Some home businesses you can take with you when you move; others are impossible to relocate.  In today’s Internet world, you can easily move an online business when you have to go to another town or state.
When I operated a dressmaking and alteration business I found that easy to move when Jim’s work took us from New York State to New Hampshire.  I did lose the customer base I had established at the former home and had to build up a clientele.  However, this wasn’t too difficult to do since I’d developed my business once before and knew where and how …read more

Because she couldn’t be tied down by clients’ schedules, when trying to balance family and business that took her outside the home, Julie Bonner, organizational expert and blogger at b5media’s Declutter It!, took her business online.  Since then she’s “been helping others, via the Internet, get organized.”
This is happening with many businesses.  They’re going onto the Internet, either in conjunction with a physical business or evolving into one where they provide products and/or services solely with customers/clients they communicate with only online, possibly occasionally by phone.
If you haven’t developed an online presence with your business, you may want to look into …read more

In a previous post, I discussed 5 of the advantages of an Internet home business. Some of these advantages may turn into challenges or disadvantages if you’re not careful.  There also may be other ones you need to consider…those common to most home businesses or particularly to yours.
*Don’t have face to face contact with people.  So sometimes it’s more difficult to address problems when you can’t have personal contact.  Some people find it much easier to deal with people when they’re face to face, while others like the anonimity of the phone or e-mail.
*Less investment may equate less production.  When …read more

Many home business owners are taking advantage of the Internet for their operation. Some combine Internet sales and promotion with a shop in their home. Others conduct their business solely via the Internet.
What are some of the advantages of this ever growing innovation in business?
*Less Investment – Generally the investment for an Internet based home business is less than that of the traditional business, even when a shop may be in your home.
*Many Opportunities – Business on the Internet or conducted by using the Internet is growing every day. Creative business people are finding new products and …read more