101 Survival Tips for Home Business Owners Page 2

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2 101 Survival Tips for Home Business Owners Page 2 Starting a home business is an exciting time. But, it can also be a time of stress and frustration as you learn how to navigate the industry you ve chosen to take part in. Each day you have to know what you re going to do to make it a successful day. Every business, regardless of what industry, has six basic functional areas: strategy, marketing, finance, human resources, technology and operations. These 101 survival tips will help ensure that you not only survive but thrive as a home business owner in all of these areas. Strategy Business strategy involves the long-term planning necessary to own a business. The strategy that you develop will depend on your goals and objectives. Sometimes you ll have long-term strategies five or more years into your business; other times the strategy will be about a particular campaign happening right now. 1. Develop a Mission Statement A mission statement will help you with every aspect of your business. Make it short so that you can post it where you can see it and even put it on your website for others to see. When you, those you hire, and your customers know your mission statement, it makes it easier to develop a strategy for success. 2. Know Your Audience You really can t develop strategy if you don t even know who your audience is. Most of the time, you should figure out who your audience is before creating the solution. When you know your audience inside and out, you ll be able to develop multiple solutions to their problems without even trying. 3. Study Your Competition You may not realize how much your competition matters to your success, but they do. If you study what they do for your audience, you can learn how to do it just a little bit better or completely differently so that you can attract the right audience to you. 4. Understand Your Products or Services

3 101 Survival Tips for Home Business Owners Page 3 In addition to learning about the competition, you need to also understand your own products and services backwards and forwards. It s the only way you can explain to potential customers what it is that you do that s better than anyone else. 5. Write Down Your Strengths Writing down your strengths is a good way to figure out what you re good at doing. Because remember - you don t have to do everything yourself even though you own your own home business. You can outsource your weaknesses. 6. Write Down Your Weaknesses Make a list of the things you either don t do well, or hate doing. If you hate doing those things or you re bad at them, as mentioned above you can outsource them. But, if you can t be honest about what your weaknesses are, then it will be difficult. This is the time to really be truthful with yourself about what you can and can t do. 7. Note Current Opportunities Take a look at your business right this moment to identify any current opportunities for your business to jump right in and make money. Starting with one thing is usually the best thing to do, but you have to identify it. 8. Note Budding Future Opportunities Look down the line a few months to see if you can identify any potential budding opportunities in the future. For example, let s say the current opportunity is to promote an ebook that you wrote. In the future, perhaps you can turn the ebook into a course to teach on Udemy.com. Always keep looking ahead to where you want to go. 9. Identify Potential Threats Outside of your competition, what are some things that can stand in your way to realizing the success you want to have? 10. List What Makes You Different

4 101 Survival Tips for Home Business Owners Page 4 Compared to your competition, why is your work or product better or different from theirs, and why should someone choose you over them? 11. Develop Audience Personas One of the best ways to keep your mind on serving the right audience is to develop different audience personas. Take that a step further and create personas for each stage of the buying cycle. 12. Write a Detailed Business Plan A business plan doesn t have to be long to be detailed. You can actually write a plan in one page if you want to. The important part is that you have a business plan to look to for guidance. 13. Have a Plan B No matter how hard you plan, sometimes things go wrong. You can count on that in business. That s why you should always have a Plan B. Know that if A happens, then B happens and so forth. 14. Assume This Is the Hardest Thing You ve Ever Done Starting a business isn t for sissies. It can be the best of times, and the worst of times. Make an assumption now that it s hard. That way you'll take it seriously and not put off things that need to be done. 15. Read The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy This is one of the best books you can read for your business and your life. You can count on it being useful and helpful. 16. Start with One Thing Remember, when you are starting a business you want to start with one thing and then add things on as your business grows. All you need is one service or one product, and you re in business.

