Finding a Work at Home Idea That Will Work for You

We've scoured the internet to find work at home
opportunities that are legitimate and creative at the same
time. You might have heard of offers to stuff envelopes and
earn a thousand dollars a week but at the risk of sounding
clichéd; if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
"Watch TV and earn twenty dollars an hour" seems like a
really good work at home idea, but if such jobs really
existed, why would the majority of the population endure
long commutes, office politics, and mean bosses. This does
not mean that there isn't any legitimate work at home
opportunity out there: it just means you need to research
the offer and find something which matches you skill set.

What Are You Good At?

If you are artistically inclined, then perhaps painting
murals on children's bedroom walls might be a good work at
home opportunity. You can start by doing friends' rooms for
free or at a steep discount and create your portfolio. If
you are a wordsmith, then you might like to help a new
business with their flyers and brochures and start getting
clientele by word-of-mouth. There are scores of
profitable home based businesses listed on websites;
however tread with caution. If writing and editing is your
forte, then it might be a good idea to subscribe to a
freelance job mailing list and see if you can score an
assignment or two. Many people use their street-smart
abilities to make money by turning their trash into someone
else's treasure with the help of auction sites like eBay
and Amazon. Some people even offer friends and family
members to sell their unwanted stuff and charge a
particular commission. Whether you charge a percentage or
flat fee, exhausted new parents or time deprived
professionals might not mind paying you a little to get rid
of their stuff since they don't have time for garage sales
or posting ads in the local paper. If you're tech savvy,
you could earn a decent living by creating software
packages and programs such as a database system for your
local video store, a website for your apartment building,
or an inventory system for your friend's gift basket
business. Despite people spending big bucks on advertising
and publicity, it is usually the word of mouth referrals
that really land you the jobs.

The Downside of Being Your Own Boss

The important thing about work at home opportunities in
whatever field there may be is not to have unrealistic
expectations. Don't quit your day job thinking that you'll
be paying all your bills by working a few hours a day.
Always factor in the fact that by working at home, you're
most probably going to be self-employed so you'll have to
arrange for your own health insurance and you won't get
paid time off. The day you don't work, you don't get paid.

You're also responsible for your own taxes which unlike
when you work for a company, are deducted at source. You
don't need a college degree to succeed at a work at home
opportunity but you do need the self-discipline to be able
to work without a boss breathing down your neck. You need
to be motivated enough to not watch TV all morning long or
have a two hour lunch break just because you have the
luxury of working in your pajamas.

However, work at home opportunities are only limited to
your imagination and creativity. Make jewelry, make
scrapbook layouts or make lasagna in cooking classes. Be a
dog sitter or be a baby sitter. Design clothes or design
websites; organize files or organize lives – the sky is
really the limit. Good Luck!

----------------------------------------------------
For more information and the latest, proven, ideas for
starting an online business please visit:
http://www.OnlineMoneyMakers.com

How to Avoid 97% of What Causes All Failures

I want you to consider two typical scenarios that could
occur in any business:

A. You're in your office making up a new client folder for
a client who doesn't yet exist. You are thinking about how
you'll work together and the phone rings. It's a prospect
who's interested in working with you.

B. You're sitting at your desk deeply involved in a project
and the phone rings. It's a prospect who's interested in
working with you.

Which one of the above prospects will get the *best* you?
Who will you spend more time with?

If your business is designed for success, the only correct
answer is NEITHER.

Successful businesses have systems and processes which
result in prospects and clients being treated the same way
every day, every encounter regardless of what you're doing.
Not only are prospects and clients treated *the same*,
they are also treated extraordinarily and service becomes
the hallmark of your business -- and it doesn't matter WHAT
business you're in!

Here are a few simple systems/processes that you can put in
place this week which will make a huge difference in the
ongoing experiences for your prospects and clients:

1. Your voicemail.

Your voicemail should say a little about your business (in
"results-language" so your clients know which of their
problems you solve) and offer the caller to send you an
email (use your general business account). Whenever
possible, you want to provide an option for your prospects.

