1. Free directories: directories are perfect for customers that are searching for a particular topic. What’s great about them is that you only have to post once and they are good for long periods of time. It saves a lot of your time when you don’t have to resubmit your information every week or every month. The bad news is most of your traffic won’t come from here. I still feel it is worth it to get your link out there. Just take one day and set it aside for posting to free directories. You won’t need to do it again for at least 6 months.
2. Classified Ads: These are great for work from home businesses. Think about it. Where do people go when they are looking for a job? That’s right-the classifieds. The only downside to classified ads is that you have to resubmit them quite frequently. Once you find which classifieds bring you the most traffic you can concentrate on them and weed the others out. So it is really more time consuming in the beginning, and doesn’t have to be later on when you get the hang of things.
3. Free article submissions/ezines: The best way to inform others about your product or service is to write an article about it. In your authors resource box, you can tell readers about yourself and where they can go to check out your product or service. This is also an excellent way to get free links to your site if you have one. There are a lot of webmasters out there who are looking for good articles they can post on their site. If they post yours, that is another site that is doing the advertising for you. All for free.
4. URL Submissions: Probably the quickest and easiest thing to do to advertise your site. Just type “Free URL submission” in your search engine. When you get a list just enter the URL you are promoting and click submit. That’s it. It only takes a few seconds and your done. Just set a day aside once every 3 months and do this.
5. Forum Posts: Put your product or service website in your signature file when you sign up on some forums. It will be displayed every time you make a post. Try to look for topics that you have some knowledge on, and can give a relevant answer too. Do not spam anyone, you will get kicked off the forum and you will get a bad reputation. Get involved asking and answering questions that pertain to your area of business. Forums are great because once you make a post it stays there forever. It will get moved to the archives eventually, but someone could still find it if they were searching the archives. Yes, there are many people who do.
6. Traffic Exchanges: Probably the most time consuming way to advertise for free, but definately the most effective. Most forums I have visited have said in many posts that they received a lot of their profit from traffic exchanges. If you don’t want to spend the time surfing for credits, you do have the option of buying them. I would look into a program that lets you surf multiple websites at once like crazy browser. There are others and they are free to download. That way you can just spend one hour a day and get all your surfing in at once.
7. News-groups: Become involved in a group that has to do with your kind of business. You can usually mail the group once per day, but I would encourage you to find something fresh to talk about each day. People will tune you out if they see the same message all the time. Remember to never Spam anyone. Only join groups with the same interests as yours. In other words, don’t sign up for a recipe swapping group when you are advertising shaving cream.
7 Ways To Advertise Your Business For Free
Easy Profits Using PPC In Your Affiliate Marketing Business
PPC is one of the four basic types of Search Engines. PPC is also one of the most cost-effective ways of targeted internet advertising. According to Forbes magazine, PPC or Pay Per Click, accounts to 2 billion dollars a year and is expected to increase to around 8 billion dollars by the year 2008.
Let us take a quick look at how PPC Search Engines work.
These engines create listings and rate them based on a bid amount the website owner is willing to pay for each click from that search engine. Advertisers bid against each other to receive higher ranking for a specific keyword or phrase.
The highest bidder for a certain keyword or phrase will then have the site ranked as number 1 in the PPC Search Engines followed by the second and third highest bidder, up to the last number that have placed a bid on the same keyword or phrase. Your ads then will appear prominently on the results pages based on the dollar amount bid you will agree to pay per click.
How do you make money by using PPC into your affiliate marketing business?
Most affiliate programs only pay when a sale is made or a lead delivered after a visitor has clickthrough your site. Your earnings will not always be the same as they will be dependent on the web site content and the traffic market http://www.dogs9.com
The reason why you should incorporate PPC into your affiliate marketing program is that earnings are easier to make than in any other kind of affiliate program not using PPC. This way, you will be making profit based from the clickthroughs that your visitor will make on the advertiser’s site. Unlike some programs, you are not paid per sale or action.
PPC can be very resourceful of your website. With PPC Search Engines incorporated into your affiliate program, you will be able to profit from the visitor’s who are not interested in your products or services. The same ones who leave your site and never comes back.
