One of the toughest obstacles we face when working from home is making it appear that we're not, in fact, working from home. When clients call and there are kids screaming in the background, pets barking and meowing and timers going off for laundry and cooking, it doesn't appear professional. So, how can we appear more professional?
Tip # 1: Have a clean, professional website with your own domain name.
Do not, under any circumstances, have a "free" website hosted on another domain name with other company's ads all over the place! This is one of the biggest no-no's out there! Decide, instead, that in order to appear professional, you must invest in a professional website. If you aren't skilled in web design, hire someone to do it for you or barter with another home-based business owner who does do web design. Choose a domain name that is closely related to your business's name.
Tip # 2: Invest in a separate phone line or in a distinctive ring tone for that line.
Most phone companies offer a plan where you can have two or more numbers ringing to one phone line with distinctive rings. It's usually better to have a separate phone line in your office, in order to avoid after-hours phone calls from clients. This also enables you to "shut the door" on work when you're not there. Use a professional voicemail message or answering machine message and check the messages often.
Tip # 3: Think about how to display your business address.
How are you going to display your physical location? There are a few different options available. Most home-based business owners will say that they accept meetings by appointment only, to discourage clients from "dropping in" while they're still in their jammies and haven't had their morning coffee yet. If you don't want your customers to know you work from home, two other options are using a P.O. Box or attaching a "Suite" number to your address. If you use a P.O. Box, you will have to give your home address out for packages and anything they want to courier to you, but it does provide anonymity and discourages drop-in visitors. If you attach a suite number to your address in order to make it appear a "business office," make sure you mention to your postal carrier that you're running a home-based business and that's why there's a different address on there.
Tip # 4: Define your office etiquette rules to your family.
What are the rules going to be for your kids and family members when you're on the phone or meeting with a client? Are you going to set a timer so they know when you'll be available? Are you going to have set office hours and not meet with clients outside of those times? Are you going to have a play space in your office? This is especially important if you're going to have small kids playing nearby (quietly) while you work.
Tip # 5: Invest in professional-quality promotional products and marketing pieces.
Don't print off business cards from your printer, unless you have a top-of-the-line printer. Invest in professional-quality business cards and brochures. If you can, have some letterhead printed up, too, for contracts, letters to prospective clients and any correspondence that is business-related. If you're printing promotional products like T-shirts or apparel, coffee mugs, mousepads, etc., check the quality of the products put out by the printer you wish to use. Don't just "price-hunt," look around for the best quality and invest in your business.
Saturday, May 25, 2013
5 Steps To Creating A 6-Figure While You Work At Home
Creating a steady income from home can be a daunting process. Being successful from home can often take more work than your regular 9 to 5. But, if you learn to break things down and follow a simple forumla, your home business can give you all the income and time freedom that you are seeking in a work from home business.
My successful business formula involves 5 steps. I follow these same five steps with every person I come into contact with. Having a system not only makes my days more organized, but also it opens up more time for me to enjoy the financial rewards that the system creates.
Here is my simple formula:
Step 1; Collect Leads:
This is an entire article in itself (which is in the works). For the sake of keeping this article on track, I will touch on this only briefly. There are many ways to get leads. You can buy leads, place ads in papers and on the net, use ad words, submit your site to search engines, mail postcards, etc. There are literally 100's of ways to advertise. The trick is finding a couple of advertising techniques that you like best and that fit your budget and then try them out. Those that bring you the most success can be tweaked further to give you the results you want. Just remember to always test each ad or lead generating technique you use. From my own experience, I like to talk to those that are in my business and find out what they are doing. They have most often been through the trial and error process and can save you some time.
Step 2; Call Leads:
This is the step that most people have reservations about. If you want to be successful in any home business, you must pick up the phone. This does not mean "cold" calling people. I never call anybody that has not asked to hear about my home business. Use your lead generating techniques in step one to create leads that want to hear from you and then contact them. Whether you business costs $5 or $5000 to join, people want to know that there is a real person behind the business that they can consult with questions. Talking to them and establishing a rapport and trust will go a long way to making sure that the prospect joins you in your home business. When still a "rookie" to making calls, it is best to have a script or outline to follow. This is not to say that you read directly from that. Just use it as a guide to keep you on track and in control of the call. Most importantly in regards to calls......LISTEN. Listen and take notes about what the prospect is telling you. Remember, you are trying to get to know this person and establish their trust.
