Tag: home business

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Top Business Growth and Expansion Concerns

Okay, you are starting your business, working from home, and you are ready to take your business to the next level. If so, you are going to need to have your ducks in a row to ensure your probability of successful growth and achieving your full potential in the marketplace.

Of course, all businesses are different, though there are certain characteristics that remain constant among businesses that have successfully made the leap from an independent solo operation to an exciting full-featured business organization, a player in the community, and a positive contributor to the world at large.

Top Business Growth and Expansion Concerns

1. Control

The first thing you want to think about preparing for is gaining full control of your business. When you are small, it makes perfect sense to outsource as much as you can to reduce operating expenses, but it puts an incredible amount of control of your organization in the hands of others, which can compromise your business as you grow, so move these services in-house. You want direct control of all these services, which means that you will have to learn enough about these services that you can rigorously evaluate performance directly as you move them in-house.

2. Money Management

Bookkeeping and accounting may be effectively outsourced but if you are expanding your business, one of the first things to bring in-house is all of your money management. You need control of your finances, and that’s what it’s all about, right? Right. You need to keep a close eye on your cash-flow to make adjustments quickly on-the-fly to maximize your capital performance. Your money manager needs to be kept close-by and aware enough to keep you in the loop at the first hint of change in cash flow, and you need to decide what to do based on your gathering all the necessary information. Keep your attention focused on the marketplace and be on the lookout for ways you can channel your revenue into research and development, upgrades, and expansion opportunities.

3. Public Relations

Public relations (PR) encompasses your image to in the marketplace and your message to the world. Easily outsourced in the beginning, your message and image are too sensitive to trust to an outside source. You must reign in all your social media, online and offline advertising, and other publicity. You also want your business to be seen and heard in the community where your target audience hangs out. Maintaining the image that you want your business to consistently adhere to maintain the connection to your audience is vitally important and you want someone in your organization whom you can trust to be in charge of your image.

4. Mistakes and Failures

Mistakes and failures happen all the time in business, and you need to be keenly aware and connected in order to identify any flaw that may appear as it is noticed as early as possible. Often early detection can help to intercept a potential landslide, so keep your ear to the ground. Have an in-house MFT (Mistakes and Failures Team) who you trust and can brainstorm with to quickly intercede when any mistakes or failures show up on your entrepreneurial radar.

Growth does not take place without change and nothing is more conducive to initiating growth and change than mistakes and failures. Know they will come, embrace them, and act quickly to counteract them when they do.

 

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Want to Start a Business but Fear the Taxman?

What keeps holding you back from starting your own business? If you are like many wage-earners, you may want to start a business but fear the taxman. Many people have a fear of business taxes and the IRS. And who would blame you? You have probably heard horror stories of businesspeople getting destroyed by the taxman and the IRS.

These stories are extreme examples of people who are using their businesses as a method of defrauding the government. Most business people do not use their businesses to engage in tax fraud. As long as that is not your intention, I wouldn’t worry about it.

In fact, you will pay far less to the government – legally – by having your own business, in comparison to what you pay as an average wage-earner. As an American wage-earner, you are paying an average of 28% of your income in taxes.

Trump Doesn’t Pay Taxes

I remember when Donald Trump was running for office, and he was asked how much he paid in taxes? His answer was something like, “I don’t pay taxes. I take advantage of all the benefits of conducting legal business in the United States and maximize tax credits for doing so.” (Editorial note: Even though this statement is in quotes, it is the author’s paraphrase.) During his campaign, many people were appalled that someone running for the highest office in the USA would admit (or even brag) about not paying taxes. Others, on the other hand, applauded him for his business savvy.

Pay Less in Taxes

Paying less in taxes is a real thing for business owners, which you may be one day soon.

If you are an average wage-earner, you are having taxes taken out of your check from the get-go, which means you are restricted from using this portion of your earnings for anything but your taxes. As a business owner, you can use these dollars to increase your tax savings throughout the year, because you are now entitled to various tax write-offs that you would not be entitled to as a simple wage-earner.

