More on Building a Brand

In a previous post, we discussed building the brand: YOU.  We pointed out as a home business owner, you and the business are basically one and the same.  A different home business name may be used, but your clients know you as the owner, manager, and clerk.  Every business decision you make can help or hurt the brand: YOU.

What exactly is a brand or how is a brand defined?  Simply, a brand is a combination of perception, association, and expectation to an audience.  As a home business owner, your clients are the audience.

In an equation: Brand = Expectation + Association + Perception to the relevant community.

A brand communicates value, expertise, ideas, and personality to the audience.  Think about the comedian-ventriloquist Jeff Dunham.  If attending his show, you expect entertainment, laughter, and puppets.  Dunham created a perception, an expectation with Peanut, Walter, Jose, Achmed – and humor.  If your favorite puppets were missing, you’d be disappointed and the show’s value – to you – would drop.  Your expectations were not met, slightly tarnishing Dunham’s brand – to you.

Dunham’s puppets are the same as your service or product inventory.  You may be sick or sold out of certain items, but the client has expectations.  If you can’t deliver, your brand may be damaged a little.  One time is understandable, repeating the problem puts a negative spin on your brand.  Fortunately, the opposite is also true.  Exceed expectations and the following happens:

-        Puts you in a top position in your industry

-        Sets you above competitors – you deliver

-        Creates positive pre-sale expectations

-        Creates new opportunity

-        Adds value to your brand

Hopefully this brief article on branding helps you understand why brands are so important and valuable to individuals and business.  Your goal: create a positive image when the brand is mentioned, each time for every client, current or potential.

By Dion D. Shaw

Dion D. Shaw is the founder and owner of Homepreneurs

Homepreneurs.  New Day.  New Opportunity.

Disclaimer

Homepreneurs does not endorse nor have any relationships with any of the services listed.  Homepreneurs receives no compensation or consideration for its suggestions.  Homepreneurs strongly urges all interested parties to conduct research and accepts no responsibility for any losses incurred.

© Homepreneurs 2010 – 2012, All Rights Reserved

Homepreneurs Interview with Karyn Pettigrew of Beyond Blind Spots

Homepreneurs was very fortunate to be interviewed on Unity FM radio today by Karyn Pettigrew for her program, Beyond Blind Spots.  The program’s topic: The Joys and Pitfalls of Homepreneurship is one very familiar to Homepreneurs and its readers.  Briefly, we discussed the trend toward home business, options for entrepreneurs, and the relatively low-cost of starting a basic home business.  We also covered some tips that I feel every small or home business owner should know before starting.  The audio interview is available for download to iTunes or in Interview – MP3 Format.  A summary of the tips discussed is below.

1) Emphasis on Planning

- Research the product.  The basic premise of a business: does the business idea solve an existing problem or provide additional value to an existing solution?

- The market niche.  Is the product or service viable in your geographic area?  If a service, do you have enough potential clients to turn a profit?

- Competition.  Who and where is your competition?  What can your offering provide that is better than your competitors?  How will you provide value that someone else isn’t?

- Start up Cost.  A home business can be started with a cell phone, email address, and home computer.  Even a home computer is not absolutely necessary; use the local library or community college computers if needed.  Business cards are free through Vista Print.  Social networking – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter – are wonderful public relation tools.  All are free.

- Simple Business Plan.  A one page document for a basic home business is probably enough for starters.  A business plan will keep you focused  on the product or service you are selling.  Remember, that a plan is a living, breathing document that should change if conditions warrant.  If you intend to take a loan out, the lender will likely want a formalized document.

2) Professional Business Team.  Every good business needs a team to be successful.  Some of the team members may include:

- Lawyer to help with contracts, business structure, legal agreements, litigation

- Accountant to provide tips on taxes, deductions, IRS issues

- Mentors to answer questions, provide guidance, and give feedback. Good sources are SCORE, SBA, and industry peers.

- Clients!  Your customers are often the best resources available. Their buying habits, verbal feedback, and requests for product options will tell you more than any questionnaire or survey.

