One of the disadvantages of running a business from home for me is that my work is always in the next room and I can sit down to it any time. I tend to be most productive in the morning, and there are certain times during the week when I don’t work, but otherwise, I don’t schedule my work time. When I worked a job outside the home, I had a specific schedule and left work at work.

I definitely don’t want to become a clock watcher, but some days my lack of schedule allows me to procrastinate too much or waste too much time. Today has been one of those days. I’ve really not accomplished much at all, but I’ve been at my desk for quite a few hours.

I’m thinking that if I had more of a set schedule I might end up being more productive during that time. If I only work certain hours I may be less tempted to indulge in time wasting activities. Without a schedule it’s easy to think I’ll finish the work later.

How do you handle work time for your home business? Do you keep a schedule or just totally wing it?

Every day I see offers for the latest “must have” business tools. And every day I see people asking for recommendations for something that will help them increase sales, improve their marketing skills, gain more website visitors, work more efficiently, build a better website, or countless other “remedies” for what they may lack in business skills.

There are a great many extremely helpful business tools and resources out there. I believe in using them to help your business grow and I even promote some myself. But many times I think we forget that we’ve always had the most important tools. And often we just seem to forget to use them.

Dawn Rivers Baker, aka The Journal Blogger, posted them today in To Deal with Recession, Use Your Head: “What you need to be successful is lodged between your ears. It’s called a brain. It houses things like analytic ability, creativity, insight, communications tools and imagination.”

I’d like to add one more skill to her list…. common sense. Too often when choosing a home business or looking for ways to improve one, common sense seems to escape us. Remembering to use common sense when evaluating business opportunities and business tools will save you money, time, and help you avoid frustration.

If someone is making promises that common sense tells you are impossible, listen to yourself. If your common sense dictates that a recommended method just isn’t something you could ever see yourself doing, don’t buy into it.

Of course success often requires moving outside your comfort zone, and if what you’re doing isn’t working, it’s probably time for a new method or tool. But if something doesn’t seem right to you, investigate further, look for alternatives, and use your common sense and the rest of your brain. Trust yourself!

Southern Living at Home (SLAH) is reportedly for sale. SLAH’s parent company, Time, Inc. wants to refocus on print and digital brands and get out of the direct sales business.

Source: http://blog.al.com/businessnews/2009/01/time_puts_southern_living_at_h.html

Southern Living at Home consultants sell home decor products such as ironware, pottery, glassware, books and magazines.

Learn more about the company by visiting our Home Decor direct sales company directory at
http://www.homedecorbusiness.com/

Image courtesy of pink_raindrops.

While many of us are very optimistic that President-elect Obama will lead us out of this economic mess, it’s clear that we will start 2009 with rising unemployment and a continued slowdown of economic activity. Take steps to recession-proof your business.

Direct sales consultants may already be seeing a dramatic increase in team member sign-ups and inquiries about joining their company. Many people will be looking to replace lost income by starting a home business, and others will be thinking about adding a home business as insurance against a possible job loss. While adding team members is always worthwhile and can temporarily increase your income because of sales to new consultants, keep in mind that what drives direct sales income is sales.

But just when you need more sales, your customers, and your new recruits’ customers are likely to be cutting back on “extras” and spending just for necessities. Now is the time to identify and focus on marketing products that will sell despite customers’ shrinking budgets.

The Lipstick Theory, or lipstick effect, suggests that there is a category of products that will show increased sales during times of economic uncertainty. After the terrorist attacks in 2001, the chairman of Estée Lauder, Leonard Lauder, noticed that lipstick sales increased. He theorized that women were buying inexpensive indulgences like lipstick to treat themselves, instead of buying more extravagant luxuries like designer clothing or expensive jewelry. The Lipstick Theory remains unproven, and in fact, recent sales figures for lipstick suggest it’s not accurate, but I think there is merit in considering it when deciding what to sell during a recession.

