Whether you intend to run a home based business or a conventional brick and mortar one, you can surely enjoy a lot of perks and privileges that is innate in having the same kind of business. While there is no such thing as a perfect entrepreneurial pursuit, one thing remains the same: there are unique advantages to it as much as there are advantages to it too. Now, a home based business may be worth comparing with a conventional brick and mortar business in terms of costs, marketing, and its market in general. Knowing these should help you decide which business type is suited best for you.Start-up Costs. More often than not, a conventional business will demand a lot on start-up costs. Renovating your place of business, the implements required to operate, and many other demands will call for a lot on your finances. This should not be the case when you opt to have a home based business though; as you have your home fitting just right to accommodate your entrepreneurial pursuits.Operational Expenses. Operational expenses may be less when you have your home based business. This is because you do not have rents to think about, and you do not have store staff to pay for. In addition to this, operating your conventional, brick and mortar business also implies that you have to pay utility bills too, on top of maintenance costs and expenses. This should not be the case with a business you run at home; as you pay your home bills, you pay your business’ bills along.Marketing and Promotions. A conventional brick and mortar business would compel you to have more and more people in order to gain back your investment and monthly fixed expenditures; thus, the need to have an extensive and intensive marketing strategies as well. This implies more costs on your end. The same is not true with a home based business though, as marketing in this kind of business happens by word of mouth.Market as a Whole. With a fixed area to undertake your conventional brick and mortar business, you have a very limited market. This is not the case when you run a home based business. With a business type as that of the latter, you can even be a travelling salesperson expanding your market constantly.With all these things in mind, aspiring entrepreneurs with less investment capacities should opt for a home based business; while those who have the means to risk may go for the conventional brick and mortar one.
Plan To Succeed With Information Product Creation: Why You Need To Split Your Process Up
One of the keys to succeeding in information product creation is to break the process up into discrete steps. This frequently isn’t an instinctive reaction for the typical information marketer. Especially on the internet where small sized learning products are the norm.
However, it is extremely important to your ultimate success. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if you don’t do this you probably won’t succeed… even when you are starting out let alone as you move forward.
Your product creation system should do this for you if only to help you to understand the overall task.
But why?
In this article, I’m going to ignore chunking and focus on the practical aspects. That’s not to say that chunking isn’t important. It is. It’s important to understanding and to learning the process. But while you can use the same chunks as you move forward, long term your focus needs to be on the operation of the system not the understanding of it. Unless of course you are constantly training new people!
So why is chunking important to long term use of the product creation process? (Yes, I know systems design uses a different term for this process but I’m not teaching you systems design. So I’m going to use the word learning content designers use.)
The first reason that having individual discrete tasks is important is one of schedule estimation. Frequently it is very difficult to estimate how long the total task of creating a product will take. After all, the size and type of the products matters as does the number of products in your product funnel. And those are just the most obvious elements. However, estimating a discrete task is often much easier. The total can then be estimated as the total of the discrete tasks.
Secondly, scheduling a large task can be problematic. However, by segmenting the task into a number of discrete tasks, you gain a much greater flexibility in scheduling. Not only that but as your business begins to add people you are able to schedule multiple people to the product creation.
Finally, segmenting a large task into smaller discrete tasks allows you to have much better control over the product creation. This affects two different areas — status and quality.
By segmenting your process into discrete tasks you are able to schedule and record the progress at much more detailed level. As a result you are more in control of the status of the product creation. You know what everyone is doing. When they should complete it. And how much it should cost. You also know exactly what has been done.
You also improve your overall quality. Instead of waiting until everything is done you can check quality as you go. This allows you to immediate react to low quality products without absorbing their costs. This means that you have less rework and your rework costs less. And if the product is not going to meet its quality requirement you will know about it in time to stop the development, change the requirement or fix the product.
