8 Ways to Keep Your Homebased Business Running Smoothly

If you're well on your way to homebased business success, these management tips will help you stay on top of your game.

Written by Sarah Pierce

Leaving corporate America to run a homebased business is the ideal situation for many people: There's no boss breathing down your neck, no boring meetings to attend and no 45-minute drives in rush hour traffic. Working from home can be a rewarding experience, but it's easy to forget the basic rules of running a successful business when it's 10 hours of just you, your computer and the distractions of home.

To help you stay on track, we've contacted homebased business expert Rosalind Resnick, CEO of Axxess Business Centers Inc., a New York small-business consulting firm. Resnick is a former business journalist who has regularly contributed her expertise to Entrepreneur.com. She's put together eight helpful tips for keeping your homebased business running smoothly.

· Structure your day. The problem a lot of homebased business owners have is that they no longer have a boss standing over them making sure they get their work done, or a tangible start and end of each workday. It's easy to let time slip by as you head to the refrigerator, catch a few minutes of TV, or dive into a project first thing in the morning, neglecting the other tasks you need to perform to keep your business running smoothly.

Create a structure that mimics what you had in the workplace. Structure your day so you have a start and finish time, with certain hours set aside for specific activities. A general rule is to spend the first hour of the day prospecting for new clients. Send your emails, write your letters and make your phone calls first thing so you don't forget to do it later.

Use Outlook or some sort of contact management software to serve as a visual reminder of what you need to accomplish that day. Live and die by your to-do-list. Try to have everything crossed off by the end of the day. Even my own children know that if they want me to do something for them during working hours, they have to put it on my to-do-list or it will never get done.

· Stay connected. Carry an organizer wherever you go. If you're still using a day planner or similar dinosaur, consider upgrading to a Blackberry or other high-tech gadget. You don't need to go crazy and spend a lot of money, but invest wisely in something that will hold everything you need and allow you to instantly access it on the go. Another good idea is to not keep all of your information in one location, such as the hard drive of your home computer. Keep your data hosted on a virtual exchange server so you can access it anywhere that has an Internet connection. A big misconception about homebased business owners is that they stay at home all day, everyday. And as you know, that's just not always true.

· Organize your family time. Once your professional life is organized, you may need to consider organizing your personal life. Maybe you noticed right away, or maybe it's just becoming apparent, that you tend to work around the schedule of your family members. This is especially true if you have children. A lot of people, especially young moms, decide that they're going to quit their jobs in corporate America and work from home in order to care for their children and save on daycare expenses. But in reality, if you're serious about running a homebased business and earning a decent income, you're going to have to make arrangements for childcare in or outside the home. Otherwise it becomes too distracting. Consider hiring a babysitter so you're guaranteed five to six solid hours to get your work done.

· Motivate yourself. Sit down and set some goals for yourself. You no longer have quarterly reviews or progress reports, so it's important to keep track of whether or not you're making progress in your business. It's one thing to set small goals like completing your to-do-list--you also have to set goals to motivate yourself to succeed. Hopefully by now you're making as much, if not more, money at your homebased business than you were at your former job. If you aren't, begin by setting a goal to bring in the same amount of income you were, and slowly raise the bar to increase your income by a couple of thousand a month. Once you've met a goal, make time to reward yourself by doing something fun, which brings us to the next tip.

· Take time out for good behavior. It's not uncommon to find yourself working 60- to 70-hour weeks. But the good thing is, if you want to sneak out and see a movie at two in the afternoon, nobody's going to tell you not to do it. You have that freedom and flexibility as a home business owner. It can be tempting to work all the time when you start seeing how successful your business has become, but know when to relax. You've already established a smooth-running business. Take a break every now and then so you don't get burned out.

· Be a Jack-of-all-trades. There are a lot of roles you play as a homebased business owner: You're the CEO, president, secretary, office manager and tech support. Learn the basic skills of running an office, including how to troubleshoot some rudimentary technical problems. You don't need to become an expert, but make sure you have a basic understanding of tech support issues, bookkeeping, etc. Otherwise it will become too expensive to have to pay someone to do everything for you.

