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Why Friends Don’t Always Make Good Employees

July 12, 2010 By

During my almost 20 years of working from home, I’ve never hired friends to work for me.  Although now I consider the freelancers I’ve worked with throughout the years including a graphic artist, an editor, web designer and CPA, friends.

Unlike Duff Goldman and the Charm City Cakes team of friends I described in another post, not every business works when you hire friends.  Before you hire a friend to join your business team, consider these comments from business owners who no longer hire friends.

When I started my home-based business, I hired friends to help me. Doing this was a huge mistake. You do not get the quality of work or respect from friends that you do from hiring previously unknown employees or contractors to work for you. It is very difficult to work with a friend when there is now a boss/employee [Read more...]

Filed Under: Balancing home/office Life, Making money from home, Time mgmt./Productivity, Working at home, Working with clients Tagged With: , , , , ,

Think Creativity Over Cash When Marketing Your Business

May 24, 2010 By

Marketing your homebased business can be challenging and frustrating, but it doesn’t have to be expensive.  In another Working Naked post, a few entrepreneurs shared their low-cost, highly effective ways to market their businesses on a budget. A few more entrepreneurs share their marketing secrets.

    “Unpaid public speaking is a fantastic way to drum up new business. Associations and Chambers of Commerce are always looking for free speakers educate and entertain at meetings. You’ll make your money from the “back of the room” after the event selling products/services, getting referrals and booking more gigs.”

    —Leslie Guria, SpeakingBonanza [Read more...]

Filed Under: Balancing home/office Life, Internet marketing, Making money from home, Marketing/Public Relations, Working with clients Tagged With: , , , ,

Don’t be a Dummy…Learn Smart Ways to Market Your Business

May 21, 2010 By

The folks at Copyblogger are no dummies. They know that if they fill their site with valuable advice about writing a blog and marketing online, their readers will want more. What kind of people are they?

Obviously they’re brilliant, generous and Internet savvy because they’re offering Internet Marketing for Smart People, a 20-part, free email course and continual newsletter. This course is down and dirty, quick and easy and best of all, packed with useful advice about Internet marketing.

Check the Internet and you’ll find hundreds of programs that promise to give you the “secrets” to Internet marketing. Sometimes you’ll see a photo of a guy on his yacht who wants to make it perfectly clear that he’s made a fortune from Internet marketing and you haven’t. My advice? Shop carefully and if you can get a high quality marketing course for free, grab it immediately.

After you’ve read through the free course, check out Copyblogger often. You won’t believe how much information is on their site. I never leave Copyblogger without learning at least one new thing. They know everything and I want to know it too (insert evil laugh).

Filed Under: Improving your web site, Internet marketing, Making money from home, Marketing/Public Relations Tagged With: , , ,

Why Can’t We All Work Naked?

May 10, 2010 By

Working naked — working without the help of an assistant, accounting department or an IT staff — makes sense considering that technology makes it easy to work anywhere, anytime. So why can’t we all work naked? Consider a few of the many benefits of working from home:

  1. There’s no commute
  2. You’re not stuck in a cubicle
  3. Technology lets you keep up with your corporate counterparts
  4. You save money on rent
  5. You have the freedom to have a life
  6. Your clothing and dry cleaning bills drop significantly
  7. There’s no boss looming over your shoulder
  8. You can wear whatever you want or better yet, nothing at all.  A non-scratchy chair is key to working naked comfortably!

What’s keeping you from stripping yourself of the corporate workplace?

Filed Under: Balancing home/office Life, Making money from home, Working at home Tagged With: , , , , ,

Marketing Your Business on a Budget Takes Creativity

April 27, 2010 By

When you add up the expenses of running your own business, sometimes there’s not much money left for marketing. So when money is tight, you need to be creative. I asked homebased business owners to share out-of-the-ordinary, proven strategies they’ve used to market their businesses. Here are a few of the tips I collected.  I’ll share more tips soon. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Internet marketing, Making money from home, Working at home Tagged With: , ,

E-commerce Makes Cents…Dollars Too

March 1, 2010 By

#267-ecommerceFor the past few months I’ve been researching online payment systems for this site. The many articles I read gave me insight into what to look for and the costs involved.  While the articles were helpful, I turned to a few friends and colleagues to get their two cents about the checkout systems they use.

“For a new small business, there are a few tried and true online payment portals that people trust and are relatively easy to set up. PayPal and Google Checkout being the most obvious. Authorize.net is another relatively popular (and trusted by buyers) payment processor. CNet and Authorize.net have both published  comparisons.”

—Mika Lofton, MarComm 3.0 [Read more...]

Filed Under: Improving your web site, Internet marketing, Making money from home, Working at home Tagged With: , , ,
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