You will not only get commissions not only from those who are just searching the web and finding the products and services that they wanted but you will be able to build your site’s recognition as a valuable resource. The visitors who have found what they needed from you site are likely to come back and review what you are offering more closely. Then they will eventually come back to search the web for other products.
This kind of affiliate program is also an easy way for you to generate some more additional revenues. For example, when a visitor on your site does a search in the PPC Search Engine and clicks on the advertiser bided listings, the advertisers’ account will then be deducted because of that click. With this, you will be compensated 30% to 80% of the advertisers’ bid amount.
PPC is not only a source of generating easy profits; it can also help you promote your own site. Most of the programs allow the commissions received to be spent for advertising with them instantly and with no minimum earning requirement. This is one of the more effective ways to exchange your raw visitors for targeted surfers who has more tendencies to purchase your products and services.
What will happen if you when you integrate PPC into your affiliate program?
PPC usually have ready-to-use affiliate tools that can be easily integrated into your website. The most common tools are search boxes, banners, text links and some 404-error pages. Most search engines utilize custom solutions and can provide you with a white-label affiliate program. This enables you, using only a few lines of code, to integrate remotely-hosted co-branded search engine into your website.
The key benefits? Not only more money generated but also some extra money on the side. Plus a lifetime commissions once you have referred some webmaster friends to the engine.
Think about it. Where can you get all these benefits while already generating some income for your site? Knowing some of the more useful tools you can use for your affiliate program is not a waste of time. They are rather a means of earning within an earning.
Best know more about how you can use PPC search engines into your affiliate program than miss out on a great opportunity to earn more profits.
Ways to expand your business
Email marketing is an effective way of reaching out to your target audience. It is a cost effective and time effective tool of building strong relations with your target audience.
Advantages of email marketing
They are the most inexpensive way of marketing your products and services.
Does not require much time or effort. You either send personalized emails or common emails to all your customers at the same time
They are received immediately after you have sent them. So even at the last moment you want to send across a message to your customers, they work.
Oms3 we cater to your email marketing requirements with a professional and systematic approach. Here we allot a team of experts managing your email marketing right from conception to execution. After studying you market, customers and competitors they plan out your email marketing strategy. They find out answers to questions like- Which form of email marketing will be best suitable for you? What should be the frequency of the emails? What should be the style of content writing so as to attract your customers? All such points are thoroughly analyzed.
Types of email marketing
Direct emails: Here you reach your potential and existing customers directly by sending them emails. It is basically used to make some announcement or introduce a new offer.
Newsletter emails: Here you keep your customers, updated about the new developments. It is acts as reminder of your presence in the market.
Emails based on subscriptions: Here the permission of the receiver is must. These emails are personalized and have to be subscribed. They are like promotional emails.
Are professional steer clear of sending spam mails. The standard parameters are followed to avoid spam mails.
Contact us for further information.
Whiners Anonymous: (aka The Successful Home Business Owner Association)
Tired of your job? Stop whining and do something about it. Those who whine often see little change. Those who do not whine seek a way to make things better, and then a new idea and business is born. Suddenly we have an entrepreneur, and if the thinker is a great money manager, a millionaire is born. How do these individuals move from a place of dissatisfaction to entrepreneur? It all starts with a great idea and blossoms with motivation and the desire to succeed.
The dissatisfied non-whiners will start small. They test their idea with friends and family. They talk to a smart business man or mentor about the idea and seek educated, informed opinions. These non-whiners weigh the advice of the wise carefully. They do not jump in with both feet, but they start slow and small. Once they have tested the idea with a mentor, they test the business on friends and family. They ask for a test group from those who will give them honest feedback. If the idea tests well with the test group, they move into the open market. This entire time, the typical non-whiner still has an income-producing job. He does not just quit his job one day and decide to test an idea. But he uses his income from the cruddy job to fund his idea, thus increasing his chances of success.
Once the non-whiner discovers that he has a successful product in the open market, he works hard to continue to market his product smartly, and he stays out of debt. What? Don't good businesses borrow other people's money to make money? Not really. A good business owner will work from the ground up and will only invest the money that he or she has instead of borrowing and hoping to pay back his or her lender. While this may cause the business to grow slowly, it gives the home business a rock solid foundation. The day that business declines due to a slow economy, the business owner can rest easy because he owes no one anything.