Step 3; Email
It is hard to ignore this powerful tool. When collecting my leads, I always get an email and phone number to use in step 2 and 3 of my system. Just as I do not make cold calls, I do not send emails to those who have not asked for it. Spam complaints will kill your business and your rapport with people. When I get an email, I simply have that email address automatically entered into an autoresponder. My autoresponder then sends messages every few days to keep me fresh in my prospects mind. Autoresponders are a must have for any business. They allow you to stay in contact for long periods of time while doing virtually no work. They also increase the amount of times your prospect is exposed to you and your business. Remember this, on average a prospect must see your message 5 to 12 times before joining you.
Step 4; Direct Mail Information Packet.
With all of the new email laws and email blocking systems, direct mail is making a comeback. As I said in step 3, you want to expose yourself to your prospect as many times as possible. But, if you use one method of exposure....your prospect may begin to ignore you. Diversifying your exposure types will keep them interested. I must state that I do not mail information packets to everybody. Only those that I have talked with and that have expressed interest. Mailing the packets can become expensive if you mail them to everyone. That said, putting the pack together is very easy. I used the ad copy on my website to develop the packet. Then I throw in a business card or flyer and send it on its way. This also makes sure that people actually see the content of your site. Many have seen so many websites that they just browse them. They are more apt to sit down and read printed text than to sit at their computer and read through your website.
Step 5; Direct Mail Postcard.
Postcards, like direct mail, give you another way to expose yourself to your prospects. They are fun to design and can be sent quickly and easily. Because they are less expensive than the direct mail packets, I send a postcard to all of my leads. People love getting postcards. They do have the junk mail stigma and if designed well, they can give a personal touch to your business. I actually send a postcard campaign that sends multiple postcards over a period of 45 - 60 days to my prospects. I use a service that does this automatically and even personalizes each card for me.
Always remember this, it takes on average 5 to 12 exposures to get somebody into your business. My 5-step process actually includes multiple exposures within each step. For example, my emails include phone numbers to live calls and links to movies to watch. One email can get me three or more exposures. The key to any business is to have a formula or process to follow. Knowing what you are going to do each day keeps you focused and allows you to track how your business is doing and what may or may not be working.
That's it! Those 5 simple steps earn me a consistent 6-figure income from home. Your results may differ based on your business, and your compensation plan among other things, but this process will definitely increase your sign up rate.
My successful business formula involves 5 steps. I follow these same five steps with every person I come into contact with. Having a system not only makes my days more organized, but also it opens up more time for me to enjoy the financial rewards that the system creates.
Here is my simple formula:
Step 1; Collect Leads:
This is an entire article in itself (which is in the works). For the sake of keeping this article on track, I will touch on this only briefly. There are many ways to get leads. You can buy leads, place ads in papers and on the net, use ad words, submit your site to search engines, mail postcards, etc. There are literally 100's of ways to advertise. The trick is finding a couple of advertising techniques that you like best and that fit your budget and then try them out. Those that bring you the most success can be tweaked further to give you the results you want. Just remember to always test each ad or lead generating technique you use. From my own experience, I like to talk to those that are in my business and find out what they are doing. They have most often been through the trial and error process and can save you some time.
Step 2; Call Leads:
This is the step that most people have reservations about. If you want to be successful in any home business, you must pick up the phone. This does not mean "cold" calling people. I never call anybody that has not asked to hear about my home business. Use your lead generating techniques in step one to create leads that want to hear from you and then contact them. Whether you business costs $5 or $5000 to join, people want to know that there is a real person behind the business that they can consult with questions. Talking to them and establishing a rapport and trust will go a long way to making sure that the prospect joins you in your home business. When still a "rookie" to making calls, it is best to have a script or outline to follow. This is not to say that you read directly from that. Just use it as a guide to keep you on track and in control of the call. Most importantly in regards to calls......LISTEN. Listen and take notes about what the prospect is telling you. Remember, you are trying to get to know this person and establish their trust.