In tough economic times, it stands to reason that people will at least cut back on spending for non-essentials. When we buy, we’ll be looking for lower priced alternatives for our purchases. During a recession or depression, the best positioned companies sell what economists refer to as “inferior goods” – products that people substitute for their favorites that they can no longer afford. The lipstick effect may in fact be due to “inferior product” substitutes for things that have been given up.

By focusing your promotions on your less expensive products and services, you may be able to sustain your direct sales income. Promote lipstick instead of spa treatments, costume jewelry instead of precious metals and stones, and toys and games to entertain the kids at home. Focus on budget meals and meal-stretching foods like pasta and rice. Teach your customers how to accessorize to make an outfit look new without actually buying a new dress.

Anything related to frugal living and do-it-yourself should be popular. Re-using and re-purposing household items saves money. People will be looking for coupons, discounts, and money back guarantees.

By thinking about how people spend and what they do to try to save during hard economic times, you can focus your marketing and continue to contribute to your family income.

I’m just not a good listener. I don’t mean personally….. if you call me on the phone or we meet face-to-face, I’ll listen intently to anything you have to say. But when you present information to me online in audio or video format, I just can’t seem to listen to it.

Maybe it’s because I can read so much faster than most audio or video presentations run. Or maybe it’s because I can skip over the parts that don’t interest me. Perhaps my attention span is too short or it’s just my learning style. Whatever the reason, I just don’t have the patience to sit through more than about a minute of audio or video.

I’m not suggesting that you shouldn’t use audio or video on websites – they are proven marketing methods. But since I’m sure there are others like me, I’m suggest you consider a mix that includes text. Alice Seba has been talking about this at Internet Marketing Sweetie, including the post, “MYTH: Videos Are The Best Way To Demonstrate Software or Online Process”. Thank you! I’d never learn something if I had to rely completely on video instruction!

At the same time the Internet provides tremendous opportunity and endless useful information, it can be a major distraction to online business owners. Like many others, I sometimes find myself way off course and I can end up wasting too much time surfing the web. But sometimes my goalless wandering turns up some great resources. This morning I found:

• Bridget Ayers’ blog, The Get Smart Blog, where I found these posts of particular interest for business:
  - Selecting an E-News Provider, which lists some alternatives to the most well-known companies.
  - It’s All About the Luv….Comment Luv and Keyword Luv. I haven’t yet formed an opinion on this one. What do you think about including keywords instead of just your name in the backlinks for blog comments?
  - And of interest, but off topic, Shift Happens Are you Ready?, containing a version of the extremely popular video, “Did You Know?”
• Tiffany Dow’s PLR Mini Mart where private label rights articles and ebooks can be purchased without a monthly membership commitment.
• And I came across a recommendation to use the Digital Point forums as a source for finding quality freelancers.

Enjoy!

In a tough economy more and more people are looking for ways to make money from home. Unfortunately, many will fall victim to Internet and email schemes and scams at a time when the financial loss will be most devastating. Here are some common scams and schemes to watch out for.

Cash Gifting Clubs – New members join these clubs by giving cash “gifts” to others who have been members for some time. In some clubs, members receive gifts from anyone else they recruit to join. In others there are membership fees and other requirements to be promoted to a level that receives gifts.

While the club’s organizers and existing members claim it is legal to give away money to whomever you please, the FTC says they are illegal pyramid schemes.

Payment Processing Jobs – Scammers often send out emails offering jobs processing payments. They claim that you can make money by receiving and cashing checks, then wiring the money (minus your fee) to the end recipient. But in most cases, the check is bogus. The bank doesn’t realize this until the check has cleared, which can take a couple of weeks. So they then debit your account for the amount of the check, and the scammer walks away with the proceeds.

Medical Billing Jobs – Doing medical billing from home sounds legitimate enough, when a company promises you training, software, and job placement. When you send them your money (usually several hundred dollars), you often get trained to use out-of-date software. Then you receive a list of doctor’s offices in your area to call and see if they will hire someone to work from home. In reality, most offices prefer to have their staff on-site, especially when they start.

Envelope Stuffing – Advertisements for envelope stuffing aren’t unique to the Internet. They have been found in newspaper and magazine classifieds for years. With promised pay of a few dollars per envelope, it sounds too good to be true. And it is.

