Tuesday, January 20, 2009

What Exactly Is A Home Based Business?

By Psuedor Q. Marfinm

If you look at the literal meaning of "home based business" you begin to get some insight into just how many different ways you could make that work. In this article we will talk about ways to have a business at home, but make money working outside of it.

Home based means this is your headquarters. Every business is an organization operated with the objective of making a profit from selling goods or services. Therefore, a home based business is one where you sell something from your home.

Think about that. You have no boss to answer to. You don't have to commute every day. Time off when you want. Take a 10 day vacation any time you wish. Just like Congress, you can give yourself a raise whenever you want.

Some examples of home based businesses would be an insurance salesmen who works out of his house, but goes to his clients home to conduct business. Another example would be a plumber who has his wife answer the phone while he goes on service calls to a customer's home.

If you can think of a way to make money starting at home and working outside of it you may live a dream life. Many people who work strictly at home suffer from a lack of communication with the outside world. If you were to start your own Avon business for example you could work it out of your home and ding dong your way to profit selling in other people's homes.

Some other service businesses that people start and run without a lot of training include painting, pet sitting, interior decorating, mobile shopping for elderly, lawn work, and many more.

Now this doesn't mean that having a home based business means you have to leave your house. Telemarketing is one way to make money with your own home business and all you need is a phone with possibly unlimited long distance service.

The internet has helped many people start a home based business. Owning a computer and having internet service you are not limited in the ways to make money. Use your creativity to come up with a way that works for you.

By now your head is probably spinning with ways to get started. The perfect home based business is one you can run from home (or away) and leave at home if you need to.

Summary: In this article we talk about ways to have a business at home, but make money working outside of it. - 15790

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Tips for Business Success in Today's Tough Market Place

By Storm Castle

Does your company do business to business prospecting? Have you ever considered using an outbound telemarketing company? If you are wondering if your business will be able to endure the current economic troubles, this article is exactly what you need to read. There are six tips that can help your business find success even in a bad economy.

The following six tips are ways your company can not only survive, but thrive during tough economic times. Increasing your marketing budget, using the power of leverage, focusing your efforts where they will be most effective, properly training your employees, providing excellent customer service and keeping a positive attitude are all ways to keep your business profitable in difficult economic times.

The first way for increasing profits during a recession may sound backwards, but increasing the amount of money you spend on marketing your business instead of reducing it is one thing that can help your business make a profit during a recession. Countless businesses make the mistake of considering their marketing an expense instead of an investment and wind up destroying their businesses by cutting back in this area.

The second tip is to use the power of leverage by hiring a business to business prospecting company to do outbound telemarketing for your business. This helps your team use their time more wisely.

The next tip is to focus your efforts where they will be most effective, which is spending time closing sales. When the telemarketing programs do their job effectively your team can spend the majority of their time making sales which means increased profits for you.

The fourth tip involves properly training your employees to work with the highly qualified leads they receive from these lead generation companies. Proper training will help them make the most of these leads and sales will go through the roof regardless of what is happening in the economy.

The fifth tip for business success in tough economic times is to provide excellent customer service. Getting repeat business is much more cost effective and profitable than having to constantly prospect for new business so it is vital to keep your current customers happy.

The sixth and final tip for business success in tough economic times is keeping a positive attitude. People have a tendency to create the exact amount of success they believe they will and your positive attitude will be reflected in your employees' attitudes and achievements as well as your own.

Implementing the six ways listed above can help your business to increase profits during a recession. Business to business prospecting is one area to concentrate your marketing efforts in since this will make four of the six ways happen. Then all you have to worry about are the last two ways including treating your clients to outstanding service and maintaining an optimistic outlook. - 15790

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Small Business PBX: Is a Virtual Phone Right For Your Business?

By Caressa Waechter

As a entrepreneur, you need to have a way for your customers to communicate with you. The use of telephones is still the most common way to communicate. Is your current phone service and system working as hard for you as it should be, or is there something better for you to be using?

One option to increase your phone service benefits to you is to use a small business PBX service. Allowing your current small business phone service to do more for your company is all that a business PBX service is about. Utilizing your current business phone service, a small business PBX greatly enhances your most simple form of communication.

Making your existing telephone service act like a larger business' phone service is what a small business PBX service does best. If you have ever called a bigger corporation that has an automated telephone system that greets you and allows you to pick an employee or department to talk to, then you know exactly what a virtual small business PBX service will do for the phone service you are currently using.

