Checklist for Starting a Home-Based Business

Let’s check the next item on our to-do-list. Write down the material assets you already own.  Do you have a computer? A desk? A telephone? It’s possible that these are all you’ll need to get started.

Check around your home and/or home office to see what you have on hand that could be used to help get your business going right away. Look at everything as a possible business tool.  You probably already have pens, pencils, notepads, paper clips and plastic storage bins you could use.

But if you don’t have any of these basics, there is still hope.  Perhaps you have a friend who will let you use their computer.  You could offer to do something for them, such as write a term paper or babysit, in exchange for the favor.

Don’t forget about public resources, such as the library. This will give you access to essential equipment to get you started.

Yes, you can launch a business from a public library computer.  Just be sure you know how your personal information is handled, and make sure you log off every time you use their computer.

I don’t recommend the public library except as a last resort.  But if you can’t do it any other way, this is a possibility.

The next thing you want to think about is how you work best. Are you a “people” person? Do you prefer to get out, mingle, and network to find business, or would you rather work by yourself?

This is an important part of determining your strengths and weaknesses. If you prefer face-to-face contact, you probably won’t see your best results by staying at home behind a desk all day.

Likewise, if you love writing and creating, and find that the hours fly by when you’re left alone with your computer, you need to concentrate on building your business with this in mind.

So make a list of your personal preferences for working conditions, and while you’re at it, write down your strengths and weaknesses. Be honest with yourself. What are your best selling points, and where do you need to make some improvements?
The fifth thing you need to do is organize your workspace.  Whether you have to work from the kitchen table, use a corner desk in the living room, or have a fully-equipped home office to get started, organization is crucial.

Time spent looking for your favorite pen, a list of phone numbers, or a notepad with all your ideas on it is time you could have used to be making money.

Many successful businesses have been started out of a basement, or spare bedroom, but they wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without organization.  Don’t waste valuable time going through stacks of papers, wondering what you did with the notes you jotted down for a fantastic domain name, but now you can’t recall. You’ll really be disappointed if you miss out on that URL by a few days because you couldn’t remember exactly what it was.

Or worse yet, you put the notes aside, thinking you’d take care of it later, but when you finally decided to act on the idea, find that someone else had come up with the idea, too, but they had taken action.

How do I know this? – Because I didn’t follow my own advice, and that happened to me.

So let me pass along to you something an attorney, who was a client in my research business said to me one time.  I told him about an idea I had, and he was impressed.  He thought it was a great idea, and said, “You need to take action now. If you’ve thought of it, someone else will too, or possibly already has.”

I put it off, didn’t do anything about it, and sure enough, within a few months, I heard an advertisement for “my” product.
This was before the time when the internet began to be so popular.  Now things happen in an instant.  You might check on a URL this morning, decide to think about it, and find that the URL is gone this afternoon.

We’ve covered five things you need to do before you ever start a business. Number six is crucial, and something that many people find extremely difficult to do.  In fact, it may be one of the biggest reasons why they don’t stay in business for very long. You must – repeat – must -treat your business like a business – if you don’t, no one else will either. Establish office hours, and make sure everyone knows you’re really at work.

Otherwise, family and friends may take the attitude that you can do whatever you like, when you like, just because you’re self-employed. This is your job –whether you’re doing it after working for someone else all day, on the weekends, or you’ve left your job, and decided this is how you’re going to earn 100% of your income.

You can’t work on web sites; develop digital products; host radio shows, or even think about business if you’re on the phone with your sister who wants to complain about her marriage; the neighbor who wants to gossip about the newest member of the neighborhood; or best friend who is jealous that you’ve made the leap to the world of the self-employed while she’s still working as a temp because she can’t find something she really wants to do.

But unless they’re willing to help you buy groceries, pay the electric bill, and put gas in your car, they’re taking up valuable time when you need to be working on ideas that will generate income for you.

Don’t let people take money out of your pocket by robbing you of the time you need to work on your business.

Number seven on my list of things to tell you about is to set some goals. How much income do you need? Are you replacing an existing paycheck?  How many clients will you need to get you started toward that amount?

Where do you want your business to be a year from now? What do you see yourself doing a year from now? Five years from now?

Make a list of your projections, and put them in a safe place. You should review your list every six months to a year, because as your business grows, you’ll probably find you need to refine these goals. You can see where you’ve exceeded your expectations, and where you need to make improvements.

Coming Up With Business Ideas

I encounter people all the time, who when they learn I am in business for myself, immediately say, “I wish I could do that.”