Advertisements for envelope stuffing jobs usually ask interested parties to send $3 to $5 for more information. Victims do not think twice about making this small investment because of the promised pay. But when they send in their money, they receive instructions to place ads just like the ones they responded to and send respondents the same instructions they received. They are only paid when someone orders more information about stuffing envelopes.

Business Opportunity Scams – Business opportunity scams are perhaps the most difficult to spot. Some are fronts for pyramid schemes, which involve earning commissions by recruiting other people into the program, not by selling actual products. Others offer information about how to make money online in various ways for a fee, then they don’t deliver. And some offer direct sales type opportunities, but collect money from reps without delivering the products.

When you’re trying to get started making money from home or online, wading through the scams can be tricky. If you are in doubt about a particular opportunity or job offer, do some research on the company. Try to contact the company, and if you get someone, ask lots of questions. If you are unable to get in touch with anyone after a few attempts, chances are they have something to hide. Ask around for people who have had experience with the company and find out if they recommend them and why. Do an Internet search for reviews of the company. This may sound like a lot of extra work, but it’s worth it to stay away from the scams.

Scams can cost opportunity seekers lots of money, and being taken in by them can be very disheartening. By doing your homework on any company you consider getting involved with, you can usually weed out these scams. Most importantly, use your common sense. If something just doesn’t seem right, move on.

There are many legitimate opportunities out there. Avoid the scams, but don’t let the fear of being scammed stand in your way.

The busiest season for many direct sales consultants is before and around the holidays. But for others whose products or services aren’t usually considered for gifts, it can be a slow season.

The slow season is not a time to panic or take a break. Here are five things that you can do during your slow season to build business and prepare for when things pick up again.

1. Beef up your mailing lists. The heart of any business is leads. Be sure that your website has a place for visitors to leave their information so that you can communicate with them. Let customers know when you add new features to your website and your storefront.

2. Develop an email campaign. Keep your name in front of your customers and prospects. Create directed emails with catchy titles to peak their interest. Don’t send too many — just enough to keep your name in their memory so that they think of you when the busy season rolls around.

3. Find new clients. When you aren’t focused on servicing existing customers it’s a great time to find new ones. In addition to building new prospect lists, take another look at your older lists to find customers that didn’t come on board and reconnect with them.

4. Networking, networking, and more networking. You never know who you might meet and how you might be able to help each other.

5. Learn a new skill. Whether it’s a skill that will help you manage your busy season, improve marketing strategies, or provide a new service for you customers, it’s the perfect time to focus on learning.

Take advantage of your slow season and prepare for the future It will pay off.

Reputation can make or break a business. And with the ever increasing popularity of social media applications like MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and so on, business and personal reputations are more public and publicized than ever.

Everyone, everywhere, has a reputation. Your friends and family may think of you as kind and thoughtful or harsh and self-centered. Online you may be perceived as professional and helpful or immature and uncaring. You may think your personal reputation doesn’t effect your business; that people shouldn’t mix personal and business. But people do. And your personal reputation definitely carries over into your business. Continue Reading

Yesterday my friend Roy Montero, The SEO & Twitter Guy, asked me why I was limiting myself. In response to something he said, I had replied that I don’t want 100,000 people following me. He seemed surprised to hear it.

Of course I have goals and I would like to expand my business, but I just don’t see myself providing services to that many people. It’s just not my style. I understand the theory of “thinking big” and setting lofty goals, but I’m in the process of restructuring my businesses to offer more personal, more one-to-one direction. I can’t provide that to 100,000 people.

I guess I’d rather be the “little shop on the corner” where customers come to chat and exchange information over a cup of coffee. I don’t want to be the big chain that serves countless customers that I never get to know.

Maybe Roy and I are really more on the same wavelength than we thought we were. I wouldn’t mind influencing 100,000 people. I’d just rather do it by teaching a few thousand who then go out and share that information with the rest of the crowd.

What about you? Do you think big enough? Or are you limiting yourself by setting your sights too low?