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A Home-Based Business Online
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Practical ideas, resources and articles for
your home-based or online business
March 9, 2000
Sent to 4,370 subscribers
Editor: Elena Fawkner
Publisher: Fawkner Publishing
http://www.fawkner.com
Contact By Email
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ATTENTION You are receiving this newsletter because you
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end of this newsletter. Our subscriber list is NOT made
available to other companies or individuals. We value every
subscriber and respect your privacy.
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This Week's Sponsor
============================================================
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IN THIS ISSUE
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1. Welcome and Update from the Editor
2. Home-Based Business Idea of the Week - Property
Management
3. Feature Article - Beyond Startup ... Are
You Stunting
the Growth of Your Home-Based
Business?
4. Newsletter Publishing Tutorial - Part 7
- Long-Term
Subscriber Generation
5. Pro-motion Column - Answers for the "Pro
in Motion"
6. Freebies
7. REAL 'NetProfits Contest
8. This Week's Web Site Pick
9. Next Week in A Home-Based Business Online
10. Advertise in A Home-Based Business Online
11. Subscription Management
12. Caveat Emptor
13. Contact Information
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1. Welcome and Update from the Editor
============================================================
Hello again and a warm welcome to all new subscribers!
This week's AHBBO Newsletter Publishing Tutorial covers
long-term subscriber generation and is, once again,
available by autoresponder as well as at the AHBBO
website.
Also this week, visit the Freebies section (segment 6) for
a wonderful new E-book from Merle of Merle's World
fame (this week's website pick). This is a new release and
a very valuable addition to your E-book collection.
Advertisers, be sure to check out segment 10 this week for
news of the introduction of Ad Pak Plus!. With this new
AHBBO ad package you get 10 ads and save one third off
the standard price! Only a limited number of these ad paks
are available so be quick!
Remember, this newsletter is for YOU! If you have comments
or suggestions for topics you would like to see addressed,
or would just like to share your experiences with other
subscribers, I want to hear from you! Please send comments,
questions and stories to Contact By Email
============================================================
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If you're thinking about starting a business on the Internet
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------
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2. Home-Based Business Idea of the Week - Property Manager
============================================================
If you've ever leased your property to tenants or leased a
property from a landlord, then chances are you will have
dealt with a property manager. Strictly speaking, property
managers deal with a vast range of property matters, but
what is referred to here is managing, on behalf of landlords,
residential properties.
This type of property manager is usually found by contacting
a real estate agency in your area when you are looking to
list your property for rent or are searching for a property.
But,
subject to local regulations in your area, there is no reason
why a property manager needs to be attached to a real estate
agency. Of course, you will need to make sure that you
comply with your state's licensing requirements for property
managers (if any) but there is absolutely no reason why you
can't set up your property management business right out of
your home.
Your clients will be landlords who seek the services of
someone who can find tenants for their properties and manage
the landlord/tenant relationship on their behalf. This task
is broader than it sounds and includes advertising properties for
let, processing applications from prospective tenants (and this
will include screening applicants by carrying out credit checks,
verifying employment information, checking personal and business
references and the like), preparing lease documentation (standard
form contracts will usually be all that is required), collect security
deposits and rents on their behalf, coordinate maintenance issues,
arrange periodic inspections during the course of a tenancy,
arrange for evictions if necessary and the like.
You would typically receive income by way of commission
calculated as a specified percentage of the monthly rent
and you may also want to charge a letting fee equal to,
say, one week's rent.
Useful resources:
=> Sites
Allied Real Estate School (Professional Property
Management Course by correspondence)
http://www.propmanagementcourse.com/
Home Management Network
http://www.homemgmtnet.com/
Landlord's Resource Center
http://www.lrcinc.com/
National Property Management Association, Inc.
http://www.npma.com/
=>Books
How to Start and Manage a Property Management Business
by Jerre Lewis and Leslie Renn
The Landlord's Handbook: A Complete Guide to Managing
Small Residential Properties
by Daniel Goodwin with Richard Rusdorf
Property Management
by Joseph DeCarlo
These titles and many others are available online at
Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com) or Barnes and Noble
(http://www.bn.com).
------
There are many more ideas like this in AHBBO's Home
Business Ideas page at http://www.fawkner.com/hbideas.html
and Online Business Ideas page at
http://www.fawkner.com/obideas.html with more being added
all the time.
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3. Feature Article - Beyond Startup ... Are You Stunting the
Growth of Your Home-Based Business?
