Work at Home Moms Articles – WAHM Articles

March is here and that means the last month of the 1st quarter is here. This means we’re almost a quarter of the way through this year. Can’t believe it’s gone this fast.

With that said, it’s time to discuss the goals you set. How are you doing with them so far? Are you on track to complete them on time? Did you set goals that were too hard or too easy to achieve? It’s not too late to rethink them or step up the game to reach them.

Goals help you reach new levels of success with your business. If you didn’t set goals, there is no time like the present to set them. If you set them already, now is the time to sit down with your list and see how you’re doing.business,

If you set goals and wondered if you really need them for your business or if you didn’t and are rethinking your decision on this topic, you need to read “Do You Really Need Business Goals” by Michelle Shaeffer. This is an article written by one of my guest bloggers and she really knows what it takes to reach success in business.

Once you read Michelle’s article, take some time to think about your business and goals and see if you need to have them. If you decide you do and you have them already, make sure you’re in line to reach success. If you don’t have them and want to, take the time to set goals that are achievable and will help you reach success.

If you work at home on your own Internet business, then you already know that offline marketing is just as important to your company’s success as online advertising. When you can get people talking about your company offline, then that will help to increase your online traffic.

The successful business owners know that they are always marketing. But it is not always easy to approach people about your business. Here are three good tips that will help you be more successful at talking to people offline about your work at home business.

Script Your Elevator Speech

When it comes to face-to-face marketing, there is no more powerful tool than the elevator speech. Experienced marketing experts are very familiar with the concept, but it is an art that is sometimes lost on the Internet generation.

An elevator speech is a two-sentence description of your company that you offer to people who you meet for the first time and know nothing about your company. The term comes from the notion that you need to come up with a way of describing your company in the time it takes an elevator to go from one floor to the next. If you have a strong elevator speech, then you have a great way of introducing your company to someone new.

Market Parties In Casual Conversation

The people who are exceptionally talented at promoting their company are the ones who can fit a discussion of their company into casual conversation. For example, if someone asks you what you did over the weekend, you can tell them about the highlights of your most recent sales adventure. Since they asked the question, then they cannot be disappointed with the answer. If you structure your answers properly, you can use it as an opportunity to try and add that person to your customer base or recruit her as a part-time sales associate.

Marketing By Sending A Message

If you walked around your town and tried to find someone who may be interested in talking about your home-based business, then you may wind up being pretty disappointed. But if you walked around your town wearing a t-shirt that said “Go Ahead and Ask Me How I Can Save You Money,” then you may find that people are pretty receptive to that idea.

One of the most common misconceptions small business owners have is that no one is interested in talking to them about their business. The truth is that people do not like to be approached with a sales pitch. But if you give them an invitation to talk to you about your business, then you would be surprised at how many people take you up on it.

Your online business needs offline marketing to survive. There are a lot of ways to get offline exposure for your company, but most of them cost money. If you want an inexpensive way to gain exposure for your organization, then you need to develop effective methods for talking to people about your business offline.

Deb Bixler is the host of the popular direct sales training radio show, CashFlowShow – Direct Sales Radio.

February is come and almost gone and March is fast approaching. Spring is in the air and I know if you’re like me, you’re ready for the seasons to change and the warmer weather to arrive. We’ve had a crazy winter season with snow and rain storms. I’m ready for the warm weather to come so we can go camping and fishing.

My son’s 17th birthday is later this week and while I’m excited for this year to come for him, I’m having some trouble with it at the same time. He’s days away from starting his final quarter of his junior year and that means his senior year is almost here. I’m really struggling with this, but it is what it is and I can’t stop him from growing up. LOL

As February comes to an end I have to wonder how everyone is doing with their goals for 2013. There are times when your goals may seem so far out of reach and other times you may wonder if you set goals that were too easy to achieve. One thing to remember is these are only goals. Life won’t end if you don’t achieve them. Struggling to reach your goals is hard, so if you find yourself in this situation, ask for help. Hire a Virtual Assistant to help or rethink your business and try to find ways to eliminate things that don’t need to be done within your business.

I hope you’re having a good year so far. Let us know in the comments how you’re doing and what you’re struggling with right now.

If you struggle to come up with ideas for your newsletter articles, you aren’t alone! Many small business owners aren’t sure what to write about. You want topics that will be interesting to your readers and help them get to “know” you so they learn that you can be a trusted source of the information or products they want.

Let me share some creative ideas with you to help you jumpstart your brainstorming.

Note: If one of your challenges is that you’re concerned about online privacy, you can still use these ideas. Just keep things general and not too personal or specific. You never have to include photos or names/ages of your children if you aren’t comfortable with it. Keep things from more of a business point of view and you can still build a professional relationship with your subscribers.

Photographs
Of course you’ll include photographs of your products or virtual images of your products, but how about some photos of your hometown, the wildlife or scenery near you, or your sewing studio or workspace?

Product Reviews
Have you received a positive review from a credible website or publication? Share it in your newsletter along with comments of your own about which of your products or services they reviewed and add what you feel the strong points of that product or service are.

