Home Business

Does Your Home Business Accept Credit Cards?

Does your home business accept credit cards? Offering the convenience of credit cards in your home business may be less of a luxury than a necessity these days.

Luckily online payment services often offer an easy way to take credit cards saving you from the hassle of needing to work out some other payment arrangement with a client or customer.

Why having your home business accept credit cards is important?

• Adds convenience to the sales process whether your customer is paying online, at your home or on the road.
• Provides the added security of fraud protection making the transaction safer and easier for both buyer and seller.
• Is a much better option than money orders or personal checks, pretty much the only other alternatives to a credit card transaction.

Options for having your home business accept credit cards. As Justin says in the video above, your options include:

• Going through PayPal or a similar online service that provides a built-in and easy way to offer your customers payment through credit cards.
• Approaching you local bank to see whether they can provide you with merchant services including quick and easy hookup to allow you to accept credit cards.
• Invest in a portable credit card "swiper" requiring no phone or Internet connection especially useful if you are regularly on the road and without an online hookup.

So how about you? Does your home business accept credit cards? If not, why not, and how can you rectify the situation to increase convenience for your clients or customers and eventually increase sales for your business? Look into accepting credit cards in your home business today!

How to Dominate the Market with A Home Business Website or Blog

Nowadays with so many powerful and inexpensive online tools available, starting a home based business online with a Website or blog has never been easier, so how do you dominate the market of your choice?

My work area
Originally uploaded by Malcolm Tredinnick

Platforms varying from WordPress to Squidoo and many others are available for little or no upfront investment but the time required to use them.

To beat the growing competition out there, it is important first to know about and focus on your market establishing your Website or blog as a source of expertise in your niche.

To learn more, read "The Little Fish Guide to Niche Dominance" from DirJournal.com and start planning your home based business Website to dominate your topic niche.

Home Business Strategy is Key to Success

Just as you wouldn't play a game of chess without some idea of how to win, so trying to start a home business or any small business without a strategy will probably return poor results.

It's about rules and strategy
Originally uploaded by pshutterbug

George Rodriguez of PowerHomeBiz.com makes these three suggestions when "Choosing Your Business Strategy":

• Decide whether to lead or follow. Will you innovate in the kind of service you provide, create your own product etc. or have you identified a trend that another business may have pioneered but you can jump on? (Some businesses are a bit of both.)
• Decide between niche and a broad market. And remember what marketing guru Seth Godin says about the dangers of targeting that broad market in the middle.
• Decide between Wal-mart and Neiman-Marcus. As Rodriguez explains with these two brand examples, it's important to determine the kind of products or services you will offer

Remember that just as in a chess game, when circumstances change, you're strategy will likely need to change as well. Give your approach time to work but don't be afraid to try something else if it isn't working.

Take the Mystery Out of Home Business: Become a Mystery Shopper

Take the mystery out of home business or home based business and become a mystery shopper either as a way of earning supplemental income or as part of an existing business.

Sure the "mystery" woman interviewed in this video from Martin Lewis' MoneySavingExpert.com made just £500 (about $770) last tax year and only fits her mystery shopping in part-time around her lifestyle.

But she also saved a considerable amount in hotel bills and meals for which she was eventually reimbursed so there may be a business model here.

As Wikipedia explains:

Mystery shopping was standard practice by the early 1940s as a way to measure employee integrity. Tools used for mystery shopping assessments range from simple questionnaires to complete audio and video recordings.

Starting a mystery shopping business could mean contracting out with businesses for your services on your own or registering through one of the many online mystery shopping companies.

But take care to avoid mystery shopper scams and pick only the most reputable sites, warns Janet Richard's. Check out Janet's MysteryShopping Reviews.com for more on how to tell the good opportunities from the bad.

Online Advertising For Your Home Business: A Web Marketer's Guide

If you've started a home business, chances are online advertising may be a great tool to attract customers.

Advertising
Originally uploaded by Wrote

But with limited experience in online marketing, what's a home based business entrepreneur to do in order to shorten that learning curve and start making sales today.

Well, fortunately online advertising is not all that different from advertising in traditional media, says one expert, and a few simple tips should be enough to at least get you started.

Follow along as Web marketing expert Kim T. Gordon takes you through the process in her post "Online Advertising Made Simple" from Entrepreneur.com.

Online Tips for MLM Home Business

MLM or multi-level marketing can offer an excellent home business opportunity with the right product and company and putting your MLM business online can definitely help with generating leads.

playing with the web
Originally uploaded by A writer afoot

Simple tips for getting your multi-level or network marketing business online include:

• Choosing a domain name for your business
• Creating a Website showcasing your product
• Choosing a Web host for your Website

For more on how to create a Web presence for your home based MLM business check out Michael Smith's "6 Steps You Need To Set-up Your MLM Business Online" at OneAverageJoe.com or our own post "Get Your MLM Business Online" at the MLMMarketing-Weblog.

To choose the multi-level marketing opportunity that is right for you, see our "How to Find the Right MLM Business Opportunity" article also at MLMMarketing-Weblog.com.

Challenges of the Working From Home Lifestyle

The home business entrepreneur faces many challenges when it comes to the working from home lifestyle.

Working From Home
Originally uploaded by brad montgomery

Among the most important, according to Matthew Toren of Blogtrepreneur.com, are the need for:

• Socialization. Hey, let's face it. You're at home all alone.
• Independence. Remember, just because you work from home doesn't mean you are not working and can go out and run errands for people.
• Productivity. If you couldn't do it at the office, don't do it at home during working hours!

Happily, the solution to all of these problems is to simply act in the same professional manner when running your home based business as you would when at work in an office.

For more thoughts on the plight of the home based entrepreneur, read Matthew's full post on "Three Common Challenges and Tips for Running a Home-Based Business" on Blogtrepreneur.

Layoffs Lead to Growth in Home Business

Layoffs are leading to growth in the small business sector including home business as some who have gotten their pink slips or cannot find work are turning to self-employment.

Pink Slip
Originally uploaded by Mykl Roventine

According to a report from Kiplinger Small Business, franchises are also experiencing increased popularity as some laid off workers turn entrepreneurial.

But home based business especially, which already makes up 52 percent of small business in the US, sees growth with economic downturns, as economist Brian Headd of the Small Business Administration explains:

Non-employer firms have the highest growth when the labor market struggles and the lowest growth when the labor market is doing well.

Look for home based business to grow in the near future and, of course, businesses that start in the living room could transform into more traditional small businesses and continue to grow as the economy recovers.

Tax Planning for Your Home Business

As with any small business, a home business or home based business can benefit from tax planning.

In fact, many home business entreptreneurs may still not realize how much flexibility they have in planning for the future by making intelligent decisions about their business earnings.

David John Marotta, president of Marotta Wealth Management, explains how products like the "solo 401k" can help fund your retirement and how the right tax planning can help your business meet your life goals instead of simply being self-sustaining.

Watch Marotta's video on this page and for more information on tax planning for your work from home business see "Tax Planning for the Entrepreneur or New Small Business" from MoneyInstructor.com.

Start a Home Based Snow Plowing Business

If you have a truck with four-wheel drive, a snow plow and a garage to store both, you likely have all the necessary tools to launch a home based snow plowing business.

snow plow for sale
Originally uploaded by jronaldlee

Depending on where you reside, especially in the northern U.S., you likely will find sufficient work during storms like the recent snowfall that blanketed the U.S. northeast.

To turn your resources into a viable business, you'll need to:

• Calculate your expenses from tires to gas to maintenance of your equipment.
• Set your prices based on making enough profit over your costs and taking into account the amount of time you will be spending on the job or en route to customers.
• Market your business by talking to neighbors about your services, distributing flyers especially during the winter months and even setting up a simple Website or blog with information on your radius or service and prices.

For more advice, read "Starting a Snow Removal Business" at Starting-a-SmallBusiness.com.