5 101 Survival Tips for Home Business Owners Page 5 Marketing Marketing is anything that involves getting the word out about your business. However, it also has to do with the feeling people get when they think of your business. With a planned-out marketing system, you can ensure that your audience feels the way you want them to and acts in accordance with your wishes most of the time. 17. Write a Detailed Marketing Plan A marketing plan should be detailed enough that you can look at today s date and know exactly what you need to do to market a particular aspect of your business. 18. Develop a Well-Made Website Don t just throw up any old page of code and call it your website. Take the time to have a website made that you can be proud to promote. After all, as a home business owner your website is your store front. 19. Create Social Media Profiles Figure out which social media your audience spends time on and develop full profiles and regular activity on each. 20. Fully Develop Your LinkedIn Profile One of the most important and professional social media networks is LinkedIn. Ensure that you focus on building your LinkedIn profile before you build the others. This is especially true if you are selling services or consulting. 21. Keep Your Personal Social Media and Business Social Media Separate Do not be tempted to mix business and pleasure when it comes to social media. The colleagues you work with don t want or need to know about what s inside your baby s diaper. 22. Blog Regularly One of the most important marketing methods you can use is blogging. Blogging can help you educate, inform and engage your audience in a way that most other forms of marketing can t.

6 101 Survival Tips for Home Business Owners Page Use Multiple Types of Content for Marketing Don t just put up text blogs, or text posts on social media. Instead use images, video, audio, and a combination of all of them on a regular basis to truly realize your content marketing goals. 24. Update Social Media Daily Each social media type requires a different schedule for updating, but all of them should be updated at least once a day. 25. Guest Post Regularly A great way to get links back to your website or blog is to guest blog post. Don t guest blog for just anyone, though. Place guest blog posts for people who service your audience and who are known authorities within your niche. 26. Conduct Interviews of Experts Get known as an expert by interviewing experts, just like Oprah. 27. Be Interviewed by Peers Seek out interviews so you can be interviewed as an expert in your niche. This is great way to get the word out about your business. 28. Participate in Forums There are likely many types of forums within your niche that you can participate in. Any groups you join that have discussions are fair game. But, the key is to participate. 29. Go to Online Events Today, events aren t just relegated to Las Vegas hotels. Instead, there are plenty of webinars, teleseminars, and Google Hangouts that you can attend online from home. These events are great ways to network. 30. Go to Offline Events

7 101 Survival Tips for Home Business Owners Page 7 Don t discount offline events, regardless of your products and or services. It doesn t matter if you have a fully digital business; offline events are a great way to network. 31. Host Online Events Better than attending an online event is to host one. Have your own seminar online with people that you invite to attend. 32. Host Offline Events It s not that hard to host an offline event. Just find a venue, then post an advertisement in the paper or on an online location like Meetup.com. 33. Sponsor Online Events Even if you cannot attend an online event, you can pay for a sponsorship. This usually entitles you to be involved in a giveaway of some kind, or have your name mentioned during breaks or during events. 34. Sponsor Offline Events Often, sponsoring an offline event means paying for some aspects of the event in exchange for signs that mention your sponsorship. 35. Design Business Cards and Use Them A beautiful business card does no good for anyone if it s not used. Take them with you and give them out. 36. Join Business Associations There are many different types of association that you can join for your industry. Study them and choose one or two to join and fully participate in. 37. Write and Publish a Book

8 101 Survival Tips for Home Business Owners Page 8 A Kindle book is a great way to promote your business. But, a physical book is even better. Then you can take it to events and promote it and yourself as an expert. 38. Create Awesome Sales Pages A sales page is a specialized page that promotes your products and services in a special way. Usually you need the help of a copywriter to ensure that you use the right words. 39. Use the Right Technology There are a lot of different types of technology to help you make marketing your business easier, such as Latergram.me, Hootsuite.com, and more. 40. Build an List No matter what anyone else says, the money is still in the list. It doesn t even matter what type of business you have - if you develop a list, you ll get to the point where you can give yourself a raise whenever you want just by promoting something to your list. 41. Participate on Social Media It s not enough to set up profiles on social media, as already mentioned; you must actually engage with others. Comment on threads, start threads, and share updates about your business, products and services. 42. Understand the Importance of Branding How people feel about your business when they see your logo or hear your name, is as important as the reality of your product. Branding happens over time, and you must learn as much about it as possible. 43. Host a Google Hangout A great way to market your business is to host a Google Hangout. You can do a Q & A with the audience, record the whole thing, and then use it as a product later. 44. Start a Referral Program

