When I started my consulting business, I was full of confidence, but not much else. I had to learn about taxes, bookkeeping, invoices, contracts and other business basics. I had a good grasp of starting and marketing my business, but I was suddenly faced with managing client politics, chasing unpaid bills, taking debtors to small claims court, and dealing with “non-consulting” aspects of my consulting business. Early on, I’d expected to spend my time on pure consulting. I soon realized just how complex a “simple” home-based business like consulting can be.

All these years later, I’m pleased to say I’m still consulting. And that should serve as encouragement to anyone else who wants to become a consultant — or simply continue to survive as one. You see, although I had a steep learning curve in becoming a consultant, I managed to get to the top of that curve. Of course, there was another curve after that, but it wasn’t quite as steep. Making it over the early hurdles is harder than anything else you’ll face in your consulting career. But, if you stick with it, you’ll get there.

The growing popularity of the World Wide Web coupled with advancements in technology have paved the way for average person with no business background and schooling to succeed in the online business world. It has been estimated that half of all computer owners now run and operate their own Internet business. Each and every year these numbers rise as more and more people discover the convenience and money making potential of running their own Internet business.

Right now there are hundreds of thousands of people around the world who make a full-time living from working online. There are also just as many people who use their Internet business to generate a second income or to simply make a few extra hundred dollars each and every month.

What Is An Internet Business?

Starting a  Internet business can be  any type of business or work that a person carries out online in order to produce income. These types of businesses are specific to the Internet, meaning that all business is conducted over the Internet and there are no “in person” dealings. These types of businesses are very easy to come by and are additionally very simple to run and operate.

Starting a Internet Businesses – What Kinds Are There?

There is no lack of variety when it concerns the type of Internet based business that a person can choose to embark on. However, one of the most popular Internet based businesses is the running of an ecommerce store. Opening and running an online store is also one of the easiest and cheapest online business ventures that a person can choose.

Creating and running ‘content heavy’ web sites with the addition of ad-revenue programs is another popular online business. Entrepreneurs will create content rich web sites to generate high web-traffic and will use adshare programs like Google Adsense or Adbrite to generate substantial monthly incomes. Many of these entrepreneurs will also run ‘content heavy’ blogs in place of websites in order to generate income.
These are just two of the most common types of Internet businesses that people will consider. However, there are hundreds of proven and effective Internet business types that a person can choose from when establishing their own web-presence in the hopes of generating income.

What Can I Sell When Starting a Internet Business?

The possibilities are endless when it comes to what you can sell online in order to generate revenue for your Internet business. Many people will go the E-Bay route and will sell their personal belongings or items that they have purchased in their general area. However, in using this method, business owners will have to deal with the packing and shipping of all items that they sell.

This is why many people choose to deal with online warehouses. They can then stock their own online store with products from another website. When an order is made it is sent to the online warehouse and they deal with all the packing and shipping. With this type of online business the business owner simply sits back and collects their paycheck each month.

You can sell anything that you can find on the Internet in your online store. This includes common household products, clothing items, music, books, movies, and other electronics to name a few. You can also sell subscriptions to websites or even specialized services.

How Soon Can I Start Earning When Starting a Internet Business?

Many people imagine that they will begin earning money the very first day they open their first Internet business. However, that is generally not the case. Most Internet business owners who do put in the work and effort will find that they do begin making money within the first 30 days of opening their business.

An Internet business can further advance their sales each and every month by properly marketing their online business. This can be done through link exchanges, paid advertisements, affiliate marketing, and other means of self-promotion that have been proven to build traffic, gain new clients, and maintain current clients.

Additionally, the majority of Internet business owners will choose to run more than one online business. They will run multiple Internet businesses in order to determine where they can make the most money. The more Internet business ventures that you associate yourself with, the more income that you will generate each and every year.

vnb5sf48hw – One of the questions I’m frequently asked is: “How much should my company spend on marketing and advertising?” It’s a conundrum that vexes many corporate leaders, from emerging entrepreneurs to seasoned CEOs. Unfortunately, instead of seeking a rational answer to the question, many of them just ignore it and hope it will go away.

As a rule, emerging companies focus most of their time and talents on meeting the needs of customers, as well they should. If they don’t take care of the customers they already have, everything else will be academic. Strangely, however, many neglect the function of winning customers in the first place. Others naively assume that if they simply provide excellent products or services, their reputation will precede them. Call it the “build a better mousetrap” syndrome. But the world has too many other things to do with its time than beat a path to your door. That means you need to structure your profit-and-loss statement in such a way that you can profitably allocate a reasonable percentage of your revenue to marketing.