3) Consider starting a business part-time first.

- Is running a business the best idea for you?  Do you have the interest and aptitude?

- Test market your product and/or service and find out if people want to buy it!

- Determine income potential at this time.  Full-time business probably won’t turn a profit for 7-12 months.  Do you have the savings needed to cover expenses for this time?

- Work a part time job with benefits while working on your business part-time. Best of both worlds: chase your dream but still have health insurance and retirement benefits.

- By Dion D Shaw

Dion D Shaw is the founder and owner of Homepreneurs

Homepreneurs. New Day.  New Opportunity.

Seven Steps to Starting Your own Business

You’ve decided – or are compelled – to start your own business. You have talent, experience, a good idea, and a desire to leave the corporate world behind. But a nagging question exists: How to start?  Overcoming this mental block is the first obstacle in the path to success.  This blog and many others dedicated to starting a home business are good places to start.  Research your idea, the market niche, competition and compare your strategy.  As a primer, I ran across this article that provides seven steps from idea to implementation. It is a basic guide, written in plain language, and contains common-sense steps.

Still interested in starting a business?  Read and follow these steps.  It provides wonderful information for start ups.

—————————–

Seven Steps to Starting Your own Business

By Palo Alto Software

Question
I’d like a basic outline for the fundamentals of how to start my own business. Please include some insight on financial management, legalities, literature that may come in handy, etc. Thanks!

Answer
What is interesting about this question is that, while many businesses are indeed created after much thought and planning, probably just as many are started on the fly; the guy who has had the itch to go solo but gets fired from his day job before actually doing so is apt to just wing it and hope for the best.

By the same token, there are many companies that start out planning to be one thing and end up doing something quite different. This is not to say that forethought and planning are a waste of time when starting a business; that’s certainly not true. Rather, it points out one of the fundamental laws of successful entrepreneurship: be flexible. For example, a 15 years ago Microsoft had no Internet strategy at all. Seeing the folly of that, they shifted much of their focus almost overnight. That’s a good lesson for all of us.

That said, here are the seven steps to starting your own business:

Step 1: Personal evaluation.

Begin by taking stock of yourself and your situation. Why do you want to start a business? Is it money, freedom, creativity, or some other reason? What skills do you have? What industries do you know about? Would you want to provide a service or a product? What do you like to do? How much capital do you have to risk? Will it be a full-time or a part-time venture? Your answers to these types of questions will help you narrow your focus and pick a business.

Maybe you don’t know what kind of business fits your goals. If that’s the case, there are many places to get business ideas. Do some online research. Look through the Yellow Pages. Go to trade shows. Buy industry magazines. Check in with the Small Business Association. Read the business section of the newspaper.

Step 2: Analyze the industry.

Once you decide on a business that fits your goals and lifestyle, you need to evaluate your idea. Who will buy your product or service? Who would be your competitors? You also need to figure out at this stage how much money you will need to get started.

Step 3: Make it legal.

There are several ways to form your business ––  it could be a sole proprietorship, a partnership, or a corporation. As I have discussed several times previously, although incorporating can be expensive, it is well worth the money. A corporation becomes a separate entity that is legally responsible for the business. If something goes wrong, you cannot be held personally liable.

You also need to get the proper business licenses and permits. Depending upon the business, there may be city, county, or state regulations as well as permits and licenses to deal with. This is also the time to check into any insurance you may need for the business and to find a good accountant.

Step 4: Draft a business plan.

If you will be seeking outside financing, a business plan is a necessity. But even if you are going to finance the venture yourself, a business plan will help you figure out how much money you will need to get started, what needs to get done when, and where you are headed.

Step 5: Get financed.

Depending on the size of your venture, you may need to seek financing from an “angel” or from a venture capital firm. Most small businesses begin with private financing from credit cards, personal loans, help from the family, etc. As a rule of thumb, besides your start-up costs, you should also have at least three months’ worth of your family’s budget in the bank.

Step 6: Set up shop.

Find a location. Negotiate leases. Buy inventory. Get the phones installed. Have stationery printed. Hire staff. Set your prices. Throw a “Grand Opening” party.