Step 3; Email
It is hard to ignore this powerful tool. When collecting my leads, I always get an email and phone number to use in step 2 and 3 of my system. Just as I do not make cold calls, I do not send emails to those who have not asked for it. Spam complaints will kill your business and your rapport with people. When I get an email, I simply have that email address automatically entered into an autoresponder. My autoresponder then sends messages every few days to keep me fresh in my prospects mind. Autoresponders are a must have for any business. They allow you to stay in contact for long periods of time while doing virtually no work. They also increase the amount of times your prospect is exposed to you and your business. Remember this, on average a prospect must see your message 5 to 12 times before joining you.
Step 4; Direct Mail Information Packet.
With all of the new email laws and email blocking systems, direct mail is making a comeback. As I said in step 3, you want to expose yourself to your prospect as many times as possible. But, if you use one method of exposure....your prospect may begin to ignore you. Diversifying your exposure types will keep them interested. I must state that I do not mail information packets to everybody. Only those that I have talked with and that have expressed interest. Mailing the packets can become expensive if you mail them to everyone. That said, putting the pack together is very easy. I used the ad copy on my website to develop the packet. Then I throw in a business card or flyer and send it on its way. This also makes sure that people actually see the content of your site. Many have seen so many websites that they just browse them. They are more apt to sit down and read printed text than to sit at their computer and read through your website.
Step 5; Direct Mail Postcard.
Postcards, like direct mail, give you another way to expose yourself to your prospects. They are fun to design and can be sent quickly and easily. Because they are less expensive than the direct mail packets, I send a postcard to all of my leads. People love getting postcards. They do have the junk mail stigma and if designed well, they can give a personal touch to your business. I actually send a postcard campaign that sends multiple postcards over a period of 45 - 60 days to my prospects. I use a service that does this automatically and even personalizes each card for me.
Always remember this, it takes on average 5 to 12 exposures to get somebody into your business. My 5-step process actually includes multiple exposures within each step. For example, my emails include phone numbers to live calls and links to movies to watch. One email can get me three or more exposures. The key to any business is to have a formula or process to follow. Knowing what you are going to do each day keeps you focused and allows you to track how your business is doing and what may or may not be working.
That's it! Those 5 simple steps earn me a consistent 6-figure income from home. Your results may differ based on your business, and your compensation plan among other things, but this process will definitely increase your sign up rate.
5 Reasons Why You Need A Work-At-Home Schedule
One of the attractions of working at home is the vision of freedom it invokes -- no time clock, no time sheets, and no one to account to for how you spend your time. Yes, it is an attractive proposition, but like so many attractive propositions there is a heavy downside -- you are likely wasting a lot of time.
My husband spends time every day filling out these large spreadsheets to account for his day. He works for a large engineering company and his day often encompasses work on a variety of projects for different clients. He loathes the activity and I have always dismissed it as a waste of time -- that is until my home business recently took off and I realized there simply wasn't enough hours in the day to accomplish all my goals.
I now have my own spread sheet and agenda for the day and I have improved my productivity and reduced my stress immeasurably. If you don't think you need a schedule for your home business then think again -- and read on.
After a spate of relatively unproductive days when my "To Do" list seemed to grow exponentially every time I looked at it I knew something had to change.
Granted I was going through a rough patch. My home business was experiencing growing pains and taking up more than the usual time, my four-year-old was only in preschool part-time, my husband wasn't pulling his weight on the home front, and my extended family was experiencing a number of crises. But I'm also old enough to know there is never a perfect time in life -- you just live the one you've got. These are simply the problems I'm dealing with this year. Next year these problems will be traded in for new fresh ones.
