Discovering Ethical Work At Home Businesses

The Work at Home Nightmare

The work at home entrepreneur has many obstacles to face. Typically the notion begins as we are heading off to a disgruntled job, leaving our kids behind to face a day that we are simply fed up with. It strikes us how wonderful it would be to leave behind the work a day world and provide for our families at home. Once the notion strikes, and it tends to strike hard, we begin the exhaustive search for the perfect work at home business.

How frustrating! There are literally thousands of businesses on one single website that are promising us time and fortunes. If we want to know what they are all about, we have to fork over some hard earned cash only to discover that the business plan is out of our reach or the product is marginal, or it just simply isn’t something we can do.

I love those work at home business plans that promise success in one month. You fork over your $49.95 to find out that if you want to make any money you have to chunk down thousands of dollars in advertising, seminars, and product. They guaranteed your money back, didn’t they? Ever try to get your money back from one of those work at home business plans? You have to provide proof that you did everything they told you to do, and often a few of those things can never be proven. How do you prove you followed the script when you finally got your first prospect, if you ever get there?

In the end you do what they wanted you to do in the first place and you eat the initially cost as well as any other cost you incurred and you are still stuck with the job you resent. Unfortunately, you can spend a lifetime going through the same revolving door while trying to find a better way. Yet you refuse to give up because you know that there is an answer out there somewhere.

The Work at Home Business Plan Success

You are right. There is a work at home business plan out there that will allow you to work your way to freedom in a relatively short period of time. In fact, there are many. The work at home industry has wised up a bit and the truly competitive business will give you all the information you need to know without forking over a dime.

These particular work at home business plans have discovered that people are tired of being ripped off and lied to, and they decided to do the right thing and actually talk to people. Informed people who make a solid business decision are more likely to stick around and build their work at home business. It just makes sense. Selling people information they can’t use only runs for so long before the general work at home industry becomes wise to the scheme.

Here’s a basic work at home business plan theory. It’s completely my own but I have found that it works. Anything that comes in through your inbox will make someone money. That person needs to have a lot of start up capital and be fairly internet business savvy, but all of those programs are making someone money. I have discovered they won’t make me any money. Unless you have ample start up capital they probably won’t make you any money either.

Home based business plans that you leave the comfort of your e-mail and go out onto the web searching for are harder to determine. They might make you money but chances are that most will not. Anything that is making promises and then asking for money up front is not a good way to go. How can you be expected to buy something without knowing what it is that you are purchasing? They are giving you no information except that they made some whopping $35,000 last month and you can too if you just follow their simple instructions. If a sales person showed up at your doorstep and tried to sell you something in a brown box but wouldn’t tell you what it was, would you buy it? Of course not! Why keep sending money into these programs that are making promises without giving you any information? Because there’s a touch of desperation for the person who really wants to build a home based business lifestyle. So we talk ourselves into taking chances.

Any solid home based business will at least tell you what it is they do to make their money. Some will tell you whether they are flipping properties (by the way check your local laws if that interests you, some states or counties have critical laws that make that impossible) or if they are marketing on e-bay or if they are selling candles. Most are learning to at least let you know the product or service up front. That’s a start.

An ethical home based business will give you contact information, whether it’s just an e-mail address or you receive a full address with a phone number. Some ethical home based businesses are starting to encourage people to ask questions before making their decision. That’s a benefit for everyone.

An ethical home based business may have lead capture page where you are required to insert you name and contact information before entering their website. This is a good thing. By doing this you will receive a phone call from an actual human being who can then answer your questions and give you a feel for whether this is a business that is right for you.

I ran a little test before writing this article. We’ll call it the ethical home business test. I entered my name and phone number in forty different lead capture pages and sat back to see how many people would return my call. Within two weeks I had received thirty eight phone calls regarding my interest in an ethical home based business. Out of those thirty only one of them was unprofessional and even in fact rude to me on the phone. The other thirty seven spent the time to answer my questions and all of them gave me both the company’s contact information as well as their own.

This is important because we are typically hesitant to enter our personal information on lead capture pages. However, while I did receive follow up e-mails, I did not receive any harassing phone calls or spam related to the experiment. Some of the ethical home based businesses were out of my price range and others did not interest me. But each and every one of them was up front about advertising costs.

