Home Business Marketing Tips For The Real World

With the internet being in everyone's face nowadays, when many home based business people think of marketing they think of guest blogging, LinkedIn, Facebook pages, email campaigns, Youtube videos and click ads. But for many work at home businesses the best customers and the best ways to get them are right in their home town. With a bit of planning, elbow grease and talking you can find new customers without touching your computer.

Working With Charities

No matter your business, donating time, money, or your expertise to local charities, sports teams and schools are great for publicity.If you makes crafts, you can donate some of your products to a charity auction or for a contest. Your name will be prominently displayed as helping your community, and your product will be seen in your community.  

Donating your services are also quite useful, either completely free or at cost. Whether you design the charities website, mow their lawn, or help plan and prepare a banquet, the charity will publicly thank you, and you can get a nice testimonial out of it.

Even if you don't have a product or service the charity or community group can use, simply donating money, will almost always get you a nice little plaque and a nice mention on a website and at some of the events.

Showing community spirit and letting people know how nice you are, will always look good.

Networking Around Town

Is there a local Toastmasters, business association, writing group, charity, or hobby club that you are somewhat interested in? 

Join them.

Working from home can be isolating, so getting out and meeting people will keep you from feeling all alone, more importantly by making connections in real life, you are creating strong bonds that can lead to business. Even if a group doesn't seem like it will be good for your business, the people in it know other people who may need you. 

Don't join a group if you'll just be sitting there bored out of your skull, and don't join a group simply to sell your product. Show genuine interest, build up contacts, and casually bring up your business when people ask what you do.

Free Classes and Seminars

This will require work and you have to do it well, but offering free courses in your area of expertise can be one of the best ways to get business. Using your new community network, community bulletin boards, some internet advertising and even fliers, let people know you are offering a free one day class. Make sure to keep track of how many people should be coming by having them phone or preferably emailing you, and ensure you have access to a large enough room with all the necessary facilities.

This will cost you money, unless you can get a room and all the equipment for free, and you have to prepare very carefully, so don't rush into this or it will be a disaster. But you have people who are really interested in what you have to say as a captive audience, if you're prepared you can sell them anything. And even if you only get 2 or 3 people when you were expecting 50, roll with it, make the class more intimate, and make sure that handful of people will tell everyone they know how great you are.

These three methods are some of the best ways to get clients, get recognition and get money for your business within your community. Remember there is a world outside of your computer, and it's full of people waiting to hire you and buy your product. All you have to do is let them know your there.

Dan Clarke is a personal coach with a passion for helping people who work from home, whether they're simply telecommuting or have their own home business. With three of his own at home businesses he has found many ways to balance his working life and his home life, allowing him to support and enjoy time with his family.

Find out more at his website,  Be Happy Working at Home.

Leadership Team Building

In order to be an effective leader you have to have people to lead and these need to be the right people. Team building is important and so your ability to recruit either externally or internally is essential if you are going to be able to show off your true leadership skills.

Always try to look internally when you are putting a team together; look at those who you know have been active in developing their skills and those that have been willing to take on responsibility. People who have shown loyalty to the company and have put in effort to succeed are likely to be ideal candidates.

As a leader you are probably involved with several external organizations or professional communities. You will have built up a good relationship with many and will have been impressed with some. These external places are a terrific source for recruitment purposes. You already have a good understanding of a person, know what they do and have built up an element of trust. Make a note of those that interest you and make sure you have their contact details. When a vacancy occurs to build up your team you already have a supply of people you can make contact with.

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Build up your own reputation of having good leadership skills. You will be surprised about how a reputation can get around. It can mean that the best people would like to work with you.

Importantly don’t build up your team full of like minded people; it won’t work. While a team has to work together, it is the different skills that each team member has that makes a team successful. Each member of your team should complement each other and have different abilities, strengths and weaknesses. It’s for you as the leader to get the best out of each person.

If you do have to recruit externally and can’t find someone with whom you have a connection or who comes recommended then you have no alternative than to start blind, so to speak. Take time to review each candidates CV carefully and make copious notes for you to refer to at the interview stage.

Try to interview with two people present. While it may appear a little daunting to the candidate it provides each interviewer with thinking time. There will always be plenty of questions to ask and you need to keep the interview flowing. You are meant to create pressure for the candidate to see how he or she behaves. You have very little time to get to know them and you can be sure that what you see isn’t going to be exactly what you get.

Make a shortlist of suitable candidates and call them back in again. It’s important to meet at least twice before hiring someone. Make sure you are clear as to what you expect from them and show clearly that you are leader and decision maker.

Above all, don’t rush into making a decision about which person to choose. It you are not happy with the selection then wait until the right person turns up.

Find out more information at www.ArdenCoaching.com

Money making resource for stay at home moms

A stay at home mom earn money resource list can be vital for those interested in living off one income in a two income society. If you’re interested in spending less and earning more, it’s time to sit down and really get to the heart of the three critical steps one must take to live frugally and be a stay at home mom earn money.

Though most moms would assume that in order to stay home with the kids without sacrificing the good things in life they would need to immediately start earning money at home, the first step is actually to spend less money. There are two main ways to do this: reduce your regular expenses, and stretch your disposable income dollar.

Reducing your expenses can be as simple as calling around to check out better insurance rates, starting a family budget, or eliminating an unused gym membership. Its important to go through each and every one of your bills and see if there is any room for monetary improvement. Do you really need the premium cable package? How about a landline telephone? Make it a goal to cut down your regular expenses by 10% overall.

And don’t stop there! Be a stay at home mom earn money master by stretching your disposable income dollar. Using coupons, most moms can save 20-80% on their food and toiletry bills. (I’ve actually gotten paid to take items out of the store before using coupons!) Additionally, there are ways to spend less than half for all your entertainment activities, babysitting, family vacations, and more. With a little creativity, you can enjoy all the fun things in life for a lot less money than you think!

As you can see, the most valuable way to be a stay at home mom earn money maven is actually to need less money! But, of course, there is certainly value to be had in supplementing your income as well.

The real key to stay at home mom earn money success is to find something to do to supplement your income that you are passionate about. It can be selling products at home parties, starting a content based website, opening a home daycare, or selling on eBay. There is not one right fit for every mom.

But for those moms “in the know”, life at home can be very good indeed.

Rayven Perkins spent more than 10 years finding and implementing unique cost-cutting strategies that allow her family to live comfortably off one income in a two-income society. Visit her site to learn how to stretch your dollar, easiest ways to save money and supplement income in order to stay at home mom.