What’s you MOST valuable asset in your Online Business?
Well for me it’s my TIME, it takes time to structure, create, build and update everything, and of course you need your ‘quality free time’ to unwind.
So when I saw this AWESOME wordpress plugin that takes just TEN SECONDS to monetize every single page on your site on ANY keyword, to ANY link I jumped at it!
It REALLY does take literally SECONDS to monetize your complete site, it also takes just SECONDS if I need to update things later… AWESOME!
Starting and maintaining a home business enterprise is a bold move. Home businesses can be immensely successful if you know how to maintain your businesses affairs in the right way. This article will cover some of the essentials you need to consider, to ensure the growth, success and profitability of your online business.
If you have a home based business, don't miss out on the home office tax credit. You can claim this space even if you don't devote an entire room to your business. If you have an area which is only or primarily used for business purposes, you can claim it based on square footage, and calculate the portion of your home that is taken up by your office space.
Once you've decided on a product to sell, do your homework and check out your competition. Look at their prices and study the quality of the goods that they are selling. Make sure not to price yourself out of the market, and figure out how to deliver the best value to your customers.
Set up a Post Office box for all your business mail. It's best to do this, rather than put your family at risk by using your physical address. This is especially important if you are doing most of your business online. Don't ever post your home address online, for any reason.
To reduce distractions keep your office off limits to children. Have set work hours that enable you to run your business and still have time for your family. Older children should understand not to disturb you while you are working. For your business to succeed your family needs to be supportive and respectful of your work schedule.
Take all of the home-business tax deductions that are legally allowed. For example, you can deduct the cost of a second telephone line or a mobile phone if you use it exclusively for your business, but be sure to keep sufficient records to prove your deductions. Taking all permissible write-offs helps you keep more of what you earn.
Although you may be used to working eight hours a day and then being off, you have to realize that in order for a home business to thrive more of a time commitment may be needed. Once everything is in place you will be able to relax a little.
Maintain a professional attitude as you begin your home based business. Keep your personal life and your professional life separate. Just because you are working from home, does not mean that you should engage in any family responsibilities during the time that you are supposed to be working. You will not be successful if you do not put the time into running your business efficiently.
Don't walk into a home business enterprise blind! There are many online discussion forums designed for small business owners to discuss the unique obstacles in this field. Look locally for other small business and home business organizations that meet in person. Either way you go, networking with other business owners gives you an excellent support system.
Having a business license for your home business often allows you to purchase things wholesale. This is excellent news for people who make their product, since you can search on product search engines for bulk orders of raw materials. This minimizes trips to the store, and frees up your wallet for other expenditures.
In the end, for most, having a online business allows for a level of control and creativity that the mainstream approach lacks. However, after reading this article, you may realize that you cannot necessarily go about maintaining a successful home business in the same way that you would maintain a traditional business. By utilizing these tips and advice, you will set your business up for a lucrative and stable future.
Kurt Tasche is an internet entrepreneur and home business professional who enjoys sharing his ideas through his Home Business Ideas and Opportunities blog. You can read and subscribe to his blog by going to www.kurttasche.ws
In this article, we shall define what autoresponders are, and why you should utilize them to achieve successful online business.
If you run an online business it means you already own a website or a blog. Once your online business is setup, the next most important thing to consider is using an effective autoresponder.
Autoresponder defined
In simple understandable term, it is actually electronic newsletters forwarded automatically to your subscribers via your mailing list, and this is done at intervals that you specify or define. By sample, you can design and specify an autoresponder so that once a person signs up to your mailing list he or she will receive a welcome note from your business. Subsequently, you can send other messages such as business discount codes, invitation to connect on social media, new product launch, etc.
The importance of autoresponders
Using autoresponders for your online business keeps a large bulk of your email marketing automated, and that's if you setup things appropriately. With an autoresponder installed on your website, your subscribers will be able to receive specific vital key messages about your business. With this benefit, you do not need to bother about manually sending these messages out, as it is fully automated as set. This simply makes the importance of using autoresponders all the more clear. In short, they help you save time running your online business, loads of it.
How can you utilize autoresponders to help promote your online business?
• You can utilize them to forward custom birthday greetings with other related offers to subscribers on your mailing list.
• You can transition a subscriber from one phase of communication to another after they purchase an item/product. For example, you can move a subscriber from a 'prospect' level series of messaging to 'upsell' series of communication.
• You can forward mails to subscribers exactly one month after they purchased a product. This can be done to motivate them to renew a 'policy or guarantee.'
When autoresponders are utilized in such creative and meaningful ways, it can help generate substantial sales and income - with high returns on investment for your business.
To use them, you can sign up with popular providers such as MailChimp, Getresponse, Aweber, Mad Mimi or Campaign Monitor, etc. These providers are renowned for offering businesses robust autoresponders with dedicated tools for hosting mailing lists and forwarding newsletters and messages.