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By Elena Fawkner
If you’ve left the corporate world to strike out on your own in
your own home-based business, you'll be acutely aware that
your financial success is up to you and you alone, perhaps
for the first time in your life. For obvious reasons, therefore,
your home-based business is probably run on a shoestring.
This means, of course, that you do everything. Although you
are now CEO, you are also secretary, marketing director,
receptionist and gopher. But hey, that’s the way you like it,
right?! And when you’re just starting out, let’s face it, you
don’t have much of a choice anyway.
But sooner or later, if you keep doing everything yourself you’ll
necessarily curtail the growth of your business. It will grow
to
a certain point but no further because you’re only one person
and there are, after all, only 24 hours in a day. Now, if you’re
satisfied with making a little money on the side, that’s fine.
But if your business is your only source of income, you must
move beyond start-up if you are to become financially
successful and avoid stunting the growth of your business.
This article looks at the growth stages of a typical one-person
home-based business and how to gradually grow your business
without being run over in the process.
INITIAL GROWTH
=> One-(Wo)Man Band
As already stated, when you first start out, you do everything
yourself. You’re both chief cook and bottle-washer. And
you
can continue like this for quite some time because, initially,
you are unlikely to be fully stretched. This is exactly what
you should be doing.
This is NOT the time to go out and spend money with
advertising agencies and hiring employees. For so long as
you CAN do everything yourself and everything that needs to
be done is getting done, this is the most efficient use of your
current resources.
=> Don’t Overcommit Yourself
During this stage, however, it is important to be careful not
to overcommit yourself. You are a fledgling. You must learn
to fly like a sparrow before you can soar like an eagle. So,
when you first start out, underpromise and overdeliver.
Also, don’t embark on an aggressive marketing campaign
until you have the business resources to satisfy the demand
you will create. Let your advertising grow in line with the
growth of your business, the addition of employees and
increased financial capacity.
=> Pay Yourself
Be extremely careful of your pricing during this stage also.
Make sure you include a wage for yourself in your overhead
costs and add a realistic profit margin (say 15-20%).
Remember, price equals costs plus profit margin. Costs
include direct, indirect and overhead costs. For a more
detailed treatment on pricing, read “Pricing Yourself to Get,
and Stay In, Business” (* link below).
=> Profits Belong to Your Business
Plough your profit back into your business. This is most
important. This is where your funds for expansion during
the next growth phase of your business come from. NEVER
use your business’s profits to pay personal expenses. This
is what you pay yourself a wage for. Your business’s profit
does not belong to you. It belongs to your business. There
IS a difference!
=> Avoid Premature Expenditure
During your shoestring days, look for lower-cost substitutes
before incurring substantial expenditure. For example, don’t
go out and buy a new fax machine, a new answering machine,
a new photocopier. Get one of those three in one jobs that
sits on your desktop and only costs a few hundred dollars.
Use a good accounting software program rather than hiring
an accountant and hire from your family first if you need
temporary help. Another good idea is to negotiate with family
members to take over some household chores you would
normally do yourself to free your time to work on your business.
This works especially well with pocket-money age children
and teenagers.
During times of temporary overload, hire temporary staff from
a staffing agency if no family members or members of your
social circle can do the job.
=> The Glass Ceiling
After a while, somewhere between the one year and three
year mark, you will notice that your business is beginning to
stagnate. At this point, you have stretched yourself and your
resources as far as they can go. You have hit the glass
ceiling.
At this point, if you want your business to grow further, you
will have to grow it. It will not happen as part of an evolutionary
process beyond this point.
BEYOND THE GLASS CEILING
=> Hire Permanent Employees
The time to hire permanent employees is when you reach the
point where you can’t complete all tasks alone (or with the help
of family members) and/or your time is worth more than it would
cost to hire someone to complete your less complicated tasks.
Before adding employees, carry out an inventory of the
necessary tasks required to operate your business. Once
you’ve identified all necessary tasks, assign primary
responsibility for each task to one person. Although one
person will be assigned more than one task, make sure no two
people are assigned the same tasks.
Also, make sure at least one other person knows how to do
each task to cover yourself during times of staff shortages,
whether due to temporary absence due to illness, or when an
employee resigns and it takes you a while to find a replacement.
Finally, and most importantly, when assigning tasks, assign
yourself the tasks you do best.
=> Capital
To grow beyond the start-up and initial growth phases, you will
need capital to inject into your business. Now this,
unfortunately, is easier said than done. Banks can be leery of
entrepreneurial ventures and venture capital is not easy to
obtain. But, although obtaining borrowed capital is difficult,
it
is by no means impossible. Here are the main sources of funds:
* Banks
Cultivate a good relationship with your banker. The more he or
she understands your business and knows you, the more
likely it is that your application will be approved. And this
means
more than just fronting up when you need money. Keep your
banker informed of all significant developments in your business
and routinely provide copies of your annual business plans.
Be prepared to demonstrate that your business is capable of
generating cashflow and think about what collateral you have
available to put up if necessary.
* Venture Capital
In addition to a solid business plan and track record, venture
capital providers want to see that you understand your
customers and how your business is a good fit with their
needs. So arm yourself with competitive intelligence and
satisified customers as references. Also, be prepared to
show you have access to experienced management staff.
These individuals need not be on your payroll but you should
expect to show that you have a depth of experience and
talent available to you at least in an advisory capacity.
* Revenue Stream
Instead of selling equity to raise capital, consider selling part
of the revenue of the business. In other words, investors
advance loan capital and get repaid by way of a percentage
of the sales of the business. This preserves your equity in
the business and is attractive to investors because they
receive an immediate cash return.
This method has the considerable advantage of avoiding
securities laws (it is a loan rather than a sale of securities)
but it is only viable for businesses with high margins and
strong sales.
* Angel Capital Electronic Network
ACE-Net brings companies looking for capital together
with angel investors. You can find links to ACE-Net at
http://www.sba.gov/ADVO .
* Direct Public Offering
If your business has a strong relationship with its constituents
(employees, customers, vendors and community), consider
selling stock via a direct public offering.
Other miscellaneous sources of funding include 401(k) plans
and provision of loan guarantees by family members or friends.
=> Work On the Business, Not In the Business
The third and final point to note about breaking through the
glass ceiling is that you must make the mental transition from
working IN the business, to working ON the business.
Until your business hit the glass ceiling, you were effectively
working in the business, much as an employee would. In this
sense, the business was your job, a place to go to work. But
beyond the glass ceiling, your business becomes an entity
unto itself. It is no longer your “job” to work at the tasks
that
make up the business’s operation. Instead, your role is to
work “on” the business as a separate entity, leaving the tasks
to your paid employees.
Hopefully you can see that shifting your perspective in this
way is the key to the long-term growth of your business and
the difference between true autonomy and indentured servitude.
------
* To receive an autoresponder copy of the article "Pricing Yourself
to Get, and Stay In, Business" send a blank email to
mailto:pricing@fawkner.com .
============================================================
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============================================================
4. Newsletter Publishing Tutorial - Part 7 - Building Your
Subscriber Database II - Long-Term Subscriber Generation,
Publicizing, Ad Swapping and Joint Venturing Your Way to
Critical Mass
============================================================
In Part 5 of the AHBBO Newsletter Publishing Tutorial,
we discussed how to generate your initial subscriber
database. In Part 7, we look at subscriber generation
over the longer term.
Part 7 is available by autoresponder. To receive it, just
send a blank email to mailto:nptpart7@fawkner.com .
Alternatively, visit the A Home-Based Business Online
website tutorial at http://www.fawkner.com/tutorials.html .
------
Next Week Part 8 - Administering Your Subscriber
Database - Manual versus Automated
-----
Missed previous instalments? No problem! All instalments
of the AHBBO Newsletter Publishing Tutorial are archived at
the AHBBO website at http://www.fawkner.com/tutorials.html
============================================================
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------
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============================================================
5. Pro-motion - Answers for the "Pro in Motion"
============================================================
Q. You don't seem to get too excited about spam. How do you
deal with it?
A. That depends. I know that spam is a very real problem -
especially for those who must pay for their online time in
increments.
My ISP provides a way for clients to view the subject and return
address of email before downloading it. Anything that is
unwanted can then be deleted right on the server. If web
hosting companies would get on the ball and provide this
service, it could practically eliminate any value that spam has
to the sender.
Barring that (because I receive most email through my web host's
servers) I simply let it come in and eliminate it before reading
anything. It's easy enough to spot.
Two situations will cause me to report a spammer. If (s)he has
obviously harvested the email address from one of my web sites -
or if (s)he has subscribed to my ezine, then proceeds to shower
me with ads.
Harvesting is unmistakable. It's never personalized and it may
very well be sent to every email address posted on the web site
so I receive several copies. Or - my email address isn't
showing at all except in a full header.
Since I make it a point to send a personal "Welcome" in addition
to the autoresponse for new subscribers, I also recognize when
someone subscribes to my ezine for the purpose of sending spam.