In addition to using your current phone lines, a phone auto attendant service gives you either a local or toll-free phone number that serves as your primary business telephone number. When a customer calls your primary phone number, they are greeted by your virtual receptionist and are given a choice as to where they want their call to be directed to (person or department).

You have full and utter control of incoming call routing. The beauty of a small business PBX service is that inbound phone calls can be sent to any telephone in the world, all it needs is a dial tone. This means that you can be spending time in Maui and receive customer phone calls on your cell phone.

With service plans beginning at just $9.95 per month, you have to have a small business PBX phone service for your small business. Two of the biggest home PBX services are RingCentral and GotVmail. We have reviewed both services and they are each great, but one does stand above the other in terms of service and features.

A virtual PBX phone service includes advanced telecommunication features such as an auto attendant, online voicemail, Internet faxing ability, and ACD call queuing ability.

If your company relies on telephone service to communicate with customers, you have to give a hard look at a virtual small business PBX service. The ability to completely transform your current telephone service will amaze you. - 15790

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Selling Your Brand And Logo Using Laptop Bags

By Montgomery Preston

If you are wanting to send a new message to your new potential customers with laptop bags, you will have to have an advertising and marketing campaign. Laptop bags can be effective in selling your marketing idea, but you need to have several ideas in mind.

First of all, potential consumers need to come into contact in some way with the promotional items you are offering. The more a person comes into contact with a brand, the more likely they are to help the sales. With promotional laptop bags you are truly saying that you value your consumers and that you enjoy offering items they can use.

Promotional laptop bags, just as other promotional items, need to be marketed properly to be successful as promotional items. If you send the wrong message to your customers, you will end up shooting yourself in the foot. For instance, if you are a retailer of jewelry, then you will likely not be successful selling promotional laptop bags. But if you are involved in an endeavor which incorporates the multitudinous use of laptops, then your success will come much easier.

If you are using an item for promotion, you should make sure the item is appropriate for the venue. Laptop bags should be used where laptop computers are found in abundance. If you follow this basic principle, you will encounter more success.

The point is, any promotional merchandise you choose needs to make sense within the industry sector you belong to in order to offer the best message you can. Communication is essential in any business. - 15790

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The Six Types of Aptitude Tests in Psychometric Assessments

By T.W. Stan

Psychometric assessments are given by approximately 65% of employers to find the best candidates for jobs. Work experience and longevity on a job are no longer the only considerations an employer uses when looking for a potential employee. Assessments are believed to be accurate indicators of future job performance.

There are two distinct parts of a psychometric assessment: aptitude tests and personality assessments. This article will discuss the six types of aptitude tests.

Aptitude tests assess an individual's verbal and numerical abilities as well as abstract reasoning capabilities. These tests are always multiple choice with definite right or wrong answers. They are also timed tests.

There are more than 5000 aptitude tests available to employers with new tests being added on a regular basis. All of these tests are diverse in their names and acronyms, but they can all basically be classified into six distinct types:

verbal reasoning numeric reasoning abstract reasoning spatial reasoning mechanical reason data checking

We will describe each aptitude test and explain why an employer would want to give this test to applicants.

Verbal Verbal ability is tested because the employer needs to know if a prospective employee communicates well. These tests usually include grammar, analogy (the association of words), and following written instructions. There may also be tests in spelling, reading comprehension and completion of sentences.

Numeric Most employers are interested in an applicants ability in basic mathematics even if this ability is not used much on the job. These tests may involve basic arithmetic such as adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing skills. Also tested is the ability to recognize number sequences and some mathematical skills such as fractions, decimals, etc. Calculators are normally banned while taking numeric tests.

Abstract reasoning This test measures intelligence and the ability to learn new skills or information quickly. Diagrams are used to test logical sequence.

Spatial This test is given only if the job requires the applicant to have good spatial abilities. This test measures the ability to manipulate shapes mentally.

Mechanical This test requires specific knowledge of levers, pulleys, gears, springs, tools, electrical circuits and shop arithmetic. This test is given only if the job requires this specialized knowledge.

Data checking Data checking measures the ability to quickly and accurately find errors in data. Two columns of information are compared and determined if they are the same of different. This test is usually given to clerical and data entry cnadidates.

These six aptitude tests that are included in psychometric assessments give an employer an accurate measurement of the skills and abilities of prospective employees. - 15790

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