Finally, autoresponders when setup and used properly can help online businesses automate lots of marketing activities and tailor specific messages to a mailing list for profit making and client engagement.
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Presented here are relevant statistics and observations gleaned from the fourth annual "Freelancing in America" survey, conducted by the Freelancer's Union. According to the organization, "Freelancing in America" is the largest and most comprehensive measure of independent workers conducted in the U.S. The online survey queried 6002 U.S. adults who had engaged in full or part-time freelance work between August 2016 and July 2017. Freelancing was defined as temporary, project-based, or contract work performed at a for-profit or not-for-profit organization or government agency.
Who we are
In 2017, 57.3 million of our fellow citizens, representing 36% of the nation's workforce, participated in the freelance economy and contributed $1.4 trillion to the U.S. economy. The survey found that 63% freelance by choice, rather than by necessity, and enjoy this way of working. Freelancers reported feeling positive about our work and 79% preferred freelancing to traditional employment. We're more likely than traditionally employed workers to feel respected, empowered and engaged in our working environment. The survey designated the following freelance categories:
Independent contractors (35%, 19.1 million) -- Full-time freelance consultants whose only income is derived from client work Diversified workers (28%, 15.2 million)-- Freelancers who regularly do client work, but also perform other part-time work Moonlighters (25%, 13.5 million)-- Those who periodically take on freelance projects in addition to their traditional employment Freelance business owners (7%, 3.6 million)-- Full-time freelancers who assemble ad hoc teams of freelancing specialists to form a consulting firm, so that more complex and lucrative client work can be performed Temporary workers (7%, 3.6 million)
What we like Time and money impact the decision to freelance. Flexibility is considered a significant benefit and is favored by 60% of freelancers. Additionally, more than 50% of workers who left full-time employment to freelance were able to earn more money within the first year of freelancing than was earned in traditional employment. Forty-six percent raised their project fees and hourly rates in 2017 and 54% said they planned to do so in 2018.
Serious challenges
Sill, money is an issue for freelancers. Survey respondents reported that adequate billable hours, negotiating fair project fees or hourly rates and receiving timely payment of invoices (or receiving full payment) could be problematic.
On average, full-time freelancers log 36 billable hours/week. When the billable hourly rate or project fee is considered inadequate, cash-flow is impacted and there can be a struggle to meet financial obligations. Not surprisingly, the survey found that debt is also a worrisome matter.
Access to health insurance and saving for retirement are a challenge. Full-time freelancers rank medical and dental insurance as primary concerns; 20% have no health insurance savings.
Shaping the future
As traditional full-time, middle class paying employment continues to disappear, the ranks of freelance consultants can only increase, making us a fast-growing segment of the American workforce. Sadly, our government leaders are not attentive to the freelance community's unique circumstances or our voting-bloc potential.
Eighty-five percent of survey respondents said they planned to vote in the 2018 mid-term elections. If that statistic is accurate, it would represent nearly 49 million freelancer voters, more than enough to influence congressional and gubernatorial elections. Seventy percent of survey respondents would prefer that candidates and political representatives would address the needs of freelance professionals, because no matter how lovely things may be for the chosen few who command lucrative project fees, we are nevertheless quite vulnerable.
Freelancers receive no paid sick, vacation, or holiday time. We do not receive co-sponsored health insurance or retirement benefits. Billable hours can have feast or famine fluctuations that wreak havoc on our cash-flow and ability to meet important financial obligations. The 57.3 million freelance consulting professionals in the U. S. desperately need political representation, advocates and activism.
Thanks for reading,
Kim
Kim L. Clark is an external strategy and marketing consultant who brings agile skills to the for-profit and not-for-profit organization leaders with whom she works. Ensure that your organization achieves its mission-critical goals when you contact Kim at http://polishedprofessionalsboston.com.
According to the IRS there are three categories of income: Active, passive, and portfolio.
Active is what it sounds like. You do income-producing activities that you get income.
Portfolio is also what it sounds like. You invest money into things like stocks, real estate funds, or other investment vehicles and - in the best of times - your investment yields gains, or income.
The sacred cow of network marketing companies and continuity/membership site experts.
The goal of every over-worked, under-earning, praying-for-a-miracle self-employed type.
Passive intimates no work. You, on the beach, cocktail in hand, checking your PayPal account for the sales every few hours. Or, better yet, you, on your couch, in your jammies, binge watching GOT or House. Again.
I googled a ton of content on passive income and although there are some sound possibilities out there - lend money for interest for instance - many take a sound idea and run it right off the rails, like this one that admits you must frontload the work to get to passive: "first you need to haul ass and do something crazy, e.g. write a quality 20,000-word eBook (insane, not passive hahahah)", but here is where it runs wild -"but then you get to sit back and enjoy seeing PayPal sale messages pop up on your iPhone each morning as sale after sale after sale is made... on an ongoing basis and without any additional work. That's some seriously Pina Colada flavored passive goodness!"
There's some seriously delusional-flavored thinking.
Let's look at digital products. You write or create it once, set it up on a landing page, hook up the cart, drive traffic and you are off to the beach to collect your moolah.
A well done e-book or virtual program takes hours of research, writing, producing, formatting, etc. Those hours cost your time, and during those hours you are not making money. But OK, we can all agree, there has to be work on the front end right?
Right, but it doesn't end there.
Now we have marketing. If your landing page is optimized, your copy is killer, and your ads are spot on - something by the way that takes daily monitoring - and your e-book/product/program is targeted to the right audience, you could see recurring revenue from this evergreen type product.
Phew. We've done quite a bit of work so far and there are lots of "ifs" from a marketing perspective. (If your landing page converts because you've got conversion copy and the page is optimized for SEO, and you are targeting an audience that wants what you've got from you, and on and on.)
And marketing doesn't end if you want to keep the sales coming.
What about managing affiliate partners, returns, customer service? Even outsourced, there is still some active participation.
This type of income, as you see, is far from passive but it is leveraged.
Leveraged is good. It's how businesses grow and in our case, entrepreneurs, how we get out of the income-capping trap in the fee-for-service-only model.
I don't want to be Debbie downer, but part of my commitment to my clients and you, my readers, is to bring the truth; shine a light on traps, false gods, and naked emperors.
Am I suggesting not to do an e-book, a virtual program, or a continuity program? NO! (Well, I might in the case of the membership/continuity program, and I'm getting a few experts together to parse the good and bad and who should and shouldn't and when. I'll have details next week here.)
I am suggesting that you examine your attraction to a marketing idea before jumping in. No one idea will "save" a shaky business - sales is the exception here - and one idea that promises to "change everything" in your business is likely to fall short of its promise. What it really requires will only be found in the mice type - that tiny print at the bottom of webpages and print ads that gives you the disclaimer.
Always read the mice type.
And start researching leveraged income streams. Find out what it will really take to set one up and get started. It may not be passive, but it's income that requires less of you one-on-one or one-to-many. And that means more time to work on your portfolio or pina coladas.
Gregory Anne Cox is a free spirited entrepreneur who offers marketing in a fashion without using tired and boring content but a new fresh approach getting away from "Squishy Language" From becoming a freelance writer in NYC, to opening her own restaurant in San Diego, she is also a world renown author. Her most recent publications are "Everything is Food Journal" & "Your Genes Do Not Determine The Size of Your Jeans". Gregory now specializes in Online copy assessment, Done-For-You and Speaker and Engagement Services.
I came across this wonderful analogy on time while researching for one of my events:
"Think about the airline industry. Their target is to have a full cabin in every flight. They don't really like empty seats. So, the prices are high. And dynamic. As the day of the flight nears, the prices keep on increasing. Good luck to anyone with a tight budget - if they want a seat on a flight at the last moment! It becomes a mad house then, the same seat which would have initially cost you probably 30-40% less.
But once the plane takes off, an empty seat has no value. That's a loss for the airline. There is no way they can get any money for it. However expensive the seat had been, once it's gone, it becomes valueless.
The same can be said about 'time'. A very expensive commodity indeed. While the clock ticks away, it keeps becoming more and more precious. You would kill to save those precious moments right before something has to be done. Do anything to have little more time at your disposal! Unfortunately, you cannot stop the clock.
And once it is gone, it ceases to be expensive. It ceases to be anything!"
There is a very simple thing I like to say,
Time pass = Time Fail
Let me give you some stats. The average person gets 1 interruption every 8 minutes, or approximately 7 an hour, or 50-60 per day. The average interruption takes 5 minutes, totaling about 4 hours or 50% of the average workday. 80% of those interruptions are typically rated as "little value" or "no value" creating approximately 3 hours of wasted time per day.
By taking 1 hour per day for independent study, 7 hours per week, 365 hours in a year, one can learn at the rate of a full-time student. In 3-5 years, the average person can become an expert in the topic of their choice, by spending only one hour per day.
If only we had that one hour we could take out from our crucial time (kept aside to be wasted)
I know it is difficult. The habit of wasting time if hard to beat, especially the blissful joy of doing nothing. And then running around in mindless panic at the 11th hour - that's not much fun though. Here are a few things you could do that have proved to work well for me, if you are looking to managing your time better: 1. Put a price on your time
Yes, make a guesstimate of the cost of your time. You may not make it comparable to some industry stalwart but consider yourself as someone who is fairly successful when you do so.