9 101 Survival Tips for Home Business Owners Page 9 When you give out your business card, give each person two. Tell them to sign the back of the second one before giving it away, and you ll give them a referral fee for a paying customer. 45. Send Out Press Releases Press releases aren t dead; they are still excellent ways to get the word out about a new product or another leading story about your business. 46. Learn Copywriting While you ll still want to hire someone to help you with copywriting, it s good to learn about it so that you are up to date on popular trends and don t hire the wrong person. Finance Every type of business has to figure out how they ll handle finances. Will you run on a cash basis, what type of business entity will you become, and who will figure out all this legal stuff? 47. Develop a Working Budget When you first start a business, it can be hard to develop a budget. But, you can start with what you need to earn, plus the cost of doing business. That s your break-even point and what you need to support your business right now. 48. Determine How Much You Want to Earn Do you know how much money you want to or need to earn? This is an important number to figure out. Don t make this number too low. You need to cover all expenses and the lifestyle you want. This is the best way to then price your products and services in a manner that helps you reach your goals. 49. Develop a Plan to Earn What You Want Once you know how much you want to earn, figure out a plan of action. For example, if you ve determined you need to earn $180K a year in order to pay expenses and life the lifestyle you want, what will it take to get there? How many widgets do you need to sell to get there?

10 101 Survival Tips for Home Business Owners Page Get a Separate Checking Account Don t mix your personal money with your business money. One of the biggest reasons a lot of businesses fail is owners not understanding the importance of separating the money. You must know what is coming and what is going out, and why. 51. Visit Your Local Small Business Center for Information Almost every area of the country and world has small business centers that you can visit for information. You can either call them, or go in, and talk to someone about starting a small home business in your area. 52. Use the Right Bookkeeping Software The type of bookkeeping software you use depends on whether or not you hire a CPA. If you choose to do so, you will want to use the software they recommend. If not, you can try using Go Daddy Bookkeeping, QuickBooks Small Business or Wave Accounting. Links: Go Daddy Bookkeeping - QuickBooks Small Business - Wave Accounting Keep Track of What Comes In and What Goes Out Whether you use accounting software or a spreadsheet or a piece of paper, it s imperative that you keep track of what is coming in and what is going out. What s more is that it s important to know where the money is coming from and how it s going out. 54. Keep Your Fingers Out of the Till Stores with locations have a cash register. Yours may not, but it still has money in an account that you can easily spend if you re not thinking. Set up a certain amount to pay toward bills and a certain amount to pay yourself, and don t deviate from that. 55. Spend Money to Make Money

11 101 Survival Tips for Home Business Owners Page 11 You can t expect to make money if you re afraid to spend any. Your budget might be small, but you can t build a free website, use all free software and expect anyone to take you seriously as a business owner. 56. Hire an Expert When Needed You can t always do everything - sometimes you may need to hire an expert. For example, a copywriter, a CPA, a graphic designer or some other expert that works outside of your wheelhouse. 57. Read Small Business Taxes Made Easy by Eva Rosenberg Even if you hire someone to do your taxes, it s important to understand how taxes work so that you don t accidentally get into trouble. Even when you hire someone, you re responsible for everything you're using them for. Learn enough that you won t be taken advantage of or hire the wrong person. 58. Understand Pricing Strategies Study your industry so that you know how things are priced and what is industry standard. You don t want your price to be so wrong and off the mark that no one buys, and this can happen with prices that are either too high or too low. Human Resources How you deal with yourself, your family, friends and contractors can be seen as HR for your small business. While it s not all actually business related, it s important to think of all these aspects of running a home business so that you can be successful. 59. Get Training for Yourself If you realize you re deficient in one or more areas that are important for your business, it will help to pay for and attend training. You can learn a lot of things online today, or you can even take local courses. 60. Offer Training for Others

12 101 Survival Tips for Home Business Owners Page 12 If you hire people, offer a good training program so that they know what s expected of them and what your standard operating procedures are. You can create videos so that it doesn t take much time, and use the same ones over again for new people. 61. Outsource When Necessary When you really don t have a desire to learn something new, learn enough to hire a person to do it for you. Sometimes that s the best thing to do. Plus, why learn to do something if you can still earn money when you outsource it? 62. Communicate with Your Family Sometimes it can be a hard transition for your family to get used to your new business. If you keep the lines of communication open, you can ensure that you always have time to get your work done, and that they understand how serious you are about your business. 63. Communicate with Your Contractors When you hire a contractor, it s important to keep the lines of communication open. If they ask you a question, get back to them as soon as possible so that you don t cause undue delays. 64. Joint Venture with Others A great way to get the word out about your business is to join forces with others. However, you need to understand how it affects your business and make sure you create a contract to follow. 65. Treat Contractors Fairly As they say, you get what you pay for nothing can be truer than that. If you expect high quality work, pay for high quality work. Don t pay for cheap, untrained labor and expect miracles to be performed. 66. Recommend Others When Appropriate Always be kind and recommend other people you know for positions that you don t want or need. They will do the favor for you too. 67. Know about Tax Consequences of Help

