When you finally decide to work from home in an internet based
business, you will need to follow certain steps to be successful.
Following are the basic steps in setting up for home business
success.
1. Attitude
This is the key to your business.
Treat your business like a business.
This is critical no matter if you work part or full-time.
One of my friends is a work at home mom. She has always put
her family first whilst at the same time developing her business.
She says, "I work part-time, but I have a full-time attitude."
Put another way, "If you have a hobby attitude you will
have a hobby income, if you have a business attitude you
will have a business income."
You can be successful working part-time and you can be successful
working full-time but it is highly unlikely that you will
be successful working in your "spare time".
2. Working Environment
A space that you can call your own, free from distractions
for your scheduled time.
A comfortable chair and organized desk. Stationery supplies
as required. For example:
- pens - highlighters - stapler - hole punch - sticky tape
- note book(s) - a simple filing system - ring binders -
manilla folders
Consider the value of a broadband connection. Your time
is valuable and a broadband connection can allow you to get
more done in a given time frame.
3. Schedule
Develop a schedule that works for you, your family (or "significant
others") and your business. When you allot a block of time
for work then use that time for work. Equally important is
to schedule time for your other commitments - family time,
self education ( reading, listening and viewing), "health
time" (exercise, cooking and eating), and leisure time. During
these other times don't work. After all if one of the reasons
to work from home is to spend more time with your family
then you don't want your working at home time to consume
your family time.
You are working for yourself and your schedule (by your
choice) is your "boss". When you have people calling you
or dropping around unexpectedly or maybe out-of-town visitors
may want to catch up with you then you need to make a choice.
Are you committed to your own business success? What will
be your choice in these situations? Only you can decide what
is important to you.
In a family environment you may need to negotiate with your
partner and children to have your business time agreed upon,
during which you will not be interrupted. Put this schedule
prominently somewhere so all family members are aware of
your work schedule.
4. Describe Your Business
Be able to describe your business concisely; a powerful
one or two sentence description that someone can repeat in
describing your business to others. A unique and memorable
tag line can also be invaluable for promoting your business.
5. Know Your Product or Service
Once you have selected your product or service to sell,
it may or may not be something that you use yourself but
you need to know your product intimately. If you are selling
ebooks then know the content and its value. If you are selling
software then use it know it "inside out". You will develop
a reputation of providing quality information and because
of your product knowledge you can become the preferred supplier.
It is not practical to use certain products (for example
a woman may choose to sell man's shoes or vice versa) in
which case the seller won't be a product user, however the
seller can still know the benefits and features of the product
intimately.
6. Administration
Use good record keeping practices.
This may involve a consultation with a tax advisor who can
let you know about the optimal way to set up your financial
records and what records need to be kept. Your advisor will
also recommend record keeping systems and you can find out
what software may simplify this aspect of your business.
Additionally your obtain advice on the best arrangement for
your bank accounts. You will most likely be advised to have
a separate bank account.
You will also need to keep track of your various logins,
usernames and passwords. A very handy little software tool
for this is Treepad available as either the free Lite version
(without password protection) or the commercial Plus or Biz
versions. http://www.treepad.com
There are other useful tools for this also from a simple
paper notebook to free and commercial password keepers. One
popular solution is Roboform that will remember your login
details and can automatically fill out your login and other
registration forms. http://www.roboform.com
7. Computer Protection
Your computer is the lifeline to your business dealings
and must be protected including the data that is stored.
You need a virus scanner, personal firewall, anti-spyware
and anti-adware and preferably an email scanner with the
ability to delete suspect of spam email from the server before
it is downloaded to your computer.
Some suggestions are:
AVG Anti-Virus: http://www.grisoft.com Spybot S&D: http://www.safer-networking.org
Microsoft Anti-Spyware: www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx
Adaware: http://www.lavasoft.com/ Mailwasher Email Scanner:
http://www.mailwasher.net
8. A Domain Name
You will most likely need a domain name for your business
and one cost effective registrar is GoDaddy, http://www.godaddy.com.
9. Payment Processing
You will need a way to process credit cards; that may be
using services such as: - PayPal https://www.paypal.com -
Storm Pay http://www.stormpay.com - 2 Checkout http://www.2checkout.com
- Clickbank http://www.clickbank.com or others.
This is the most economical way to get started. Once your
business picks up you may need to look into your own merchant
account for credit card transactions.
Consideration may also be given to other forms of online
currency such as eGold http://www.egold.com
10. Email accounts
Once you have your own domain you can use an associated
email account. This can further assist in the promotion of
your business and promotes a more professional business image.
As a final comment on continuing in your internet business,
conduct your business ethically, provide extraordinary service
and be proud to put your name to the products or services
that you are selling and you will be on track to developing
a sustainable long term internet business.
Copyright 2005 Geoffrey Young
Geoffrey Young develops e-marketing solutions for people
looking to start a home based business.
http://www.CoolJobAtHome.com