Business Tax Deductions

Even if your business is not effectively making a profit, you could be saving enough in taxes to plausibly pay zero in taxes by taking advantage of business tax deductions, which is a huge benefit to your fiscal outlook.

Transportation

Some examples of expenses you can write off against taxes include a percentage of your transportation costs, like gas and petroleum products, a portion of your housing costs can be written off, especially if you are working from home, which can account for about 20% of your living expenses, like rent, mortgage, and utility (electricity, gas, communications, everything but television) costs.

Food and Entertainment

I love having business meetings at restaurants. Keep business notes and receipts and deduct the expense of dining. Even though the IRS only allows you to write off 50% for business-related meals and entertainment, you are still ahead of the game if you are already going out occasionally.

Vacation and Travel

Vacations cannot be expensed as a tax write off, that is, unless the trip is business-related. If you can schedule your trip around a conference or trade show, you can write off a great deal of the vacation (I think the average is about 75% if you plan it right).

Household Furnishings

It is generally accepted that 15% of your household furnishings, including major appliances, can be deducted at a rate of 15% of what you spend here.

Equipment

Equipment, like computers, can be deducted, though if you use the same equipment personally, then you will likely only be able to deduct about 15% of your expenses here.

You can see, that if you were frightened about tax exposure for running a business, you can see that there should be no problem and it is highly likely that documenting and expensing out much of what is already your standard overhead, you will come for ahead by staring your own business.

Do have a bookkeeper/accountant on-board and double-check what you can write off and how to go about it safely and securely. You do not need a full-time accountant, just check around your local area, and find one that you can simply pay as you go and write off this expense as well.

You can see how easy it could be to end up owing no taxes at all, just like Trump.

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How to Turn What You Love into Cash

You have a good idea what you love to do, but how do you turn what you love into a cash machine?

First off, do not let yourself brush this project aside because it sounds ridiculous or too good to be true. I have seen so many people turn the things they love into successful businesses, things that you would have never imagined would turn into successful business ventures. So, hang in there.

And don’t forget the job market that already exists. If there is something that you love to do, there is a good chance that there is someone else out there getting paid to do it, who probably doesn’t even like doing it. That is another opportunity for you either as an entrepreneur or as an employee.

You would be so much better performing that thing than anyone else who thought they were just doing a job for someone else’s business. You could get that job or start a business that provides this service to other companies.

There’s nothing wrong with getting paid to do what you love to do, while working for someone else, but consider this: If you are doing what you love for someone else, your employer is making five-times what you are getting paid off of the work that you do. By starting your own business, you can easily double your income by offering your services to others.

How to Turn What You Love into Cash

Take the leap: Create your own dream job by starting your own business offering your unique skill, service, talent, gift, or teach others to do what you love to do.

If you were to take a look at the most successful people in the world, you would find them doing what they love, and enjoying every moment of it, while watching their bank accounts grow exponentially.

You could be doing the same thing, too.

If you have no experience in running your own business, do not worry. You can stick your toe in the entrepreneurial water to give it a try inexpensively with little or no risk. In fact, this is the preferred method of trying out your idea on others before making the big leap.

You don’t need a license to do business under your own name, so just use it to test your idea out before you get distracted by the business if doing business. Just keep track of your income and expenses while you are testing the waters.

Your primary goal is to present your idea to someone and to get someone – anyone – to pay you any amount of money to do what you would like others to pay you for, which would be the focus of your business venture. This is how you vet your business idea.

While vetting your business idea, spend as little as possible advertising your service. Use community bulletin boards, leave flyers in offices, place small, classified ads, use craigslist.org, advertise on Facebook marketplace, you get the idea. Get free business cards (yes, free business cards are a thing… Google it). Make phone calls to businesses or individuals who might be likely candidates for your services(s). Spend very little and the idea is only to get one paying client before you proceed.

If you are unable to get someone to pay for your service, put this idea on the back burner and try the next idea.

If you have a paid client, you are to perform the service and request that your client gives you a positive review of your performance. With this/these review(s) in hand, you are ready for the next step.

