Jumat, 06 Juni 2008

Are You Ready To Start A Home Based Business Online?

The world today inspires countless individuals to seek out an independent means to generate income to support themselves and their families. While there are an endless number of reasons why these people start this search, the bottom line is that every day sees a new batch of people trying to find out how to start a home based business online. The Internet has made it easier than ever to get started, and to find customers for your business.


One of the most important points that everyone needs to understand from the beginning is that an effort to generate income online should be treated as a business. If it is treated as an occasional hobby, the business will never grow to produce any reasonable level of income. There are also many, many people who seem to think that all they have to do is sign up at a website and then the money will come pouring in. This is just very unrealistic. The Internet is not some kind of magic money machine. I think of this as a lottery mentality - all you need is a dollar and a dream. Except these people seem to see an entitlement to the riches they think others are raking in; if they join one program (purchase their lottery ticket) they expect instant cash - they expect the Internet to pay out with better odds than the lottery. If you can avoid this way of thinking and these expectations that someone else is going to do everything for you, you will be far ahead of the majority of people trying to earn money online.

So, this is a real business. You will need to educate yourself on what it takes to build and market a business online. If you are already an expert in marketing, then you are well on your way. If, like most of the population, you are not already well-versed in marketing, you will need to put forth some effort to learn about it. Think about how any business makes money - someone has to buy something. It is no different online. Your business will need to sell something, whether it is hard goods, electronic goods, or services, and your business will need to find customers to buy those goods or services. This is really no different from a regular business in the offline world. The biggest difference is that you can get started with almost no overhead, and the advertising to find those customers is much more affordable. You can find customers all over the world, but it will require marketing to do so.

There are many, many different types of businesses that can succeed online. If you already have an offline business, you could start by selling your existing products from a website. This greatly expands your customer base from local traffic to global web surfers. Another possibility is to register at any of the many freelancing websites to take on projects in your area of expertise. There are large numbers of businesses and individuals looking to hire professionals on a project by project basis. An easy way to get started with an online business is to sell the products and services of others as an affiliate. There are plenty of resources online to help you get started with affiliate marketing.

Remember, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Also remember that all of life, even business, has ups and downs. Persistence, dedication, and determination will see you through. By doing all your research, by being ready to learn what it takes to market online, by committing yourself to this as a long-term endeavor, you will be successful in your efforts to start a home based business online.

Common Mistakes Made When Flyer Printing

When companies want to advertise a new product, service, or event, they will often use flyers to make their announcement. Another form of advertising is with business cards that the company will give out to just about anyone that will accept one. This is because business cards are another very effective form of advertising. When companies decide to embark on business card printing or flyer printing, it's very important to take a few things into consideration. Just as these types of advertisements may draw people in, the wrong look or feel can drive customers away and cost the company thousands of dollars. Read below to find some of the most common mistakes that are made during flyer printing.


The first thing to remember is that you want everything that has the company name on it to be extremely professional. Many people believe that the company can save a lot of money by doing the flyer printing and business printing on their own. While this method may be cheaper, it's important to consider that the look will not appear as professional as it would if the flyers or business cards had been taken to a professional printer. The increase in cost is only slightly higher and the company will reap many of the benefits for years to come. This doesn't mean that you won't have any input on the final look of the flyers and businesses and because of that, you still need to consider what you want the design of the flyer or card to look like and for this aspect of flyer printing as well, there are some things to take into consideration.

The first thing to remember with your flyer or business card design is to use color but be smart about using it. Colored stationery makes a much larger impact than black and white. It will catch the consumer's eye and the right color can pull the whole thing into place. That being said, don't use so much color that the eye doesn't know where to go when looking at it. The color should definitely not overwhelm but shouldn't be so subtle that it can barely be seen either.

Another design element that will grab a customer's attention is to use photography for visual effect instead of clipart or other computer generated images. This will not only make the business cards or flyers more unique and make them stand out among many of the competitors but it will also give the printing a more personal feel. Keep in mind however, that images and visual effects can also be overdone. Keeping it simple is very important with your flyer printing or business card printing and will not overwhelm your consumers.