Finally, the successful small business owner continues to keep working. He never quits, and he never slows down. When business is going great, he does not just quit and believe that he has arrived, but he always searches for a new angle, a new way to meet the needs of his consumer. He looks for gaps or holes in his current product, and he seeks ways to serve his clients.
Ultimately, successful home business owners are a smart, savvy, hard working group of individuals. Anyone can join them, but doing so takes discipline and wisdom. And we can only gain that by hanging out with the wise and disciplined. Thus if you seek to succeed in the world of home business, find the wisest, most disciplined business owner you know, and ask him or her if he or she will mentor you. Then sit down, and soak in some knowledge.
The Pitfalls Of Business Blogging
Whether you are aware of it or not, your customers, potential clients, business associates, competitors and employees are already engaged in business blogging. They are conversing in real time about your products or services, news and developments in your niche. They are discussing about your new product release. Sad to say, if they have not spread it already, they are definitely gossiping about the customer service blunder you hoped you could keep hush-hush. Word travels fast in the blogosphere. Blogging gets you noticed and referenced, favorable or not, in your industry’s conversations. Business blogging has its benefits but, alas, it also has its share of pitfalls.
A business blog can help build your company’s reputation and credibility in your niche business area. It is a cost-effective way to communicate with targeted audience. It provides business feedbacks through comments. A well-executed blog can boost search engine rankings thus raising chances of potential customers visiting your site and ultimately generating sales.
More importantly, you should be aware of the pitfalls or perils that accompany business blogging. If you have finally figured out how blogging can work for your targeted market, then, seriously consider the technical pitfalls of creating a blog that might befall you especially if you are a newbie in the field of blogging.
Before embarking on blogging, you must have read and read some more blogs to familiarize yourself with the blogosphere especially your specific niche. Reading other blogs can spur ideas for blogging topics. Not doing any research will leave you writing in futility. You don’t know what questions your target audience wants answered and what they would like to read. More so, you might not even have a clear-cut goal. What is the purpose of your blog? What problem does it want to solve or gap to fill? You have not determined what is it you are trying to get done. You definitely will not have good topics to write about because topics should be in consonance with your business objectives. Writing without a purpose will get you nowhere. It will just turn readers away.
Not knowing how to use your blogging software properly will, in most cases, produce a non-professional-looking blog. A blogging tool goes to great pains to ensure that your blog will look good, the text look beautiful and the html code it generates follow web standards. It will be to your business advantage if you understand how the vast and sophisticated features work to increase your blog’s chance of being found on the Internet. Keep in mind that first impressions count with readers.
Not optimizing keywords, categories, subscriptions will make it difficult for readers to find your blog. The primary purpose of a blog to be successful is readership. Search engines are a great source of readers. If you are writing a blog post that you want to be read, bear in mind that readers will use keywords to find your blog entry. Keywords are vital to high search engine ranking. Top ranking equals traffic and traffic is readership. Categorizing your blog will also make it more user-friendly and make the content more search engine ranking friendly. Subscribing to an RSS feed allows readers to receive automatic updates whenever you publish fresh content. Not making frequent posts makes readers lose interest in your blog as there is nothing new to peruse. You have to make it a priority to post consistently. The more you post the more reasons the readers will come to read some more.
Finally, you have sorted out how to avert the technical perils of business blogging. Brace yourself; there are even deeper pitfalls with much more severe repercussions to consider. For one, businesses that allow misrepresentations – faulty or misleading information to appear on their blogs can create a public disaster. Some business companies keen to develop one-to-one links with customers, set up character blogs. A character blog is typically conceptualized by marketing people to promote a product or service using fictitious character. This kind of blog is quite risky as some ardent bloggers regard them as an insult to the blogging community. A classic example is the Vichy case. As part of its marketing launch for its new anti-aging cream, Vichy’s advertising team created a blog featuring a bogus author named Claire who incessantly whined about the travails of aging using the same wordings as the Vichy print ad. It elicited a flurry of negative reactions from around the blogosphere condemning Vichy for passing off a phony on their turf. Blogs are about real conversations with real people.
Turning a deaf ear to what the blogosphere is saying can be fatal to a company. Kryptonite, a lock maker company did not respond quickly to a blog comment and cost them millions of dollars. Engadget, a highly trafficked blog published a video file showing how a Bic ball pen can easily open a Kryptonite lock. Kryptonite took its time before issuing a statement that did not assuage the thousands who bought the lock in good faith. Bloggers lambasted Kryptonite and caused heavy traffic to the Engadget blog site. Finally, Kryptonite succumbed and replaced the locks at a staggering cost of $10 million. Take heed; monitor what others are saying in the blogosphere. Your blog is part and parcel of a dynamic conversation. You should track your image in the blogging arena. Reputation risks can surface if your company pays no attention or misjudge the opinions in the blogosphere.
Business blogging can expose your company to legal problems that can cause serious damage to your business reputation. Irresponsible blogging can subject your company to libel, slander and even harassment lawsuits. Off-hand comments may offend customers. Disclosure of confidential corporate information and trade secrets will definitely place a company in jeopardy. Several instances of indiscreet blogging have caused employee terminations. Ellen Simonetti, A Delta Air Lines employee was fired for posting inappropriate images of herself in uniform on her blog. A system administrator at the Manitoba Health Sciences Centre was sacked after posting on his blog “Sitting around doing nothing for three hours while being paid – priceless.” Needless to say, companies should draw up corporate blogging policies that will state clearly acceptable and unacceptable blogging practices. Companies should educate its employees about the business and legal risks involved with blogging.
In a nutshell, do not blog for the sake of blogging. A clear business goal is a must. See to it that your blog reflects your company’s desired image. Carefully weigh the implications of anything you post. Be wary of potential consequences and be reminded that with blogging, anything that appears on the Internet is instantly available to a global massive audience.
Top Home Based Business
In this article, we are going to look at a few of the top home-based business opportunities that are available for those interested in becoming entrepreneurs. You may be surprised at what is available or you may gain new ideas from the other businesses that are in operation today. Remember that with all forms of advertisement that is available for home businesses do not forgot to utilize the Internet when trying to reach your customers.
Antiques are a great way to make money from old treasures and you will have a great time as well. You can find antiques at garage and estate sales, as well as auctions and browsing through flea markets. You can sell everything from furniture to clothes and toys and everything in between. The financial investment of renting a space or setting up booths at fairs and such is minimal.
Computer Tutor is another excellent way to utilize your skills and bring in money. It does not matter what part of computer experience you excel at you can use your knowledge to help someone learn more.
Custom Jewelry and Accessories is fun for those who have a creative flair. There is always a market for jewelry and there are individuals who are always looking for unique and custom pieces.
Espresso Cart is a great way to bring in a profit everyday that you set up. Having a variety of hot and cold coffees to provide to your patrons will have them coming back day after day. You can set up just about anywhere, of course look into local regulations before you do so, and enjoy a daily profit and a cup of coffee.
Cleaning and Hauling Services is a handy way to make money if you are someone who loves to clean and clear things. Many people out there would willingly pay someone else to clean out their garage or attics and haul their junk away. Especially during the warmer seasons, this is a great way to make extra income. Obviously you cannot do this type of business with a car you will need a pick-up of some type of vehicle that is capable of carrying away a variety of items.
Handyman makes good money going to individuals who need someone to fix up minor things around their house. If you are good at fixing things, this is a great source of income and you will be doing something you love as well.
Medical Transcription can be done at home with a bit of brush up on medical terminology or even through taking a quick course at your community college or other institute. This is a demand that will not slow down anytime soon. Doctor’s offices, dentists, and even veterinarians all need someone to transcribe their records. If you are good at typing and familiar with Word documents and formatting this is a good choice for you.
The Business of Torture
The European Court of Human Rights agreed - more than two years after the applications have been filed - to hear six cases filed by Chechens against Russia. The claimants accuse the Russian military of torture and indiscriminate killings. The Court has ruled in the past against the Russian Federation and awarded assorted plaintiffs thousands of euros per case in compensation.
