Just because you are a home based business do not overlook the power of future events to build your profile, satisfy your customers and make you a profit. Usually the first marketing channels to benefit from your future events are your customers. In bad times, do not cut your future events; as a home based business you need your customers to know that you are still there to satisfy their needs and are both trustworthy and reliable.

Many home based businesses simply cover the cost of current and future events with the fees paid by the attendees. The home based business operator often does not have a budget for future events. To work the organiser finds that future events have to be self funded and their success depends on the number of attendees and the size of the event. If the home based business operator can find a venue for free and are only charged for refreshments, self funded future events can work well.  

Home based business operators should understand that future events are a vital component of their marketing plan and they can create great lead generations.

Home based businesses must ensure that all future events are relevant for the attendees (target market). Just make sure that your future events are not perceived as a waste of time by those attending. After all, you do not want people to think that your future event is just going to keep them from doing real, actual, useful work; they need to know that the information will be valuable and useful. And don’t forget to make your future event a ‘fun’ event too!

Just because you are a home based business don’t think that you cannot run a really professional and dynamic event. For a great future event run by a home based business book the 2010 Asia Pacific Conference and Marketing Awards Gala Presentation on your Calender for October. 

MCEI AND HBBA JOIN FORCES TO PRODUCE THIS STUNNING EVENT

Just how do you get your product and yourself known when you are a micro or home based business? Even big business struggles with this concept and they have a lot more resources for promotion and marketing than small business does. But to be competitive the home based business sector still has to be aggressive with their marketing. There are lots of innovative ways that they can market themselves. First of all remember that when you run a home based business ‘you are your business’ – so it is as important to promote yourself as it is your product. 

It is so easy for the home based business sector to neglect marketing because they are ‘too busy’ but if that is the case….then I guess they must be happy with the way they are going. However if they really want to be competitive and increase their rate of success….then they must be aggressive with their marketing and promotion! 

Four Proven Points to Successfully Market Your Business 

1) Become an expert. Home based business operators must write articles; become a speaker; take part in Forums; sit on committees; and write comments to the editor on topical news items etc. Given time the media will want their comments on stories they are writing….you will be seen as an expert. Customers like to purchase product from experts! This will add to your confidence and credibility and will enhance your profile. 

2) Be a winner. I cannot emphasise more strongly the importance of home based business entrepreneurs entering awards. Whether they simply enter; are a finalist; receive a highly commended or end up being a winner…it is how they use these accomplishments that can make their business move to another level. Awards are the most affordable and dynamic marketing tool available.  

3) Have an interactive website.  It is so easy to spend money on a website and simply have it perform the function of a brochure. These websites seldom receive a ranking with search engines….they have to contain valuable free information plus give the viewer an opportunity to take action, to be considered worthy of ranking. And it is relatively easy to do this….with affordable website building software that automates much of the search engine optimisation that will help you improve your rankings, built into it, you can’t really go wrong. 

4) Create Joint Ventures. For the home based business sector, the best and quickest way to move your business to the next level is by leveraging off other successful businesses. Create joint ventures and alliances….but always do so with the philosophy of ‘what can I do for you?’ It always amazes me when I see how a business leaps forward once they establish meaningful joint ventures. It must be a win/win situation for everyone. 

JOIN HBBA AND MAKE THE CONTACTS FOR JOINT VENTURES

SEO search engine optimisation is of paramount importance when the home based business operator want to ensure that they have a good website that is found by people. Some may say success comes from the first step of registering a domain name; others may say that it is having good content, still others may say to have an attractive site that is easy to navigate….and they would all be correct! 

But you need to keep this in mind: if you are a home based business and you want to increase your traffic, you have to design your website with SEO search engine optimisation to suit the requirements of the search engines first – then look after your potential clients. 

What I am saying is that your website needs to be built to be SEO search engine optimised, and it is my experience that just does not normally happen with the home based business sector. There are a couple of reasons why. 

1. First of all graphic designers often build your website and they may not understand SEO search engine optimisation.
2. Secondly the home based business owner usually provides content that is about what message they want to get across to their client, without fully understanding what clients are looking for when they go to the internet.
3. And so many home based business web owners think that it would cost a fortune to have their website SEO search engine optimised. And it can. But much can also be done for free, as long as you know what to do. 

So, what does the home based business operator do first?

Probably register a domain name. But you should not do that until you fully understand keywords and search volumes because the domain name should include the keyword. 

How many home based businesses do that? Not many I can assure you. Most people use their business name or their name as their domain name……not a good idea unless you are as well known as Cleo or Diana Ferrari. 

We will go through a series of blog comments over the next few days so that you, the home based business operator, better understands SEO search engine optimisation and how to achieve it at no cost! 

HBBA GOT TO BE ON PAGE ONE ON GOOGLE IN ONE WEEK
BY FOLLOWING THE SEO SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION TECHNIQUES

I am often asked what type of businesses are home based businesses and if they differ in general from the Micro business sector (i.e. they employ less than 5). This is a tough question. How long is a piece of string…..but both Micro and Home Based Business operators are usually very creative and I will show you what I mean by looking at a very innovative dog grooming business that is a micro business.

In my experience every type of business imaginable is run from home. Animal businesses are always popular, varying from dog breeding to dog grooming; an entry I had in awards that I was facilitation one year, we had a winner from SA who actually bred venomous snakes! He milked these snakes to provide anti venom. But, because he and his wife were not happy with the blood from the sheep, cow or horse that had to be sent for processing (once they developed anti bodies) they experimented by injecting chooks and discovered the anti bodies in the egg yolk! This was extraordinary and revolutionary!

Nearly all home based businesses are also micro business (often solo operators), but sometimes the micro businesses run from a shop front or small factory, rather than from a home base. However, both sized businesses are usually very innovative and customer orientated. You will discover just how innovative this dog grooming salon is.

Jodi-Anne Hasler of Pet Perfection Grooming Salon is a micro business and operates a dog grooming salon in Melbourne. The Salon doesn’t just wash your dog; they also style, colour and clip your dog’s hair. And within each dog grooming service they include a general coat and skin health check, cut and file nails, finishing with a fragrance of your choice for a perfectly groomed dog.

Unique and innovative services they offer in the dog grooming package, include a doggie day spa pampering including mud packs! Jodie was the first dog grooming salon in Australia to offer mud packs after she heard of how successful and popular they were in Japan.

Jodie not only provides dog grooming but she is very conscious on how important it is to provide top customer service to the dog’s owners! Her customer service offers include invaluable advice and support to their clients by holding dog grooming workshops, VIP nights, pet photography days; along with many charity events.

Clients can watch the dog grooming take place via a closed circuit television or leave their pets and return later. This is definitely a business that concentrates on marketing and customer satisfaction for both human and dogs!

HOME BASED BUSINESS AUSTRALIA HAS MANY MEMBERS LIKE JODIE
WHY DON’T YOU JOIN NOW – FOR FREE?

Work from home based business operators can take part in successful Internet marketing strategies either by organising it themselves or by being a sponsor and providing a prize to one. 

But there are some rules to follow if work from home based business operators want to be successful using this strategy. The key to success is simplicity! If you try to push too much information or make it difficult for participants to take part, then your results will be less than you hope for. 

If you are a work from home based business, offer to sponsor a prize for someone who is embarking on an Internet marketing strategy and follow these simple steps. 

Step 1. Internet Marketing is usually used to launch a product or a service; therefore, the main emphasis in the marketing is to be that product or service. 

Step 2. Sponsors donate prizes for one purpose only – to harvest names of participants who are interested in that prize. These names make up a contact list for a targeted market, which is what the work from home based business sponsor wants. 

Step 3. To take part in the Launch, sponsors must also agree to promote the Launch to their list of contacts. The work from home based business that is organising the Launch should provide you with text for an email for you to send out; they should do most of the work – not you. 

Step 4. Sponsors are not meant to promote their own business at this time (via extra information on the web page where prize winners click to retrieve their prize – this can really annoy them and they may just go away). Promotion of the work from home based business sponsors product and website comes later. The link you provide for the winner to collect their prize should be as simple as possible. The winner (at this point) is only interested in one thing – collecting the prize!

If a complicated page turns up, the person could just turn away and not be bothered (Keep it simple!). Nor is it advisable to take them directly to your home page to collect their prize – you should design a dedicated page for that prize. If you provided an email address (instead of a dedicated web page) then you will probably find that many do not add their full name and you may also lose some potential interest at this point, because they don’t really want to send an email – they want instant access to their prize (by downloading etc). 

Of course, if it is a hard product being offered as a prize, or it is to be won by their names going in a draw, then the email might be the best option. But be aware that many are not going to leave their names to go in a draw either (unless it is very high in value). 

Step 5. As with all forms of marketing, networking and promotion – ‘follow up’ is the major step for work from home based business sponsors, after people have opted in and provided their contact details so they can collect their prize. 

It is advisable to have a number of autoresponder messages (e.g. 7) set up to be distributed to the names collected (one each day or every second day). These messages should not be ‘hard sell’ but should give out some good information relating to the product or service the sponsor is offering. 

For example if the work from home based business sponsor is a copywriter the information could be about ideas on how to write good copy; tips and hints on the best type of heading to use to capture attention etc. This is where you include subtle links (anchor text) to individual pages on your website that relate to the information you are sending out in that specific message. DO NOT just send them to your home page – you should have an individual page you can link them to that is relevant to that message information. It is also important to provide an ‘unsubscribe’ option. 

Remember, if you (the work from home based business) want to use Internet marketing to promote or launch one of your products, then it is important that you can bring a number of sponsors to offer prizes and promote the launch to their list of contacts.

HOME BASED BUSINESS AUSTRALIA HAD  A 600% INCREASE IN TRAFFIC
AND 50 NEW MEMBERS DURING ITS LAUNCH
JOIN NOW FOR FREE!

Work from home based business operators can learn a lot from other successful home based businesses. If you can discover what their problems were and how they overcame them, it might save you the heartache by having to deal with similar problems. 

Many work from home based business operators enjoy being able to share their wisdom and experiences to support other small and micro business operators. Gihan Perera is one of these extraordinary individuals. His newsletter and publication offer some great advice and many are free. 

‘The Seven Fatal Website Mistakes’, is one such publication that has some pretty useful information in it for all work from home based businesses . He discusses is how important it is to get your existing customers to visit your website (because you offer something of value to them from your site e.g. information) rather than fretting about how to get new customers to your site. 

This e-book is packed with some very useful tips and hints and some great links for the work from home based business. 

* You can discover what the top 16 words are to grab attention and use in your headings. ‘free, you, love, fun, money, save, results, new, health, easy, proven, safe, guarantee, benefit, how to & now’ are the main ones. 

* Does your website engage your visitors quickly and get them to take action, or is it boring? It is a lot easier to convert visitors into customers if you have a ‘hot’ website! 

* Do you develop ‘trust’ on your website? Information about you and your work from home based business, a privacy policy, your portrait and full contact details all go a long way to developing the trust. Trust is all about building relationships, not making sales – that comes later. You definitely must have an ‘opt in’ box on your website to collect visitors details so that you can continue to build this trust by providing more valuable information.

* Is it for visitors to become your customers or do you have irritating and perplexing steps they must take – similar to PayPal! 

* Is your website out of date and are there are typing errors? The credibility of your website will decrease if it has these problems.

* Creating a website is the beginning of a journey – not the end. It is extremely important that you are able to maintain your website yourself and make changes instantly. You do not want to have to wait for someone else (and have to pay for them) when you need changes made. 

* Use your website to create income streams. A site that is simply a brochure or a passive marketing tool is a waste of time, effort and money. 

* Put measurement tools in place for your site. Measuring hits is the least reliable method of measurement of results; you need information on page views, unique visitors, conversion rates (sales), profit per visitor etc. Google Analytics can provide this for you at no cost. 

YOU CAN ACCESS THIS FREE E-BOOK
PLUS
A FREE MEMBERSHIP TO HBBA

The work from home based business operators are notorious for ‘going it alone’ and are not in the habit of joining associations or networks. This is surely to their detriment. It is easy to say “I can’t afford it” – but can you afford not to? 

Many organisations are set up to provide work from home based businesses members with a host of benefits to make their lot easier. You can often access some powerful ‘no cost’ – ‘low cost’ tools to help you with the development of your business. Organisations are only as strong as their membership; so it is important that once you become a member that you take part in as many activities as you can. 

Check out what is available: is there a Forum? You can gather a great deal of valuable information from participants on the Forum. In some cases only work from home based businesses members can post comments and questions. 

Is there a Members Directory? This is often the most visited page of the organisation and it would be best for you to be listed there! You may even be able to have a full page profile with all your contact details showing, making it easy for fellow work from home based businesses members to build relationships with you and do business. 

Many associations run regular Webinars and Teleconferences. Many are free and consist of Interviews with Experts and ‘how to’ training sessions. These can be especially valuable and should not be missed. 

There is often advertising available via the association’s website or newsletter and it is often very affordable. If there is an emphasis in supporting work from home based businesses members via promotion of them, then grab it! 

Then there are events. Here you need to balance what is available and what it costs. You would be looking for a good networking opportunity; a good speaker; a good atmosphere and an affordable cost. Some organisations even have free events as a benefit of work from home based businesses membership. 

You must benefit from your membership and that will only occur if you make the effort. If you find a good organisation, tell others.. Word of mouth is one of the strongest forms of marketing and promotion for work from home based businesses because it adds valuable ‘trust’ to the equation. 

If you have not joined an organisation then look around; do your research; and join one NOW! You will benefit by being a work from home based businesses member of a caring community – that is why women do especially well at this activity – they care and like to receive care. 

HOME BASED BUSINESS AUSTRALIA PROVIDES
TONS OF SUPPORT FOR MEMBERS – JOIN NOW FOR FREE!

It has certainly not been as easy and affordable for work from home based businesses to build their own web page which has a professional and reliable outcome, as it is today. 

Web Building Programs
There are lots of programs and software programs where work from home based businesses can develop their special web page. They need a reliable looking online business that does not require HTML or graphic layout awareness. There are several specialised website creation tools available for free; probably the most frequent being the blog programs e.g. Wordpress and Blogger. You need a robust and cost- effective answer when you want to develop your special website which is professional looking and does not need you to have to code HTML. 

Once a work from home based business builds their own internet site, they should make sure that it is easily discovered by the search engines. Being placed on search engines may not be automatic when your internet site goes live. You will find a variety of ways your web page can get posted in search engines and directories; but the best way is to select a program which includes automatic SEO functions, including listings with search engines. 

XSite Pro is one of the best cost-effective web building packages available that solves this issue for you 

Domain Names
Numerous cost-free online business applications don’t insist that you have your own domain name. However, it is recommended that you do register a domain name to give your website a more proficient look. 

Your internet site and your email address should have an identical web address i.e. your domain name. This is all part of the branding and image building of your work from home business.   

You can also register a number of domain names for the one site. After you develop your special internet site you’ll be able to add as many domain names as you need, and have all of them pointing to your internet site. It’s very popular for work from home based businesses to register the most frequent domain types for their website e. g. . com, . net, . org etc. in order to safeguard their brand and improve the access to the online business. 

If you build your special internet site, think very carefully about what domain name you decide on. Most business operators chose their business name, when in fact a domain name that lets you know what the company performs and is also the main search term (keyword) will get much more traffic and be placed higher with the major search engines. For example, the business name of ‘Cooper the Super Dog. com’ would not be as prone to get as much traffic as ‘dog training and tricks. com’ 

It is possible to investigate domain names and register them cheaply.

Hosting Solutions
When you build your own website it is imperative to have a good host. It does not matter how amazing your work from home internet site is, if the server hosting it goes down, people will not see your website. It can be the really inexpensive hosts that often crash. 

When using free webhosting, once your webpage begins showing up in the various search engines and getting increased visitors you can surpass the free data transfer permitted. If such things happen the free webhosting server will cancel your internet site; they do not care the amount of time you may have expended to construct your special internet site or just how much energy you have given to marketing it. 

An additional bad feature of using free webhosting is that they usually have advertising banners and pop- up ads put into your internet site. This will results in your website loading slowly. Visitors on your internet site may end up clicking the free hosting server’s ads and not yours; that can cause you to lose revenue. 

Also, you may not have your own domain name by using free webhosting and most free servers do not permit you to introduce affiliate links. These are strong reasons not to use a free webhosting server. 

Check out this affordable and world famous web hosting company that has just about no down time

JOIN HBBA AND LET US HELP YOU ESTABLISH YOUR WEB PRESENCE
OR IMPROVE YOUR EXISTING RATING

Direct Selling has been with us for some time and is a growing industry. No doubt one of the major attractions is that these ‘Mum and Dad’ work from home businesses can not only be run from home, but can be worked on in the chosen time frame of the operator. However, it is becoming more and more obvious that the success of direct selling depends very much on relationship building, and this is what the successful operators are so good at.

When you are conducting business in someone else’s home, it is important that operators are seen as trustworthy. To build this trust they need to develop close relationships. Work from home businesses are like none other when it comes to building personal relationships. 

So before anyone decides to embark on a direct selling work from home business like party plan, the first and foremost characteristic they must have, is that they are likeable. They have to exude personality and trust; they have to enjoy people. 

All business success depends on effective marketing, but in work from home party plan, Appreciation Marketing (segment of Attraction Marketing) is all important. Operators must constantly show appreciation of their customers, hostesses and consultants in their downline. Appreciation is the core of successful party plan businesses. 

There must be a process in place by which operators of work from home businesses can do this and they must be diligent in saying ‘thank you’ to everyone for everything. A personalised card goes a long way to achieving this. Free gifts are another important factor that an operator must build into their procedures. 

There are some old and new ideas on how to run a work from home business involving party plan and all of them are built on the basis of the importance of relationship building. If you have decided to build a party plan work from home business then do not forget that it is a business, not a hobby. You will have to learn business skills as well as superb customer skills. 

But for those work from home business operators who are prepared to show determination and passion, party plan may be just what you are looking for. 

READ MORE ABOUT PARTY PLAN

There is great free Bonus Video titled ‘From Fame to Fortune’ available to all free Emerald members of Home Based Business Australia. Barbara Gabogrecan provides some great motivation for viewers as she tells her story about how she was retrenched while being the sole support for two children and a semi-invalid Mum. Yet she started her own work from home art business and was extremely successful in a very short time.

Barbara won 7 of the Australian Gift of the Year awards and ended up with 16 licensees wanting to reproduce her designs on their product. And these licensees were big business e.g. Shelta Umbrellas. She created a work from home business yet was being sought out by big business – it was pretty heady stuff. Barbara figures that if she could do it, so could anyone with passion and drive (and a good product) and this video sets out to show you how. 

In this video, as well as being motivated by a work from home business mum, you will also learn a lot as she explains some of the important things that she did correctly, more by instinct and good luck, but nevertheless they worked. Barbara takes great delight in sharing some of her business and marketing skills so that they can help viewers with their work from home businesses. 

Barbara was not successful because she had capital to invest – she didn’t. At first, she worked for a wage one day a week and invested that money into the business. Luckily, she met her future husband and his wage supported the family until the business got going. Then he actually threw in his job and helped her with her work from home business as it was so successful. 

In a nutshell, Barbara considers that she was successful in her work from home business, because:-

1. She was opportunistic (She did not say ‘no’ to new opportunities, but rather ‘how’)
2. She was customer focussed – her Dad taught her that the ‘customer is always right’
3. She had the support of her family – no one put pressure on her to cook the tea or wash the dishes when there was an urgent order to complete.
4. She was determined and focussed
5. She was not only passionate about her product – she was passionate about running a business and marketing!
6. She promoted herself and her product via an ongoing marketing plan (which included exhibiting at major Expos)

Barbara and her work from home business became the ‘darling of the media’ and she had to keep her clippings in a different book for each year, as there were far too many for one book. This media promotion was so valuable to the growth and credibility of her business. 

You could gain a great deal from this video and can get it for free here.