If there is a photograph or image that will be perfect when doing your flyer printing, place the image in the middle of the page and everything else surrounding it. This will focus all of the attention on the center of the page and really make the flyer stand out. This is a trick that professionals use when flyer printing or business card printing and is why the business name usually appears in the very center of the business card with images in the corners or on the sides.

There are some things that need to be considered carefully when you are about to print flyers or business cards. Making sure that the stationery is unique and grabs attention are the two most important things to remembered when flyer printing.

Making Millions With Continuity Marketing

Let's talk today about continuity marketing. Continuity marketing is when your customer commits to buying a series of items over a period of time. It's a win-win arrangement for the buyer and the seller. Customers can receive products they want on an automatic basis without the hassle of reordering them, and you build a growing list of repeat buyers.

Many of us have purchased merchandise this way. Health and beauty products are successfully marketed on an auto-ship basis. Gourmet food items also work well with continuity marketing. Usually, the customer buys the product at a low, introductory price. Unless the customer cancels the agreement, she'll automatically receive new shipments of the product every 4-6 weeks at full cost.


There are different ways you can offer your products. "Book of the Month" clubs are modeled after the open ended model. This means that customers buy merchandise with the understanding that goods will be shipped on an automatic basis. However, buyers can opt-out of the program at any time.

The close-ended offering works well with a predetermined number of products in a series. For instance, a customer may receive one volume of an encyclopedia every month until the set is complete. Once the set is complete, the agreement ends.

Before you decide to choose continuity marketing as part of your sales campaign, you'll need to assess whether your product will work well with this approach. Products where the buyer's needs remain constant over time usually work well. For instance, you've probably seen the Proactiv® infomercials on Sunday mornings. This product line flourishes because acne sufferers have to use the product continuously to get results and maintain them. Proactiv® uses the auto-replenish model so the customer won't run out of the product.

If you offer a continuity program to your customers, make the terms of the agreement very clear. No one wants to be tricked into buying products at a regular basis. Because most of these programs automatically charge the customer's credit card or debit card, make sure that the buyer gets no surprises when the transaction takes place.

If you choose to use continuity marketing for your business, decide which approach will work best for you. If you have a series of books or films, the overall product may be more affordable if you send a piece at a time over time. Customers who would never think of spending $299 for the set may feel comfortable spending $29 every six weeks for a piece of the set.

If you sell something that needs replenished on a regular basis - such as coffee, health products, etc. - auto-ship is a good way to go. You'll build a loyal customer base, and you can also use upsells and cross-sells to increase your profits.

Continuity marketing is a win-win arrangement between the seller and the buyer who wants to remain loyal to the product. This is a great way to build a list of repeat buyers over the long term, and your potential for backend sales will skyrocket.

How You Can Use Articles to Generate Leads For Your Work From Home Business/ Network Marketing?

None of us can ever have enough leads for our business. If you are standing still you are going backwards in your work from home business. We are going to discuss using articles on the internet to generate more leads for your business as a medium to long term traffic generation strategy.

If you do not like to write or do not have time to write, you can always hire an article/ghostwriter to do it for you. There are many ghostwriters who can just to that for you for a fee. There a plenty of these ghostwriters around in the internet.

Whether you write them or buy them an article offers you a great way to get traffic to your website. That traffic can turn into a lead, a customer, or even a new distributor for your downline.

The big key to writing articles is to make them informative and not just a long sales letter. Understand that people go online for information. Once you understand what they are looking for as it relates to your work from home business then you can write articles around that theme.

Over a period of time you will become an expert that people trust. You still have not written one sales ad. Just information articles on various keyword themes such as earn money online, how to start a work from home business, why network marketing, and so on.

How does this generate leads for you?

With every article you are allowed to create a resource box. This is a chance for you to tell a little about yourself and then give your website address for more information. Writing a good resource box that offers a little bit of excitement is as important as the article itself.

A boring resource box will not get you a click on your url address. Put yourself in the position of the reader and think about what would make you want to click on a url after you read an article.

One thing you can do is go to one of the article directories and read a few articles that are similar to what you are going to write about. You do this to help come up with ideas to write about, and you can view the author's resource box to get ideas for your own.