I particularly watch the free email service addresses. I use a
template for this so it doesn't eat up a lot of time, keeps me
somewhat familiar with my subscribers and opens up lines of
communication.
How do I report spam? Templates, again. I never bother to
respond with the "Remove" instructions. Here's the process:
1) Be sure it IS spam - and that you didn't invite this email in
some way.
2) Open the full header on the offending email.
3) Forward the entire email - addressing it to "abuse@_______.
Fill in the name of the ISP or free email service the email
came from originally.
4) In your message area, copy and paste from your template a
short note stating that this email is spam and you trust it
will be dealt with accordingly. One line is all it takes.
Send it off and know it WILL be dealt with by the appropriate
agency!
5) If the spam came through a domain name, go to the whois data
base at: http://www.networksolutions.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois/
Keep this address in your bookmarks.
6) Note the web hosting company for the domain name. Send the
forwarded email to abuse@ the web hosting company.
I don't go nuts over spam simply because I decided long ago to
use my energy for more productive things than trying to kill
elephants with fly swatters. Little energy is expended through
my "Delete" button. However, this reporting process takes only
a few seconds and it gives me the satisfaction of knowing that
I've taken out a few of them.
* To submit questions to "Pro-motion"
mailto:Questions@IAPOnline.org
jl scott, ph.d., Author
© 2000, All Rights Reserved
This article may be reprinted with permission by including the
following resource box:
------
dr. jl scott is the Director of the International Association for
Professionalism Online (IAPO) http://www.IAPOnline.org - and also
the publisher of MONDAY MEMO! - the ezine dedicated to upgrading
Professionalism on the Web. For your FREE subscription:
http://www.MondayMemo.org/ezine.htm
============================================================
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============================================================
6. Freebies
============================================================
-> Ebook - Secrets of Business In the New Millennium
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How to run your business easily and inexpensively
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the 'Net.
http://www.fawkner.com/businessin2000.exe
-----
If you're new to A Home-Based Business Online, be sure to
visit http://www.fawkner.com/ for many more freebies.
============================================================
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============================================================
7. REAL 'Net Profits Contest
============================================================
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============================================================
8. This Week's Web Site Pick - Merle's World
============================================================
http://www.merlesworld.com
An outstanding site full of free resources for webmasters.
This site is definitely a "must bookmark", particularly the Web
Master Resources section which contains links to some truly
great free software downloads.
============================================================
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============================================================
9. Next Week in A Home-Based Business Online
============================================================
-> Home Business Idea of the Week: Home Health
Care Agency
-> Feature Article: Keeping It In The Family
... The Pros and
the Cons
-> Newsletter Publishing Tutorial: Part 8 -
Administering Your
Subscriber Database - Manual
versus Automated
============================================================
10. Advertise in A Home-Based Business Online
============================================================
New!! Ad Pak Plus - 10 ads for $100
Purchase the all-new AHBBO Ad Pak Plus and get 10 ads for
a third off! But be quick. Only 10 of these ad paks are
available.
Advertisers, ad rates and placement details are at
http://www.fawkner.com/adsubmit.htm . Choose from single
ad placements, ad paks (4 ads for the price of 3), ad pak
plus and exclusive mailings.
============================================================
Do you like this ezine? Recommend-It(r) to a Friend!
http://recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=446574
============================================================
11. Subscription Management
============================================================
To SUBSCRIBE to this Newsletter
http://www.fawkner.com/subscribe.html
To UNSUBSCRIBE from this Newsletter
mailto:unsubscribe@fawkner.com?subject=unsubscribe0309
If you find this newsletter valuable, please forward it
in its entirety to your friends, family and associates!
============================================================
12. Caveat Emptor
============================================================
Although all of the information presented in AHBBO
is published in good faith, neither the publisher
nor the editor accept any responsibility as to the
accuracy or otherwise of the information presented.
By making use of the information contained in AHBBO
the reader assumes all risk that certain information
may prove to be incorrect.
All advertisements are accepted in good faith. However,
advertisers are solely responsible for the content and
accuracy of their classified advertisements and no
warranties are given, nor responsibility accepted, by the
editor or the publisher in relation to any classified
advertisement appearing in this publication. ALWAYS carry
out your own due diligence!
============================================================
13. Contact Information
============================================================
Elena Fawkner, Editor
A Home-Based Business Online
Contact By Email
http://www.fawkner.com
============================================================
All Rights Reserved