Advertising your home based business is vital. You will not be able to get into internet marketing without factoring at least some advertising costs. Depending on the home based business you choose, some encourage fairly high advertising costs, but some are willing to show you ways to advertise with very little out of pocket. It might take a little longer to build your home based business, but the low cost and free methods do work. Advertising your home based business should be something you can comfortably fit into your budget. You are not looking to break the bank, you are looking to find a profitable home based business.

When factoring in your advertising costs for your home based business, also factor in the assistance you will receive from whomever is introducing you to the business. Are they really in it for the long haul or are they simply making promises to you based on what you want to hear? Talk to someone several times before deciding whether or not to join their home based business.

Just because a home based business doesn’t offer contact information or charges up front doesn’t necessarily mean they are unethical, but the unethical ones definitely don’t offer any information and always charge up front. The ethical, solid home based businesses out there that are still using old methods of recruiting are slowly making the shift to better methods because they are seeing that it works well for other. For you that means better quality decisions when looking for the perfect home based business for you.

That, after all, is the whole key to this picture. Most home based businesses will work, but finding the one that will work for you is an entirely different game altogether. A little patience and research will certainly improve your odds of finding the best home based business for you and your family.

Finding the Ethical Home Based Business

Where are the honest and ethical work at home businesses? In my experience, which involves wasting thousands of dollars and years of my time just like everyone else out there, I have found several work at home businesses that are honest, ethical, affordable, and realistic. I’m not going to promote any of them here because I’m not here to influence which business you decide on. But I will tell you where to find the lot of them.

The allworkathomeguide website has some of the best and most solid information available on finding the ethical home based businesses we are talking about. There are nd articles that actually explain the entire business to you before you even click on their link. It is a solid place to start the search for the business that can change your life.

Discover Business Card

The Discover Business Card is a card which you should consider using within your business when looking for a business credit card. You will want to find a card which can fit with your business needs. The Discover business card can be that card for you. This article will focus on a couple all of the different features which are available with the Discover Business Card which will be beneficial to your business.

The Discover Business Card offers you 12 months at 0% APR for balance transfer. If your business carries credit card debt, you could look at doing a balance transfer from one card to another. This would allow you to reduce the amount that you have to pay toward your credit card every month, thus freeing up monthly cash flow. You could also use the money that was put towards servicing your credit card debt interest to pay them off more quickly. This will help improve your business’s net worth as you pay down your credit card debts.

With the Discover Business Card, you can have cards issued for you as well as your employees. What is nice about this is that you can have a different amount and limits for different employees. Monthly statements can also be broken down so that employee’s spending can viewed more carefully to ensure that spending is within line with what is being reported by employees.

The number of merchants which will not accept business credit cards is declining every year but there are still many who do not accept a credit card. If you would like to use your credit card and pay these merchants, there are fee-free purchase checks which you can use to send to these merchants. This can once again helped you free up monthly cash flow since you can leave the money in the bank to earn more interest income until it must be paid on your credit card every month.

This article has talked about the benefits of using a Discover business card. Having 0% APR on balance transfers for 12 months can help you pay down high interest debt and also allow you to free a monthly cash flow. Being able to more carefully monitor employee spending as well as sending checks to merchants who don't accept credit cards can have benefits depending on the business that you are in. If you are thinking about a business credit card, this could be the card for you.

How To Choose The Best Accounting Software For Your Business?

With more and more people self employed and setting up businesses from home accounting software are becoming much more of a necessity. If your business is lucky enough to be growing rapidly you may have trouble keeping a track of all your finances. If you don’t want to spend every evening yourself going thorough the accounts you could pay an accountant to do all this for you, but this is costly and not feasible for small businesses that are starting out. The best way is to buy reputable accounting software. And if you get this right is could be a major investment for your business. But you don’t want to spend a lot of money on accounting software only to find out that a few months down the line your business is growing so rapidly and your accounting software cannot handle it.

The problem with accounting software is that there is no single best product that suits every businesses needs. To find the best software you need to evaluate what your needs for your particular business are. Some of the questions you need to ask are:

• What exactly do you want the software to do?

• Will it cope if my business trebles in a year’s time?

• Will the software meet my current and future needs?

• Does the package provide web integration?

• Can the software be customized? If so will it be capable of meeting your full requirements?

• Is the vendor reputable and do they offer customer and technical support?

• Does the software produce the reports your business needs?

• Is it easy to use?

The best way forward is to research your particular business accounting needs. Read reviews and find similar companies to yours and find out what software package they use and ask all the pros and cons of that particular software. There are many websites that evaluate and review software for you, but remember many businesses have different needs and are of a different size. And if your business is successful and growing rapidly then your accounting software needs to be able to have the resources to take on the extra accounts that it might produce in the future.

You must be careful not to buy accounting software because of its price. You may find some software that is very reasonably priced and then only to find out you have to upgrade it to it can run your business effectively. But this does not necessary mean that the more expensive software packages are any more suitable for your business. This is why you must be careful before you buy any software, research is a must. You might find all the different software packages on the market quite daunting and be put off and just buy one that’s in the price range you have available. And you may also use the excuse that you have little time to research what software package is most suitable. But a little amount of time spent before you purchase your software could save you an awful lot of hassle and time in the future. Don’t be afraid to ask companies for advice, they may tell you some horror stories they had and how to avoid these yourself.

How To Choose A Home Business

Are you sick and tired of your 9 to 5 job? Tired of trading all your time for money? Do you wish you could actually spend some time with your kids? I did too.

There is good news for you. The home based business industry is the fastest growing segment of the economy today. You can start your business in your downtime, part-time, and with a little persistence, can finally have an out from your 9 to 5.

There are thousands of opportunities awaiting you to start a successful...

Keywords:

home based business, own business, work from home, how to find business, business, work, money

Article Body:

Are you sick and tired of your 9 to 5 job? Tired of trading all your time for money? Do you wish you could actually spend some time with your kids? I did too.

There is good news for you. The home based business industry is the fastest growing segment of the economy today. You can start your business in your downtime, part-time, and with a little persistence, can finally have an out from your 9 to 5.

There are thousands of opportunities awaiting you to start a successful business from home. The only difficult part is deciding which of those is the right business for you, and which ones are actually capable of becoming lucrative. First thing to do is your homework. Which you are doing now, which is a great start. Find a business which fits your interests, and plays off your strengths. Do you love to work on the computer? That’s a good start! Do you like to live healthy? Do you have an interest in losing weight? These are all things that you can consider for yourself.

A good mentor or upline (if your business is structured in such a manner), is extremely important in building a successful full time income. It is impossible to know everything in the very beginning so these persons can be invaluable to a newbie starting up. It is also important that your family is behind you in whatever you do. If you have a spouse, loved ones, kids, etc… They should know about your interest, and be willing to back you and help keep your motivation level at a high.

Here are some advantages to owning your own business:

- Extremely low overhead

- More quality time with your family

- Huge tax benefits

- Set your own hours

One of the greatest tools of our world today, is the Internet. For the first time, you can reach literally millions of people in a moment. The potential is huge, and all you need is for one of your ideas to become viral, and the rest is history. My advice would be to use this to your advantage, and find a home business where you can leverage this tool. In doing so, you can truly enable yourself to have a business where you stay within your home, and in many cases, dream again.

An Internet business is in many cases automated, and can operate without you even there. Find one that suits your interests and with huge growth potential. Sit down, write out your schedule and figure out what hours during the day you could be doing small things to help grow your online business. When I first started out, I sacrificed one hour per night of sleep and dedicated that time to research and web development tasks. Those few hours were worth their weight in gold. Now, I have the ability to sit here and type to you on a work day with nothing but time on my hands. And life is fun again.

The secret of a successful person is that they are dedicated, passionate, and are willing to learn. Find a business and a great mentor that can enable you to do those things and you WILL BE SUCCESSFUL.

Franchise & Business Opportunity - Get All The Facts Before You Buy

A franchise opportunity may be the right business for you if you want to be your own boss but do not want to take the risk of starting a new business on your own. Make sure you get all the facts before you buy into a franchise.

Before you decide on which franchise you want to buy look at all the franchise websites and investigate the opportunities that are in the market place. Attend a franchise exhibition and speak to some of the franchisors and financiers.

Once you have narrowed it down to one or two franchises then get all the facts before you sign any documents or hand over any money. Many franchisors will use tactics like "the price is due to rise shortly" or "your territory has a lot of interest" to get you to commit sooner than you had anticipated. Ignore these types of pressure and investigate the opportunity thoroughly before you commit.

Ask for details of all the franchisees that are close to you and get in touch with them. This will help you to make up your own mind regarding the business opportunity and whether it is right for you.

Make your own enquiries and try and talk to franchisees that the franchisor has not recommended. This is because the franchisor is likely to give you details of his best performing franchisees.

Request an audited financial statement of the franchisor and carry out basic financial checks to make sure that the business you are considering buying into is strong, growing and successful.

Find out all the costs associated with starting the business and then running it. Enquire about any unexpected costs that you may have to incur like national marketing costs.

Ask the franchisor to give you details as to how your territory is going to be protected. Make sure that you do all your communication in writing whether by email or post. Written communication will help your case if things go wrong once you have started your business. Make sure that you get any verbal promises put to you in writing. Verbal promises will not count when there is a dispute between you and the franchisor.

Make sure you read the agreement properly and ask the franchisor for clarification of any part that you do not understand. It is often better to do this before you speak to your lawyer. The reason for this is that lawyers cost a lot of money and the more you understand the agreement the less time you will have to spend with the lawyer.

Finally, always get professional advice from your accountant and lawyer when you are ready to commit. They could make the difference between making a bad decision and choosing the right business opportunity.

Buying the right franchise and then committing fully to the business can be an ideal way to get started in business. Making the right choice and asking the right questions at the start will help you in finding the ideal business for you.

Gourmet Gift Baskets Impress Your Business Contacts

If you're used to thinking of gift baskets as cheap woven containers of semi-fresh fruit, you may be interested to discover just how creative gift baskets have become. There's something for everyone, and it's not even limited to food items.

FOR GOLFING FANATICS:
Got a client who loves to golf? Get him or her a golf-themed gift basket. Most include some gourmet treats, perfect for snacking on the green. But many of them also include great accessories, such as a putting cup, club cleaner, tee, ball marker, towel or golf club brush. The food may be gone by the end of the day, but the accessories will stick around, and remind your business associate of you.

FOR GARDENERS:

Most gardener gift baskets have a bit of a feminine theme, but many are neutral. Some include food, and most include accessories and tools like gardening gloves, seed packets, gardening tools, hand and nail cream.

FOR SPA AND AROMATHERAPY ENTHUSIASTS:

You'll find a terrific variety of spa, beauty and aromatherapy gift baskets available. Go with a scent theme, or choose one that includes soothing teas. Accessories can include such items as: wooden massager, back scrubber or soft hand towel.

FOR EVERYBODY:

You can never go wrong with groumet food and drink gift baskets - not with so many to choose from! If an elaborate, expensive champagne and caviar basket is outside your budget, go for simple with Shari's Berries, or a single bottle of Dom Perignon with some chocolate dipped apricot. These combinations are far more affordable, but speak just as eloquently to your good taste, which people will want to associate themselves with.

Cash Flow - How To Collect 98% Of Business Debts In 28 Days

The most common cause of businesses failing is a lack of cash flow. Cash flow is the money coming in, compared to money going out.

Your business plan will identify where, and when, your major business expenditures occur. These are unlikely times when your income is at a maximum.

Businesses often run into cash flow problems because their customers delay paying their bills, or when their customers cannot pay their bills at all.

Many individuals delay paying bills until they have to. All companies do this, because it improves their own cash flow position and because the companies that owe them money are doing the same thing.

When someone starts a business it usually comes as a surprise when debtors do not pay their bills on time. The company owing you money knows that you want to keep their business, so you are unlikely to chase them for debt collection immediately or aggressively.

The attitude your customers, your debtors, take is that your cash flow is your problem. If your company fails then there are plenty more suppliers they can turn to, and meanwhile the money they owe you is in their own bank account, earning interest. If your company fails, then they will have the use of your money for six months or more, while accountants pursue them for the debts.

