Network of Women In Business

Starting a Service Based Home Business

by Audrey Okaneko

Every day I receive emails asking me about beginning a service based home business. Some folks want to offer an errand service. Some folks want to offer a cleaning service, and others want to offer a tutoring service.

The most common questions are �how do I start?� and �how much do I charge?�

By preparing a simple business plan, both of these questions will be answered. A few resources I always suggest taking advantage of are the SCORE website which can be found at www.score.org and the small business/home business section on the IRS site http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=99336,00.html These two sites will answer many startup questions.

The fees to charge will vary by state and even by city. I do have someone clean my home for me. The fee I pay her is much higher than the fee someone outside of California pays. The fee I pay is very average for the town I live in.

There are a few ways to find out what the average fee is in your town. You can start on the internet. If you want to run an errand service, look online and see what services are being offered at what rates by other people. If you can, find a few businesses in your town.

How to Determine Pricing for your New Product

by Barbara Ryan

Congratulations Mom! You�ve taken the first step to building your own home business by choosing a product to sell. Next comes the hardest step for most people, determining your pricing strategy.

Should you keep your prices inline with the competition or should you be slightly lower or higher than them? Visit competitor�s websites and analyze the differences in what they offer from what you will offer.

Some things to consider when determining your pricing:

Production Costs: This also applies to a service business, as your time is included in the production process. How much time does it take you to make the product, 30 minutes? An hour? How much do YOU want to make per hour.

Website and Hosting: If you are going to have a website, you�ll have a monthly fee, as well as the cost of producing a website. Even if you do it yourself, it will take your time and you�ll need to update it constantly to keep it fresh.

5 Revealing Facts About Starting Your Own Online Business

by Rhonda White

The truth about working online is basically that it has its bad points as well as the good points. It�s not as easy as it sounds or everyone would be �successfully� doing it. Consider this question, �Is starting an online business for you?� Get the unpolished, bare facts now:

1. When you start your own online business, you get to make the ultimate decision about what you want to do. You can take a hobby and turn it into revenue or take a simple skill and use this foundation for creating your own genuine business online. Above all you get to choose something that you really enjoy and be your own boss.

Negative: There may not be enough interest in your products or services to allow your business to grow. You need to realize that to become successful in your online business there needs to be a demand for your products and services.

Help: To avoid the ultimate disaster of complete failure, do some online research before you proceed further, in order, to determine if there is a definite demand for your products or services. Also, make sure that you�re choosing a business option for the long haul and not some type of trend that will soon whither away.

Is it REALLY Possible to Work From Home?

by Jill Hart

Yes! According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, over 19 million people worked from home (either part-time or full-time) in 2001. It�s a growing trend in our society with the number steadily rising as many people are leaving the workplace in favor of a work-at-home career.

There are four main ways to make working from home possible:

1. Telecommute for your current employer � Many employers are beginning to see the benefits of allowing their employees to work from home. If you have a job that would be possible to do from home ask your employer to consider it. More and more employers are allowing employees to telecommute. This is an easy way to work from home while maintaining the security of a stable career. You must realize, though, that working from home may limit you in terms of advancing in your company. It�s important to think through the sacrifices that you may need to make in your situation to work from home.

2. Telecommute as an independent contractor � There are many companies that hire independent contractors to do work such as data entry, transcription and customer service from home. This can be an incredible opportunity as long as you�re willing to keep track of your own taxes and aren�t relying on the employer for insurance and other perks.

There are many benefits to the company also, such as lower wages, not needing to provide insurance, or being able to offer a commission based position. The company may also choose to hire home workers so that they do not need to pay for space to house an office full of employees.

Meeting the Challenge of Remaining Positive

by Cristina Favreau

When asked what the secret to the success of her business was, Lucy Garrighan, president of Business Alternatives Inc., replied:

"I guess it is always remaining positive about what you are doing and working hard. If you believe you cannot fail, [then] most likely you won't, and working hard goes along with this. I think it is so true that �the harder you work the luckier you are!' We all get frustrated with difficulties, but I really believe that if you want to find the rainbow, [then] you have to put up with a little rain now and then." Garrighan adds that she constantly reminds herself that "it could always be worse." (Imprints of Success, by Amy Yard, September 2001 e-magnify.com)

Her answer inspired me to write about the value and importance of remaining positive while running your small business.

Tackling Procrastination: Six Ways to Overcome It

by Michelle Shaeffer

Do you find yourself procrastinating? Putting off tasks that truly need done? Here are some of the main reasons for procrastination and ways to overcome them.

1) You just don�t want to do it.

Sometimes there are tasks we just don't want to do. There are three ways to overcome this: do it, hire someone else to do it, remove it from your list.

First, decide if it's something that really has to be done. If it's your monthly book-keeping, it�s essential. If it's cold calling it may not be essential. Can you cross it off your list?

Next, if it does have to be done, can you hire it out? Get a virtual assistant, intern, or other helper to finish the task for you.

If you can't hire it out and you can't cross it off your list, you're going to have to just get it done. Try one of these methods:
- Make it your first task of the day and work at it until it's done.
- Break it up into manageable pieces.
- Reward yourself when it's complete.

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