Depending on how much you earn (or spend, if you are a student) each year, you can count the number of productive days in a year and number of working hours in a day. Get you own hourly rate;)... If you do not know the value of your time, who will? I do this exercise every time I revise my compensation rates for clients.
Once you have that estimate, next time you have the urge to splurge your time on something, you can compare whether it is worth your time or not. The concept of value in marketing is defined as benefits/cost. (Some even consider it as benefits minus cost). Find out your own version of benefits upon cost for your time i.e. time value.
Now, I am not saying that you do everything according to this method. But a lot of your trivial activities could go through this simple test before you decide to undertake them. This will simply give you an idea of how much valuable time you generally waste doing stuff that you need not do really.
2. SWOT Analysis
You must have heard of SWOT right? It's an analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Generally it is done on an organization level vis a vis competitors to understand the road that has been traveled so far and what lies ahead.
But whoever said you couldn't do it for your own self?
SWOT can be helpful in prioritizing your time and to-dos. Between all the elements of your SWOT, I would suggest that you focus on your strengths. Give more time to things you are good at and play to your strengths. This will ensure you enjoy your productive hours more. But it will also help you figure out which of your weaknesses can you spend how much time on, so that you could turn them into your opportunities and subsequently, into your strengths. It is very much doable, should you put your heart on to the pursuit of 'better-ness'.
If you cannot picture a long term situation, don't panic. Take one day at a time. I would say, devote some time each day to your SWOT elements. Some will of high priority and some will be of low. But ensure that you take some time out. As mentioned in the very beginning of the post, merely taking out 1hour everyday can get you to gain expertise in a particular field (condition applied - dedicated one hour). Just find out time first for your priorities.
You will be amazed at how much buffer time will remain each day for you to decide how much of it to spend or trivials and non-essentials. SWOT has always come to my rescue. It will do the same for you - I guarantee! 3. Wake up early
This does not seem like a time management tip but trust me it is. When I started waking up early and tried to get done with 50% of my To-dos even before the rest of the world woke up, it gave me a very beautiful delusion of having more than 24hrs in my day. I had more time for myself, my family, my work - everything. This habit just does wonders.
Most important things get done early on, leaving time for leisure and fun and most importantly - getting more important things done than you had planned! That's a welcome delusion I would say. Here are a few early morning activities that can prime your day.
4. Creating To-Do lists
Creating to-do lists is a classic time management tool. I keep a white board right above my workstation where all the to-dos go. It is the simplest way to tackle your list of never ending works. Keep striking off what got done and keep writing what needs to be done further.
Place it strategically at a position where your eyes keep going from time to time. If you are a more organized person, you can even color code your white board of to-dos. The essence is to make you feel ashamed if the list of struck out items is smaller.
And don't be ashamed of jotting down to-dos. Once you have an exhaustive list, you can do your SWOT and prioritizing too! Find out what's more important and what needs to be done right away.
5. Right here Right now
If it takes 2 minutes to do a thing, do it now. Don't procrastinate even for very small things. It is often the 2 minute tasks, that when piled up - look like an Everest that you have to conquer. It is this pile of 2minute noodles that gets perceived as crisis often. And believe me, a major part of crisis management is dealing with these simple things efficiently. It is not that big a deal. We just turn it into one.
It would also be advisable that you do the things you fear most first. Or abhor. That inertia of having put good effort gets carried forward to the rest of the day (or sitting). You may not succeed initially. But slowly, you will get into the habit of facing your fears and getting things done in time - that's two things nailed!
6. Kill your Distractors
Have you heard of Pareto's principle? The 80-20 rule by Pareto, when applied to time management, says - 80% of your half-hearted time generates only 20% of the results.
And it is no rocket science that your 80% unfocused time is a result of too much distraction. Kill those distractors. Free, high speed internet, YouTube streaming without buffer, endless social media networks and their apps, so many relationship issues to worry about, numerous trivial things to think about, useless people issues to get into - a lot of work, a modern living is!
It is possible to keep these distractions at bay. A little will power is all you need. And what starts as will power, soon becomes a habit. Progressively remove your distractions if you want to reach somewhere in life. Because what doesn't take you towards your goals, takes you away from them!
There are many more ways to manage your time better. But the first step to all of them is - your sheer, infallible determination to make use of these non-renewable, very important resource - in a better, more judicious way.
Remember,
The difference between a Steve Jobs and a normal job is - how one utilizes their 24hrs!
Akash Gautam a Motivational Speaker for Youth & Corporate Events in India. He has more than 16yrs of experience as a Public Speaker, Writer & Career Counsellor. He is known for his comic & sarcastic style as a speaker. He believes that he still is an ardent student of life and learning. He writes regularly on his blog answering questions that his audiences mostly ask. You may know more about him and his work at: http://akashgautam.com/motivational-speakers-in-india/