13 101 Survival Tips for Home Business Owners Page 13 When you hire an employee, contractor, or even when you barter, there are tax consequences. It s important to understand everything that goes around paying someone for help in your business, so you don t make costly tax mistakes. 68. Hire Your Kids A great way to save money is to hire your children. You can deduct the money you pay them, unlike allowance, and you can also put a portion of it in savings for college. 69. Hire Your Spouse Hire your spouse and you don t have to pay social security taxes on them (in the USA). Plus, you keep the money in the family. Technology A home business has a lot of technology available to it today - technology that will ensure the outstanding delivery of products and services that your audience expects, along with the proper accounting of the same. 70. Use the Best Systems You Can Afford Skimping on technology will slow down the progress of your business. Whether you don t want to pay for hosting for a self-hosted website, or whether it s the unwillingness to pay for proper bookkeeping software, not paying for the right tools can be detrimental. If you really want to survive in business, remember that getting the right tools pays off. 71. Don t Cheap Out on a Good Website Having a good store front is going to make a big difference in whether other people take your business seriously or not. If you don t build or have built a good website, you re making a huge mistake. 72. Use Cloud-Based Software

14 101 Survival Tips for Home Business Owners Page 14 If you want to be able to access your information with any device and work from anyplace so that you re not locked at home, use as much cloud-based software that you can to run your business. 73. Always Back Everything Up Use an off-site backup system so that you don t lose your information if something should happen to your hardware. Even an external hard drive is not as safe as an off-site cloud-based file backup and storage system. 74. Invest in Good Project Management Software If you plan to manage a team of contractors or you will be working with multiple clients, spend some money to get a good project management system and software. You ll be glad you started off right. 75. Try Out Software before You Buy It Most cloud-based software allows you to try it before you buy it. Don t be afraid of trying it, or getting a free tour of the software. You don t have to say yes just because you try it, but it s the best way to figure out which type of software you like best. What works for you may not be for someone else and vice versa. 76. Get Training When Appropriate If you don t know how to use the software, most companies provide some form of training. Take some time out to learn each new piece of software you implement. That way you ll get the most out of it. 77. Stay Up-to-Date on What s Common in Your Industry Each industry has different types of software and technology that is popular or trending at different times. Knowing what is trending will help you choose what your audience expects you to have in place. 78. Study Your Audience to Determine What Technology They Value

15 101 Survival Tips for Home Business Owners Page 15 Some audiences respond well to automation and some do not. Test out different forms of automation for social media, , and other functions on your audience to help determine what they like most. Operations Running your business requires knowledge of organization and planning. You can learn how to run your business through books, and through trial and error, but you can avoid the most basic problems by staying organized and doing everything legally. 79. Buy a Business License When Necessary Each state and even city has different rules when it comes to proper licensing and registration for your business. The best way to find out is check on your city website for the business license department. Call them and ask them for assistance. Better to ask than not to ask, because mistakes can be costly. 80. Choose a Good Business Name When you pick the name of your business, you want to consider both today and the future. Does the name stand the test of time? For example, remember that they do not make VHS tapes anymore (you may not even know what that means). You want your business to move with the times, so give it a name that can. 81. Get an EIN (Employer ID Number) In different countries it may be called something else. However, in the USA there is an Employer ID Number that all small businesses should have. It s not only for people who will employ others, but also for contractors who don t want to have to give out their social security number. The EIN is free. 82. Be Organized According to Your Personality Everyone has different personality traits. None or bad or good; they just are. Some people think in a linear fashion while others think in pictures. Some people are right brained, and some are left. All of that is fine, but you can take advantage of your personality type (and other people's) if you know what it is. Then you can work with your strengths to get organized.