2. How you handle prospect inquiries.

When someone is interested in coaching with me, there is a
process that she goes through. It's the same process for
every potential client and insures the same experience for
each of them while insuring that I get the same information
to assist in whether or not someone is accepted into my
coaching program.

3. Your new client "welcome packet".

You want to reinforce that a new client has made the right
decision in hiring you.

In addition to any email communications that you have with
your new client, send something via mail. Something that
she can touch and flip through is always better than
electronic only and it gives you yet another chance to
reinforce your branding.

W. Edwards Deming tells us that "97% of all failure is due
to the SYSTEM and not the person." Yet so many skip over
the critical step of creating systems and processes. Don't
be one of them -- your success depends on it. :-)

----------------------------------------------------
Sandra Martini teaches small business owners how to create
more success in their business while maintaining their
sanity and having fun. For more information and to receive
the FREE special report, "7 Wealth-Building Secrets of
Successful Entrepreneurs", go to
http://www.SandraMartini.com .
Are you a virtual assistant looking to make more money in
your business? If so, check out
http://www.VAGuideToMoney.com today.

The Power of "Why" or How Big is your "WHY"

To be a successful networker, or a leader of any sort, you
must first commit yourself to mastering the fundamentals.
Get excited about practicing the fundamentals every day.
Start with your motivation, since they key to success is
actually located between your ears-your mind. Most
networkers simply want to make a lot of money and like want
to worry about such basic topics such as motivation. Yet
without self mastery, you will give up when things go wrong
rather than learn, adapt and ultimately succeed. You must
practice mastering your own emotional state every day in
order to create the ongoing level of happiness and joy you
want. The first step to staying motivated is goal setting.
With goals, we create our destiny! We must have a big
enough "why" to succeed-we must have enough compelling
reasons to drive us forward to do whatever it takes to
achieve our goals. Purpose is stronger than outcome. Who
you become in the process of achieving your goals is the
real purpose. Why do goals work?

1. "You become what you think about." If you develop a
consistent and impassioned focus on something, you'll
experience it. The problem is that most people simply are
not impassioned. Without passion for your real purpose
you'll never reach your true goal.

2. Setting a goal is acknowledging to your conscious and
subconscious minds that where you are is not where you want
to be. Having a goal creates positive pressure, which is
necessary to move you forward-you must learn to manage
pressure.

Here's how to create a big enough "why" for each of you
goals.

1. Write down all you will gain from achieving your goal
why you're committed to making it a reality.

2. Write down what it will cost you not to achieve the goal.

3. Remember that you WHY must be as big or BIGGER than that
of your coach or you will not reach your goal. Part of what
drives us in life is our desire, our hunger.

Seeing and admitting that things are not as good as we want
them to be creates a drive to make our lives the way we
believe they should and must be. Take action on the
following assignment:

1. List the specific areas of your life or business that
are not what you want them to be.

2. Write down what you would have to believe to
consistently follow through on the transformation of your
life or business.

3. List the set of beliefs you would have to hold to
achieve your ultimate goals. What would you really have to
believe in order to not only set your goals but really
achieve them? What would you have to believe to make your
life the masterpiece it deserves to be?

4. Write down why you must change these situations now and
why you know you can, You've probably already handled much
more difficult situations at some point in your life. If
you haven't, now is the time to do so.

If you're business, or your life, isn't what you want it to
be and you aren't on the road of betterment, then you
simply don't have a big enough why. It's not that people
are lazy. It's simply that they have goals that do not
inspire them to act. Get passionate about your goals and
you literally can write your own ticket!

----------------------------------------------------
For more MLM training and info see the author Dr Robin
Rushlo with 35 years of Network marketing. His newest
program is a New Concept in MLM opportunites, a must see us
at
http://www.cashwithbooks.com
As a Robin's Renegade subscriber you have at your disposal
a wealth of resources ranging from a full days worth of
audio to articles, even one-on-one coaching. Immerse
yourself in the training.

Not Enough Time, Not Enough Sales!

Many small business owners think time management is a
problem because they have to do everything. In the
start-up years, unless you have a large start-up budget,
you will probably be doing a lot of your own administrative
work and spending a lot of time on marketing. This is very
normal.