The other thing is getting your articles read. You can use some services to submit your articles to directories or you can do it yourself. Targeting quality article directories is the key to having a chance to get your articles read.

There are literally thousands of article directories so do not be afraid to submit to any of your favorites.

Article marketing is a free way to get traffic to your website and to get leads for your business. Use it as a part of your overall marketing strategy and you will have a long term solution to the problem of finding prospects for your work from home business.

What Managers Need: The Fundamentals Of Employment Contracts

Getting that initial contract of employment template ready can be a real hassle, and it's tempting to get a professional to draft it up, but even at that stage, it's important to know what you're promising your employee, and to make sure that there are no loopholes that can be exploited by less scrupulous employees. Whether or not you're using a contract of employment template or writing one from scratch, you need to make sure all the bases are covered. For that reason, I've written up this guide to explain what you might need to have on the form, and why:


Firstly, it's important to note that you must give your employees a contract - in fact, by law you're required to give them a statement of terms within 2 months of them joining, but that's the bare minimum, and it's really in your interests to give them something more comprehensive. This is the kind of thing that company employment contracts should contain:

Names

Can't have an employment contract without names - both your employee and the company's. This should also include addresses of both parties

Start Date

This is particularly important to keep a track of, because it can be used to work out when employees gain new benefits, as well as keeping a track as to when they should be up for review.

Job Title and Description

Put down the same job title that you advertised with, and then any duties that you feel they may be undertaking. It might be worth covering your back here and including something to the effect that the duties are down to your discretion and are open to change. If not, they could theoretically refuse to undertake anything else - and have the law on their side, so be sure to leave some space to manoeuvre in your company employment contracts.

Place of Work

This keeps a legal note of the office location in the employment contract, but can also extend to allow occasional working from home and of course for potential office moves in the future.

Hours of Work

This is where you stipulate the number of hours the employee needs to keep, and the manner in which they can keep them (e.g: do they have a flexitime setup where they need to complete a certain number of hours within any given week?) The employee can also agree to additional hours, as long as the employer does not demand more than 48 hours a week, which would be illegal. The employee can voluntarily opt out of the law, should they wish.

Probationary Period

This is a nice one to include in the contract, because sometimes things just don't work out - either they employee isn't what the employer was looking for or the job isn't right. This trial time typically has a shorter notice period and employment can be terminated by either side at any time. This is typically a number of months or weeks, but can be extended by the employer if they put such a clause into the UK employment contract.

Salary

This is what your employee expects to see on their wage slip at the end of each month and an area fundamental to the employment contract. It's worth noting that the figure will be before any tax deductions or national insurance is taken into account.

Assessments

If the employer wishes, they can schedule regular assessments here - every 6-12 months would be a sensible figure, allowing you to monitor their development easily.

Deductions

This is the point in the employment contract where you outline all circumstances in which you are permitted to make deductions from the salary. This is a really good opportunity to cover your back and outline the kind of behaviour you expect from your employee.

Expenses

Covering what your employees can expect by way of expenses is very important to ensure they are aware of how much they will be covered by you for heir work. Make sure that you avoid errors and fraud by insisting that each claim is backed up with proof of payment.

Holiday Time

This obviously outlines the period of holiday that an employee is allowed, with the minimum being 24 days including bank holidays. It is important that you inform employees whether bank holidays are included or excluded from the figure. There are certain other aspects you need to consider when writing this part of the UK contract of employment:

1) Whether employees should be allowed to take busy periods off (most retail industries will want to avoid this)
2) Holidays rolling over into the next employment year (though it's important to note that this is not allowed for statutory holiday, only time off over the minimum.)
3) Any restrictions on holiday time to employees who have already served notice

Sickness

Absence through sickness can be a major drain on businesses, especially small ones, so it's important to be vigilant with this section. You will need to outline what time the worker needs to contact the employer telling them they will not be in, when a doctor's certificate is required and whether the employee will receive statutory or contractual sick pay.

Pension

Here you need to outline the pension scheme the employee can expect, whether it be a company one, a stakeholder one or if there isn't one provided by the company. You will need to change any contract of employment template to reflect the policy of your company.