· Network. Network with other homebased business owners in either a formal or informal setting. This is a good way to find service providers, leads and potential clients. Surrounding yourself with people who also work from home will give you the support you need, and refer you to people who can help you grow your business.

· Consider moving out of your home. For a lot of people, working from home is a launching pad. In the beginning, many business owners work from home in order to keep overhead low. If you have more than one person with different roles working from your home office, you should ideally be working in separate rooms. It can be difficult having two people work side by side, even if those two people are spouses and love each other very much. It's distracting for anyone to have someone three feet away from you talking on the phone. Be prepared for expansion. At the point when your business becomes so successful that you cannot efficiently work close together, start considering moving your office outside the home.

Retrieved on 8^th October 2009 from http://www.entrepreneur.com/homebasedbiz/worklifebalance/article76888.html

Grow Big by Selling Small

Go where the money is by catering to like-minded entrepreneurs.

written by Emma Johnson

It's an easy fantasy to nurture; you land The Big One. That one giant, fat account that will launch your business into the big leagues, put the kids through college and secure an early retirement on that Hans Christian 48-foot sailboat.

Give it up. Instead, build your dreams around a wide and varied customer base of other small businesses, experts urge. Success with this model is more likely, less risky and a smarter way to grow a solid enterprise. Plus, in most cases small businesses simply aren't equipped to respond to a whopper of a sale.

"Smaller companies often pursue the big guys and leave low-hanging fruit, which is other small companies," says Don Mazzella, a small-business consultant and co-author of The Janus Principle: Focusing Your Company on Selling to Small Business. "However, it's easier and more effective to sell to your counterparts than to larger clients."

Why Sell to Small Businesses?
If a single sale to, say, FedEx or Wal-Mart would exceed all revenue expectations, why spend your limited energy on lots of small accounts?

First, as a small business you talk the talk of other small businesses, and the learning curve for dealing with a small firm is much easier than breaking through the cinderblock walls of a global corporation, Mazzella says. "Small-business owners are often surprised to learn that other small businesses make decisions the same way they do."

Further, selling to other entrepreneurs is actually where the money is. The U.S. Small Business Administration reports that this country is home to 27.2 million small enterprises that represent a market of $7 trillion--a sum equal to more than half the U.S. domestic national product and greater than the GNP of all but eight countries.

Finally, it's simply safer for your business to have many small customers rather than a few behemoth ones. The Janus Principle authors underscore the maxim that no one client should constitute more than 40 percent of your revenue.

Evolve IP, a Wayne, Pa., based tech-management services provider, strategically targets small-business customers. "By having 10,000 customers each spending $500 per month, we have the ability to build a stable revenue foundation that will sustain over a long period time," says Tim Allen, chief sales officer. The loss of one of those thousands of clients barely dents the bottom line, while losing one of a precious few could force a firm to scale back, or even go under.

How to Find Them
Quaint as it may sound, experts say you should network locally to reach potential small-business customers. "Small-business owners often [maintain close ties to] their community," Allen says.

Indeed, a survey conducted by the authors of The Janus Principle found that 73 percent of all business is conducted within a 50-mile radius of the firm. This figure is down from 84 percent five years ago, but still remarkably high considering the perceived effects of the internet on commerce. One key reason small businesses like to partner with local vendors: They know where to find them should things get ugly, Mazzella says.

Allen looks to local business associations for networking as well as for forging formal partnerships to offer services and products to members--usually at a discount. Membership in civic organizations such as Rotary and Kiwanis clubs can be especially effective when combined with media coverage to maximize your visibility. Use article mentions and advertisements in local newspapers and on radio and TV to target a local customer base.