Where it becomes problematic is when you are spending a lot
of time on these tasks and not getting enough clients to
hire someone to help. At that point in time, people tell
me they need help with their 'time management'. I do not
always agree.

The problem is actually much deeper, yet easier to solve.
To start, every business owner needs to know the following:
- annual and monthly financial goals
- how many sales are required to achieve the goals
- how much marketing is required to get each sale

I'm sure you were with me for the first two, but the third
one? That is a little trickier. I will walk you through
it.

The first step is to determine where your most desirable
clients come from. One way to do this is to list all your
clients from the last 1-2 years, how much revenue they
brought you and where they came from in a spreadsheet.
Sort the list numerically by the revenues.

Study this list. Toward the bottom of the list you will
find a natural break where you can draw a line, below which
you don't want any more of those types of clients. Analyze
those people – where did you find them? What do they have
in common? How can you avoid them?!

Next, look at those clients toward the top of the list.
Draw another line separating the excellent from the good.
Analyze the excellent - where did you find them? What do
they have in common? How can you get more of them!?

This exercise may give you the opportunity to cut out some
of your marketing activities that are fruitless. You are
already on your way to becoming more efficient. Once you
have determined which marketing strategies bring you the
most money, do more of that.

Next, examine how many sales meetings it takes to get a
client, and how many people you have to meet to get a sales
meeting. Once you have figured this out, you can calculate
how many people you need to meet in order to meet your
financial goals.

After doing the math and the customer analysis, you can do
more of what works, stop doing what doesn't work, and you
will know how much marketing you must do to meet your goals!

----------------------------------------------------
Audrey Burton, Small Business Coach, is "The Tigress". Get
her FREE Special Report, "Closing the Sale is Not
Complicated!" and her FREE monthly email newsletter at
http://www.TigressCoaching.com .

Don't ask for feedback if you don't want it

I sat in on a client meeting one day, and saw the leader
make a classic communication mistake that never fails to
cause resentment.

Tom had decided on a course of action for the group to
take. I don't know how much research he had done, or
whether he had received input from others, and he didn't
say. That, however, wasn't his mistake. Managers reach
decisions in various ways, and Tom had clearly done so in
his way. His mistake lay in the way he announced his
decision.

His exact words were, "I've decided this is how we're going
to move ahead --- unless anyone has any objections." As he
said this, he glanced around the table, and his facial
expression clearly said that objections would not be
welcome or even seriously considered. As an observer, I
could tell that at least two of the attendees had something
to say, but didn't speak up.

In any conflict between words and body language, the body
language always wins, and Tom's people responded
accordingly by withholding their input. They also kept
their feelings to themselves, but I have no doubt they
resented Tom's statement.

So what could he have done instead? Well, depending on
whether or not he was open to input from his team on the
subject, he had two choices.

1. Input welcome

Having made the decision, he might ask the team for some
ideas on how to deal with the consequences of the actions.
In that case, he might say, "I've decided this is how we'll
be moving ahead. I'm sure there will be some negative
response from the field managers --- does anyone have any
ideas on how to handle them?" Or, "I've decided this is how
we'll be moving ahead. If anyone has any thoughts on how to
communicate this to the front line people, I'd welcome them
either now or after our meeting."

2. Input not welcome

If he has already given the matter all the consideration he
feels appropriate and doesn't want comments on his
decision, he might say, "I've considered this from all
angles, and I've decided this is the way we'll be moving
ahead. Let's talk about how we'll implement the process."

While the second way may not be popular among team members,
at least it doesn't pay lip service to collaboration, while
at the same time slamming the door in the face of anyone
wanting to speak up.

Clear, genuine communication can help make even unwelcome
news acceptable, and builds confidence in --- and respect
for --- the leader who knows how to use it.

