I am moved by the number of people out there losing loads of money in their endeavor to find worthwhile top home based businesses. To such people, the internet, what ought to be a huge resource and source of income, has become a liability and a money eating monster. That is why I decided to write this article to help such people out.While you search for top home based businesses opportunities online, keep in mind the aged logic: there is never anything for nothing. Most often, in any real life situation, and the internet happens to be one real life thing, the efforts that one puts into a business will be commensurate with the income they rip from it. So if you find an opportunity that promises millions for just 30 minutes of work every day, ask yourself questions.It is on the internet, you definitely are not the first to see it. So do you know anyone who has taken advantage of that top home based businesses opportunity and made a success? When it comes to this, many people will overlook it and think that the world is so wide and such a person could be on the other side of the globe. Right, but do you take time to Google and see if you can find users comments on that opportunity?Look at what you are paying for. Why should you give away your money, even if it’s just a dollar to a stranger if you do not quite well understand what you are paying for? Most unscrupulous people seeking to steal from you will ask you to pay for something like a starter kit for your top home based business. If you are desperate about getting a job, you will buy that kit without first asking what it contains or why you would need a starter kit for that kind of a job. Do not make such a mistake.Sell real things and not a business. This is what I mean. If you get an opportunity online where you are supposed to be affiliated to some already established company, make sure you are getting into partnership with the business to be selling its products for a commission rather than selling the business to other people.You may get some income selling the business, if you manage to convince some people to join the company but how many people will be willing to work for that company. On the other side, online shopping has become a norm to many people so you can be sure that you will have hundreds, if not thousands and beyond, of people buying real products if you do your homework well.In conclusion, if you think about top home based businesses, think about opportunities that will benefit you for a long time and not those that will send you searching again just too soon. The opportunities must fall within what can logically be true and this is the most important thing.
Considerable Factors Involved in Product Creation & Marketing
The niche you have chosen should allow creation of more than one product or service. With the technological advancements in the hosting industry, from automated control panels and scripts that simplify creation of accounts, to complete turnkey solutions; there is no need to worry about spending time on the real products sold to the customer. The main ones are keyword selection, sales copy principles, graphics, affiliate programs, product creation, online payment processing, auto responders, and search engine optimization.
Once you’ve earned money from this type of information product business, you can invest in the creation of your own products if you want, or start offering more informational products that allow you to sell your knowledge. But the creation and production costs of a similar big ticket in sequence product, although higher, are still pretty low. A key by-product of this process will be the creation of 3-D, Computer Assisted Design art.
The Association for Financial Professionals permits the following activities for repatriating funds: Research and Development activities, advertising and marketing programs, hiring and training new recruits, acquiring patent and other rights to intangible property, improving transportation, funding capital investments with the purpose of job creation and job retention & funding product responsibility or environmental claims.
It prohibits certain activities like: Tax payments, Payment of executive recompense, Payment of dividends, Redemption of stocks, Debt investments and Portfolio investments. Therefore, before repatriating the money, you must consider whether it is worth or not.
Checklist on what artist and product development necessitate includes: Exceptional vocals, musicianship and/or songwriting skills, Continued education and enhancement of musical skills, Quality equipment, Performance ability, Image creation and maintenance, Plan of action, goal setting, excellent promotion materials including photographs, press releases and artwork, Business management skills, Marketing, Publicity and Promotion knowledge, Online and Offline Professional management, Basic knowledge of recording, producing, engineering, and mastering, Basic knowledge of manufacturing, distribution, and sales online, brick and mortar and air-play, Good choices in members, staff and advisors, Physical and mental preparedness, Basic knowledge of finances, accounting Law and legal issues etc.
The goals for doing so are for the product owner to: Communicate the whole, Determine and communicate when releases are needed, Determine what functionality is sufficient for each release & focus on business value derived from the releases. The delivery team on the other hand will see the whole, learn about the steps to realize the vision, learn the business priorities, provide technical input to the roadmap and provide estimates for the projected features. The salesperson must lead the prospect through the various decision criteria needed in order to secure a sale. Whether your idea is the development of a product, launch of a service business, or even the creation of an event or program for a non-profit, creativity is the root of all entrepreneurial efforts starting with the vision itself.
People quickly learn to spend their time on marketing and product creation, rather than repetitive tasks. Apart from empowering companies and individuals, there should be a particular focus on identifying labor intensive businesses that have the potential to make a significant and positive impact on employment creation as well as those businesses that have a product or service offering for export markets with the final objective of booming local economies.
How to Go About Choosing Software for Your Small Business
One of the biggest decisions a small business has to make is investing in the right software solutions. Technology is a key asset for any-sized business; day-to-day operations are dependent on it. In today’s competitive business landscape, it has become essential for small businesses to leverage technology – software solutions in particular – to maximize productivity and keep operational expenses low. Before start-ups can leverage technology, they must first purchase or acquire the right software solutions to meet the demands of their business. This task is not doubt an intensive one requiring time and effort. But it doesn’t have to drive you up the wall.
Fix your budget
As a small business, it’s natural that budget would be your first concern. You will need to decide what part of your total budget can be committed towards purchase of software. Will you be able to afford a large up-front payment or do you prefer to make monthly payments? Once you set your budget, you can explore sources of funding as well as payment arrangements.
Determine your needs
The solution to any business problem starts with identifying needs. What value will the certain software solution deliver to your business? What software is good-to-have but not entirely necessary for your line of work? These are some decisions you need to make. The software needs of a small freight trucking business may be different from that of a content marketing start-up. By understanding your priorities and examining the processes you currently have in place and expect to include in the future, you can chalk out a list of key requirements. As part of this process, you will also be identifying the key areas within your business where software solutions can be deployed.