The Big Question: How Much?

While there is no definitive answer as to how much any business should spend on marketing, there are general guidelines any company can use to develop a formula that works for them.

Your first step should be to try to find out what the advertising-to-sales ratio typically is in your field. Public companies in your industry may give a figure for their marketing spending in their financial statements (found in their annual reports). With a simple calculation, you can figure out what percentage of their overall revenue that represents. If you can’t find any public companies that seem similar enough to yours, you might want to start at 5% and then adjust your projected spending up or down based on the size of your market, the cost of media, what you can learn about how much your competitors are spending, and the speed at which you’d like to grow.

You’ll also need to ask yourself if your business is built to leverage volume or to leverage margin. Even within industries, there are substantial differences in the marketing spend of volume-driven companies compared with margin-driven ones. Volume-driven companies tend to spend a tiny percentage of sales on marketing, in part because their large revenues enable small contributions to add up fast, and in part because of the margin pressures they face in having to compete with other high volume companies. By contrast, margin-driven companies tend to spend a larger percentage of sales on marketing: They have room in their margins to afford it, and they’re often working from a smaller revenue base.

The retail industry provides some good examples. While Wal-Mart (WMT) might spend a meager 0.4% of sales on advertising, the sheer size of the company turns that tiny percentage into a significant budget. Wal-Mart’s nominally higher-margin competitor, Target (TGT), spends closer to 2% of its sales on advertising, while Best Buy (BBY), as a specialty retailer, spends upwards of 3%. Finally, more upscale stores like Macy’s typically spend on the order of 5%.

The same kind of ratios can be seen in the car industry (automakers’ generally spend 2.5% to 3.5% of revenue on marketing), liquor (5.5% to 7.5%), packaged goods (4% to 10%), and every other industry.

If you’re in a services business, you might want to bump your starting point higher than 5%. For example, like most professional services firms, my company is more margin-oriented than volume-oriented, so fueling its growth requires that we spend a higher percentage of our revenues. Last year, our number was just over 8%, and I’ve seen companies spend upwards of 15% when warranted—especially young companies that need to invest to build their brand.

Marketing, Not Just Advertising

It’s important to make a qualification here. Giant consumer corporations such as automakers, packaged food manufacturers, and retail chains spend a huge percentage of their marketing dollars on paid media advertising, the most visible (and expensive) tool in the marketing toolbox. Depending on the size of your company and the business you’re in, advertising might not be the right (and certainly not the only) tool for you.

A professional services company like my own is a good case in point. While we serve a national clientele, we are much too small to effectively advertise on a national scale. As a result, we don’t purchase paid media advertising. But we do have an aggressive marketing program built around tactics like direct mail, online marketing and public relations. For a variety of reasons, paid advertising might not be right for your company either, but events, vehicle wraps, point-of-sale displays, or other tactics certainly could be.

The important thing is intentionally and deliberately to set aside some rational percentage of your sales to get out there. That way, the question you have to answer isn’t “How much should we spend?” but rather, “How do we spend most effectively?”

Listed below are the top-ten most common work-at-home jobs today (In no particular order of course);

Freelance Writing

Freelance writing is probably the most popular of the work-at-home options available today. Freelance writing is also the most “flexible” of the work-at-home options available today. To be a freelance writer all the skills/knowledge you really need is the ability to write well and a good command of the English language. Start up costs for most freelance-writing jobs are practically none – all you need is a fairly good computer and a reliable internet connection.

For more information on writing careers, visit the following sites;

www.copyblogger.com

www.writingcareer.com

www.writing-world.com

www.freelancewriting.com

www.freelancewritinggigs.com

Consulting

If you’re a professional in a specific field, why not consider starting your own consulting-services practice at home? Today, experts from several professional fields have chosen to provide their own consulting services. Such professionals range from medical professionals to legal and business professionals. You’d be surprised at how much people are willing to pay for what is essentially good advice. This is a flexible career choice that can be run entirely from the comfort of your home. Start-up costs would depend on the type of consulting services that you plan to provide. Although your business can be set-up at home, you will need a full-office set-up as well as software and other such materials related to your line of work.

Internet Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is when an individual undertakes the task of promoting a business for either a percentage in sales profits, or a fixed amount for each “lead” that is generated. According to a study published in Wikipedia; total sales generated through affiliate networks in 2006 was ?2.16 billion in the UK alone! Millions of businesses out there are ready to rely on affiliate programs that will help them to effectively market their products.

Today, internet-based affiliate marketing is a hugely popular option for most people who wish to work at home. Provided you do it right, this can be quite a lucrative venture. For more information on affiliate marketing and the best affiliate programs online, try visiting;

www.affiliatetips.com

Secretarial Services

If you’ve got a good command of the English language and good writing abilities, why not consider starting a secretarial services business? This small business can be started on a very low capital and can be run entirely from your home. All you really need to “start-up” an “online secretarial services” business is a computer, printer, phone, ream of paper and a set of business cards. You don’t even need a high end computer; all you need is one that will be able to carry out basic word-processing tasks. Your printer need not be fancy either; one that will simply allow you to get all your documents and business cards printed will do. This type of “online secretarial services business” is one that offers all the services that are offered by regular secretarial service businesses – except for the fact that all the services are provided online.

Customer Services

Thanks to the advancement of technology, today it’s possible for you to log in to a company’s system from the comfort of your own home. This is what makes it possible for many companies today to hire remote customer service agents.

Graphic Design

Graphic designing plays an important part in the business world – particularly in advertising. Even the representation of a company using logos, colors and text is an aspect of graphic design. The entertainment industry makes use of a graphic designer’s expertise when it comes to creative aspects such as visual storytelling, decoration and scenery. Other areas that find a use for graphic design in the entertainment industry include novels, comic books, magazines, blogs and programs and props that are used on-stage.

A graphic designer has the advantage of having a wide range of businesses or industries to choose from. These industries or businesses include, but are not limited to;

· The Advertising industry

· The Magazine publication industry

· Product packaging industry

· Web designing industry

Thanks to the internet, graphic designers today can offer their services online.

Web Design

If you’ve got knowledge of web design and computer languages such as HTML, CSS and PHP, you can consider working at home as a web designer. This can be a very lucrative venture – if you’re good enough at what at what you do. You may work for a specific company, or you may choose to freelance as a web designer.

Teaching

Today a surprisingly large number of parents are opting to get their children home schooled. This also provides qualified teachers an opportunity to work at home – thanks to the internet. It’s not only home-schooling students that you can teach however. For instance; if you’re qualified to teach English, you may also teach adults who wish to learn English as a second language. You may choose to work independently or register with a company that will get you “in touch” with clients.

Notary Signing Agent

If you’re looking for a work-at-home opportunity, do a little research online and find out if a notary signing business is right for you. Did you know that you can make a significantly good income with a notary signing business? After just a single course of training, a notary signing agent can actually earn up to $50 to $125 per transaction.

A notary public or notary signing agent is an individual who obtains and notarizes legal documents. Thus a notary signing agent has to be knowledgeable in the procedures involved in the presentation and authorization of legal documents. A notary signing agent is also known as a loan signing agent, mortgage loan closer or closing agent. To train as a notary signing agent, all you have to do is go through a notary agent training course available in your region. And if you want to be a notary signing agent you have to be prepared to invest in training yourself to be one.  For more information on notary signing agents, try visiting the following sites;

www.notarypublic.com

www.notarytrainer.com

Word Processing

Do you want a small business opportunity that will allow you to make a sizeable income without taking up too much capital, or too much of your time? If you’re a good writer and if you’ve got a good command of the English language, why not consider starting a word processing business?

A word processing business is probably the easiest one to start, what’s more; its low maintenance too! This business is also one that can be run on a very low capital. All you need to start up the business is a good computer, a printer and a reliable internet connection. Your computer and printer need not be “high end” either. A basic computer that can carry out word processing tasks and a “letter quality” printer that can churn out clearly printed documents will do just fine.

The internet and easy payment schemes such as pay-pal have considerably increased the potential for work-at-home jobs. The internet has also become an extremely indispensable entity in most households today. This means that the internet has also become an invaluable marketing tool which most business will want to make use of. This in turn means that the internet holds great potential for those who wish to make an extra income. In fact, some people actually opt to run internet-based home businesses – full time.

Online Advertising
Considering that most people turn to Google, and not the yellow pages, when looking for goods and services these days, it’s certainly a good idea to consider advertising online.

Google and Yahoo, the two top search engines, both have very reasonable pay per click advertising packages, which can yield great results, as do many smaller search engines.

You could also look for advertising space for sale on popular sites, or on the sites of organizations involved in your niche market.

Another option, depending on your services and target market, is to submit your site to one of the growing numbers of online business directories. Some are free, others charge a nominal fee, but they are becoming a popular marketing choice. Two paid directories that are highly trusted are Business.com and the Yahoo! Directory.

Direct Mail
Desk top publishing has made putting together a professional looking direct mail piece easier than ever. And once that’s taken care of, its easy to either deliver the piece by electronic mail, or by traditional postal service.

Speak to the postal service in your area though – some allow you to choose where you want your pieces delivered, while some will target company post office boxes only.

Traditional Media
If you are targeting a specific area, geographically, the easiest way to use the traditional media is to run advertisements in local newspapers.

If, on the other hand, you are targeting a specific industry, it’s best to look for industry specific or trade publications, which cater to the industry in question.

When shopping for traditional advertising options, remember to find out whether the publication is free, or paid for, and what their circulation is like. Prices vary vastly, but the cheapest option may not always offer the lowest rate per view of your advertisement.

Charity Work
Getting involved in charity or volunteer work can be a great way to get your company’s information into the newspapers, and other media. You don’t necessarily have to devote your time, you could sponsor an event, new equipment or some other item for a worthy cause.

Not only will you be doing something to help your community, you will be getting valuable publicity too.

Press Releases
If you, or your consulting business has done something newsworthy, write a press release. Well written, interesting and informative press releases are usually welcomed by small publications, which are on the lookout for content.

Or, you could submit the press release to one of the many online press release sites.

Join Professional Organizations
There are many professional consulting and business organizations, which host events, list members’ names on their websites, and perform other marketing functions.

Joining these usually costs a nominal annual fee, but you are assured that visitors looking for a professional in your industry could potentially see your name on the members list.

Whichever marketing methods you choose to use, make sure you track results. If it’s not working, figure out why, and change it. If it still doesn’t work, try something else. Marketing is an evolutionary process, not a stagnant one!

They believe that their lifestyle is as important as financial results. They stay motivated and focused in their business because they truly love what they are doing. They keep the balance in life and work and reap the rewards by helping others. They are becoming the next generation of leaders in a world with a growing numbers of entrepreneurs.

Fast Growing Trends in Entrepreneurship
According to a recent article by P. Hise (Fortune, 2007) the U.S Small Business Administration, SBA, had found that nearly 675,000 new companies were formed in 2005. At the same time, the Bureau of Labor Statistics concluded that the first half of 2006 saw more businesses being created than the first half of 2005.

Talking about a fast growing trend…

Yahoo Media Relations last year released a study in which it was found that 75% of the people interviewed wanted to start a company someday. About 50% wants to do so in the next five years. “The survey results suggest that entrepreneurial aspirations are rooted among the vast majority of the American public.” according to the report.

Small enterprises generate a staggering 60 – 80% of new jobs… This is according to data from the U.S. Census published by SBA. The Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership has published that in 2005, about 460,000 people created small business every single month. It was also found that more than one third of highest tax paying individuals are business owners including owners of big private corporations.

To summarize: there were more businesses created than children were born per month in the year 2005 (CIA World Factbook).

Small entrepreneurs pay over 50% of the total of income taxes. This result was found by the not for profit Tax Foundation and recently quoted in an article by P. Hise (Fortune, 2007).

Why Are People Starting Their Own Business
“Control of Destiny” – The level of security in a startup business is not so much lower than it is in the traditional world. Challenger Gray & Christmas has found in a recent review that convential perks and job security offered by traditional corporations are gone. It’s a sad fact that over 70,000 people are being laid off every single month which is a huge increase from the 30,000 just a couple of years ago. Even top executive positions reserved for people who have been working extremely hard to finally get there are no longer secure. Even a multi million-dollar parachute cannot replace the damage the long years of living an imbalanced lifestyle did to their health and relationships.

Capital – A second factor has to do with the way small businesses are easy to capitalize. Money is readily available. This view is supported by a leading Venture Capitalist, National Venture Capital Association, who estimated that initial funding for new ventures nearly doubled in 2005, expectations are that will increase with another 100% again over 2006.

Small business really is Big Business nowadays!

Who is Entrepreneuring?
Unexpectedly, based upon research concluded by Robert W. Fairlie from the University of California who studied data from the U.S. Census and related sources, the largest share of new business starters is represented by people over 45 years old: about 65%. Entrepreneneurs in age group 20-34, however, are catching up fast since 4 years. Further investigation of date provided in the same report reveals that 30% of entrepreneurs are actually people without education levels any higher than high school (2005).

It is a sad fact that about 33% of all companies fails within 2 years. This is a percentage that has been used in the investment community as a rule to work with. On the top of the list of problems: misaligned leadership and market focus.

Entrepreneurial Leadership becoming a Key Factor
1- We can see that a lot of people who are starting as an entrepreneur have plenty of working experience and seem to fall in the age category of the Babyboomers.
Just imagine all these people coming out of a job situation nowadays. If that is all they have been doning their entire life, they need help. Not only with the setup but mostly with their mindset and attitude to personal responsibility. Here is the opportunity for the leaders in this field: provide the experience and information to make them successful as well. To move from an ‘entitlement mentality’ to becoming self-reliant is the topic of a best-seller by Trump and Kiyosaki: Why we want you to be rich.

2- Secondly, many people seem to be starting a business without education. Same thing. They most likely can benefit from simple, proven, easy to learn methods to get their business up and running.

Just imagine, if you establish yourself as a leader in this field you will be able to contribute meaningfully to many people’s life as long as you live! How great is this, how rewarding, and how different from slaving away in an office cubicle until you reach your future retirement age of 70… If you believe with me that there is something greater than cash, I am convinced that this is what gets me motivated.

How Business Burns
I decided to use the following analogy when training new entrepreneurs to get started:

View your businesses like small fire producing the heat to drive an engine generating revenue for you from output. A system working according to fixed rules.

There are 2 variations:
Either you provide the engine (your new business idea supported by a business plan) or you use a readily set up engine that has been proven to work for your purpose (revenue generation). In the latter case, all you do is set it up, start the fire and keep it going.

A business needs 3 primary ingredients in balance to produce revenue:
1. Cashflow (the fuel) – have enough available to keep your business going without having to scale it down too much risking the engine to stop.
2. A steady flow of fresh leads (the oxygen). Keep finding people who will benefit from the output of your business. Like oxygen, customers are everywhere.
3. The passion (the heat) – Do something that is meaningful to you and to others and be passionate. Network with like-minded people to share ideas and thoughts. Join a business forum and get plugged into training programs.

Successfull lifestyle entrepreneurs maintain a balanced focus. They pay attention to the right combinations in business and in life. They keep the fire burning naturally and enjoy the rewards, the lifestyle and the joy.

By having your own domain name means you have total freedom as well as complete control over your online home business. Nobody can dictate to you what you can put on your site and you do not have to answer to anybody.

Your chance of success online is increased one hundred fold because with your own domain name and website you are not restricted at all. Affiliate links are restricted in many areas on the internet.

Learning html and optimizing your website for the search engines is one of the most important things you need to learn how to do if you want to appear on the first page of Google. By having your own domain name and website you have full access to your own source code and so you can select your keywords and optimize your website.

Another huge advantage is that when you choose your actual domain name you can incorporate your main keyword into the domain name which will give you an edge over your competition in the search engine rankings.

You will be able to add fresh content to your website e.g. you own articles, which again will put you in favour of Google and the other search engines.

You will be able to pick and choose what products or affiliate programs you wish to promote, nobody can dictate to you what programs you have to join.

Adding a free newsletter to your website which your visitors can subscribe to is a great way to build your list and you can install an auto-responder to take care of the follow-ups.

By installing a stat counter on your website that records inter alia the number of unique visitors, where they came from, what keywords they used, what page they entered your site on and left will give you invaluable information.

Using the Google tools such as Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools provides very valuable information and you will be able to install the Google code on your website to take advantage of them.

You can project your own personality into your website with design, colour, wording, graphics etc. The list is endless.

Exchanging links with other websites is now possible with your own domain. You could exchange links manually or install link exchange software. You will be able to host you own images instead of linking to a banner on an affiliate site. This not only ensures that your images always open on your website but will decrease the load time of your web page.

You will be free to add slide in adverts or pop ups to your website. You can add new pages to your website as and when you want as well as easily cloak your affiliate links and create sub domains. Monetizing your website with the use of Adsense or other forms of advertising will also be possible.

For special occasions throughout the year, e.g. Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, Mother’s Day, you will be able to decorate your site for the occasion and offer specials.

As you can see from the above the advantages of having your own domain name and website are numerous and endless and yet so vital to your success online.