As awareness of human rights increased, as their definition expanded and as new, often authoritarian polities, resorted to torture and repression - human rights advocates and non-governmental organizations proliferated. It has become a business in its own right: lawyers, consultants, psychologists, therapists, law enforcement agencies, scholars and pundits tirelessly peddle books, seminars, conferences, therapy sessions for victims, court appearances and other services.
Human rights activists target mainly countries and multinationals.
In June 2001, the International Labor Rights Fund filed a lawsuit on behalf of 11 villagers against the American oil behemoth, ExxonMobile, for "abetting" abuses in Aceh, Indonesia. They alleged that the company provided the army with equipment for digging mass graves and helped in the construction of interrogation and torture centers.
In November 2002, the law firm of Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll joined other American and South African law firms in filing a complaint that "seeks to hold businesses responsible for aiding and abetting the apartheid regime in South Africa ... forced labor, genocide, extrajudicial killing, torture, sexual assault, and unlawful detention".
Among the accused: "IBM and ICL which provided the computers that enabled South Africa to ... control the black South African population. Car manufacturers provided the armored vehicles that were used to patrol the townships. Arms manufacturers violated the embargoes on sales to South Africa, as did the oil companies. The banks provided the funding that enabled South Africa to expand its police and security apparatus."
Charges were leveled against Unocal in Myanmar and dozens of other multinationals. In September 2002, Berger & Montague filed a class action complaint against Royal Dutch Petroleum and Shell Transport. The oil giants are charged with "purchasing ammunition and using ... helicopters and boats and providing logistical support for 'Operation Restore Order in Ogoniland'" which was designed, according to the law firm, to "terrorize the civilian population into ending peaceful protests against Shell's environmentally unsound oil exploration and extraction activities".
The defendants in all these court cases strongly deny any wrongdoing.
But this is merely one facet of the torture business.
Torture implements are produced - mostly in the West - and sold openly, frequently to nasty regimes in developing countries and even through the Internet. Hi-tech devices abound: sophisticated electroconvulsive stun guns, painful restraints, truth serums, chemicals such as pepper gas. Export licensing is universally minimal and non-intrusive and completely ignores the technical specifications of the goods (for instance, whether they could be lethal, or merely inflict pain).
Amnesty International and the UK-based Omega Foundation, found more than 150 manufacturers of stun guns in the USA alone. They face tough competition from Germany (30 companies), Taiwan (19), France (14), South Korea (13), China (12), South Africa (nine), Israel (eight), Mexico (six), Poland (four), Russia (four), Brazil (three), Spain (three) and the Czech Republic (two).
Many torture implements pass through "off-shore" supply networks in Austria, Canada, Indonesia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lithuania, Macedonia, Albania, Russia, Israel, the Philippines, Romania and Turkey. This helps European Union based companies circumvent legal bans at home. The US government has traditionally turned a blind eye to the international trading of such gadgets.
American high-voltage electro-shock stun shields turned up in Turkey, stun guns in Indonesia, and electro-shock batons and shields, and dart-firing taser guns in torture-prone Saudi Arabia. American firms are the dominant manufacturers of stun belts. Explains Dennis Kaufman, President of Stun Tech Inc, a US manufacturer of this innovation: ''Electricity speaks every language known to man. No translation necessary. Everybody is afraid of electricity, and rightfully so.'' (Quoted by Amnesty International).
The Omega Foundation and Amnesty claim that 49 US companies are also major suppliers of mechanical restraints, including leg-irons and thumbcuffs. But they are not alone. Other suppliers are found in Germany (8), France (5), China (3), Taiwan (3), South Africa (2), Spain (2), the UK (2) and South Korea (1).
Not surprisingly, the Commerce Department doesn't keep tab on this category of exports.
Nor is the money sloshing around negligible. Records kept under the export control commodity number A985 show that Saudi Arabia alone spent in the United States more than $1 million a year between 1997-2000 merely on stun guns. Venezuela's bill for shock batons and such reached $3.7 million in the same period. Other clients included Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mexico and - surprisingly - Bulgaria. Egypt's notoriously brutal services - already well-equipped - spent a mere $40,000.
