If owning and running a home business is on your agenda, you’ve got a lot of learning to do! There are a million things, both large and small you must be aware of and take care of. Read on for some very practical advice so that you can successfully achieve this most rewarding dream!
When approaching a home business, it is important to know where the biggest opportunity lies. Internet-based businesses are the biggest thing in today’s world, but they also come with some of the biggest risks. Therefore, one of the most important parts of starting a home business is making sure that your product or service is going to fit a profitable niche.
Always keep an eye on your operation costs and keep them to a minimum. You have already begun this path by choosing to use a home office, but keep operation costs in mind in all of your choices. This way you can keep your product costs as low as possible, giving you a competitive advantage against other businesses.
One of the biggest things one needs to remember when starting a home business is having an extensive business plan laid out. Your business plan must include ideas for improvement and growth as well as plans to accommodate growth. Your business plan also needs to always have backup plans that are ready to set into motion.
Make sure that your email address is accessible on every page of your website. It should be super easy to get in touch with you. Customers that can’t easily figure out how to contact you will become frustrated, and start looking elsewhere to make a purchase. Don’t lose out on that sale because of a missing link.
Keep home and work communication seperate. Don’t send work e-mails from your personal account. Consider getting a seperate work phone line. If that is not an option, get caller ID. Don’t take personal calls while at work. Don’t take business calls after work hours. Politely ask friends and neighbors to call before coming to your door.
One of the reasons why many people decide to become involved in home business is so that they have more time to spend with their kids. However, as their business grows, they also easily find themselves in situations where their kids impede their ability to work effectively. Just because it is a home business however does not mean that a nanny, babysitter or daycare center is out of the question. Don’t ignore these resources just because of the fact that it is a home business!
Attracting clients to your home business is integral to its success. Social media because of its popularity can be a critical medium for advertising and marketing your business. Your business should have its Social Media feed. You can also find creative ways to market your business on websites like Reddit and Digg. Finally, since you are working from home and likely using the same computers for both personal and business use, make sure to keep the accounts separate!
Assemble a profile of your typcial customer. How much money do they make? Where do they live and work, and what are their needs? How old are they and do they have children? Identify them, figure out where they shop, then get your products into those locations. If your market is parents, try organizing a fundraiser program with local schools, allowing the school or organization to keep a portion of the sales.
Settle on a price for your products. Marketing a product that you create starts with finding out the cost of production. A standard formula for finding this is to use the production costs of your product and to multiply that by two. This is what you should charge for wholesale. Multiply the price you paid times three for the suggested retail price.
When running a home businesses it is important to keep track of any and all receipts related to business purchases. these receipts can then be used as a tax write off at the end of the year for business related expenses and you can save a lot of money on tax deductions.
You should try contacting a local radio station and making a deal with them to barter products for a small bit of airtime. They can use your products for prizes in contests or free giveaways and in turn, they can mention your business as the place where they got these products.
Claim what your work space costs you on your tax report; do not claim your whole house. Determine what percentage of your home you use to work and report this percentage on how much your home is costing you. You can deduct this amount from your taxes and justify it if needed.
When you are starting up your new business, it is really important to set up a separate checking account that is for your business only. You need to pay every expense from that account and deposit every payment into it. Make sure you have a separate business credit card also.
When it comes to taxes and your home business, you want to be sure that you are aware of the fact that communications devices such as cell phones or a second home phone line are deductible. This will save you money when it comes time to pay your taxes and will also possibly give you better results with your business.
Hopefully, you are now fortified with all the advice you need to get started on operating your own successful home business. It will be an ongoing learning and earning process that will keep you very busy, but will be well worth all of the effort you put into it, as you are reaping the lifelong rewards!