Notice

This is an important one - the notice period. Outlining the period of worktime that needs to be served before an employee's contract can be terminated, this is also the place to outline a list of actions that constitute gross misconduct, and can allow an employee to be dismissed without notice. If you don't define this clearly in your company employment contracts you can be left distinctly short-handed of a sudden!

Restrictive Covenants

An intimidating sounding title for an intimidating piece of the document! This is where you get to protect confidential and commercially sensitive information belonging to the employer. You can also prevent an employee from setting up a competing business while in your employment, and for a set period of time from when they leave the employer. This can also cover preventing the employee from encouraging others to leave for a competing business. You will want to close this section with the threat of legal action, should these promises be broken.

Disciplinary Policy and Grievance Procedure

This is the part of the employment contract where you outline the company's disciplinary policy. You state the standards and conduct you expect, and the consequences of failure to meet these standards.

The grievance procedure outlines the course of action available to employees should they have a complaint they cannot resolve through regular communication with their line manager.

Retirement

This states the employee's contractual retirement age. It's important that this complies with the relatively recent 2006 age discrimination legislation, or you could be fighting legal action.

Severability

If you have a template of employment contracts, rather than tailoring each one to each employee this section is essential. It basically states that each section of the document stands independently of the rest and thus if one does not apply to any employee it does not effect the others.

Prior Agreements

This is an important one to keep in, as it expresses that the employment contract contains all the terms that should apply, and any other agreements - written or verbal - do not count.

Jurisdiction

This is required to confirm that the UK contract of employment is held under the jurisdiction of English courts.

Particulars of Employment

Since the Employment Rights Act of 1996, all UK employment contracts are required to have the main terms outlined on a separate schedule, so that both the employee and the employer can easily refer to them, to refresh their memories of the main points.

Make sure you have all these fundamentals of employment contracts covered, and that each one matches the expectations of the employee and you should have no problem!

Overcoming a Scarcity Mindset

If you really want to succeed in Internet marketing, you'll need to operate from a mindset of abundance not scarcity. The difference between whiners and winners is that whiners blame everything and everyone but themselves for their shortfalls. Winners, on the other hand, focus on what they already have and see mistakes as important learning experiences they need to learn from in order to succeed.

Have you ever known anyone who operates from a scarcity mindset? These people seem to be running on a treadmill that never takes them anywhere, even though they always seem to be out of breath from the journey. They can be real downers if you hang out with them.

Let me tell you the true story of two copywriters ....

Elaine is a copywriter in waiting who never seems to get her business off the ground. It's been two years since she's "launched" her copywriting website, but she hasn't earned more than a few hundred dollars since she's started. She's always seeking advice from successful marketers. But, when they give advice to her, she negates it and doesn't follow through. She has burned bridges with just about everyone who has tried to help her because she finds fault with everyone and everything. She's so focused on scarcity that she's become paralyzed.

Then there's Sue. Sue attracted her first client within 30 days of becoming a copywriter. Right away, she began making money...lots of it. She became so busy, in fact, that it took her nearly two years to launch her website. Her enthusiasm for copywriting was evident to those around her, and she's built her business on word-of-mouth referrals and repeat clients. Sue observed and listened to the successful people around her, and as a result her business is thriving.

Sue knows something that Elaine just can't seem to comprehend. People gravitate toward what they focus on. I'm not talking about some New Age philosophy here. It's basic psychology. If you're obsessed with what you don't have, you won't move one inch toward what you want to have.

That's why many first-rate entrepreneurs break away from the negative people in their lives on their way to the top. They know that the difference between a whiner and a winner is the difference between "I can't" and "I will." They won't stand for anyone whispering "You can't" in their ears on their way to the top.

If you want to move toward success, you'll need to follow some action steps to move closer toward your goal.

1) Eliminate the whiners in your life. If you can't get rid of them entirely, avoid them as much as possible. Whatever you do, don't rely on them for business advice.

2) Focus on the small successes to fuel your journey.

3) Surround yourself with people who are doing what you want to do.

Remember, some people just refuse to succeed. Others refuse to fail. Although there are no surefire guarantees in life, you can-through your mindset-put the odds of succeeding in your favor. Are you a whiner or are you a winner? Change your outlook and you'll change the outcome.