4 Simple Strategies You Can Use To Build Momentum For Your Home Business Right Away

Be honest with yourself. Are you one of those people that believe that you just don’t have the time to get your home business up and running? You’re not alone. Many people I talk to claim they have too much to do and not enough time to do it. They wind up defeating themselves and their business looses momentum and suffers.

Full time jobs, family obligations, maintaining health and too many other distractions are the main reasons for not building momentum for their business. You can wind up feeling that your life is spent catering to every one else’s obligations.

However, I have some good news! You can find and maximize time to build momentum for your home business. All you need is to find time and commit to use that time for your home business only. Try the following strategies to make your home based business flourish.

1. Document Your Daily Routine
The first thing you will need to do find a quiet place and write down your schedule. Document the start and end time on events like getting ready for work, driving your kids to school, your commute to your day job, gym time and any other weekly commitments you have. Don’t forget to include weekends and family time (this is most important). 

After completing this exercise you should have a good visual of what your work week looks like. You should see openings in your week. Make your goal easy: try to find two hours you can commit to spend on your business. You should be able to re-prioritize some time.
 
2. Stay with the Schedule You Created and Re-Evaluate
The next thing you need to do is stick with your schedule. This can be tough because you are creating a new habit.  Once you get the hang of your new routine, you should always re-evaluate your schedule. You may be able to find more time to spend on your home business.

Sticking with your schedule means you need to discipline yourself to work. This means that you have to find a way after work, after little league games, after dinner and after putting the kids to bed.

3. Don’t Forget Your Family.
Spending time with my family is always a top priority for me. I have young children so I try to focus on the business when my kids are in bed. I find that using the evening hours is best for me to spend on my home business. It seems to be the most quite part of the day.

If you have to use your family time to spend on your business, make sure you communicate with your family so they have an expectation of what you are doing. However, I would recommend that you set a time limit so you can spend that time you want with your family. This will provide balance for you.

4. Embrace Distractions
As we all know life also throws us off schedule. Try your best to embrace that fact instead of fighting it. If your child stays up late, focus on helping your child quiet down and go to sleep. Try not to focus on what you could be doing. Don’t worry. The work will still be there when you are ready.

If you have to stay late at your day job, then choose to work late. Usually, you’ll find that it is better just to focus on one thing at a time. You’ll be more efficient and effective. Having a clear and guilt free mind while working on your business is most productive.

To handle new ideas that can distract you while you are working, keep an MP3 Recorder handy so if an idea comes up you can record it or write down the idea in a notebook. You can always prioritize those thoughts at a later time. You will also find that you are using less energy dealing with distractions instead of fighting them.

So there is good news when it comes to finding time to work on your own business. Don’t despair and don’t get frustrated. Just remember that you have total control of your time and you alone can change your habits to build your businesses momentum.



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How To Be Successful In Life - 3 Things You Can Do To Help Yourself

Do you define success as having a lot of money? Or do you define success as being able to live your life the way you want too? Either way, they are both good things to strive for. We all know not everyone can be successful as there are checks and balances for winners and losers.

I truly feel most people want to be in on the winning side. However, we always run into people that remain in the same place in life. Do you feel you are you one of those people? Obviously if you’re a person looking and trying to better your life you want to be on the winning side.

Being successful can mean many things. My definition of being successful is accomplishing what you intend to do. For example, I always intended to have a family and I now have a great family. I consider myself very successful.

Success does not mean to look better than the people around you. I believe it comes from within and how you perceive yourself and your life. Success is something that you do not have to show on a daily basis. Success is how you live your life.

Here are three tips on being successful:

Create a Vision of Yourself

Having a vision is the first and most critical step of any successful plan. Create a vision of what you intend to do. Write down how you want to see yourself 1 year from now. Think about how your life will look. Having a vision will help you focus on what you want to achieve.

Take up Good Habits and Break Unproductive Habits

Always read and learn about the world around you. Think an opportunity through and do not be impulsive when an opportunity presents itself. Eat well and exercise. After all everything you do starts from within. Be in good health and don’t take your good health for granted. Add fitness to your life. Learn to handle distractions as there will plenty of distractions to address. Don’t use distractions as an excuse to fail.

Enjoy the Chase

Enjoy your road to success. The path will be filled with adversity. Keep your sense of humor because you may experience very tough challenges along the way. Be responsible, try and control your time by being as effective as possible.

Remember success is not free and it does take sacrifice. The price you pay is time and effort. Success is hard but rewarding (even during the chase for success). To be successful you have to work hard, educate yourself and maybe have a little luck on your side.