Likewise, trade publications are an invaluable resource for businesses whose customer base is national or global. The key is to find familiar connections between your and the other businesses' target customers. Referrals from peers are one of strongest ways to secure a first meeting.

"Getting Donald Trump to endorse your product is not as good as another small-business owner promoting your product," Mazzella says, because small-business owners trust their peers above national spokespeople. Again, entrepreneurs understand other entrepreneurs.

Cold calls are far from out of date, experts say--especially when it comes to approaching entrepreneurs. The Janus Principle notes one New York City salesman who claims a 25 percent success rate landing meetings with small-business owners by cold-calling them and offering to bring a corned beef sandwich from the city's famed Katz's Deli. "For 15 bucks I am in the door," he says. Do you think any variety of salted meat could get you a meeting with, say, Oracle's Larry Ellison?

The Meeting
So once that meeting is secured, what happens?

The first step is to find out what the customer's needs are. Then find a way to prove your product or service fits that need. Finally, establish your reliability.

Keep it real. Don't be shy about mentioning a mutual friend or colleague, and spend time getting to know that decision-maker as a person. Everyone likes to do business with people they like and trust. This may be especially true for small businesses, as it's usually just one individual who makes all the company's buying decisions, unlike large corporations that run purchasing through layers of cumbersome processes, says Edward Dolan, principal of EPIC Results, a business consultancy for entrepreneurs.

"They have to have a sense of connection and trust, which comes from a rapport or shared value," he explains. "People buy from people they know and like."

It's this combination of listening, then filling a need and being accountable that secures a sale to a small business, Dolan says. "It's that old saying my mother used to tell me: Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care."

Evolve IP's Allen says that producing copies of stories in national media outlets that have mentioned your company can help you sell yourself to another small business; it underscores your company's credibility to a customer who may not fully understand your product, he says. This probably isn't necessary with large businesses; the big guys will often be staffed by a team of research experts armed with detailed questions about your product.

Sales for Now and the Future
The first sale is often the easiest one. It's building a long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationship that often proves tricky for small-business owners.

The key is to identify customers' challenges and remain nimble enough to accommodate them. Perhaps you provide creative financing options or, like Evolve IP, offer a purchasing credit in exchange for replacing your product with that of a competitor to whom the customer has already committed – thus removing the financial hurdle to the sale.

Dolan notes a distribution company that, unlike its competitors, refused to administer a fuel surcharge during the gasoline crisis a few years ago. Instead, the company asked its clients to consolidate orders when possible--proving a win-win situation for both parties.

"If you always have your poker face on and are always negotiating, that's the kind of [adversarial] relationship you'll have," Dolan says. "But if you look at [selling to small businesses] as [building] partners, the relationship can be mutually supportive."

Retrieved on 16^th November 2009 from http://www.entrepreneur.com/sales/salestechniques/article203948.html

7 Tips for Improving Your Cash Flow

They say cash is king. Find out how to give yours the royal treatment.

written by Pam Newman

There's a golden rule in business you'd be smart to learn now: No matter how much you sell, if you don't collect the money, you're going to go out of business. As business owners, we often get so wrapped up in selling our products and services that we forget to take the time to ensure we're managing our cash flow and receiving the money for those sales. But when it comes to your bottom line, you'd be wrong to simply focus on total sales dollars: You also need to focus on the cash collection of those sales.

To help get that money in the door, here are seven tips for improving your cash flow:

1. Require a down payment on projects so that your customers fund the project, not you.

2. Set your terms to be payment in full upon completion. Don't extend out 30 or 60 days after you've completed your work. You don't get to use your hard-earned cash until payment is received from your clients, so get it as soon as you can.

3. Negotiate terms with your vendors for 30 days or more so you have an opportunity to complete the work, bill your customers and receive payments prior to paying your vendor.

4. Have a collection process in place, and follow through. When your customers delay payments, they're using your cash. You need to ensure that you're being diligent in collecting from your customers.