There are 2 ways out:

1. You can delay paying your suppliers until you absolutely have to, i.e. pass the problem along the supply chain.

2. You can sell your debts to a finance company. This is called factoring.

The factoring company will buy your 100 dollars debt for between 75 and 98 dollars. The range varies with the likelihood that the factoring company will be able to get the debt paid. If you factor all of your debts after 21 or 28 days the factoring company will give you a better price than if you only sell them debts that have been outstanding for 6 months or more.

Factoring can mean the difference between your business thriving or folding because of the difference in cash flow it makes. Your income is predictable. Your cash flow is secure. You can pay your debts and sleep at night.

Factoring means that you collect less than the full amount of each invoice, but at least you get 98 cents on each dollar on time. Your profit margin may appear to be lower, but when you take loan charges necessary to cover your outstanding invoices into account, there may be little or no difference.

Can I Make Blogging My Business?

Through your blog, you may be able to find a publisher for your next book. You may have never though about writing a book before, but blogging is not much different from writing a book. Your readers can help you sharpen your writing skills, if you pay attention to their feedback. Once you published your book, use your blog to create a buzz around it. The visitors reading your blog may become the unpaid advocates for your newly published book.

You should allow your customers to blog too. Yes, why not invite some of your customers to write about their experiences in your blog. You may invite them to review one of your products, or ask them to describe their experience dealing with your company. This form of testimonial builds trust between your customers and your company.

When there is trouble communicate quickly and honestly in your blog. Sometimes there may be bad news on the horizon. There is no reason to avoid using your blog to help put out fires. If there is trouble, let your blog help you resolve it. For example, you may have a software company that just realized there is a bug in the latest program release. Informing your customers about the bug is bad news, but the rapid communication will be appreciated.

While blogs can help you establish your business, build credibility, or improve relationships with your customers, there are several ways you can profit from your blog. Create a subscription-based blog where you readers pay a monthly or yearly membership fee. A members only blog may be that private section of your publicly available blog. In such a way you can create interest on your public blog and sell membership to the private section. If you are writing about a certain product you may be able to sell advertising space on your blog for the manufacturer. Another option is to become an affiliate and generate revenue that way. Adsense is another possible source of revenue for bloggers. If you decide to go the adsense route be sure you have a fair amount of site visitors. You need a significant amount of traffic to make money with this option.

Can American Businesses Survive In The Global Economy?

The American economy can go either way according to most newspapers and television commentaries. The experts say that we have a 50% chance of going into a recession while some say we have almost no chance. Trying to decipher their confusing messages can be difficult. That leaves most American businesses unsure of what the future holds for them. Are they still going to be able to compete or are they going to suffer a slow and painful decline downwards. The best way to answer that question and determine how to improve the business environment is to look at the American businesses strengths and weaknesses.

Success and failure is all about strengths and weaknesses. When we rationally see the strengths and compare them against the strengths or weaknesses of other countries we can better determine our chances of success. It is almost the same as when you bet on two boxers one of which has endurance and the other one quickness. The one you feel will win depends in part on how you see the situation. If you feel the quickness will take out the opponent in the first few rounds then he is the better bet but if you feel that the two boxers are going the distance then endurance counts.

Looking at the American business world and comparing it to the challengers you can also see better who is going to win in the end. We know that the world is a high-tech place where efficiency and cost matter. The one who produces the cheapest products is likely to win as long as their products have reasonable quality and don’t break down often. With Chinese cheap products and America’s high quality both countries will need to come closer to the middle.

Strengths of American Businesses:

High Technology: Powerful and growing businesses require email, Internet, cell phones, computers, robots and more. The technological advances of the U.S. are difficult to surpass and few countries even come close. American businesses can grow simply because they can manage different international locations as though they were a block away. Few foreign countries can do this. In addition, America also has the ability to develop and implement modern technology like robotic arms and complex systems that increase productivity.

Power Supply: China is attempting to get its hands on as much natural resources and energy as possible. The U.S. is also doing this but is much further in the game. While the U.S. is moving towards alternative energy supply and thinking beyond fossil fuels China is still trying to accumulate basic energy. American businesses have no problem with black outs, rolling power outages or a lack of energy. This is a benefit because their environment becomes predictable.