Image: graur codrin / FreeDigitalPhotos.net


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Easy Home Business Ideas For Finding Customers

What are best avenues to bring customers to you and increase your visibility? In this post, we will look at some methods that business owners have used for many years and have been very successful at increasing their customers and generating more revenue for their business.

A very effective way to generate business, thus increasing your profits, is to talk to people you know; friends, families, neighbours, hit the pavement, spread the word to everyone you know, especially those who like your business and the products you have to offer.

Be creative; if for example one of your products is balloons consider going to all the restaurants in your area and make a deal to have your balloons given to the children who enter. When you visit businesses or friends take a few samples of your products to show them, leave your products with them so they can look at them while you are gone and then follow-up with them and find out what they think. Make them feel a part of your business.

Networking is a great way to make business contacts and you can do this almost anywhere that you go. Your local chamber of commerce often has networking functions where you can meet other business owners in your area. You can talk to them about their business and what works for them, exchange business cards. This is a great method for making contacts. After the social function make a point to go and visit their business,it is important to develop a relationship with them.

Take a walk around your neighbourhood. This is a great way to meet new people in a casual environment and allows you to sell your product without really selling it. You will have an opportunity to find out what customers who are near you like. Will your product appeal to them? Should you tweak your products to match the potential customers that are near your area? Go into that coffee house that you may not frequent and spend sometime talking with the other customers. This gives you a good feel of the potential market near you.

If you do not have a web page yet, then it is high time to utilise this tool for marketing your business and the products you offer. If you are not comfortable creating your own page there are many professionals that can do this for you and you can use this as an opportunity to promote your business as well. As they get to know your product while they are creating a web page for you, they can also refer others to your site. Remember, when creating a web-page you want to provide the potential customers with information and keywords that are specific to your company.



photo by Sharon Mollerus

Bronzi Home Based Business Tips


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A Home Business Should Be A Family Affair...

If you own a home business, does your family participate or do you work alone?

I've heard tales, and for a short while lived them, about how a spouse will eagerly start a home based business of one sort or another and before they can even get their feet wet in the business - - BAM the other spouse starts belittling and generally putting a damper on the once enthusiastic entrepreneur's ambitions.

Luckily for me, my husband saw that I don't just talk about something that I intend to do, I do it! So he's since changed his tune; especially now that I make as much from my home businesses as I did from my prior job. Ha!

Anyway, it's been over 2 years since all that mess transpired, and I've seen and heard just about every story imaginable on the subject of home business start-ups and failures. I've also learned that most spouses, family members and 'friends' react in such damaging ways out of either fear or ignorance. I suppose some are just plain mean, but well, that's another issue we'll leave for Dr. Phil or Oprah.

For lucky business builders who have encouraging families, the work at home life is good, very good. My 18 year old daughter is my part-time Assistant, and her small salary is tax deductible too, so there's another plus in starting a business.

Creating a better future for the family is probably the most recurring 'Why' that I hear from new business owners. With such a strong reason driving the decision to work from home, then why shouldn't the entire family be involved? It's for them after all isn't it?

Find a way that even the littlest member can take part in the family business. Remember too that helping with chores, running errands, baby-sitting for younger sibs, taking turns with dinner etc. are all just as important as being able to do home office work, if not 'more' important in the long run.

If you're currently suffering with a spouse or partner who just doesn't 'get' what you're doing - please don't give up. Keep on building and trying and help them 'get' it through concrete results. Usually, with some home businesses, positive results that a 'non-biz' type can wrap their minds around, does take time. Unfortunately cash talks, however, and they may not take you seriously until you can show them your first check; and with persistence and consistency - - You will.

To Our Mutual Prosperity ~:)




Bronzi Home Based Business Tips

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How To Make Your Home Based Business Appear More Professional

One of the toughest obstacles I have had to face is when working from home I had to make it appear that I was 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, this is 5 things of what I had to do to appear more professional.



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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

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.

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.


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Four Tips for At-Home-Business Call Success for Mom Entrepreneurs

The kids are racing through the house screaming and the business phone rings, what do you do? Don’t panic! There are some simple ways to handle your at-home business calls.

You know it’s happened to you. Your phone rings and it’s the important business call you’ve been waiting for. As you look at your children wildly circling you, you ask yourself, “Do I take the call?”

It leaves you wondering how other Mom Entrepreneurs handle at-home-business calls.

