You Get What You Pay For

Guest post by Katrina Sawa

You’ve heard this phrase, but do you really pay attention to this when it comes to investing in yourself or your business? Many entrepreneurs do not. I know this because I talk with hundreds of women entrepreneurs every month. They are continuously trying to find ways to cut costs, get stuff for free, find someone to trade for services or find a reason why they “can’t afford it” or shouldn’t invest.

Yes, it’s fine and very important to cut costs when you can in your life, business, and in any economic market. However, when it comes to necessary things in the running and marketing of your business or making sales, why would you risk it? Here are some areas where you do not want to skimp or be cheap: [Read more...]

Blood, Sweat and Home-based Business Fears

Working from home is hard work, but at the same time it’s scary.

When you first start working from home and you’re spending time growing your business, it’s normal to face a few worries along with fear. Aside from figuring out how you’re going to grow your business, you have to worry about how to pay the bills, where your next client will come from and how to keep your family from turning on you because of your crazy hours.

For some people, fear is a motivator.  For others it’s the first step to feeling discouraged. While being motivated is a good thing, being paralyzed with fear and weighted with worry can dampen your spirits and possibly keep you from growing your business.

You can’t get rid of all of your fears but there are a few ways to tame them.

  • Don’t quit your day job. Lately I’ve been reading about business owners I thought were doing well but it turns out that they work full time during the day and work on their business at night. When they make enough money, they’re going to quit their job and focus on their business full time.
  • Go for the low-hanging fruit. If you left a corporate job to work from home, turn to your old employer as your first client. The company won’t have to train you, pay your health insurance and give you two weeks off each year. If you left your last job on bad terms, skip to the next tip.
  • Use skills not related to your business to make money. If you’re handy with a hammer, have an eye for design, or can landscape like nobody’s business, get to work. There’s nothing wrong with taking odd jobs to supplement your income or in some cases to serve as income until your business takes off.

5 Ways to Make Your Home Office Safe

Don't forget about safety when you work naked.

Don't forget about safety when you work naked.

If you have kids, you probably remember the baby-proofing stage when you had to install cabinet latches, toilet locks and baby gates. I realized it was time to remove the locks when my younger son showed his babysitter how to use them.

Taking the time to make your house safe for your kids is important, but who’s keeping your office safe for you? All it takes is one fall to break a leg and you’re out of commission for weeks. (Although you can milk it and get your family to do tasks and errands for you that normally they wouldn’t.) Either way, an injury is still inconvenient. There are a few steps you can take to safety-proof your home office. [Read more...]

Need a Kick in the Pants While Working From Home?

When you’re working from home, you have to be your own cheerleader, support system and #1 fan.  The reality is it’s not always easy to keep plugging away at your business when there’s no one around to give you a pat on the back.

I just finished reading Susan Wilson Solovic’s book, The Girls’ Guide to Building a Million-Dollar Business, and it was the fire under my tush that I needed during a long week of feeling burned out.  Some of my favorite morsels of motivation from her book include:

  • There’s really no such thing as an overnight success. It takes time, and undoubtedly there will be a lot of No’s along the way. “No” is never the end of the story in the business world. “No” is merely an obstacle in the road to maneuver around.
  • If you have a desire, a passion, to really build something—to create an entity that is bigger than you by yourself—then, embrace your dreams. Don’t ignore them.
  • Don’t let life’s disappointments and hurts prevent you from going after your dreams and living your life to the fullest. Never, never, never give up. Every day take action to make it happen.

Why Can’t We All Work Naked?

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?

Marketing Your Business on a Budget Takes Creativity

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...]

Home Office Life is Messy

Working from home means that you can set your own hours, work where you want and control your level of productivity until something gets in the way: life.  Even the best-laid plans can get sidetracked when:

  • The dog gets sick.  This time on the product samples you need to send to a client.
  • Your in-laws decide to visit the same week your biggest project of the year is due.
  • Your child is home from school and in a lame attempt to entertain him, you show him how cool your new shredder is.  Everything’s fine until you realize you’ve accidentally mixed up your “throw away” pile with your “extremely important” pile of paper. [Read more...]

Firing Your Clients From Hell

Throughout the years I’ve owned my own business, I’ve been lucky to work with clients who appreciate what I can do for them and are open to new ideas and suggestions. Other small business owners I know haven’t been so fortunate.  They’ve put up with nasty, ungrateful and manipulative clients, thinking they had no choice.

The economy is getting better and no one wants to let a client go but sometimes enough is enough.  In her blog post Weed Out Your Customers From Hell,” Donna Fenn describes four types of clients that you should consider dumping. Two of the types are: [Read more...]

What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?

Take a close look at your business. Do you enjoy what you do?  Do you take risks and make an effort to get out of your comfort zone?  Maybe what you’re doing now is only a fraction of what you could be doing.  In this video, learn ways to grow your business and make sure that one of the things you’re going to be when you grow up is happy.

Make Your Small Business Look Bigger

#279-Bus. biggerLooking bigger isn’t a great idea when you’re trying on swimsuits (trust me, I know!) but when it comes to business there’s nothing wrong with a small, one-person business looking larger than it is. Ivana Taylor, who writes the popular blog Strategy Stew, wears all of the hats in her business yet on the outside, her small business seems anything but small.

In her blog post 8 DIY Marketers Tools For Making Your Business Look Bigger,Taylor shares useful and affordable resources to help a small business appear larger.

Re-Targeter: Your customer sees your ad on expensive ad space after they’ve visited your site – a coincidence?  No.  Re-Targeter! For a small monthly fee (really) your ad will “stick” to your web visitors and follow them across their web travels. You’re known by the company you keep. Why not keep company with the big guys to look even bigger? [Read more...]

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