When I tell them they can, very often they just shake their heads, and say, “Oh no, I could never do that.”  What a self-defeating attitude!  Yes, you can own your own business.

What do you need to do to get started?  Well, that depends.  If you’ve never been in business before it will require that you change your mind set.  But many people have been in business of some kind, and just don’t think of it that way.

Have you ever sold Tupperware or Avon? Those are businesses.  What about a paper route? That’s a business, too.  Go back and think about all the things you’ve done.  That brings us to the process I always recommend you do when thinking about starting a new business.

For me, this process is all about making lists. Now, I know a guy who says he never makes a list, and if that works for him – great.  But I have to tell you, it’s been my experience that once you get started generating ideas, your brain will start working overtime.

You’ll come up with some things that you think are so fantastic you couldn’t possibly forget them, but just try and remember what it was when you finally get a chance to work on it, and can’t remember it.

You don’t have to write a book, but take a moment to get it all down on paper. Making notes will give you something to refer back to while your brain cells are generating new ideas.

I suggest you use a spiral one-subject notebook.  Most of them have 70 pages or so, and aren’t too bulky to carry around with you.

First, make a list of your experience, knowledge and skills.  Starting with what you already know will give you an advantage over someone who decides to start a business they know nothing about.

For example, if you don’t have any food service experience, and decide to open a restaurant, you could be headed for a big disappointment – not to mention lots of unexpected expenses and problems.

While the major cause of business failure is under-capitalization, underestimating the importance of experience, knowledge and skills has to run a very close second.

So before you do anything else, write down the jobs you’ve held, and what duties you performed in that job.  Did you answer phones; make copies; make deliveries; wait on customers; or do word processing?

How specialized was your job? Did you need a license or certification in order to be hired for that position? Can that same license or certification be transferred to your privately-owned business?

Sometimes that isn’t possible because of State or Federal regulations, but it’s worth investigating to see if you can use it to bolster your credibility.  If not, that doesn’t mean it was a waste of time and effort. The experience you gained by having that license or certificate can still be used to start your own business and give you credibility in the field.

So put it all on paper. It’s easier to analyze when you see it in black and white.

After you’ve made a list of your experiences, you need to make a second list. Skip over a few pages in that notebook (to leave room for additional notes as they come to you). This time I want you to write down what interests you.  Make a list of topics that hold your attention and get you excited and enthusiastic.

Look over the list.  Does one thing reach out and grab your attention more than the others? Does it make sense? Are you really interested in the topic, or are you just writing it down because you think you might be able to make money doing it?

I like to use the example of real estate.  Right now the market is a little crazy, but if you look at the Sunday paper, you’ll see lots of real estate agents listing properties for sale.

That’s because there’s money to be made selling real estate.  But it doesn’t mean you should get a license when you’d rather be entering the field of copywriting, or running a pet grooming business, or providing the services of a virtual assistant.

If you’re not truly interested in what you’re doing, you’ll have a hard time keeping the business going, and you won’t be any better off than you were – working for someone else in a job you hated.

What’s worse than working for someone else, and hating your job? Working for yourself, and hating your job.

Starting a business requires a serious commitment if you want to be successful.  Take some time to analyze your preferences, and go in that direction first.

Small Business Basics

How does a person get started in business?

The first thing you need to realize is that everyone is selling something. You may not think of yourself as a salesperson, but you are. When you apply for a job, you’re trying to sell that prospective employer on hiring you.

When you answer the employer’s phone, you’re trying to sell that prospective customer or client on using your employer’s services, or buying their product.

The fact is we’re all selling something. You are offering your goods or services, and you want someone to buy them. You may be trying to sell someone on an idea you think will make you a lot of money, or you may simply be trying to sell your kids on eating their vegetables at dinner by telling them Popeye eats spinach.

So the sooner you get used to the idea that you must sell something in order to be in business, the sooner you’ll be on the road to making your dream a reality.

- Teresa -

Don’t Wait on the Bailout

If you’re thinking of changing your name to Aretha Franklin, and making “Rescue Me” your new theme song, I would suggest you make other plans for awhile. If you think the Great Bailout is going to solve all the economic problems overnight, guess again.

Even though the numbers boggle the mind, we won’t be seeing 7.8 billion of your tax dollars flowing freely any time soon. In fact, the Secretary of the Treasury has 45 days to come up with a plan to figure out which of the toxic debt he’s going to buy first.

Even after that, the funds will enter the economy in waves; not all at once. So even though this is supposed to get the banks back to doing business again, there’s no guarantee the banks will even cooperate.

