Persistence Makes Your Home Business

Have you always wanted to run your own home business? Maybe you've already tried, but your home business didn't take off. Maybe running a business from home is your ream but the reality of it seems unrealistic. Never fear. With persistence, you can make your home business a success.

It's a well known fact that most home businesses fail within the first year, but less well known is that most of them don't need to. Very often, persistence is what is lacking. People starting up home businesses often have unrealistic expectations about the amount of work which running a home business requires. They may also expect their home business to start making money immediately, whereas in fact a business usually takes a few months to get going. Persistence during these early months is vital if your home business is to succeed.

When supplying grants and loans for a home business, what funding bodies look for more than anything else is evidence of your persistence during times when business is slow. All the great business ideas in the world mean nothing in the absence of persistence. Running a business from home can be tough because you have to motivate yourself. Your home business depends entirely on your persistence even when you feel frustrated, on those days when you are stuck at home working and your business seems to be going nowhere.

The good news is that, with persistence, a properly planned home business almost always has the potential to do well. If you are prepared to work hard and be patient, you can make your home business a success. Persistence is the key to taking your home business through those difficult early stages and getting you to the point where your other business skills can really make a difference. When it comes to running a successful home business, persistence is what it's all about.

Who Makes The Best Business Partner?

Are you looking for a business partner? What are the ideal qualities one should look for in a business partner? I was reflecting on this today and this article is based on my personal business history.

In my business experience I have learnt that the qualities I look for in a friend are not the same as the qualities I would look for in a business partner. In many cases your friends could possibly make the worst partners!

The ideal business partner is someone who possesses skills that you do not have. This makes the business stronger by enhancing the qualities you can bring to the table in any discussion, negotiation and meeting. It also helps greatly if they are financially very strong and can bring further resources to the table if required.

In my previous business my brother was one of my partners. He was exceptionally good at art and design. He created our first brochure and our website. He helped to create the brand image for our company.

I was good at creating and holding together the team so that the business could grow. Together we created a highly profitable company employing over 45 people.

I believe that the type of partner one should look for is someone who is highly enthusiastic about life. Enthusiasm is infectious and can help you to stay motivated when times are tough. I also like people who are full of ideas and can see opportunity where others can not.

I admire people who refuse to take no for an answer. Persistence is a great quality and often it can be successful. In my previous packaging company my partner called the largest company in Dundee - NCR (National Cash registrars) every three months for over four years only to be told to go away. "Do not call us, we will call you" was the standard response.

In the fifth year they did call us and asked us to quote for over a million dollars of business. The whole process from initial quotation, trialling our products to securing the business took a further three months. They only gave us a chance to quote because of his persistence.

The ideal business partner should also have the same commitment to business as you. In one of my previous businesses I had a partner (also a friend) who was very lazy. This created a lot of friction in the business and almost broke our friendship.

Whatever you do, do not go into business with a person who has a short fuse. People who lose their tempers quickly are much harder to get on with in the long term. One business I was closely associated with had two partners who both had bad tempers. Even though their business had great potential it ended up failing due to their aggressive behaviour towards each other.

If you are going into a business relationship with somebody you do not really know then it is a great idea to carry out a credit check on the individual. If the person has a high credit score this says a lot about their values.

Their hobbies and the organisations they belong to can also help you to understand the person's true character. Speak to other members of these organisations to find out more about the person you are considering. It might be a good idea if somebody else carried out this research on your behalf.

If you do end up with an ideal business partner who agrees with your plans, goals and ethos of the company it should accelerate your growth. Working with a business partner will provide you with more business opportunities as opposed to working by yourself. Together, you can come up with twice the business ideas and trade leads.

Afraid To Start Your Own Business? New Turnkey Automation Makes It Easy For Anyone To Profit

The benefits of owning your own business can be astronomical. Not only can you earn all the extra money you'll ever need, you can earn a full-time income that dwarfs what you're making now.

There's a good reason why you'll earn more owning your own business. Employers ALWAYS pay employees LESS than they're worth. The difference between what an employee is worth and what they're paid is profit. The bigger the difference between worth and pay, the more profit the employer makes.

But when you own your own business, you get paid the entire amount you're worth. If you're worth $1,000 per week, or $1,000 per day, or even $1,000 per hour -- that's what you earn. There is no boss standing over you saying, "I'm sorry, but even though you're earning me $1,000 per hour, I'm only going to pay you $1,000 per week."

Of course, owning your own business isn't always that easy. Start up costs can be very expensive. You may have to bankroll your business for months or even years before it starts earning a profit.

On top of that, you also need a great product to sell, a good way to get all the new customers you'll need, and have advanced skill in selling. I don't care what you sell, you have to be able to REALLY SELL IT to customers if you're ever going to make money.

Now I fully realize the vast majority of people reading this article don't have a lot of extra money to start a business and hate to sell. You may feel you'll never be able to run your own successful business. You just don't have what it takes.

Nothing could be further from the truth. In the past, you needed a lot of money to start a business. But today's automated turnkey online business systems let you get your business up and running within a few minutes. You can be earning profits -- and I mean BIG $2,500 per sale profits -- that same day.

They key is to insist on a home business that uses the Net's awesome automated lead building capabilities. Search engines can be used to drive huge numbers of targeted leads to professionally designed web sites. These sites gather new customers and send them to a professional staff of sales people.

The system delivers professionally "sold" new customers ready to buy.

