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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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