In the meantime, things will continue to slow down, and it’s up to individuals to devise a plan of action for their own businesses. Do not wait around thinking everything is going to be hunky-dory in a few days.

Get up and get moving. I’ve posted some ideas for giving your business a shot in the arm, and they are listed in the left navigation of this blog under the Pages section.

For more information, visit my coaching web site: Shoestring Business Coach.

You can also listen to my radio show on
Listen to Teresa Beeman on internet talk radio

- Teresa -

Starting a Business

With all the chaos going on in the stock market, the economy and the election, sometimes it’s hard to maintain perspective.

The fact is, markets go up, and markets go down. The economy will be better at times than others, and in 32 days, Vote ’08 will be in the history books.

The real question is: “What are you doing to make your business more successful?”

I’m a real proponent of being a business owner, and being one’s own boss. I like developing services and creating products I can market to clients and customers.

While I realize that not everyone is cut out to be a business owner, and many people aren’t the least bit interested in being in business for themselves, I find a great deal of satisfaction in being the ultimate decision maker on issues that directly affect my life and my family.

I realized in 1989 that there is no such thing as job security, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. I did some personal assessment, figured out a way to earn a living, and I’ve been doing it ever since.

Nearly 20 million Americans have lost their jobs since the first of 2008. Some of them found new jobs, some didn’t. I wonder how many of them have started their own businesses.

According to the Small Business Administration, America is in the midst of the largest entrepreneurial surge ever recorded. This includes everything from internet-based businesses to developing products to offering services.

Sometimes all it takes is finding the right direction to head in, and a person can get going on a new business venture.

If you would like some guidance on starting a home-based business of your own, you can find some tips that might help by going here: 7 Tips for Starting a Home-Based Business on a Shoestring.

What are you waiting for? Get started now!

- Teresa –

Get a Plan – Have a Business

With everything that’s going on in our economy, it’s a better time than ever to start your own business. Did you know that 89% of the people who make over $50,000 a year own some kind of business? It’s true. They’re participating in financial self-defense.

There is no way to predict what will evolve as the economic landscape shifts and changes. But we can be alert and informed, and make decisions based on those details.

T. Boone Pickens says, “A fool with a plan can outsmart a genius with no plan.” In this example, a genius is not the better role.

Have you ever known someone who thought they were so smart they thought they could get out of any undesirable situation – no matter what happened?

I went to high school with some guys who were convinced that regardless of the events they encountered, they could always figure a way out.

I remember them talking one afternoon in 11th grade English class about how they had figured out a plan to escape from any difficult situation -whether it be physical, financial or other. They were convinced that not only was it possible to enact their plan, they couldn’t conceive of it not succeeding, as long as they firmly believed it would work.

I’m not sure what happened to all of them. One became an attorney and one a college professor. I heard one was involved in trying to rehabilitate habitual felons, and another lived “somewhere” in the eastern part of the state.

So Tom, John, Doug and Mike, if you’re out there reading this, I’d love to hear whether your plan is still working – or if it ever worked. Let me know, and I’ll tell my readers about it.

- Teresa -

Potato-Potahto

The discussion about the  mess on Wall Street, in the financial community at-large, and on Main Street all boils down to semantics, and I’m surprised I haven’t heard someone say it before now.

First the President calls for a “bailout”, and everyone is echoing the word.  Then the members of Congress start getting angry calls and emails from their constituents, and suddenly the bailout becomes a “rescue”.

Semantics – the meaning, or an interpretation of the meaning, of a word, sign, sentence, etc.  Is it a bailout, or is it a rescue? Is there any difference? Decide for yourself.

Bailout:

Dictionary.com – an instance of coming to the rescue, especially financially

American Heritage Dictionary – a rescue from financial difficulties

Rescue:

Dictionary.com – to free or deliver from confinement, violence, danger or evil

American Heritage Dictionary – to set free, as from danger or imprisonment

So if a bailout is basically a rescue, what’s the difference in the two plans? Probably not much.

As for rescue meaning to free or deliver from confinement or imprisonment, I bet we could find a few corporate bigwigs who ought to be cooling their jets in a confined area for putting us into this mess in the first place.

What were these people thinking? Or were they even thinking of anything at all – except how much money they were going to pocket?

Americans are tired of footing the bill for irresponsible decisions made by politicians, corporate executives and those in charge of the finances of this country.  These people have no regard for the future outcome of the small business owner, much less the average citizen.

Yet, if Congress doesn’t do something – and I’m not sure what – the meltdown will continue.  Financial experts disagree on whether there will be another Depression.  And if there is, how long it will last.