5. Set up a line of credit at your bank that you can use in case of emergency. Often, lenders rates will be less than the late fees your vendors will charge. This line of credit will help you cover a lapse in cash flow for short periods of time.

6. Factoring of your receivables allows you to sell your receivables and get cash now instead of waiting 30 or 60 days. There's a fee for using a factoring service, so you need to ensure that the benefits of getting cash today exceeds the cost you'll pay for that expedience.

7. Minimize the amount of draws you take personally from your business. Each dollar you take from your company reduces the amount of cash flow you'll have available for the business to grow.

Not all these options will work for every business--you have to consider which of these will work for your specific needs.

Here's one last tip: Don't ever think you're too busy making sales and working in your business to worry about your cash flow. This mindset is the very thing that can put a business out of business when there's no cash to pay the bills. So take the time to analyze your business's cash flow to locate--and make--some small changes that will have a big impact on your cash flow.

Remember, your cash flow is not the same as your profits. You can have a profitable business, but a negative cash flow. Prepare a monthly cash flow statement to ensure that you don't get caught unexpectedly without enough cash to handle your day-to-day operations.

Pam Newman is president of RPPC Inc., which helps entrepreneurs succeed in their businesses through small-business training and consulting services in the areas of accounting and management. She's also author of Out of the Red, a management accounting guide for small-business owners.

Retrieved on 16^th October 2009 from http://www.entrepreneur.com/money/moneymanagement/financialmanagementcolumnistpamnewman/article159782.html

My Business or My Child?

When it comes to being successful, the answer has to be both.
written by Lisa Druxman

Being a mom is great. Being an entrepreneur is great. Being both at once? That's great, too, but there are definitely pros and cons. While I wouldn't trade it for anything, I don't think it's for everyone. When I ask mompreneurs about their greatest business challenge, the answer I get, consistently, is balancing work and motherhood.

It's tough to put your heart and soul into your business only to drop it at a moment's notice when your child needs you. But that is exactly what happens and what we do.

You are a mom first and foremost. When the school calls because your child is sick, you're the one who drops a meeting to pick him up. When your baby is up all night, you're the one who has to tackle another workday even though you're sleep-deprived. When there's a school party or play, you're the one who leaves work with your video camera in hand. Yes, I know there are many dads who step up and fill in. But on the whole, I find it is mostly mom who sacrifices career for the family.

Before becoming a mom, I worked 12-hour days without blinking an eye. I worked until the job got done. Now I work until my kids need to be picked up. I work when I can, and I can't always work. It puts us mom entrepreneurs at a disadvantage when you consider that our non-mommy counterparts can work any day, any hour. Because my office is staffed with mommy workers, we are used to losing days of work because of child-care issues.

I receive e-mails almost daily from aspiring mom entrepreneurs. Many have unrealistic visions of their children playing happily by their side while they work or napping regularly while they take calls. They also think their husbands will pick up more parenting responsibilities because the women are working. Reality check, mommies. This rarely happens. You will be working in any spare minute of the day that you can find. You will work before your family wakes up, and you will work after they go to sleep. You may work fewer total hours but, in essence, you are always working. You'll still be doing all of the mommy things you used to, and your best-laid plans will often fall through. I'm not saying this to discourage you. I'm simply trying to create a more realistic vision of your future life as a mom entrepreneur.

Make peace with the fact that you would get more quality work done if you weren't balancing your business with motherhood. Make peace with the fact that you'll sometimes need to ask for help to meet a deadline. Make peace with the fact that you can't be everything to everyone. Most important, make your peace with why you do what you do. For me, my work gives me satisfaction, stimulation and inspiration. Motherhood keeps me grounded and reminds me daily of what is truly important.

Here's my best advice to someone considering becoming a mom entrepreneur:

1. Be clear about why you want to become a mompreneur, and stay true to that reason.
2. Be flexible, and have a sense of humor along the way.
3. Don't let fear of failure stand in your way. Be willing to take risks.
4. Be a model mom. Run your business and your life in a way that you want your children to learn from.
5. Be mom first and foremost. You have the rest of your life to take on the business world.