If you figure ANYONE can profit from this kind of business, you're absolutely correct. Today's new turnkey systems don't require special training or a great deal of start up cash. You don't need employees or even an office. Run your business from your kitchen table. It's really that easy.

Autoresponder Software Makes Business Easy

Do you get a lot of emails, important emails? If you do then you probably appreciate how important it is that everyone know that you did in fact receive their message right? If you find it next to impossible to be on top of your email accounts every second of every day, and lets face it: who can actually do that all day, then you will appreciate autoresponder software. Only autoresponder software will help you to let everyone know immediately when you receive his or her messages. They will never have to fret or worry about if you know what you need to know because they will have proof that you did get their emails.

Autoresponder software is not just about making life better for others though. You can have your autoresponder software message say anything that you need it to. If you are out of town it can tell people that, if you are screening your emails then you will be able to do that with ease using autoresponder software.

Autoresponder software will not be able to give different people a different message, it is a one answer kind of deal. You will set your autoresponder software to send a reply message to everyone and this message will always be the same until you change it. Autoresponder software is often used when people sign up to newsletters and blogs and other internet sites. These autoresponder software programs can save everyone a million hours of their precious time which in turn leaves them open to use that time for more profitable ventures.

You will simply tell your autoresponder software to respond a certain way when anyone sends an email to a specific email address. Let me be clear, when anyone, I mean anyone sends any kind of message to this address they will always get the same exact message in reply. If you run a website where people need to subscribe, you will be able to sit back and let the autoresponder software program do all of the hard work for you, it is virtually painless.

Every year autoresponder software programs are getting more and more sophisticated. Now you can use autoresponder software to send out scheduled messages and each of these can differ. What makes these kinds of autoresponder software so powerful is that no one need even send a message to receive the messages you are sending out. Here is an example, lets way that your website is offering free tutorials on speaking French. Okay, now you have offered a free 7 week lesson plan in which the subscribers will receive a brand new lesson each and every week. You can set up your autoresponder software to send these out each week for you. So you will sit down at your computer and put in all of the information at one time and the autoresponder software program will know that they should send this part of it out this week and that the next week and so on and so on. How amazing and simple is that?

Business Marketing Mistakes: 3 Biggest Marketing Mistakes Every Business Manager Makes

Who hasn’t let a typo slip by or misspelled the CEO’s name or printed the wrong phone number somewhere? Those marketing mistakes don’t warrant an article. In fact, just one word of how-to-fix-it advice is sufficient: proofread!

Here are a few more important marketing mistakes that just about every business manager out there makes, along with a recommended fix that will help you attract more business and get better results from your marketing, regardless of how big or small your marketing budget is.

Mistake #1: We think that marketing is something we 'do'.

"We need to do some marketing." It’s the first thing you think when you need to boost business. Problem is, when you think of marketing as something you 'do', you’re usually thinking about publicity, direct mail, flyers, email, ads and promotion. Marketing is much more than merely promotion, and it’s rarely a quick fix.

The real fix is to expand your definition of marketing. Instead of thinking of it as something you 'do', think of marketing as anything that helps or hinders the sale or use of your product or service. This includes: your location, the attitudes of the person who answers the phone, your name, pricing, policies, proposals, personality and more.

Before you write a promotional word, do a 'help or hinder' once-over. Make a list of what’s helping you attract business and what’s getting in the way. Figure out what obstacles you can quickly fix or remove? What 'helps' can you enhance or spotlight? Until the help-or-hinder homework is done, working on promotion is premature.

Mistake #2: We breathe too much of our own exhaust.

We are such big believers in our businesses that we can’t wait to show it off. We admire our attributes and inhale our excellence. Then we exhale it all into our marketing communications. The problem is, when you do that, your marketing is all about you. And people don’t care about you. They care about themselves.

If your marketing is going to get any response at all, the first thing it must do is connect to something prospects care about. Connect before you convince. Try this four-step exercise:

1. Describe your products and services. Get the exhaust fumes out.
2. Identify one or two attributes or attraction factors.
3. What is the benefit, the need or the want, that is satisfied by those attributes?
4. Why is that benefit important, personally, to the target audience?

For example, Joy dishwashing liquid (descprition) has real lemon (attribute) that cuts grease and leaves dishes shinier (benefit). What a nice reflection on you! (Connects to what a mother cares about.) Connect to what people want. Not to what you do.

Mistake #3: We all look alike.

A bank is a bank is a bank. Realtors, lawyers and consultants are a dime a dozen. The list goes on. But here’s the good news: the more two businesses look alike, the more important each difference becomes, and the more impact even the tiniest difference will have on setting you apart. Why?

Consider identical twins. What’s the first thing you do when you meet a pair? You try to find a little something to tell them apart. The same is true for your business. Your prospects are looking for a point of difference (just about anything )they can use to set you apart from your competition.

To find your points of difference, start with your points of contact, or 'touch points' in your company. Make a list. Business card, fax cover sheet, invoice, phone greeting, front door, home page, etc. Then look at what the competition does and ask yourself how you can do it differently. Just a little bit will make a big difference, because your prospects are looking for them.

For now, try the Help or Hinder, Connect Before You Convince and Find Your Points of Difference tools to make your marketing more meaningful and effective. Be wary, too, of unrealistic expectations, faulty research, deadly bullet points and lack of follow through-- four other common marketing mistakes.