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Home,
Sweet Office
10 super tips for keeping your home office in business
All around the world, people who want more control over their lives are starting home businesses. For many, the home office is becoming the location for a full-time job and the primary source of income. People are opting for a kind of life where they can make their own hours, commute to work in seconds, make their own choices and be their own bosses. Now with a PC and a Net connection, many opportunities have cropped up for working at home. Here are some tips for your home office.
Before you take the step
Most of the time we forget to look at the basics of setting up an office at home, The site at http://www.bpubs.com/ is very informative and has articles on setting up your office and running it. One of the most useful ones is an article called 21 steps to Home Business Success. These tips helps you decide what part of the house to use, how much time you can spend on the business, how to get a hang of money and legal matters, form business plans and organize yourself and the house. You’ll also find some common causes of failure that you can learn to avoid when running your home office—in the Top Ten Home Business Mistakes at http://www.powerhomebiz.com.
Know your customers
It’s important for you to keep adding new customers to the client list. But it’s even more important to be able to retain them. Very often businesses, especially in the service field, close down because they don’t attach enough importance to their existing customers. You should know exactly who your customers are and what their preferences are.
You could do a simple research to gather this information. Categorize your customers into different segments. For example, you could create separate categories for Government Organization, Educational Institutions, Multinational Companies, Public Sector units, and so on. This breakup of your base of typical customers into smaller target markets helps identify their specific interests. From this research you may learn that customers use your product or service because of its convenience, or because it lets them concentrate more on other areas. You’ll learn where you need to work harder to keep your clients. With this information, you can be more specific with your sales presentations, promotion and even quality control methods. You can then modify your existing offerings or add a new product or service to provide the desired benefit.
Be a good listener
To understand your client’s requirements, you must ask him the right questions, then sit back and listen to the answers. To elicit information for understanding your client’s project, it’s important to know the right type of questions to ask.
Ask an open-ended question so that your client gets to give a wide range of answers. This is likely to cover a range of possibilities. From his answer, lead him towards identifying his needs and highlight the ones he thinks are the most critical.
Follow this up with a neutral question to encourage your client to elaborate on some point that you or the client has raised. Then ask a question that brings out a short and precise answer. This will give the client the chance to confirm a choice or opinion and give specific answers. Then ask a question to summarize his needs. This also makes sure that you’ve understood the client’s requirements correctly and lets the client clearly hear what he is asking for, from you.
Portray yourself professionally
If you’re approaching prospective clients who are used to dealing with large organizations than solo shows like yours, you could face a tough time. But there are ways to tackle them too.
Make your home office appear bigger than it really is. Consider designing and maintaining a Website. Get voice mail.
Refer to your company as "we" when you’re talking business with a client.
Present yourself as an expert with marketable skills based on a combination of knowledge and education in your field and years of experience in your industry.
Make sure that all your communication and materials convey the image of the expert that you are.
Get the basics right
Every business, small or large, must have a direction, a vision of where it wants to go to, what it wants to achieve, what its goals and objectives are. Very often small operations, forget to put their goals down on paper, this leads to a confusion during actual operations and the company loses its way. So it’s not only imperative to have a good business plan but also to put that plan down on paper. If you have a plan, you must document it and then review it periodically with as critical an eye as possible. Your plan should be flexible, but it should keep you moving in the right direction. You could visit http://www.bplans.com, for sample plans.
Ï Size up the competition
The Net has made it easier to compete with big companies. You can just visit their Website to see what their products are, how are they marketing it, etc. You could build your strategy around that.
Carefully observe how competitors gather marketing data, how they portray themselves to customers, how interactive they are with their customers etc.
Make customers come back to you
One of the most important factors that determines the success of a business is building a strong base of customers who will return again and again. This means that you spend less in getting their business each time they return. And they may even promote your services to new clients. Today’s mantra of business professionals is to build relationships that last beyond the initial sale.
Generate as much new business as you can handle, using your own personal organizer, referrals from associates, networking, advertising, participation from trade associations, and even cold-calling potential new clients. You may ask the client for referrals, let him know that you are proud of the job you are doing for him. You can also use the assignment to network with competitors, suppliers and customers to find the next assignment and learn more about industry and players so can expand your target universe. At least once per year, it is advisable to evaluate your client portfolio. To be profitable, you need to focus on the bigger accounts. Be on a constant lookout for bigger clients. But most important of all, you must always exercise the freedom to take on those assignments you feel are stimulating and rewarding—and have the option of walking away from opportunities you don’t enjoy.
One simple way to show clients that you care is to always spell their name, company name, and products correctly. So take a moment to add the names of clients, companies, product names, and other terms that are important for a project to your spelling checker.
Get a negotiator
If you freeze up when you have to speak up for yourself, you might want to do what many freelance writers do: Hire a negotiator. You could barter for services with a seasoned negotiator, in the person of a business manager, agent, or lawyer, if you don’t want to take a seat at the bargaining table yourself. This might even boost your reputation. It’s always good to recognize your strengths and weaknesses.
Get some coaching
Business and executive coaching are now no more for CEOs. Enterpreneurs and freelancers are also taking help from professional coaches. You could also visit DigitalWork.com at http://www.digitalwork.com/ also. This helps entrepreneurs and small business owners carry out their online marketing, public relations, human resources, finance, information technology, and other core business functions. The site comprises multiple "workshops," in which you can create and direct tasks, with guided help and templates that you can use to complete your tasks.
These sites will help you especially if you’re a novice and need help visualizing all the possibilities for your business, or if you’re ready to move your business to the next level of growth.
Involve the family
A lot of home-based entrepreneurs are choosing to blend work and home life by involving the whole family, including small children, in the business.
Including family members can help create tight bonds, something that is often missing in the corporate world. To have more time for business, organize and simplify household routines. Have a family conference and divide household duties, making sure each person does his or her part. Then, set up a planning notebook to keep track of appointments, things to do, calls to make, errands to run, shopping, etc. Finally, set up a work schedule so you won’t get sidetracked by TV, neighbor’s visits, snacking, and telephone calls.
Creating and operating a home business is a wonderful and rewarding challenge. The satisfaction is not only in the money earned, but in doing what makes you happy.