After studying my time and chatting with some other work-at-home folks, I discovered five reasons to embrace the schedule:
1. It's too easy to waste time doing nonpriority tasks
2. It's too easy to get sidetracked or distracted from your current task
3. Unscheduled work time can often overlap into your free time until you don't have any free time at all
4. Your free time can overlap into your work time until you fall behind with important projects
5. Concentrating your time and effort on highest priority projects means more gets done
I'm not the only work at home business person encompassing the schedule. I recently took part in an online forum where men and womenhad moved to embrace it -- and found it more freeing than restrictive. After all, you are still the one setting the schedule so you are free to schedule yourself off for a 3-hour lunch, an afternoon, or a whole day whenever you choose.
If you find it difficult setting up your schedule and priorities for the day and week then perhaps your significant other or a friend can help you set your schedule.
My husband spends time every day filling out these large spreadsheets to account for his day. He works for a large engineering company and his day often encompasses work on a variety of projects for different clients. He loathes the activity and I have always dismissed it as a waste of time -- that is until my home business recently took off and I realized there simply wasn't enough hours in the day to accomplish all my goals.
I now have my own spread sheet and agenda for the day and I have improved my productivity and reduced my stress immeasurably. If you don't think you need a schedule for your home business then think again -- and read on.
After a spate of relatively unproductive days when my "To Do" list seemed to grow exponentially every time I looked at it I knew something had to change.
Granted I was going through a rough patch. My home business was experiencing growing pains and taking up more than the usual time, my four-year-old was only in preschool part-time, my husband wasn't pulling his weight on the home front, and my extended family was experiencing a number of crises. But I'm also old enough to know there is never a perfect time in life -- you just live the one you've got. These are simply the problems I'm dealing with this year. Next year these problems will be traded in for new fresh ones.
After studying my time and chatting with some other work-at-home folks, I discovered five reasons to embrace the schedule:
1. It's too easy to waste time doing nonpriority tasks
2. It's too easy to get sidetracked or distracted from your current task
3. Unscheduled work time can often overlap into your free time until you don't have any free time at all
4. Your free time can overlap into your work time until you fall behind with important projects
5. Concentrating your time and effort on highest priority projects means more gets done
I'm not the only work at home business person encompassing the schedule. I recently took part in an online forum where men and womenhad moved to embrace it -- and found it more freeing than restrictive. After all, you are still the one setting the schedule so you are free to schedule yourself off for a 3-hour lunch, an afternoon, or a whole day whenever you choose.
If you find it difficult setting up your schedule and priorities for the day and week then perhaps your significant other or a friend can help you set your schedule.
5 Pillars To A Successful Home Business.
Generally, people who make it big have one thing in common—they are dissatisfied with the status quo. They will not take what is “common” or “expected” and let that define their lives—they move past it and excel. You must work hard and hustle.
- Character:
Someone coined the phrase, “character is what you do in the dark.” In other words, when no one is looking, will you behave differently than if someone was looking? If not, then you have character. If you are attacked, be tough—not hard. Don’t be a pushover, but be compassionate, gentle, and flexible—especially on procedure (not principle).
- Risk Taking:
This isn’t gambling, it’s a willingness to be bold, hearty, and to push forward. People who refuse to take risks are definitely going to lose. If you refuse a new promotion because you’re not confident of your skills, you will likely be passed over when a different chance arrives.
Don’t be afraid of rejection, just take it as part of life and you’ll find there’s nothing to be afraid of—especially in the word “no.” “No” is just another opportunity to find a way around an obstacle and to use creative problem-solving skills.
- Time Management:
We all know that one minute has 60 seconds and that one hour has 60 minutes. One day has 24 hours, and one year has 365 days. But one year also has 525,600 minutes. We don’t think about a year in such small increments, but maybe we should.
We waste minutes as if they’ll always be around, and the fact is that time wasted is time we can never get back. We might miss a deal or promotion of a lifetime by wasting just a few minutes.
Proper time management is essential as you climb to success. Continue to break goals down in to manageable chunks—do that with relation to your day and the time you’ve been given. You’ll accomplish far more this way and you won’t regret using your time wisely.
- Master Non-Verbal Communication:
It is said that our body language and facial expressions do much more communicating than our words will ever do. When the words that you speak don’t match the expressions on your face or the stance of your body, you confuse the listener and muddle your message.