Lisa Druxman is Entrepreneur.com's "Mompreneur" columnist and the founder and CEO of fitness franchiseStroller Strides. Druxman is also a nationally recognized speaker and author, and is considered an expert in the field of fitness, particularly pre- and postnatal fitness. She hosts a free monthly webinar during which she answers questions from fellow mompreneurs. If you are interested in participating, contact her atlisa@strollerstrides.com.

Retrieved on 22nd October 2009 from http://www.entrepreneur.com/startingabusiness/mompreneur/mompreneurcolumnistlisadruxman/article202680.html

Dealing With the Unexpected

You thought you knew what working from home would be like--until you came face to face with problems you hadn't planned on. Here's what you can do to solve your homebased dilemmas.

written by Paul and Sarah Edwards

Not unlike a thunderstorm that surprises even the local weather forecasters, unexpected problems will arise when you work from home. Have any of these five situations happened to you--or could they? Read on to find out what you can do if you encounter the unexpected.

Problem: Zoning Restrictions. When you bought your house, you had a job and didn't expect to be working from home, so you had no reason to check your local zoning laws to determine if they allowed homebased businesses. But now you work at home and a neighbor has told you're not in compliance with the zoning laws. You suspect she may report you.

What You Can Do: First, check for yourself what the zoning ordinance actually says. Cities vary when it comes to which homebased businesses they allow and disallow. If you find you're out of compliance, first check your other neighbors' feelings about your working at home. If they'll support you, you can apply for variance or conditional use permit.

Problem: Noisy Neighbors. You've been working from home for some time when your next-door neighbor decides to open a day-care center in their home. It's so noisy that you can't work much of the day. You find out that local zoning laws allow day-care centers in your neighborhood and though you might be willing to change your schedule to work nights, you just can't--your customers need you during normal working hours.

What You Can Do: A combination of techniques can make your home office livable again. Rearranging your office so your desk is as far away from the window as possible will lower the decibels you hear. Floor-length draperies over the window--which you should weather-strip--will also help. For a more expensive option, you can replace your standard windows with those that contain newer, triple-gazed glass. A gurgling fish tank, a cage of songbirds or playing background music can help, too.

To reduce your need for space, consider outsourcing parts of your work to other businesses or independent contractors, or hire an employee who can work in his or her home. Renting storage or warehouse space for the "stuff" of your business is another possibility that may free up needed space.

Problem: Chatty Friends and Family. When word gets out you've quit your job and are now working from home, your mother, your sister and several of your nonworking neighbors keep dropping by or calling to chitchat.

What You Can Do: Let family, friends and neighbors know your work hours and when you're available. When they come by unexpectedly, let them know you're working and suggest they come by after five or that you two visit over lunch and tell them you'll be over at noon. To manage phone calls, consider screening your calls by letting your answering machine pick up. Caller ID can help, too, by allowing you to identify, in most cases, just who's calling. Also, if you haven't done it already, set up a separate phone line for your business calls and ask your friends and family not to use that line for personal call.

Problem: Needy Neighbors. You're starting to get requests for favors from a few of your neighbors "since you're already home anyway." And while signing for an occasional UPS package isn't much trouble, being asked to pick up a neighbor's sick child from day care when you've got deadlines to meet just isn't going to work.

What You Can Do: You need to establish clear boundaries and let people know you can't interrupt your work schedule to take on personal tasks for them. With some people, you may need to be pretty forceful and let them know that while you'd like to help, you just can't get away from work and that you hope there won't be any hard feelings.

Problem: No Elbow Room. Your business is outgrowing your home office, but neither moving to a larger home or renting an office is a good option for you.

What You Can Do: Since moving to another location is out of the question, you can either find ways to optimize the space in your home or outsource some of your work. Professional organizers can help you do more with the space you have. You can find an organizer in your area from the National Association of Professional Organizersor the Independent Association of Professional Organizers.

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Paul and Sarah Edwards are homebased business experts and consult and coach on the subjects of the 16 books they've written. Their latest book isThe Best Home Businesses for People 50+. Free portions of their books are available at www.workingfromhome.com.

Retrieved on 8^th October 2009 from http://www.entrepreneur.com/homebasedbiz/homebasedhowtoguides/article76396.html

10 Steps To Retire A Millionaire

written by Lisa Smith

Having a million-dollar portfolio is a retirement dream for many people. Making that dream come true requires some serious effort. While success is never a sure thing, the 10 steps outlined below will go a long way toward helping you achieve your objective.

1. Set the Goal

Nobody plans to fail, but plenty of people fail to plan. It's a cliché, but it's true. "Plan" is the leading self-help advice from athletes, business moguls and everyday people who have achieved extraordinary goals.

2. Start Saving
If you don't save, you'll never reach your goal. As obvious as this might seems, far too many people never even start to save. If your employer offers a 401(k) plan, enrolling in the plan is a great way to put your savings on autopilot. Simply sign up for the plan and contributions will be automatically taken out of your paycheck, increasing your savings and decreasing your immediate tax liability.

If your employer offers to match your contributions up to a certain percentage, be sure to contribute enough to get the full match. It's like getting a guaranteed return on your investment. Finding the cash to stash may be a challenge, particularly when you're young, but don't let that stop you from pursuing future riches.

3. Get Aggressive
Studies have shown that the majority of the returns generated by an investment are dictated by the asset-allocation decision. If you are looking to grow your wealth over time, fixed-income investments aren't likely to get the job done, and inflation can take a big chunk out of your savings.

Investing in equities entails more risk, but is also statistically likely to lead to greater returns. For many of us, it's a risk we have to take if want to see our wealth grow. Asset-allocation strategies can help you learn how to make picking the right mix of securities the core of your investing strategy.

4. Prepare for Rainy Days
Part of long-term planning involves accepting the idea that setbacks will occur. If you are not prepared, these setbacks can put a stop to your savings efforts. While you can't avoid all of the bumps in the road, you can prepare in advance to mitigate the damage they can do.

5. Save More
Your income should rise as time passes. You'll get raises, you'll change jobs, and maybe you'll get married and become a two-income family. Every time more cash comes in to your pocket, you should increase the amount that you save. The key to reaching your goal as quickly as possible is to save as much as you can.

6.Watch Your Spending
Vacations, car, kids and all of life's other expenses take a big chunk out of your paycheck. To maximize your savings, you need to minimize your spending. Buying a home you can afford and living a lifestyle that is below your means and not funded by credit cards are all necessities if you want to boost your savings.

7. Monitor Your Portfolio
There's no need to obsess over every movement of the Dow. Instead, check your portfolio once a year. Rebalance your asset allocation to keep on track with your plan.

8. Max Out Your Options
Take advantage of every savings opportunity that comes your way. Make the maximum contribution to tax-deferred savings plans and then open up a taxable account too. Don't let any chance to save get away.

9. Catch-Up Contributions
When you reach age50, you are eligible to increase contributions to tax-deferred savings plans. Take advantage of this opportunity!

10. Have Patience
"Get-rich-quick" schemes are usually just that - schemes. The power of compounding takes time, so invest early, invest often and accept that the road to riches is often long and slow. With that in mind, the sooner you get started, the better your odds of achieving your goals.

The Reality Of Retirement
Retirement might seem far away, but it when it arrives nobody ever complains about having too much money. Some people even question whether a million dollars is enough.

That said, with lots of planning and discipline, you can reach your retirement goals and live a comfortable life after work.

Retrieved on 28^th September 2009 from http://www.investopedia.com/articles/retirement/08/retire-millionaire-million-dollars.asp

5 Senior Businesses to Start

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