What Makes A Home-Based Business Successful
If you’re looking to work from home you have many choices. There is no shortage of people willing to take your money in return for a home-based business opportunity. How do you know which opportunities are legitimate businesses and of those which one is right for you. Before you decide if the business opportunity is right for you here some things you should look at.•The company
What is their track record, how long have they been in business, what is their standing with the Better Business Bureau?•The product or service
Is this something people want or need, will you have competition, is it priced competitively•Support and training
Are you completely on your own or will there be people and resources to help train and guide you•Cost
Is the product or service priced competitively, is the cost of starting the business affordable for you and others•Compensation plan
Is the compensation plan fair, understandable, and most of all can you make moneyWhen researching the company check with the Better Business Bureau. If a company has no complaints that are no guaranteeing that they are a reputable company. Likewise, one or two complaints does not necessarily mean the company is bad. It’s just one more little bit of information. Remember anyone on the web can write about a company in a positive or negative manner, so you need to do more than just read anonymous opinions. It is best if you can talk to a person that you know and trust that has first-hand knowledge of the company. The key here is to be thorough and take your time; you should not feel rushed or pressured into making a decision.When deciding whether to start a home-based business the product or service is very important. There is a difference between wanting something and needing something. If what you’re selling is needed by many people you have a much bigger market in which to sell and are more likely to be successful. The price of the product must be competitive. Some network marketing companies claim their products are a higher quality than similar products available in stores. And because of this their prices are a little higher. Even if their claims are true and their products have better ingredients you’re now at a disadvantage in competing for the sale. Another important factor is convenience. Not everyone wants to shop a month in advance for house daily household products. Or have to fill out paperwork, or have a small window of time in which they have to pick up their products. The process must be fast easy and fit into their busy schedules.The company must provide support and training. The training should be ongoing, and you should have a mentor or person that has an interest in helping you succeed. They should provide websites and conference calls as training aids as well as one-on-one conversations with your mentor. Think of them as your business partner. They are there to help you but remember it is up to you to ask for help. The lack of a large paragraph here on training and sport should not indicate that it is not very important. In fact it is very important. The chances of you succeeding all on your own without any help or training are very low.We have already talked about the cost of the product. It must be competitive! But the cost of starting and maintaining the business is important also. Does the price make sense to you, will others be able to afford it. The price range for home-based businesses range from just a few dollars to several thousand dollars. Only you know what is right for you. Just remember in order for you to be successful presenting this to others you must believe that the opportunity is a good one and that includes the price.There are many different types of compensation plans. A few of the different types are unit level plans, forced matrix plans and binary plans. I am not going to go into detail of the different plans here, but you should know there are several out there and they differ greatly. If you are seriously considering starting a home-based business you should research that company’s specific compensation plan. If someone introduced you to a business they should give you specific detailed information about the compensation plan. It should also be on the company’s website, explained in detail and understandable.There are many different home-based businesses out there and if you look hard enough you could find several people in each one that are very successful. But the bottom line is can you be successful? Is this the right business for you? Why do some people succeed in a particular business while others fail? Of course there are many reasons for this, communication skills, work ethic, financial resources and desire to name a few. I believe one of the most important factors if not the most important is your belief in the company and its product or service. It is very difficult to sell or promote your product if you believe it is overpriced, not needed or of poor quality. The same is true for the business side of it, if you don’t believe in the company or are unwilling to do what is necessary to build your business, you will have a very difficult time convincing others to do what you are unwilling to do.I believe if you find a solid company with a product you believe in that is priced competitively there’s no reason you can’t be successful. Network Marketing has received some bad press over the years and to many people it has a bad reputation. Don’t misunderstand me there have been some less than truthful companies over the years. But the Network Marketing business model is a legitimate one. Personally I like companies with very few restrictions and a lot of freedom. One example of this is a company that does not require you to bring new people into the business. Of course it is always an option but you are not required to do so. In other words you could choose to market the product or service and make a nice income without recruiting others. Some companies don’t allow this, they require you to promote the product and recruit others into the business in order to make an income. I like knowing that I can make an income from marketing the product without recruiting. This is very important to me because this makes the business legitimate. The product is real. People want it because it benefits them. It has value. Otherwise you are just in the business of recruiting people. You get two people to join who get two people and so and so on. That’s not a real business. The foundation must be a product or service that has value to people.I think this option also makes it more appealing to others.So take your time and do the research. Find a good company with a great product and join those who supplement their income working part- time from home.