WAHM Forums
The WAHM community forum was created to be a place for work at home moms to share their ideas and stories. In the forum you can find information about work at home jobs, starting home businesses, avoiding scams, and surviving the WAHM lifestyle. In support of the WAHM community, WAHM.com also features instructional articles, easy recipes, as well as job and business listings tailored specifically to work at home opportunities.
View Full Version : What are the beginning steps to a home based business?
lordofhell
08-28-2009, 06:58 PM
You've decided that you possess a talent or skill that is marketable. You've decided that you want to establish a home based business providing a product or a service.
Make a list of which aids you have at your disposal. Make a second list about what you know about doing business in your jurisdiction. Call whichever government offices you need to get information from and get it. Those lists will help you evaluate the steps you need to take to get yourself ready to "do business."
Hopefully from those lists you'll develop a plan of action of 8 to 15 steps that apply to your perceived venture. That list will become a work in progress. The items may change from time to time as your Plan develops - but at least you have established a starting point.
How to develop your customers? You have to find the people who will need your product or service - How do you do it? Evaluate your product or service and decide a beginning marketplace. Determine low-cost ways of letting that marketplace know you're available and ready for their business.
How to charge for services? You only have so many hours in a day and you need to earn a certain amount to accomplish your goals. You will only be able to produce a certain number of hours each day. Other hours will be taken up with "stuff."
How to decide how many services you need to offer? A single service business is very limiting. You need to develop as many related services as you can conceive so that you will have appeal to a broader customer base.
How to determine the success potential of your business? This one is tough. You may have a passion for something - let's say butterflies. Butterflies don't need training. They don't wear clothes. They don't take trips you can charge for. The best thing you could do with butterflies is mount them or paint them. If you're artistic, that could be a possibility. Otherwise, stay with the day job.
On the other hand, let's say you're an amateur mechanic. You live in a house with a big garage. You've been tinkering with cars as long as you can remember and you can fix just about anything. You can average $35 to $50 an hour for your time six hours a day. That's $300 a day times five days a week - $1500 a week, $6,000 a month, $70,000 a year. Think about that $70,000 a year with no commute, deducting part of your living expenses as business expenses and being your own boss.
No product or service? If you have a computer and basic skills you can tag on as an affiliate to many successful Internet businesses and be more successful than you ever thought possible.
Make a list of which aids you have at your disposal. Make a second list about what you know about doing business in your jurisdiction. Call whichever government offices you need to get information from and get it. Those lists will help you evaluate the steps you need to take to get yourself ready to "do business."
Hopefully from those lists you'll develop a plan of action of 8 to 15 steps that apply to your perceived venture. That list will become a work in progress. The items may change from time to time as your Plan develops - but at least you have established a starting point.
How to develop your customers? You have to find the people who will need your product or service - How do you do it? Evaluate your product or service and decide a beginning marketplace. Determine low-cost ways of letting that marketplace know you're available and ready for their business.
How to charge for services? You only have so many hours in a day and you need to earn a certain amount to accomplish your goals. You will only be able to produce a certain number of hours each day. Other hours will be taken up with "stuff."
How to decide how many services you need to offer? A single service business is very limiting. You need to develop as many related services as you can conceive so that you will have appeal to a broader customer base.
How to determine the success potential of your business? This one is tough. You may have a passion for something - let's say butterflies. Butterflies don't need training. They don't wear clothes. They don't take trips you can charge for. The best thing you could do with butterflies is mount them or paint them. If you're artistic, that could be a possibility. Otherwise, stay with the day job.
On the other hand, let's say you're an amateur mechanic. You live in a house with a big garage. You've been tinkering with cars as long as you can remember and you can fix just about anything. You can average $35 to $50 an hour for your time six hours a day. That's $300 a day times five days a week - $1500 a week, $6,000 a month, $70,000 a year. Think about that $70,000 a year with no commute, deducting part of your living expenses as business expenses and being your own boss.
No product or service? If you have a computer and basic skills you can tag on as an affiliate to many successful Internet businesses and be more successful than you ever thought possible.