Step 7: Trial and error.

It will take awhile to figure out what works and what does not. Follow your business plan, but be open and creative. Advertise! Don’t be afraid to make a mistake. And above all, have a ball! Running your own business is one of the great joys in life!

Article Source:

http://help.bplans.com/seven-steps-to-starting-your-own-business/554/

Homepreneurs.  New Day.  New Opportunity.

Website or Blog: Which is Better?

You’ve made the decision to start a blog or website to increase your home business exposure or sell products online.  Both represent a presence on the World Wide Web, both have considerable value, yet differences exist.  A blog is more dynamic and easily added to with a few lines of text, pictures or video.  Websites can be added to, of course, but the structure is more static and often a little more difficult to modify.  A blog can – and often is – used in tandem with a website.  Many blogs provide commentary on a particular subject; others function as personal online diaries; yet still others function more as online brand advertising for a product or company.  Blogs are often the work of a single individual, not a team of designers, programmers, and writers, as some websites require.

Different Types of Blogs

- Art or art blog

- Photographs or photoblog

- Videos or video blogging

- Music – MP3 or iTunes blog

- Audio or podcasting

Many blog hosts – Blogger, WordPress, and Blogspot, et al. – are available to you; many are free or inexpensive.  Mashable has a list of 40 plus free blog hosts. As a blogging novice, one should consider several issues: Cost, exposure, features, support, ease-of-use, and flexibility are a few.  Blogs are also useful for testing the waters of a product or service without committing the time and money to a full-blown website.  If the blog proves to be popular – measured in hits or visits to the blog – one might consider launching a website too.

To clarify, a blog is similar to online diary that is updated every time a post or entry is submitted. Depending on business or personal needs and goals, a blog may not be appropriate; consider a traditional website instead.  A website generally consists of a ‘home’ or landing page, an ‘about us’ page, a ‘contact us’ page and other content pages. This kind of Internet presence is more complex but more versatile as well. For instance, more payment options can be incorporated in a website as opposed to most blogs.  So-called ‘Shopping Cart’ features provided by third party providers can accept payment options from PayPal to Visa and gift certificates.  Since a contract is involved, certain legal rights are both inherent and implied; free hosts generally give no promises or guarantees.

Also to consider are the terms of service (TOS) used by some blogs.  WordPress, for example, states the following in their TOS: “Affiliate marketing blogs: Blogs with the primary purpose of driving traffic to affiliate programs and get-rich-quick schemes (“Make six figures from home!!”, “20 easy steps to top profits!!”, etc). This includes multi-level marketing (MLM) blogs and pyramid schemes. To be clear, people writing their own original book, movie or game reviews and linking them to Amazon, or people linking to their own products on Etsy do NOT fall into this category.”

(see: http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/affiliate-link?replies=73 for details)

WordPress therefore, is not suitable for the business that wishes to make money from certain affiliate marketing or MLM links.  If that is your business plan, a hosted website (paid) is a better option.

Further, if a decision is made to use a free blog exclusively, one should be aware of the limitations of free hosted services, in particular if the blog is an income generator.  Be warned that regardless of how wonderful and popular your blog is, it exists on the Internet at the host’s discretion.  If the host opts to shut down its services or your blog, it may do so without warning and recompense.  Simply, any income generated from your blog (and any content included) is potentially at risk of non-existence at any time.

Other issues to consider with free blog hosting are bandwidth (pages slow to load), content size limitations, and support concerns. Consider the free blog host with thousands of visitors slowing your page load; people will become impatient and navigate to other sites.  This scenario is not atypical; countless numbers of websites and blogs exist on the Internet in addition to yours and may bog down even the best maintained sites.

A common solution may involve starting with a free blog host and once solid visitor numbers are achieved, migrating to a web host. Here is a list from consumer-rankings.com of the best web hosting services for 2012.  Of course, there may be disadvantages to this strategy as well: Site ranking may be negatively impacted and will take time to recover.  There is also a risk of losing some ‘regular visitors’ and in turn, a drop in earnings from the website.