The United States is not the only culprit. The European Commission, according to an Amnesty International report titled "Stopping the Torture Trade" and published in 2001:
"Gave a quality award to a Taiwanese electro-shock baton, but when challenged could not cite evidence as to independent safety tests for such a baton or whether member states of the European Union (EU) had been consulted. Most EU states have banned the use of such weapons at home, but French and German companies are still allowed to supply them to other countries."
Torture expertise is widely proffered by former soldiers, agents of the security services made redundant, retired policemen and even rogue medical doctors. China, Israel, South Africa, France, Russia, the United kingdom and the United States are founts of such useful knowledge and its propagators.
How rooted torture is was revealed in September 1996 when the US Department of Defense admitted that ''intelligence training manuals'' were used in the Federally sponsored School of the Americas - one of 150 such facilities - between 1982 and 1991.The manuals, written in Spanish and used to train thousands of Latin American security agents, "advocated execution, torture, beatings and blackmail", says Amnesty International.
Where there is demand there is supply. Rather than ignore the discomfiting subject, governments would do well to legalize and supervise it. Alan Dershowitz, a prominent American criminal defense attorney, proposed, in an op-ed article in the Los Angeles Times, published November 8, 2001, to legalize torture in extreme cases and to have judges issue "torture warrants". This may be a radical departure from the human rights tradition of the civilized world. But dispensing export carefully reviewed licenses for dual-use implements is a different matter altogether - and long overdue.
Which UK Business Opportunity Should I Sign Up To?
UK Business Opportunities
Business opportunities have always existed even in tough times like wars and draught. UK business opportunities have only grown newer and larger with changing times, so looking for business opportunities of the bygone times may be worthless barring the few of essential types. This drives home the point that one needs to look around with open eyes to identify a business opportunity of his or her choice. An opportunity need not be the one requiring huge investments and long gestation periods as also the one which comes with high risks despite promises of high returns. Let's try to explore a few 'low investment low risk' but having decent returns potential here.
Low Investment UK Business Opportunities
Low investment UK business opportunities may be broadly classified into two categories, one that requires no office setup and the other that requires it. However, how big the office should be is dependant on aspects like how much you can afford to invest and whether you need a full fledged office at all.
The first thing that comes to mind, as far as low investment and low risk businesses are concerned, is franchise business. While many of these types require some investment, there are still quite a few of them that don't require it at all. However, since you are riding on the success and brand value of your franchise, so much so you can rest assured that your business is insulated from violent fluctuations of business fortunes.
Some of the franchise businesses require franchisees to have previous business experiences where they have skillfully tided over difficult situations; you can expect such franchises also to look for certain degree of financial stability in you. On your part, base your selection of a franchise on your skills and expertise; for example, if you are comfortable with services it would not be justifiable on your part to select a product based business opportunity, no matter how strong the brand equity of the product or company may be. Think about it, this principle applies even more stringently to financial services franchise.
The success or failure of a business opportunity rests equally upon how far the business owner is capable of steering his business, drawing from his experience and dedication. No matter what, without total dedication a franchise business will almost always drift towards failure.
Top Rated UK Business Opportunity
The top rated present day UK business opportunity has to go to companies that offer generous payment schemes and incentives, and offer services that are essential to our day to day living, and one that sticks out from the crowd is the business opportunity of Telecom Plus The Utility Warehouse. This home based business opportunity offers everyone the chance to either make money or save money, and the most of the UK would like to do one of the two. It is a very low cost UK business opportunity besides being the one carrying the lowest risk factor in its respective areas.
Choosing a Business Opportunity
This question is irrelevant for those who have a background in business or a certain degree of exposure to business. However, those getting into business for the first time ever in their lives need to exercise a great deal of caution even if the investment requirement were to be low or almost nil. I can easily cite two critical points to justify this:
1. Your lack of experience may lure you to choose an inappropriate or a disastrous business opportunity.
2. Evitable long gestation periods can frustrate you endlessly before finally forcing you to shut shop.
Surely, business opportunities help you realize your dreams when utilized in most appropriate ways. UK being a vibrant economy with low inflation rates, it is rather easier leading businesses to success. Choose the one in which you are confident of plugging the gaps easily and can sustain for long times to come.
