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1.
Choose a company or product that matches your interests.
Where is Success
2.
Look for a
company
or product that you can be behind 100%. Make sure you agree
with their values and policies and their products. You can not
sell products that you do not like yourself.
Choosing a Company
3.
Come up with a product made from your own need or
passion. My homeschool book came from sharing my resources with
many homeschool families. It started as a notebook. My ID cards
came from my homeschool kids needing school ID’s.
Do What You Do Best!
4.
Choose a name with meaning for you. Register your domain
name (only $8.50 a
http://www.godaddy.com )
5.
Get a web site with e-store capabilities. I like
http://www.wahmshoppes.com
for $6 a month and he registers your domain name for free for
you.
6.
Get set up to take credit cards.
2CheckOut is great.
Propay only allows $1000 a month in transactions. Your local
bank may be able to help you. US Bank does them for $25 a month.
Join
Paypal too.
7.
Get a DBA business license through your state. It is you
“Doing Business As” business name registration. I got my form at
the bank. It was $18 a year. Register your business name and
your domain name if different.
8.
Open a separate checking account just for your business.
Make sure every order/income and every expense go thru it. Get a
separate business credit card for online/phone orders of
supplies. I write next to every deposit what it was for and
which client.
9.
Get
free business cards with your new name for FREE. Give them
out everywhere. Put them in when you pay bills. Put them down at
doctor’s offices, stores, and bulletin boards.
10.
Get a PO Box for all your business mail. This is
especially true if you are online. It protects your family. I
never post my home address online.
11.
Get a toll free 800 number for business calls.
12.
Send an email out to all your friends and family telling
them about your new business and offering them a discount to
help you get started.
Do You Have Enough Business
13.
Join several WAHM groups at
http://www.yahoogroups.com
to get support from other WAHM’s too. I really like
1ChristianWAHM-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and
wahmhits-subscribe@yahoogroups.com ,
WomansNetworkingCommunity-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
commonconnections-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
There are MANY!
14.
Check with an accountant and a lawyer to see if you need
to do anything special in your state. Find your states
sales tax at
http://www.taxadmin.org/fta/rate/sales.html You will be
required to collect sales tax from customers in your state. Get
your sales tax forms at
http://www.taxadmin.org/fta/link/FORMS.html
15.
Come up with a flier, brochure, and postcard to have
printed and send out to others. Mail Box Etc offers 1000 black
copies for $35. You can take your own paper if you want color or
card stock.
ABC's to Your Business
16.
Swap fliers/coupons with others in like businesses. Join
www.mompack.com
www.wwwpacks.com or
www.mommymailers.com
to find others to swap with.
17.
Make or have made a banner, button, and logo for your web
page and all printing. There are many other WAHM’s that offer
this service for inexpensively. You can find them on your
yahoogroups.
18.
Put up a banner page on your site so you can swap banner
links with others. This is a great way to increase your search
engine ratings.
Increase Your Web Site Traffic
19.
Submit your web page to all the search engines.
http://www.Google.com has
done well for me. Here are my search engine helps.
http://www.mypreciouskid.com/searchengines.html
20. When you get a request for information
on your product or company be sure to respond immediately. That
will bring customers back. I print the request and wrote on it
the date I mailed the info and file it in a SENT folder so I can
look back at it if needed.
21.
Give more than expected. Pack a little surprise in each
order. Go the extra mile.
Give Rather Than Get
22. Support other Work at Home businesses.
It helps your reputation.
http://www.123HomeBusinessGuide.com will help you.
23. Barter your products with other work at
home businesses. It gets your product out there to be seen.
24. Offer your products for contest prizes.
It gives you added exposure.
See our contest
http://www.mypreciouskid.com/contest.html
25. Figure out a budget of how much you can
afford to spend on advertising, barters, free products,
printing, etc. Stay with in that.
26. If you make you own product be sure to
find out exactly how much it costs you make that product. Rule
of thumb is cost times 2 is wholesale price you would charge
others. Wholesale times 2 is retail. Some do cost times 3 for
retail.
27. Be sure to realize you will need to set
aside a portion of your profits for taxes. Read about your
taxes
How Do I Pay Taxes on My Business
28. Keep a log of every mile you drive to
do anything with your business. Many of us can write off that
mileage on our taxes. Last year was 34 cents a mile. This adds
up fast.
29. Get receipts for every expense you pay
for.
30. Do a search on
http://www.google.com for
your supplies wholesale. I found several good sources for mine,
and the companies had very low minimums. With a business license
you can usually buy wholesale.
31.
Have a contest on your site. It brings visitors. Be sure
to submit your contest to ezines, contest boards, and search
engine.
32. Have a mailing list or yahoogroups
list. It can be announcement only for your ads and specials. Or
it can be an email loop where others can chat with each other.
Or it can be an ezine format daily or weekly or monthly. It
brings others to your site over and over again. Have a sign up
form on your site.
33. If you have a product you can wholesale
to others, search the search engines for those kinds of
businesses. Then email them and ask them if they want to have a
FREE sample/wholesale pack. I have had good results from this.
34. Offer a FREE product on your site to
increase visitors. It can be a printable that others can print
right from your site. It can be a freebie thru an affiliate
program that you can earn money on.
35. Join one of the many affiliate
programs.
36. Offer your product through an
affiliate program to other sites. You can do it for free through
http://www.mals-e.com They
also have a free shopping cart program. Swap affiliate links
with other WAHM businesses.
37. Find your niche. A type of customer or
business that can use your product. Do a google search or a
local yellow pages search and offer your services/products. Do
contacts for one type of customer at a time until you have
exhausted it.
Making Contacts & Selling!
38. Get “What Others are saying about”
statements from others who have bought or gotten your product
through barter. Add those to your site.
39. Decide what your typical customer is
like. Income, location, needs??? Then work at getting your
product into those locations. I know my typical customer is a
working mom with kids in daycare or preschool. So I am
contacting them offering them a fundraiser program with my
products. The school/organization gets a portion of the sales.
Recruit Lead Tip Sheet
40. Become an expert in your field. Write
articles with your web address and email in the byline. Offer to
speak on your subject for seminars both online and off. I am
offering to do child safety talks at preschools along with
offering my ID cards and giving the school a portion of the
profits.
41.
Schedule regular working hours for your business.
Have a Party!
42. Write a business plan.
http://home3.americanexpress.com/smallbusiness/ has a free
outline.
43. Check out the free getting started in
business seminars at
http://www.herevents.com/business/rooms/speakers/
44. Use your domain name email for all
email. It puts your domain name in front of people.
Kay@mypreciouskid.com
tells everyone I email where my web site is :)
45. Make sure you have an email link on
every page of your web site. Make it easy for clients to get a
hold of you.
Do You Look Like a Business-
46. Use the first page of your site to tell
customers why to order from you, the benefits, and features, and
guide them to ordering. Do not have too many other links there
to distract them. Make it easy for them to order from you. Tell
them how and give them a reason too.
47. Give every customer you get a reason or
need to order from you again. Offer a discount coupon or
incentive to bring them back and tell their friends.
What Kind of Marketing Do you Do
48. Put your web site description and URL
under your name in your signature line of all emails.
Using Your Email Signature
49. Price check the competition to be sure
you are in the market range. Know what they are offering. Never
talk down the competition. Talk up your benefits/features.
50. Drop off coupons for your product to
local doctor office staff, resale stores, preschools, day care
centers, and other places you do business with.
Building a Sales Team
Thanks to the
many WAHM’s (Work at Home Mom’s) who helped add to this list!
More
Articles by Kay Green at
http://www.123homebusinessguide.com/articles.html
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