Some say we must grease the wheels of commerce to get things moving again.  Others say if we can just tough it out for a little while, things will improve on their own.

How long is a “little while”? Six months – OK.  I think we can do that.  A year? Yes, a little harder, but we’re tough.  Two years?  Five?  The fact is, they don’t really know – anymore than you or I do.

And if we do bail them out (oh, excuse me, “rescue” them), how will we know they won’t go back to their greedy ways?  This type of thing can be hidden for years, then blow up in our faces – much as this one did.

There is no excuse for what is happening to our economy right now, and the people responsible ought to be ashamed of themselves.

Instead, they’re probably trying to figure out how to save their own skins, and wondering where to find their next victims.

-Teresa-

Motivating Yourself To Do Business

Staying motivated is one of the hardest things about being in business. Being dependent on a paycheck is usually enough to motivate you to get out of the bed when you’re employed by someone else. But what about when you’re a small business owner?

Even if it’s a brick and mortar operation that requires a physical presence, sometimes it’s awfully tempting to just pull the covers back up over your head, and sleep the day away. Of course, that doesn’t do much to help pay the bills.

So how does a person get motivated and stay motivated? Well, the threat of being bounced out onto the street if your rent or mortgage isn’t paid may do it.  But that doesn’t mean you’ll be happy about it.

What I think is missing in many people’s lives today is some kind of work that rewards them far and above receiving a paycheck. Google notwithstanding, employers really don’t care about their employees anymore, and that is painfully evident in the demise of Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, and most recently, AIG.

If those people making decisions at the corporate level were a little less concerned about their golden parachutes, and a little more concerned about the employees who are truly responsible for getting the work out, we wouldn’t be in this mess.

Is it any wonder that the average person doesn’t have any desire to go help fill the coffers of the behemoths that cause financial misery for the little guy?

That’s another reason I’m glad I don’t work for a corporate entity.  Yes, it’s true. If I don’t work, I don’t get paid.  But at least I’m in control of my own business decisions, and the security of that business.

I’m not worried about someone else making risky investments that will result in me not knowing whether I can buy groceries next week.

Being in business for myself is a wonderful thing.

-Teresa-

Integrity in Business

It seems that many companies in today’s business world are leaving out a very important element of doing business.  They either have forgotten, or worse, never learned about integrity.

Whether you’re offering a product or service, the principle is the same. Be honest about what a customer is getting for their money, then deliver that, and more. Whatever they are buying from you, you want to be able to deal with them again.

You want them to refer their friends, relatives and business associates to you. But that won’t happen if what you’re selling isn’t what you promised.  The secret to continued success is loyal customers and repeat sales.

Customers, who are satisfied with a purchase, are great. But loyalty is what counts. You want them to keep coming back for more of what you can deliver, and you want them to tell the world about how terrific your products and services are.

But if you disappoint them, you can be sure they will spread that news, too.  While the old adage says that there is no such thing as bad publicity, it doesn’t apply if you’re trying to develop a lasting relationship with a customer base.

Not only do you want to provide quality in the sale, it never hurts to give a bonus. People love getting something extra when they buy.

If the customer feels good about what they bought, and were pleasantly surprised with a bonus, they are far more likely to come back to you when they’re ready to buy again.

The bonus can be something as simple as a “Top Ten List” related to their purchase. Or it could be a calendar magnet with your business info on it.

I met someone recently who puts business tips on the back of his business cards.  He says people line up to get those cards. Not only is he promoting himself, he’s giving them a little something extra.

Look at what your business offers. How can you make improvements, and give a little something extra? It could go a long way toward increasing your visibility and your sales.

-Teresa-

Back to Business

Beeman on Business is back in business. After technical glitches galore, everything is up and running again, and I’m excited to be sharing more information with you than ever before.

All my sites are either already updated, or soon will be, with new and exciting things to come. New classes, better resources, a brand new training center, with tips to help you make your life better, and your business more successful.

I have a new radio show I’ll be telling you about, and I’m really excited about that. I’m developing new services, and can’t wait to share those with you.

On the new schedule will be the aforementioned weekly radio show, updated calendars so you can readily check for classes that interest you, and much, much more.

I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to Fall. I like the cooler temps here in the mountains, and the changing colors of the leaves that come with them.

Before we know it, 2008 will be coming to a close, and with it, people will start to make those resolutions to do things differently.  If you want to start next year off in a better frame of mind, and making more money, visit Beeman on Business every day for ways to do just that.

-Teresa -

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