Finally, consider instead investing in a paid host immediately and avoid the potential future headaches of losing visitors or an entire blog presence.  Many reputable and solid website hosting companies have very inexpensive initial hosting plans that can be upgraded in the future.  For example, GoDaddy.com offers an economy hosting plan for around $5.00 per month, depending on the terms.

by Dion D. Shaw

Dion D Shaw is the founder and owner of Homepreneurs

Homepreneurs.  New Day.  New Opportunity.

Disclaimer

Homepreneurs does not endorse nor have any relationships with any of the services listed.  Homepreneurs receives no compensation or consideration for its suggestions.  Homepreneurs strongly urges all interested parties to conduct research and accepts no responsibility for any losses incurred.

© Homepreneurs 2010 – 2012

Start Your Business Planning Now

Chris Gattis left an excellent comment on Homepreneurs blog today: “…Most small business start-ups begin with bootstrapping techniques to offset a lack of cash. However, many hopeful entrepreneurs are sitting on the sideline waiting on the economy to get better before starting. Now is a great time to get started. The generally down economy will keep you focused on finding sales and keeping costs in check. Once the economy picks up, and it will in time, you’ll have an organization and systems in place ready to leverage for growth.”

In our opinion, Chris is right on target.  The economy is still down, but starting to show signs of life.  Planning for a small or home business should start now.  As suggested, bootstrapping – to help oneself without the aid of others – is cost-effective and an educational way to learn all aspects of running a business.

Following the idea of bootstrapping, we’d like to suggest some resources and articles that can help you in this effort:

Financial

This is often the biggest issue when considering entrepreneurship.  Here are some suggestions to consider:

Use personal savings to start.  Ask family members if they can add a little here and there, look at CrowdFunding options, read these articles for startup funding options and creative funding ideas.

Benefits

Next to financial concerns, many younger entrepreneurs are concerned with medical benefits.  This is a valid concern, given the lack of national heathcare in the United States and the high cost of buying medical plans for yourself and perhaps a family.  If you currently have a job and are planning on quitting to start your own business, take the COBRA option from the employer.  This will cover medical costs for up to 18 months though you will pay 102% of the personal plan cost.  Paying for COBRA coverage will be far less expensive than an independent plan.

Consider a hybrid of working part-time and running your business on the side.  Hompreneurs recently posted 2 lists of companies that provide benefits for part-time employees.  For as little as 20-25 hours per week, one can get medical coverage and more while working on your dream.

You may also consider starting a business on the side while working your full time job.  This allows you to maintain benefits and financial health while starting the business you’ve always wanted.

Business Ideas

Startup ideas are easy for some, very difficult for others.  Homepreneurs lists dozens of home business ideas for you to consider or perhaps spark an idea of your own.  Here are a few highlights:

8 Great Work-at-Home Business ideas

Starting a Business in a Rough Economy

Home Healthcare Business Options

Home Business Options with Good Income Potential

and for part time business:

Part Time Jobs at Home

Business Resources on the Internet

The Internet is a home business and small business owners best friend, confidant, and resource for information.  The article about free or low cost Internet resources will help guide you and suggest technical and business assistance.

Marketing and Branding Your Product

Successfully launching a business requires considerable effort in marketing, branding, and getting exposure for your product or service.  Here are suggestions for low cost marketing, and bootstrap branding.

Many resources are available to help the novice – or experienced – entrepreneur plan and launch a business for as little startup capital as possible.  We suggest using this free one-page business plan to get started and put your ideas on paper.

We hope this list of resources gives you ideas for a business and provides some helpful tips.  Best wishes for your success!

By Dion D Shaw

Dion D Shaw is the founder and owner of Homepreneurs

Homepreneurs.  New Day.  New Opportunities.

Disclaimer

Homepreneurs does not endorse nor have any relationships with any of the services listed.  Homepreneurs receives no compensation or consideration for its suggestions.  Homepreneurs strongly urges all interested parties to conduct research and accepts no responsibility for any losses incurred.

© Homepreneurs 2010 – 2012