Strong Law Enforcement: It may seem silly and out of place but a strong law enforcement system helps to keep the business environment fair and equitable. When businesses can be cheated when making partnerships, employees embezzle and politicians bribed there is lots of risks built into the environment. Businesses want to know there is a deterrent and opportunity to regain what is lost through unfair practices. You will find that China as well as most nations outside of Europe or the U.S. has difficulty curbing crime.

Sound Fiscal Policy & Self Adjusting Markets: American policy makers have been generally concerned with how well the economy is doing. The democratic system allows the population to remove senators, presidents and congressmen out of office when they are not producing results. Therefore, a single politician can complete little damage in a single term. When small mistakes happen the markets can adjust themselves by offering something new that makes money. For example, if people demand companies to reduce pollution then these consumers will gravitate towards clean businesses while leaving the rest of the businesses behind.

Weaknesses of the American Business:

Poor Public Education: The American education system is declining and children are falling behind much of the world in terms of science, languages, math, and more. The advancement of these core subjects are important for the improvement of society as the new high-tech world will need scientists and technology workers like never before. However, as we keep allowing skilled workers to immigrate our school systems are falling behind only because there is little direction and lots of politics.

High Labor Costs: Workers are cheaper then they are in other countries. The problem in the U.S. is that companies aren’t getting what they are paying for. The average high school graduate is barely able to grasp the concepts of a manufacturing business let alone work within it while the government raises the minimum wage. A Chinese worker is able to press a button like the American worker but for about 1/10th the cost. Only productivity will make the American worker worth his/her wages.

Taxes: American businesses pay a lot of money in taxes while companies from other countries may pay a lot less. The taxes in American businesses are simply extra overhead that must be pulled from the cost of the product. In a tight economy where people don’t want to pay extra the cheaper products (with less tax burden) will win out. Have you ever wondered what happened to the television and radio producers in the U.S.?

International Policy: America has come to mean, “bully” to many people overseas. To thwart America’s power is a sign of resolve and fashion. As our politicians continue to play favorites with countries that violate international law, demand compliance with American desires and try and finagle other countries its reputation declines. A bad reputation means that both international businesses and whole countries may not only distrust us but prefer to do business with someone else.

Business loan

Getting a business loan during a time in which the economy and market isn’t as stable as it was a few years ago, may be a bit more challenging than you may think. Not to say that it isn’t highly possible to get a business loan; it just means that banks and financial institutions are being quite picky about their clients. A current business with established credit and profits is more likely to get a positive response than a start-up business at the moment.

In order to get a business loan as a start-up company, be prepared to give the lending institutions more information than you ever knew existed. Most places will ask you for a very detailed business plan. Sure, creating a business plan is a major challenge and time consuming but a vital part of establishing a business. A bank wants to see that your business plan has outlined every possible scenario and step that your company will be facing. Seeing all the details meticulously put together in a folder shows that you are organized and quite serious about your business venture. If you are able to obtain a new business loan without showing anyone a business plan, consider yourself either lucky or the victim of a scam.

Also, when pursuing a business loan, be prepared to show several years of your personal tax returns, paystubs and have a credit report pulled. If you own your own home, you may even have to agree to put a lien on your home. The lien allows the bank to recover their money should your business turn out to be a bad investment for them. Once the loan is paid off, the lien disappears. If you don’t own a home, don’t panic, there are lots of ways to still go about getting a business loan. Having a home and allowing a lien to be put on your residence simply assures the lenders that they are guaranteed to see a return on their loan.

Having a stellar business plan is key to applying for a first time business loan. If you don’t have a business plan or have one that is unprofessional and unorganized, your chances are very slim in obtaining the funds that you need. There are lots of places on the internet that have advice on how to create a business plan and even templates that will make the creation much easier. It may require some research and a lot of thought but in the long run, it will be helping you think through all aspects of your business as well as provide facts for the lenders. All-in-all, the more organized that you are when pursuing a business loan, the smoother and faster the process will be for you. That’s something that the lenders are sure to appreciate as well.