Here are four quick tips:

1. Don’t apologize.
On the days my son, Ulyssis (age four) is with me, there ARE times he talks or is noisy when I’m on a business call. (That is I use to have this problem, but he's thirty now. Soon to be thirty one.) I used to say, “I’m sorry, my son is here…” But thankfully, I’ve changed. I’m grateful to Ponn Sabra, author of Empowering Women to Power Network for setting me straight. She told me to be proud my son is with me. And she is right. Now when I proudly state, “My son is with me today,” I find callers are gracious. Most reply with, “Oh, that’s wonderful! Enjoy your time with him.”

2. Be prepared for the unexpected.
As a mom, you wear many hats. When on the phone, always smile and project a good attitude. But be prepared to deal with unexpected situations. If children are disruptive during a call, remain calm. This is the time to have a sense of humor and make light of the situation. If the caller hears the background cries and you’re unable to quickly control the situation, offer to call back at a later time. “Would ten minutes or a half hour be better for you?”

3. Give “silent hellos or goodbyes”.
Laurie Hurley of Home Tutoring Business developed a “silent hello” (or goodbye) she uses when on the phone and her girls walk in or out. Laurie wears a headset to free her hands for a big hug and a quiet kiss. Her girls are trained to be quiet and they understand she can’t hang up just because they’ve arrived. The girls compete to see who can be the quietest, and Laurie doesn’t have to hang up on a client!

4. Leave your children “reminders”.
Melody Spier of Ballyhoo Virtual Services purchased a small stop sign for her office door. It serves as a visual reminder for her kids to stop and listen so they don’t burst in during a business call. Below the sign she posted three questions for her kids to ask themselves before interrupting.

1. Is someone hurt?
2. Does it concern schoolwork?
3. Would you pay $5 for the answer? ($5 = the 15 minutes it takes to work through the question and get refocused)

This cut the interruptions down to almost zero after about a week.

By being proud of your decision to work from home, being prepared for the unexpected, giving silent hellos or good-byes, and leaving your children reminders, you, too, can experience more success with your at-home-business calls.



Photo Attribution
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mangpages/3212233291/ CC by 2.0

Bronzi Home Based Business Tips

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6 Easy Steps to Separating Your Personal Life from Your Home Business

If you work from home, chances are you already know that you’re really pulling “double duty”. You probably work on your business while doing the laundry, corralling the kids, or fixing dinner... and let’s not forget all the phone calls from family and friends expecting you to run errands or just "go out" for an afternoon of fun.

One of the hardest parts of running a home based business is separating your work from your family and social life. Here are six proven ways of mine to keep your home life running smoothly while keeping your business on track.

1. First, create a work schedule and stick with it. It may be tempting to answer personal calls during the day or take business calls after-hours, but doing this actually shows that you’re expendable – not dependable – and people will take for granted that you’ll “always be there” for any little things that come up. Even though family comes first, stay true to your business hours and resist the urge to chat with friends or pick up groceries during working hours.

2. Your friends may consider “working from home” an invitation to chat during the day or just go out for coffee or shopping for an afternoon. Make it clear that your business hours are just that – for business. Leave personal calls for after-hours, and you’ll find that your friends will gradually accept your schedule without feeling slighted.

3. Just because you have to set up a work schedule, doesn’t mean that you have to keep the same hours as everyone else. One of the benefits of working for yourself is setting your own hours to fit your most productive times. Whether you’re an early bird or a night owl, you’ll find that you’ll get much more done when you’re attuned to your body’s own natural rhythms. Some people work in the morning, take a break in the afternoon when the kids are home from school, and work again in the evening. Schedule your work time when you feel the most productive and you’ll find that things get done easier, faster and better than when you were dragging along during those same rigid work hours that everyone else has.

4. If getting after-hours business calls or work day personal calls is a problem, it helps to have a separate business phone line, or at least an answering machine or voice mail, to take the incoming calls. This also gives your business a more professional appearance to clients than if you and your family make and receive calls from the same phone line.

5. If at all possible, try to separate your “home office” from the rest of your home. If you don’t have the luxury of a separate room, a room partition or screen can be just as helpful. This also serves as a visual cue to family that you’re working and shouldn’t be bothered.

6. Dress and act professionally while working. Some people find it helpful to dress in casual business attire during their working hours. This reinforces that just because you’re working from home doesn’t make you any less of a professional. Answer the phone with your name, or business name, and keep your children off the phone during business hours. Also, spend money investing in the tools you need to do your job right. A cell phone, fax machine or even a budget computer can help turn your home office into a true workspace.

If you follow all of these tips and stick with them, chances are you’ll find a routine that not only makes you feel productive and active in your business, but also projects the message that you mean business – literally!

Do you agree?


Bronzi Home Based Business Tips

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5 Tips How To Make Your Home-Based Business Not Appear "Homemade"

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.

Bronzi Home Based Business Tips
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