Do You Want To Start A Photography Business?
If you enjoy taking pictures what could be more thrilling than doing it for a living? Just think of how wonderful it could be to be a paid invite to hundreds of weddings and parties a year, to capture joyful family memories that will last a lifetime everyday, to watch children grow up, or even to just to experience others smile everyday of your career. With photography you can do just that. And what is great about the photography industry is there’s more than enough work for the freelance/work-at-home photographer.
To get started you need to get the right equipment. This will require you to decide exactly how far you want to take your business. If have a room in your home that you could set up as an office you might want to look into setting up a backdrop and lighting equipment. On the other hand perhaps you don’t have the space in your house. Don’t let this discourage you. You can still compete in the photography realm even without an office. One of the greatest thing about having a work-at-home photography business is that you can offer most of the same services that the photography shops offer, but at a fraction of the cost. Mainly, because you will not have to worry about a lot of overhead such as employees and rent, you will only have to worry about delivering quality photos.
Fortunately, delivering quality photos now days could not be easier thanks to the invention of the digital camera. If you have a low budget you can easily get started with a personal computer, digital camera, and above average printer. Of course if your budget isn’t quite so limited it would be a great idea to invest in some extra equipment like camera filters and zoom lenses.
After you have decided what equipment is essential to starting your business you need to start selling yourself. The great thing about photography is if you belong to a local club, church, etc there are always people in need of your services. Also, don’t forget your family since they can be powerful with putting the word out there. More than likely you will get most of your business through referrals. In this case customer satisfaction is essential. Word will spread like wildfire if your services stink. So remember whether your taking photos for free at your nephews wedding, or your getting paid to take photos at your local school prom always put your best foot forward. In fact one of the easiest ways to start building your portfolio is to start taking free pictures of friends and family.
Last, if your business really gets rolling you might want to consider registering your business. Taking care of legalities gives your customers a sense of security. It lets them know that you mean business. Also, at this point you may want to start advertising in the phonebook, newspaper, or even listing your services on the internet. The internet can be a powerful resource because you can set up an online portfolio to display all of your handiwork.
You can do it! To start a work-at-home photography it is going to take dedication. Make a plan and stick to it! Remember, this is something you love! Treat your job like you love it and your job will love you!
Using The Government To Start Your Business
Many people, when starting their own business, aren’t sure where to turn for assistance. Yes, there are private institutions that can help you along your way, but one of the best resources for the young and aspiring entrepreneur is the federal government. Programs and money exist to help the fledgling business owner, and it is to the individual’s peril that they ignore these opportunities.
Money is perhaps the most important thing the startup business owner needs. Without capital, you’re stuck in the mud. You need money to finance your building, your rent, your employee roster, advertising, and the cost of purchasing or creating the product you intend to sell. This can all add up to quite a bit of cash. There are private banks and lending institutions that may be willing to help, and you can always turn to your friends and family for beginning investments. However, only a fool would ignore the money and grants offered by the government. The government gives away millions of dollars a year in capital for beginner entrepreneurs. The best part about the government’s money is that they do not expect to recoup anything from their investment. These grants are given for the greater good of the economy. Do some simple internet research and you will find plenty of grants to apply for. Apply for them all.
Money is not the only thing the government can help you with when starting your own business. They offer assistance in other areas as well. This can include assistance for expansion for your small business, development, and even assistance with renovation. If you’re looking for more assistance for your small business, try the Small Business Administration Office. Through this office, the government provides free training and assistance to small business owners across the country. This training and assistance can be invaluable to the young entrepreneur that doesn’t know all the ins and outs of starting a business.
When starting a small business, it can seem like every obstacle in the world in being thrown in front of you. If you fail to take advantage of the programs and government assistance out there, you are only hurting yourself. The government understands that putting investment into small businesses helps the economy and enriches the fabric of our country. Take a look around you for examples of this in your daily life. Do you think the Hindu family that owns the dry cleaning business down the street is just naturally wealthy? Unlikely. They simply knew where to go to find assistance in starting their business. The best place to look is the government. Go and do likewise and you will be on your way to having a healthy and successful business.