 

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Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow

You have heard that phrase, “Do what you love, and the money will follow,” and it might make you wonder, “What does that even mean?” and if you could understand it, “Could it apply to me?” It may mean more to you now, more than ever. This year has brought us the most business startups than ever, and yours might be the next one to make its debut.

If you do it right, you can stack the deck in your favor and enjoy making a successful venture based on doing the things that you love to do. The things that love more than anything and enjoy yourself immensely while people are paying you handsomely to do it.

So many people (millions of them) are taking this opportunity of being on unemployment, or just being unemployed, or unemployable, to start their own businesses based on their passions, gifts, and special abilities.

Can you imagine, doing what you love and being able, not only to get paid for doing it, but possibly making even more that you might ever make working for someone else? What an incredible way to finance yourself and/or your family. Right?

This is better than winning the lottery. Most people who win the lottery are broke not long after the win, but not you. If you convert your passion to an income-generating machine, the money keeps coming in month after month.

Regardless, if you are like the rest of us, you have been told that you were never destined to be a business owner, now is the time to let go of that dark programming, reignite the passion that you may have denied yourself in the past, and start to see the world of opportunities that is all around you, right now.

You came to this planet with a distinct purpose, mission, passion, and message to share with the world. Even though the societal engineers of the industrial age would like you to believe that your only function was to work for someone else.

On the other hand, you have heard of those incredible rags to riches stories where someone with minimal skills, talent, and. or financial resources breaks through the barrier from ordinary life to join the rank of the “one percent.” Could you be one of them?

One thing is for sure, if you do not try, you will not be one of them.

What do you love?

Make a list of all the things you love to do, those things that when you are doing them, time just slips away. What activities did you get lost in when you were a child? Might you like to do them now?

Do you look up to someone? Anyone? What do they do for fun? Would you like to do that? If so, add it to your list.

Has anyone ever told you that you were particularly good at something? Did it seem so natural to you, that it did not seem noteworthy or magical to you (but it did for others)? Write it down.

Are people attracted to you and ask you to help them? Is there a particular theme that resonates throughout their requests for assistance? If so, that’s a clue.

After a few days of creating this list of “My Favorite Things,” go through them and rate them on a scale of 1 to 10, with ten being that you would love doing the most.

Next, you will have to figure out how to turn what you love into cash.

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How to Start Your Own Business

With millions of new startups during the pandemic, shouldn’t your new business be one of them? What kind of business would you open? Certainly, one that fits into the new economy, one with low overhead that you could start from home and take advantage of outsourcing any of the services you need to launch your new startup.

Today, you do not need a lot of capital to get your new business started and you can take advantage of all the digital and online support services to support your new endeavor.

Where are your passions? What are those things that you love to do more than anything? What are the activities, that when you do them, time just passes by? Next thing you know, hours have passed by, and it seemed like only minutes. That is when you and “in the zone,” when your passion is engaged, and this – if you could manage to find a way to get people to pay you for it – is the sweet spot of your entrepreneurial future.

Business opportunities come and go and markets shift and change over time which causes stress on any business, but if you are engaged in a business that you are extremely passionate about, you will have the wherewithal to sustain any bumps in the road for expanded survivability.

If you are going to get into the marketplace of the new emerging economy, you need to determine to the best of your ability, what would be the best investment for you to consider? Will you launch your new business based on goods or services?

Will you be selling a product that you manufacture or buy wholesale? Can you sell digital information? Can you provide services that can either be performed as labor or be delivered digitally?

Home Manufacture

Current examples include making and selling customized masks would be manufacturing.

Wholesale / Retail

If you buy something to resell, that would be buying at wholesale (low-priced or factory-direct) and selling it retail or for a higher price and you pocket the difference.

Digital Information

Could include anything from sharing your family recipes to how-to manuals in digital format, live-streaming demonstrations, or online training.

Regardless of how you decide to structure your business, try to make sure it is something that excites you, something that you are passionate about.

Your Business Name

Next, you will need a name. Your business name should be about your brand, and people should be able to figure out what you do by just hearing or reading the name of your company. If you are an individual providing a service, you could use your name, especially if you have somewhat of a following where people associate your name with what you do, like John Q. Public Accountant.

Do not decide on a name until you have been able to secure the dot-com for your business name, which you can get for less than $15.00. For example, if you want to call your business AAA Plumbing, and aaaplumbing.com is already taken, keep searching for variations of dot-com names, until you can find one that fits, and name your company that. So, if you were able to get aaasupremeplumbing.com and you felt like that would be a good brand for you, then get the dot-com, then register your business name (AAA Supreme Plumbing) with your local and state agencies.

Web Site

Hooking up a preliminary web site to your domain name would be the next thing you would want to do.  The website need not be extravagant, mostly an online business card which establishes your brand, and gives your potential online clientele a way to find out about you and contact you on the world wide web. A basic web site will run about $20 a month or less.

Physical Products

If you are selling a physical product, one that you package and ship, think about this: You could have Amazon, promote, sell, package, and ship your products for you by participating in their FBA (Fulfillment By Amazon) program. You package and ship your products to one of their warehouses, and they take care of the rest.

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New Pandemic Businesses are Killing It

You have heard the worst of it; most pre-pandemic businesses are down and out, or on their way out. Some workers were forced to work from home, while others were sent home with little or nothing to look forward to. No doubt, times are tough, but there is good news: New pandemic businesses are killing it.

Whether you are a fan of “when the going gets tough, the tough get going,” “when life gives you lemons make lemonade,” “growth necessitates change,” or “necessity is the mother of invention,” amidst these worst of times, even during the pandemic, millions of new businesses were launched, and they are making a killing while others suffer.

Your first reaction might be to be upset, but there is something invaluable to learn from the crisis, the lockdowns, and shut outs associated with it, and examining how a few Americans, roughly 1 out of 10, are taking advantage of the pandemic.

We were all in the same boat in 2020, but ten percent of us put on our thinking caps, took action, and started something new, new businesses that helped to establish independence and to secure our future well into the future, post-pandemic.

These were not the corporate moguls taking advantage of COVID-19, no, these are everyday citizens, half of whom have dipped their toe into the water of entrepreneurialism before, the other half? No businesses experience whatsoever, and they are satisfyingly successful, equally including telecommuters working from home who used their extra time to develop their new business, while the rest had been laid off, on unemployment, or had no job whatsoever.

Some of them launched new businesses that were hugely successful, others moderately, but successful enough to not have to depend on an employer, handouts, or charity to survive and feed their families.

Of all the 2020 new business startups, you might find something that appeals to you. You might even think of throwing your entrepreneurial hat into the right yourself. Or simply opening your mind to the idea of possibilities that may be waiting for you to launch your own inspired new business that will take you to the next level.

Starting your own business today is the answer to the question,

“If I am going to have to work from home, anyway, why not do it for myself?”

You do not have to be the victim or take the pandemic lying down.

I can be my own boss and not have to kiss anyone else’s arse. I can become the master of my own fate and destiny.

Here are some ideas that might inspire you.

Top 10 New Pandemic Businesses in 2020

1. Handmade Face Masks

Many handy home seamstresses are turning their skills into bank by creating unique facemasks. People are required to wear them anyway, might was well make a statement while you are forced to don PPE out in public, right?

2. Home Product Manufacturing

We are seeing a lot of people carving out their own niche using whatever crafty skills they might have. Artists, woodworkers, craftspeople of all kinds are making homemade products and selling them on eBay, Etsy, and Amazon. Creating new products and brand identity, while others are oblivious that these opportunities exist.

3. Physical Subscription Service

Now is the time to start your anything-you-can-think-of-delivered-to-your-door subscription service. America is forced to stay home, and Jeff Bezos need not be the only one providing everything to the rest of us on lockdown. Sure, you could deliver whatever you want onesie-twosie, but those new companies who are killing it are offering their wares on a recurring subscription basis. Everything from aromatherapy to farm produce and products, so the sky’s the limit.

If you need more help thinking of ideas for subscription service, here are some good ones: meals-in-a-box, family activities in a box, home beauty kits, natural spa-at-home kits, homemade organic products, just let your imagination flow, anything that can help make being on lockdown a little more tolerable.

4. Got a Way with Kids?

This is the time to create youth-focused learning exercises and games for children and young adults who are celled-in for the pandemic. You would be surprised at how many parents who are working from home are taking advantage of online activities that can keep the kids occupied while they are on conference calls or trying to get work done. If you can come up with toys, products, activities, apps, or online webinars that captures the minds of American youths, then now is the time to launch it

5. Online Coaching

You may have spent your life helping others out with their personal problems, and if these people are naturally attracted to you, you may be a Life Coach just waiting to be released into the mainstream. In these tough times, people need other people and they are reaching out online to form associations with life coaches who can help them make the best of these tough times, via phone, Zoom, Skype, Facebook Messenger, however you can connect to your potential clientele. Life Coaching can cover any areas of specialty, such as Business Coaching, Wellness Coaching, Financial Coaching, Spiritual Coaching, etc… Get your FREE Life Coach Certification today and start tomorrow.

6. Virtual Personal Trainer

With gyms shutting down all over America, the trainers are taking to the Internet and are developing online virtual classes for pandemic shut-ins. You could od this. Anyone could do this. Anything from working with free weights to yoga and meditation sessions.

7. Digital Marketing Specialist

As you may have guessed, with all this online activity and rush to the Internet to conduct business in America, there is an increasing demand for digital marketing specialists who can help to fill the promotional gaps in any business’ attempts to profit from online exposure. Services cover the entire spectrum of marketing, but you could specialize in what you are already good at, such as web site design, content creation, Facebook posting, social media management, SEO services, online branding and advertising, or other digital marketing consulting. You could consider becoming a certified digital marketing specialist.

8. Virtual Teacher, Trainer, or Tutor

With all this extra time on their hands, people are taking the time to expand their horizons, and learning new things, so that post-pandemic, they will have a better outlook and increased possibility of living a better life. Help them learn something new, increase their skillset, speak a second language, get ready to take college entrance exams, or help young online students get better grades.

9. Pet Products and Services

With more people being restricted to their homes, the pet companion industry is taking off like a rocket. Pets are making perfect home companions. If you offer a mobile pet washing/grooming service or can come up with special diet delivery, customizable pet treats, or toys, this could be the perfect time to launch your pet company.

10. Virtual Assistant

Long before the pandemic, the Virtual Assistant (VA) industry was a well-established goldmine for people (primarily office workers) who wanted to work from home and they are still dominating the online job market. Thanks to the coronavirus, this is still a huge expanding marketplace, and there is no reason you shouldn’t be doing this, if you have skills, such as data entry, phone skills, or online marketing.

I know, you are wondering what is next? Here are the Top 20.

Top 20 New Pandemic Businesses in 2020

1. Handmade Face Masks
2. Home Product Manufacturing
3. Physical Subscription Service
4. Youth Services
5. Online Coaching and Consulting
6. Virtual Personal Trainer
7. Digital Marketing Specialist
8. Virtual Teacher, Trainer, or Tutor
9. Pet Products and Services
10. Virtual Assistant
11. Commercial Cleaning Services
12. Delivery and Errand Services
13. Landscaping and Lawn Care
14. Telehealth Services
15. Home Improvement
16. Telecommuter Team Support
17. Online Babysitting
18. Graphic Designer
19. App Developer
20. Accounting and Bookkeeping

Of course, the handmade face masks opportunity will fade quickly following the pandemic mandates are alleviated. But the rest of these new businesses are expected to thrive following the pandemic threat.

Shouldn’t your business be one of them?

 

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Now is the Time to Start Your Own Business

Maybe now is the time that you took your own survival into your own hands. At any other time, it might have been too frightening a concept to consider starting your own business, but now may be the best time ever, as more people are starting their own businesses than ever before in history.

If you have been waiting for a sign, here it is:

Now is the Time to Start Your Own Business

And it makes sense, when faced with the growing seriousness of the pandemic, people are either content with telecommuting or not, and others are tired of resigning themselves to unemployment, so they are taking matters into their hands.

If in the new economy, you are going to be working from home, you might as well consider working for yourself, right? Be your own boss. No one else’s arse to kiss. The buck stops with you.

It is time to put yourself in the driver’s seat.

Of course, you are concerned about not knowing how much revenue you will be able to accrue in your own venture, it is uncertain, but you could make far more working for yourself than working for someone else. And think of the advantages of not having someone tell you what to do “or else.”

Almost immediately, if you have never thought about going into business for yourself, you will start to talk yourself out of the idea, thinking thoughts of unworthiness, “but I don’t have an MBA,” or other negative self-talk designed to keep you from exerting your right to independence. Do not let that hold you back.

Millions of Americans are starting new businesses right now, and half of them have no experience whatsoever.

Or you might think that you do not have what it takes, like the investment seed capital to start your business. That should not stop you either, because there are so many businesses that you can start with little or no investment, especially if you take advantage of digital and business support services to help you pick up the slack in running your own venture.

Right now, we are seeing that the businesses that are thriving are those with little or no overhead. Brick and mortar businesses are cashing in their leases and embracing online technologies, and your new business could be one of them.

The key is finding the right marketable product, skill, or service that is something that feels so good to you, that pursuing a self-made career in that thing would not even appear to be like work at all. Ideally, your business venture would be something that you are really passionate about as you share it with others and rake in the cash for doing so.

You came to this planet with a unique set of skills and abilities. Now is the time to embrace the gifts God gave you and let others pay you for doing so. This is the way life was meant to be lived, each one of us fulfilling our own destiny. Industry has tried to make us believe that there is nothing to look forward to other than trying to get a good education and a good job (and they have done a really good job of that over the last 150 years, but we’re not taking it anymore).

 

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Make Your Own Work from Home Job Online

Feeling like you are missing the boat? You see your friends are telecommuting and working from home but you have not been afforded the same opportunity. How would you like to create your own work from home opportunity?

You could wait to be invited to remote working for your employer or even pitch your willingness to work for your current employer by telecommuting, or you could become the master of your own fate and start working from home under your own terms and start your own work at home business.

There are tons of opportunities for you to take a stab on, and in most self-employed remote workers, you will find yourself freelancing, offering services to a few clients (or many clients) to create your full-time income stream.

So, keep that in mind as you prepare to more your self-powered job online, and also note that the remote work services that you offer to provide can be anything you like to do. You need not pigeonhole yourself into any one particular offering.

Of course, before you make the leap, you will need all the tools necessary to conduct your services from your at-home office.

When you start putting yourself out there, you will tend to offer more for less. This is based on insecurity when you are starting out, which may lead to your being overwhelmed, with more work than you bargained for.

If you can avoid burnout, you can take the time to hone your offerings so that you can still offer a value but get more than what you are actually worth. And believe me, you are worth far more than you think you are.

Think about this, whatever any employer is willing to pay you or someone in your field, your value is actually five-times what you or anyone else is getting paid. Now that you are your own CEO, you are entitled to a bigger piece of the action.

Start out with what you think is reasonable, then prepare to continue to raise your rates.

As early as possible, try to wrap your head around the idea that you are it. When you are working for someone else, you are at their mercy, but you have someone to complain to, someone to fix things when they break, someone to back you up when needed. When you are on your own, it is all you. There is no one else to fall back on. This is the price to pay for independence.

You will be in charge of rewarding yourself. No one is there to recognize you for your efforts but you. You are the only one to impress with your prowess, so it is up to you also to reward yourself for a job well done.

You are responsible for your own bookkeeping until you grow to a point where you can hire out that part of your work from home enterprise. If you are not keeping the books, sending out invoices, tracking expenses, then you are not getting paid. It may not be your most desired duties (and it often is not among freelancers working from home) but you must do it unless you consider your services to be a hobby on-the-side.

As a self-employed teleworker, you are responsible for figuring out how to provide your own insurance, benefits package, as well as reporting and paying taxes, because you are now not just one of the many people who work at home, you are your own boss of your own home business.

The good news: No one gets to tell you what to do, what not to do, how to act, dress, or boss you around. You get to join the others who are working from home and enjoying all the benefits of remote work.