Be Interviewed
Find a mentor, friend, or fellow small business owner and invite them to interview you via email. They write up and send questions, then you answer them and include the Q & A in your next newsletter. You can return the favor by interviewing them.

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Business owners are always looking for ways to keep in touch with their customers or clients. Whether they are current, past or potential customers or clients, you always want to be in front of them.

One of the best and cheapest ways to do this is to send out newsletters online. You should send your newsletter out as often as you can, but I would recommend no less than twice a month. Weekly is better though.

Content in your newsletter is important. If you don’t have content that is interesting to your readers, your subscriber list will go down. The most important thing with your content is it needs to go with the theme of your newsletter. For example, if your newsletter is about advertising tips, you will not want to use an article that is about dog grooming.

When you are putting together your newsletter, you will want to include any specials you have or new products or services you are offering. If you don’t have either of those, select a product or service and give the benefits. If you write articles, include an article or a snippet of an article and link it to a site where they can finish the article. You don’t want to make your newsletter to long or you will lose your readers, but you don’t want it to be to short either. Including 3-4 sections would be good.

When you first create your newsletter, you may have a very small list of subscribers and that is ok. You may start out with people like your parents, your brothers, and your uncle. Hey that’s ok, you still have subscribers and you never know when you might put something in your newsletter that one of those people might need or know of someone that could use it. This also gives you the time needed to work through the bugs.

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There is no doubt about it – we are living through a recession. Unemployment is high and the economy continues to sputter along. Though home party sales remain strong, the industry is not immune to the effects of the recession. However, there are some essential tips for sales consultants who want to stay one step ahead of the struggling economy and keep their home party plan business going strong throughout the year.

The Top Five Strategies for Maintaining a Year Round Business

1. Marketing. Yes, you have to market. You have to market throughout the year. Marketing is the cornerstone of any business, and it is especially vital in the home party business. You are often referred to as a sales consultant or a direct seller – you must sell to stay in business. Sell yourself, your products, and your business. Use the telephone, attend trade fairs, have hostess training meetings, sell bookings at your parties, and make use of networking and referrals. Keep your marketing simple, fresh, unique, and interesting. Once you stop selling, your business will stop making money.

2. Determine Quantitatively What Type of Marketing Works Best. You need to keep records of what type of sales approach was the most effective. Your marketing plan should always be evolving and adapting to a changing environment. If you find something that works, stick with it, but continue to explore other avenues. If you attempt a marketing strategy that falls flat, dispense with it and move on to something new. To determine what works and what doesn’t, you will need numbers. Having a reliable and efficient record keeping system is essential to the financial health of your business.

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Don’t let your email newsletter get tossed into the virtual trash can before it’s opened, or lead your customers to the wrong place when they’re ready to purchase. Be sure you aren’t making these three common mistakes.

1) A non-descriptive or vague “From” line

Don’t put “newsletter” in the “from” line. No one will know which newsletter it is! How likely are you to open a newsletter if you don’t know who it’s from?

Instead, use the title of your newsletter or your business name so people know right away who the newsletter is from.

2) A generic subject line

“May Newsletter” isn’t a very interesting subject line. Make sure your subject line grabs attention and provides a glimpse of what’s inside so readers will open it to read more. Try using the title of an article in the newsletter, a tip from the article, or an intriguing question. Watch your open rates as you experiment with different subject lines to see what your readers are most interested in.

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The Wordless Wednesday post I shared yesterday was for Google Adwords. This is a tool you can use to grow your business through advertising. If you missed the image, click here to view it.

Advertising your business is one of the best ways you can grow your business. Yes, it is possible to use word of mouth and grow, but it’s much more difficult. With the internet and Google, advertising your business is much easier and it’s not as expensive as you may think.

If you’ve ever used Google to do an internet search, you’ve seen the paid ads other businesses place. These are the ads at the top of your screen when the search results come up. They’re gray in color and are usually the first three options that come up. These ads will always appear at the top and while they will change based on the businesses that use these keywords, the ads themselves may be different each time.

You’ll need a Google account to set up the Adwords and you pay a certain amount of money for each click. The amount you pay is based on the popularity of the keyword. For example, the keyword phrase Work at Home Mom is going to be more expensive than the keyphrase Work at Home Parents. The only way to find out what the cost per click will be is to set up an account and start putting the words in. The good thing about it is you have control over the daily, weekly, and monthly amounts you spend, so you won’t go over your spending limit.

Google is one of the top search engines and it’s the best place to advertise your business. When you use Google Adwords for your business, you’ll have the ability to easily put your business in front of your market when they need you the most. If you’re ready to start your New Year off with an increase in your business, Google Adwords is an option to consider.

Motivating yourself to work your business can be a challenge at times. Bad days at home, losing a customer, or messing up on a task can cause you to question yourself and if you’re doing the right thing by running a business.

If you have these days a lot you need to question your business, but if they happen every now and then, motivation may be all you need to get through these small problems. Since these days can happen at the drop of a hat and at any time, you need to continually find motivation.

There are a number of ways to find the motivation you need to keep going with your business. You might consider reading motivational quotes, talking to others that have success, ask others to help you, or read magazines that are geared toward your business. Once the motivation comes back you’ll find running your business won’t be a problem.