Be aware that when you try to “multi-task,” you often end up short-changing something, and the last thing you want is to short-change people. Don’t try to do too much at once—your willingness to do this tells people they aren’t important, even if you’re expressing your appreciation of their work and effort.
Be aware of what message your body is sending off!
4 Steps To Making Your Home Business A True Automated System
You hear it al the time if you have been involved or are involved in the home business or internet business industry:
“You need a system to succeed.”
I like to take this a step further. You not only need a “system”, but in order to get the most out of your home business opportunity, you need to have an Automated System. To take that even one step further, your Automated System must hit your prospects from EVERY angle in order to achieve the highest levels of prosperity.
Here are four techniques that if used on all of your prospects WILL increase your earnings with ANY home or internet business opportunity.
Step 1: Create a “capture” or “squeeze” page.
Even if you have no idea what this is, you have almost certainly seen a capture page and even been “captured by one. A capture page is simply a page that is set up to give some brief information about a product or service, but then requires the prospect to enter their info to get the full details. It is often a teaser or hyped up page to get the prospect to want to know more. The most effective capture pages touch on the prospects personal or financial needs compelling them to find out more by filling in their information. Once they do, you own their information for life and can continue to follow up with them or contact them about other offers of services you have no, or develop in the future. Capture pages are a MUST to start building your list that you will be able to promote any product or service. A great program that allows even the most novice person to create capture pages in minutes is Lead Page Generator.
Special note: NEVER LOSE YOUR LIST OF CAPTURED NAMES, ADDRESSES, EMAILS, ETC.
Those that are highly successful in any home business or internet opportunity have a list of thousands that they have built over the years. Any time they have a new product, service or opportunity to promote they send it out to their list first. This gives you a big head start and if your products, services and opportunities have been successful in the past, your list will follow you everywhere.
This all leads into the second technique to creating a totally automated system, email auto responders.
Step 2: Follow up with prospects via email
This is the easiest and most recognizable form of follow up. When creating a capture page, all you have to do is tie the information form into an auto responder. This can be done very easily using services such as aweber. Now, when a prospect fills in their information, you not only get to keep their information for your list, but now you can follow up with them daily, weekly, monthly without having to lift a finger. Of course, you have to write your email follow up messages ahead of time, but once you have them completed, you are following up with your prospects over and over while doing no additional work.
While email is a nice tool to make your system automated, it is far too often the ONLY tool people use. This is a huge mistake. Fact is, that email follow up and marketing is becoming far less effective due to spam laws and people filtering their email accounts.
In order to reach as many people as possible, you need to come at them from different angles.
Step 3: Follow up with a voice broadcasting system
Voice broadcasting gives you yet another method of following up with prospects. It is an awesome tool and as of late has been sort of the “new email.” Because email is getting caught by filters and spam control features, it is necessary to try and reach prospects using other methods. Outside of email, voice broadcasting is the easiest and least expensive means of following up. In addition, voice broadcasting can keep your system totally automated. You can record a simple message or series of messages, collect the prospects phone number on your capture page and then simply set up your voice broadcasting software to call them once, weekly, monthly or whatever you choose. There are lots of services to use out there. Goldcalling, voiceshot, probuilderplus, and protus are just a few.
Step 4: Postcard follow up
Direct mail is by far the most forgotten means of follow up, but often the most effective. Postcards are a terrific way to make sure that your prospects hear form you. By simply collecting their mailing info on your capture page, you have set yourself up to use an incredible tool that will definitely help increase your sales and income.
There are a couple of services that allow you to set up a direct mail campaign to work just like an email auto responder. The best service in my opinion is PostCardAutoresponder.com. You can input a prospects mailing address and set up a campaign that will send them a postcard once, twice, weekly, monthly, or whatever you choose. Just set it up once and forget it. You can contact a prospect for an entire year on autopilot . You can even create custom postcards for any business , service or opportunity.
If you use that simple 4 step plan to create an automated system for your business, you will definitely increase sales and income. Plus, you will not only have an automated system that works for you while you are doing the things you enjoy, but it will be one that contacts prospects from every angle so they are sure to get your message early and often. Remember, it is not always enough just to have a system. You need to have an automated system that you can plug each prospect into that will run itself while you focus on building your business.
“You need a system to succeed.”
I like to take this a step further. You not only need a “system”, but in order to get the most out of your home business opportunity, you need to have an Automated System. To take that even one step further, your Automated System must hit your prospects from EVERY angle in order to achieve the highest levels of prosperity.
Here are four techniques that if used on all of your prospects WILL increase your earnings with ANY home or internet business opportunity.
Step 1: Create a “capture” or “squeeze” page.
Even if you have no idea what this is, you have almost certainly seen a capture page and even been “captured by one. A capture page is simply a page that is set up to give some brief information about a product or service, but then requires the prospect to enter their info to get the full details. It is often a teaser or hyped up page to get the prospect to want to know more. The most effective capture pages touch on the prospects personal or financial needs compelling them to find out more by filling in their information. Once they do, you own their information for life and can continue to follow up with them or contact them about other offers of services you have no, or develop in the future. Capture pages are a MUST to start building your list that you will be able to promote any product or service. A great program that allows even the most novice person to create capture pages in minutes is Lead Page Generator.
Special note: NEVER LOSE YOUR LIST OF CAPTURED NAMES, ADDRESSES, EMAILS, ETC.
Those that are highly successful in any home business or internet opportunity have a list of thousands that they have built over the years. Any time they have a new product, service or opportunity to promote they send it out to their list first. This gives you a big head start and if your products, services and opportunities have been successful in the past, your list will follow you everywhere.
This all leads into the second technique to creating a totally automated system, email auto responders.
Step 2: Follow up with prospects via email
This is the easiest and most recognizable form of follow up. When creating a capture page, all you have to do is tie the information form into an auto responder. This can be done very easily using services such as aweber. Now, when a prospect fills in their information, you not only get to keep their information for your list, but now you can follow up with them daily, weekly, monthly without having to lift a finger. Of course, you have to write your email follow up messages ahead of time, but once you have them completed, you are following up with your prospects over and over while doing no additional work.
While email is a nice tool to make your system automated, it is far too often the ONLY tool people use. This is a huge mistake. Fact is, that email follow up and marketing is becoming far less effective due to spam laws and people filtering their email accounts.
In order to reach as many people as possible, you need to come at them from different angles.
Step 3: Follow up with a voice broadcasting system
Voice broadcasting gives you yet another method of following up with prospects. It is an awesome tool and as of late has been sort of the “new email.” Because email is getting caught by filters and spam control features, it is necessary to try and reach prospects using other methods. Outside of email, voice broadcasting is the easiest and least expensive means of following up. In addition, voice broadcasting can keep your system totally automated. You can record a simple message or series of messages, collect the prospects phone number on your capture page and then simply set up your voice broadcasting software to call them once, weekly, monthly or whatever you choose. There are lots of services to use out there. Goldcalling, voiceshot, probuilderplus, and protus are just a few.
Step 4: Postcard follow up
Direct mail is by far the most forgotten means of follow up, but often the most effective. Postcards are a terrific way to make sure that your prospects hear form you. By simply collecting their mailing info on your capture page, you have set yourself up to use an incredible tool that will definitely help increase your sales and income.
There are a couple of services that allow you to set up a direct mail campaign to work just like an email auto responder. The best service in my opinion is PostCardAutoresponder.com. You can input a prospects mailing address and set up a campaign that will send them a postcard once, twice, weekly, monthly, or whatever you choose. Just set it up once and forget it. You can contact a prospect for an entire year on autopilot . You can even create custom postcards for any business , service or opportunity.
If you use that simple 4 step plan to create an automated system for your business, you will definitely increase sales and income. Plus, you will not only have an automated system that works for you while you are doing the things you enjoy, but it will be one that contacts prospects from every angle so they are sure to get your message early and often. Remember, it is not always enough just to have a system. You need to have an automated system that you can plug each prospect into that will run itself while you focus on building your business.
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