----------------------------------------------------
Helen Wilkie is a professional speaker and author,
specializing in workplace communication. Subscribe to her
free monthly e-zine, "Communi-keys" at
http://www.mhwcom.com/pages/communikeys.html and get your
free 40-page e-book, "23 ideas you can use RIGHT NOW to
communicate and succeed in your business career"

How to Write a Media Release

Did you know that publicity is supposedly seven times more
effective than advertising? And it is free – that is if you
do it yourself. If you know the elements of writing a good
media release to capture the attention of journalists, you
can cash in on no cost editorial coverage. Here's a few
tips to help you write a media release.

The Beginning

The first and most important thing is to have something
interesting to say. Consider your USP – just like in sales.
It's your unique selling proposition. After all publicity
is "selling". You are selling a story idea to the media. I
like to call it the unique shining point. It really needs
to stand out, shine, be compelling – not an advertisement,
not a boring product plug.

Another element that will really hook the journalist in is
to consider the ESP the emotional selling point. Often it
is the human element in the story that will capture the
reader's attention therefore the attention of the media.
Think about what your story is. What is your background?
Have you overcome any obstacles to get where you are today?
Any achievements or milestones? Where is the human interest?

What's more compelling? An announcement about a wedding
limousine service, or the 30th anniversary both in marriage
and business of the couple who run the service? This is a
story I helped someone uncover in a seminar I conducted.
The couple later went on to get a full page colour photo
and editorial story in a wedding supplement in their local
paper – for free, just by working out the human element of
interest to readers.

WIFM

What's in it for me? Or what is in it for them. How does
your product or service help others? You media release
needs to state that key element. How will the reader
benefit?

It's uninteresting to just say, "Jones & Smith Accountants
today announced the launch of their revolutionary new
accountancy software package… Better to state – small
businesses now have a better way to measure, monitor and
manage the costs involved in running their business, thanks
to Jones & Smith's new online measurement & analysis
accounting system.

The Heading

Write a catchy headline with a short, punchy phrase.
Observe how headings are written in newspapers and
magazines. You need to grab the reader's attention. Of
course that is if you are planning to post your media
release snail mail with your product sample or full media
kit. But most releases these days are emailed. However, the
same principles apply. Use a compelling subject heading or
the journalist will simply hit delete. Make it provocative.

The Content

Have a bright opening; start with your strongest point
first. Instead of the conventional "today announced that"
lead, you should make your release stand out from the crowd
with a strong, compelling lead paragraph. As editors and
journalists get so many releases every day, you only have
seconds to grab their attention. The first paragraph is
where your important information goes but it needs to be
written in an exciting, creative, interesting way.

Consider the 5 W's – Who, What, When, Where, Why; This is
an easy formula to remember when writing your release but
it is still not enough without some "zing" or compelling
elements to "hook" the reader in.

Again - how does it help? Remember the benefit to the
reader and perhaps include some "how to" tips on whatever
your product or service is.

Use memorable quotes; either of you or someone well-known
who can endorse your product. Quotes are often used by the
media as they make the story more "real" or personal. A
good quote can include why you've started this business or
developed your product or how it helps your target audience.

The Format

Title it "Media Release" and always include the date.
Include your contact details of telephone, mobile, email
and website address. Use letterhead and keep the content to
one page – any more and you will lose the journalists'
attention. When using email, cut and paste into the body of
the email – don't send an attachment.

The Contact

Send your release to the appropriate person – be sure to do
your research. Check that the "food editor" is still just
that and not now the "finance editor". Find out the name of
the person and their direct email.

Always follow up with a phone call or email and keep your
media liaison consistent. If you provide good information
you are not a nuisance, you are providing a service.
Journalists and editors need our information to fill their
newspapers, magazines and radio shows.

Supply a creative photo or suggest a photo opportunity that
will add to the impact of having your information
publicised.

Gaining publicity in the media will help you become known
as an expert in your business field; it will enhance your
image and reputation and help you to grow your business.

----------------------------------------------------
Sue Currie, the director of Shine Communications
Consultancy and author of Apprentice to Business Ace – your
inside-out guide to personal branding, is a business
educator and speaker on personal branding through image and
media. Sign up for free monthly tips on personal and
professional PR at
http://www.shinecomms.com.au/contactmanager/default.cfm
and learn more about how you can achieve recognition,
enhance your image and shine.