Here is a look at some of the common areas of business where the use of software for daily operations becomes necessary:
Accounting: Accounting and book-keeping are rather mundane tasks that you’d rather have a software product to help you with! On a serious note, it is imperative that your small business tracks finances efficiently and without any errors. If you need a centralized accounting and bookkeeping system from which you can pull tax or expenses data quickly, a well-rated accounting software is the way to go.
Desktop accounting software for small businesses
1. AccountEdge Pro 2012
Pros: Fully-featured, easy to use, a good choice for multi-user support
Cons: Importing data from other programs is not easy
2. Intuit QuickBooks 2012
Pros: A good choice for accounting newbies, easy set-up, a convenient calendar view, allows sharing of custom report templates
Cons: A lack of inventory features, limited user support
Some online and SaaS (software as a service) accounting options
1. Freshbooks
Pros: Helps in document and project management, offers several add-ons
Cons: Little online help, can get expensive for multiple users (starts out free and goes up to $149 per month)
2. Outright
Pros: Available for free, easy interface
Cons: Does not support electronic tax payments or state tax tracking
3. Kashoo
Pros: Available free (allows a maximum of 20 transactions a month), excellent interface
Cons: Does not offer item-tracking or US payroll
Inventory management: If timely and efficient order fulfillment is the difference between gaining and losing customers, you will need assistance from a top-notch inventory management software. It will help you track and control inventory and handle orders, sales, purchases and deliveries.
Free inventory management software:
1. Pos Maid
Pros: Simple to build inventory database, automatic stock report generation, good customer service
Cons: none as far as small businesses go
2. inFlow Inventory
Pros: Easy to use, excellent linking of inventory with sales and purchase
Cons: Creation of custom documents is not as easy as it can be
Ecommerce software: If you are a B2B or B2C ecommerce business, you may want to invest in software applications that allow you to sell your offerings and conduct business online. The simplest shopping cart software, for instance, will serve as a real-world order form that allows convenient sale-purchase over the internet. There are different kinds of shopping cart software you can choose from, so you may want to consider the pros and cons of each before zeroing in on one. You have the option to buy or lease software; you can also choose open-source applications that have a strong developer community.
Popular open source ecommerce platforms:
1. Magento
Pros: Market leader, highly scalable, built-in SEO, free
Cons: Needs efficient and careful management (especially as your online store grows)
2. osCommerce
Pros: Easy to install and use, free, top-notch front-end features, simplified product management
Cons: Not easily customizable, frustrating back-end
3. Zen Cart
Pros: Free, excellent product/service management, several free and paid templates
Cons: Reporting is too basic, add-on integration is not easy
Social media management software: If your social media presence is an important sales driver and you don’t have the time or the resources to offer real-time responses, investing in social conversation software like Hootsuite and Sprout Social makes sense. On the other hand, if you want to be an active social media player by understanding the interests and spheres of influence of social media participants, social influencer software like Klout could be useful. For creating customized Facebook applications and promotions on YouTube and other social media channels, opt for social marketing software.
1. HootSuite
Pros: Easy to set up columns and search by list, hashtag, handle, etc; provides basic Facebook and Twitter analytics, easy to schedule tweets
Cons: Nothing to speak of, very handy for small businesses
2. VerticalResponse
Pros: Integrates email and social media very well, ideal for less tech-savvy business owners
Cons: More tech-savvy business owners may prefer something less basic
3. Sprout Social
Pros: Easy user interface, useful feedback
Cons: Small business plan is available for $39 per month and supports 20 profiles
Logistics software: If you need to handle multiple shipping partners for your online import-export business, you can add a good logistics software to the list. Do a bit of research to identify the best paid and open source logistics software in the market.
Data analysis software: If your work involves extracting, analyzing and manipulating data on a regular basis, a data analysis software can help. The software is also useful to handle massive amounts of data – you can accumulate and organize it easily, efficiently and quickly. Some of the big data pools you may need to handle in a well-organized manner include employee information, product information and customer information. The right CRM or HR software can help you accomplish this and stay on top of your business.
Project management software: Managing multiple projects takes more than just a highly-competent project manager; it requires clearly defined objectives and steps of action from planning to implementation. Project management software can provide a roadmap, help manage risks and define goals/work for every member of the project team.
Project management software can help with milestones, calendars, scheduling and tasks. It can also provide chat and forum support by enabling online communication between teams, vendors and freelancers.
Tips on choosing project management software:
It must fit your business and allow business systems to integrate
Must be flexible and scalable, supporting growth and multiple users
Must streamline operations and reduce costs
Buy a subscription to web-based project management software – you can pay by the month or year as opposed to an outright purchase.
Opt for business project management software packages that offer free 15-day or one month trials. This can help you make an informed decision
Is there a solution for your needs?
Depending on the niche you operate in, you will have to research to determine if there actually exists a software solution for your specific need(s). Even if there isn’t one that completely addresses your niche-specific requirement, can it be modified by the provider or even at your end? Do you have the means to get a custom software system/application designed from scratch? These are some of the questions that need answering.
Making an informed decision
The decision-making process must involve participation from not just you – the business owner – but also employees who will be using the product. A product rating system based on appropriate criteria can help you arrive at an informed choice. Some helpful tips in this regard are:
Opting for product demonstrations without identifying your requirements
Starting without a shortlist of products and adopting a “let’s see how we go” attitude
Testing the software product without a scenario
Getting swayed by any extra or added functionality that is not really a critical requirement
It goes without saying that you should give due attention to product ratings (from customer reviews), product support and vendor reputation before committing your small business dollars and time.