16 101 Survival Tips for Home Business Owners Page Use Google Calendar Synced to Your Phone Google Calendar can sync to every phone you can get; therefore, putting all your work information into Google Calendar and having it sync together will help you avoid missing appointments or forgetting work. 84. Set Office Hours and Try to Stick to Them A real danger for people who work from home is that they can start working all the time, never taking time off for themselves and their family. Choose the working hours that are best for your business and realistic, and don t deviate from it unless it s an emergency. 85. Budget Your Time Well between Work and Pleasure Further to the above, no one can work all the time and produce good results. People need to have a balance between work and home. But balance is likely a bad word to use for this because sometimes you re going to be needed more at work, and sometimes you re going to be needed more at home. Working for home enables you to do this. 86. Sleep Regularly When you work from home, time sometimes seems to have no meaning. But, if you don t sleep regularly, and at night most of the time, you can mess up your hormones and make yourself sick. 87. Exercise Regularly - Especially If You Sit a Lot Sitting for more than four hours a day can be life threatening, and is thought to be even unhealthier than smoking. It s important if your work-at-home business involves a lot of sitting to get up and move a little every day. You can do short bursts of moving every 90 minutes to avoid problems. 88. Eat Right for Your Needs Everyone has a diet that they know makes them feel the best. For the most part, it likely involves eating a low-fat whole food diet. But, each of us are different, so figure out what diet works best for you and try to stick to it.

17 101 Survival Tips for Home Business Owners Page Invest in the Right Software To fully operate your business instead of having your business operate you, using organizational software like Basecamp or Teamwork will make your business run like a welloiled machine. You can work as if you re much bigger than you are if you use the right software. 90. Under Promise and Over Deliver As a small business owner, you have to be extra careful about blowing smoke, or making yourself seem better than you are. You have a much smaller client base than a huge business does, so you have fewer windows of opportunity to mess up and recover. 91. Remember: Your Business Is NOT a Hobby If you want people to take your home business seriously, you need to ensure that you treat it as a business and not a hobby. When you set a deadline to do something, unless someone s on fire you need to meet your deadlines. 92. Find a Dedicated Office Space Where You Can Work Comfortably You don t have to set up an entire room as your home office just because you have a home business. Plenty of people run a home business with a laptop in the living room on the lazy boy, but you do need to have a place and time of day that people know not to bother you as you are working. Not only should it be a signal to others, it will be one to you as well. 93. Purchase Business Insurance When your family counts on your income, you may want to purchase insurance to cover you in a short- or long-term disability situation. The insurance can be the thing that saves your family and your business if something should go wrong with your health. 94. Understand Time Zones When you work from home, you often work with people from other parts of the country. It s good to learn about the different time zones because other people won t learn it. And, it s just better if you know how it works so you re in control of your time.

18 101 Survival Tips for Home Business Owners Page Get a Dedicated Phone Line / Ring Whether it s a specialized ring or a whole other dedicated line, it s good to have that differentiation so that you can know when a work call or a personal call is coming through. That way you can choose to answer or let it go to voic Establish Guidelines with Friends and Family Have a meeting with your friends and family to set guidelines about your work. When you work from home it can be confusing for some people who think you re still as available to them as you always were. Let your friends and family know what times you re working, and what times you re free to do personal things. 97. Be Honest about Your Personality Know exactly what type of person you are. If you re typically late, acknowledge that and find ways to build in extra time so that you re not late with your clients or with important tax paperwork. 98. Be Responsive to Customers Your customers are your most important asset. Therefore, always find a way to communicate with your audience more, and ways to respond even faster to their needs. Customers like businesses that care about them, as so many today don t. 99. Hire Someone to Help at Home Now that you have a home business, you re likely going to find yourself really tired, and sometimes household chores either fall to the wayside or interfere in fun family time. Hire someone to clean your house or take care of the kids a couple of hours a day Follow Up Always follow up with your customers, whether they bought a digital or physical item or a service. Check up with them to find out how satisfied they are with what you provided. The more feedback you can get, the better you can make your products and services in the future Get Started

19 101 Survival Tips for Home Business Owners Page 19 The most important thing you can do for your home business for its very survival is to get started right now. If you don t get started and move forward with your ideas, then you ll never be successful. Having a business is an important step for any person. Having a home business can sometimes be more challenging because you have to stand out from the crowd, build your own confidence, and teach yourself how to do everything from A to Z for your business. You are the finance department, the HR department, along with sales and marketing too. But, if you take the time to do the steps necessary to get started on the right foot, you can survive and thrive as a home business owner. Want more educational ebooks like this? JOIN our VAinsiders Club today to receive further educational training to suit any Virtual Assistant s stage in their business development and success. To learn more visit: