Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Great Advice For Anyone Running A Small Business

By Muldoon Ryan


Working from home is amazing! It gives you a flexible schedule, time with your family and a job you can love. Having passion for your job is a great perk, but you need to work to ensure that job never becomes unprofitable. Here are some ideas from people who've run a home business successfully that might help you run yours.

Always deduct client meetings from your taxes when they involve expenditures such as lunch or other forms of entertaining. Many of these types of meetings are considered to be tax-deductible business expenses. Any expenses involving clients or potential clients are normally tax-deductible only when they can be deemed as a paying or likely to pay in the future client, so exercise caution.

Tell your customers on page one of your website, why they should purchase your products or services. Tell them about the benefits and any attractive features; don't bury that information on subsequent pages. Your customers need to think, first and foremost, that it is smarter to buy from you, instead of your competitors.

Involve your family as a team and play for home business success. Your extroverted spouse might be eager to do cold calls and handle clients. Your daughter may be great for articles and ad copy, while your son could create cool logos, web sites and brochures. Above all, they must have fun.

If you are interested in starting a home business, but not sure what type of business you want to start, the Internet can be a great resource for business ideas that have been proven to work. Know that there are tons of home business scams online. Many sites sell guides with information you can get for free or just basic information that you don't want to pay for. Watch out for work at home scam websites that charge you to a fee to see a list of great jobs, or websites offering expensive classes on information you do not need. Remember, if it seems like too good of a deal, it probably is.

A website will do amazing things for your home business. It will attract a wider number of prospects, present you as a professional, and serve as the storefront to your business. Unless you are a whiz at site design, hire someone to make your site look as professional as possible. You really don't want to skimp on this - first impressions last.

If you do participate in a trade show, think of a way to make your booth stand out from the rest of the crowd, like running a raffle for a free product, or offering a big discount if someone makes a purchase on the spot. You want a way to entice people to stop at your booth so that you can tell them all about your product or service and make a sale.

Do more than your customers expect. One of the things customers love most about home business operators is the incredibly personal touch they feel when they interact with you or receive your products. Give your customers a surprise sample or coupon with their order. This does not have to cost you a lot -- but it will build a large amount of goodwill with your customers.

Always send a response to customers immediately. This will show that you have good customer service, and they will be more likely to purchase your product again. Keep good records of these exchanges by filing your communications by date in case you need to look at them at a later time.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment