Return to
AHBBO Archives
A Home-Based Business Online
_______________________________________________________________
Practical home business ideas, opportunities
and solutions for the work-from-home
entrepreneur
Issue 126 : March 18, 2002
Sent to 12,759 Opt-In Subscribers
Editor: Elena Fawkner
Publisher: Fawkner Publishing
http://www.ahbbo.com
Contact By Email
_______________________________________________________________
ATTENTION: You're receiving this ezine because you, or
someone using your email address, subscribed. There is no
other way of being added to this list.
To unsubscribe from AHBBO, just send a blank email to
mailto:leave-ahbbo@zip.netatlantic.com - be sure to use
the email address you are subscribed with - %%emailaddr%%.
If you're an AOL user, the unsubscribe link above may not be
clickable for you. In this case, just send a blank email to
leave-ahbbo@zip.netatlantic.com.
Please note you WILL NOT be unsubscribed from AHBBO
by replying to this email.
The AHBBO subscriber list is NOT made available to other
companies or individuals. I value every subscriber and
respect your privacy.
_______________________________________________________________
This Week's Sponsor
_______________________________________________________________
BusinessBuilderLeads.com Offers You A Complete, Turn-
key Monthly Auto-Ship Lead & Internet Package That
Makes Prospecting Not Only Fun and Simple, But Also
Profitable! You Will Finally Learn How To Make Money
When Your Prospects Say “NO” To You! No Other Lead
Program In The Country Can Match What We Offer! Get
Your Leads Monthly Along With A Complete, Turn-Key
Recruiting System That Includes Your Very Own Cash-
Generating Website! 100% replacement of any
undeliverable leads!
http://www.businessbuilder-leads.com/
_______________________________________________________________
IN THIS ISSUE
_______________________________________________________________
1. Welcome and Update from Elena
2. Home-Based Business Idea of the Week - Printing
Invitations
3. Feature Article - The Money Value of Time
4. Surveys and Trends
5. Success Quotes of the Week
6. Advertise with AHBBO
7. Subscription Management
8. Caveat Emptor
9. Contact Information
_______________________________________________________________
1. Welcome and Update from Elena
_______________________________________________________________
Hello again and a warm welcome to all the new subscribers
who have joined us since the last issue.
This week I'm delighted to bring you a real-life success
story as the Home Business Idea of the Week. Tammy
Johnson is running a thriving invitation printing business
and she has done it exclusively online! Think it can't
be done? Think again. Tammy's living proof. (If you
have a success story to share, send it to me at
mailto:elena@ahbbo.com?subject=Success_Story.)
This week's feature article is "The Money Value of Time".
Understand how much your time is really worth and
you'll begin to make much smarter choices about what
you do with it. Your business will thank you!
Finally, those of you who pay attention to such things
will notice that subscriber numbers have reduced from
over 16,200 last week to a little over 12,700 this week.
Why? Well, thanks to my new mailing list service, I am
finally able to identify the bad addresses and repeat
"full mailbox" offenders and their addresses have been
zapped. Please ... if you enjoy AHBBO and want to
keep receiving it at your free email address, clear out
your mailbox on a regular basis. All bounce addresses
will be deleted.
As always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy this
week's issue.
Remember, AHBBO 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 .
_______________________________________________________________
"Make More Money, Create a Professional Image, and
Grow Your Business Quickly!"
Do your ads never quite pull the response you're looking
for? Do your sales letters fall short of your goal? Is your
web site not generating enough traffic? Put me to work
for you and I'll craft an effective message, quickly and
affordably! Contact me today!
http://www.write2thepointcom.com/
_______________________________________________________________
2. Home-Based Business Idea of the Week - Printing
Invitations
_______________________________________________________________
By Tammy Johnson
“Oh wow, you have your own business from home? You
are so lucky! To be able to be with your kids and set
your own hours, I wish I could do that… how did you
start?”
If I had a dime for every time I heard that story, I would
be making a better living than I am by printing invitations.
It seems like the glamorous life ... being your own boss,
setting your own hours, working from home.
But ... when you're your own boss, you're also your
own janitor and everything in between. Setting your
own hours means staying up until 4 a.m. if that's what
it takes to get the job done. And you never really get a
day off. Working from home means you never get to
leave work.
But I wouldn’t change it for the world! Because when
you're your own boss you can make the quick decisions
that need to be made. You can decide the business is
closed for the next two hours while you take the kids
to the park. Working from home means you can raise
your own kids! (Even if they do think you live in the
office!)
I started working from home in 1998. I was also working
full time and my husband had two jobs. Yes, very
glamorous. I spent most of my time in the business
promoting the site (http://www.partyinvitations.com)
and then I would complete the two or three orders a day
that I got. The site was ranked pretty high in the search
engines, but most hits did not turn into orders.
In 1999 the business changed dramatically. On April 6th
I had 10 orders to complete and I came home with my
first child. That’s when it all went crazy. The hard work
had paid off, but I still had more room to grow. I used
my maternity leave to see what it would be like to stay
at home. It was so nice that I extended my leave to 10
weeks.
That was also the year I realized that I should promote
each category of invitation that I sold, rather than the
site as a whole. After promoting in this fashion,
categories like First Communion invitations became more
popular than Christmas party invitations. I found that
while I get a lot of orders for birth announcements, being
one of just a few sites offering Cinco de Mayo invitations
is just as profitable. The key seemed to be, as an e-zine
I read advised, to do one thing to promote the business
each day. Following that advice was the best thing I did.
In 2000 when my boss at my full time job would not let
me off for my son’s first birthday, I quit. That was a
scary leap into depending upon the business! I didn't
even give 2 weeks notice, and I never look back in regret.
9 months later the business took another turn. The
princess (my daughter) was born.
A year later, it is 2002. I now have days that I have 30
orders to complete. The family is excited about the
prospect of my husband quitting his job to help with the
business.
How did we get from three jobs plus the business to just
the business? Hard work! There is no canned answer, it
did not happen overnight. Research was done, long hours
were spent, relationships were built.
I have read e-zine articles that say it's important to
establish relationships with your customers. They're right.
A lot of people want to know there is a person behind the
web site. And many satisfied customers become repeat
customers. I have formed some great relationships through
e-mail.
These same e-zines say the relationships must be taken
off line. Perhaps this is true of many customers, but
when it's your business and you're the only one with
30 orders and two kids under the age of three (and at
least one is crying, laughing, screaming or singing at any
given moment), talking on the phone is not high priority
and building relationships over the internet works
beautifully.
Written by: Tammy Johnson, owner of Kamyra in Print
at http://www.partyinvitations.com . Email Tammy at
mailto:kamyra@mindspring.com
-----
There are many more ideas like this at the AHBBO Home Business
Ideas page at http://www.ahbbo.com/ideas.html with more being
added regularly.
_______________________________________________________________
Amazing Bio-Technology Breakthrough!
Patented, clinically-proven product destined to become
the #1 Nutritional Supplement of choice world-wide.
Based on solid scientific research. Staggering growth
potential. Do YOU see an OPPORTUNITY here? Do your
health a favor. Get more info now:
http://www.enhanceyourimmunesystem.com
_______________________________________________________________
3. Feature Article: The Money Value of Time
_______________________________________________________________
© 2002 Elena Fawkner
You have, no doubt, heard the phrase "the time value of
money". It means that a dollar in your hand today is worth
more than a dollar in your hand a year from now. Why?
Because of what you can do with that dollar over the next
year. You can invest that dollar in an interest bearing
account and have $1.05 at the end of the year. If you
decide to take your buck in a year, your opportunity cost
(foregone investment) will be five cents. Not to mention
what inflation will have done to your purchasing power in
the meantime.
As interesting as the time value of money is to economists
and financial planners, if you're anything like me, you
probably find the whole subject just a little short of riveting.
So here's something more interesting to think about. The
money value of time. Your time, that is.
Why do you need to think about the money value of time?
Because, quite simply, once you truly understand what your
time is worth, in dollar terms, you will work your business
more productively and efficiently than ever before.
In my other life, I'm an attorney. I work for a downtown
Los Angeles law firm and, like any other law firm, what
counts is how many billable hours I clock each month.
We have software to track it all for us of course. My
time is charged out at $250 an hour. In a minimum of
six minute increments. This means that if I so much as
pick up and read a one paragraph letter from another
attorney, my client is billed $25.
Spend enough time tracking your time like this, getting
to the end of the day and needing to see at least seven
billable hours totaled on your computer screen and you
soon develop a very healthy respect for the dollar value
of time.
And because I don't want to have to be at the office for
ten hours before I've generated seven that are billable,
let me assure you I work very efficiently indeed.
In the process, I've become an expert at avoiding time
wasters and unproductive activities. As a result I can
usually generate seven billable hours from being in the
office for only eight. (The other hour is unavoidable
non-billable general admin type stuff.)
My point? Start thinking like an attorney when it comes
to how you value and spend your time. Here's how.
First, decide what level of income you need from your
business. For the purposes of our example, let's say
it's $52,000 per year or $1,000 per week.
Next, decide how many hours you want to work each
week. To keep the math simple, let's say you're going to
work 50 hours a week. Therefore, on average, you need
to generate $20 for every hour of time you spend working
in your business.
But not all of your time will be revenue-generating (i.e.,
"billable") time. Any business has its share of non-billable
time - those routine administrative tasks that must be
done even though they make no contribution to your
bottom line.
So, now you have a choice. You can either work more
hours each week to cover your non-billable time, or you
can increase the amount you need to earn from every
billable hour. The first option means working longer. The
second option means working smarter. Your choice.
Whatever you decide, keep that hourly rate firmly in
mind. Every hour of your time is worth $20 (or whatever
rate you have calculated for yourself).
Think about that when the phone rings on a work day and
it's your sister wanting you to go with her to mall this
afternoon. There's three hours or $60 you've just thrown
away (not to mention what you spend at the mall!). Tell
her you'll go with her on Saturday instead. You have to
work today. Think twice about the hour and a half it will
take you to do your errands this afternoon. Another $30
gone. Do them on your own time, not your business's.
Think $30 here or there won't make any difference? Think
about this. Do it twice a week and you've just lost over
$3,000 for the year in potential business. And when you
consider that some of that $3,000 in business would have
become repeat business, you're cheating your business
out of some serious income.
Apply the same thought process to when you actually
ARE working also. What's the better use of your time --
writing an article for this week's issue of your ezine which
will hopefully be picked up by other sites and publishers,
thereby providing you with valuable free publicity -- or
stopping what you're doing every ten minutes each time
you get new email? And reading it.
Remember: the hour or two you spend writing your
article needs to return the equivalent of $40 in income.
Writing articles is the equivalent of free advertising.
You can *easily* generate at *least* $40 in income
with that sort of no-cost publicity. My articles published
on other websites and in other ezines bring me hundreds
of new visitors each week. All for about two hours worth
of work on my part. No amount of time spent reading
email will ever do that.
Contrast how much income you generate by reading non-
business-related email during working hours. Zero. It
makes absolutely no contribution to your bottom line. So,
don't do it when you're working. Do it on your own time.
By having your "hourly rate" uppermost in mind at all
times, you can always decide what's the best use of
your time. Quite simply, it's whatever alternative will make
a direct contribution to your bottom line.
Now, obviously, no-one's going to step forward and hand
you $20 every time you complete an hour's work. You're
not someone else's employee - you're running your own
show.
Some weeks you'll put in 50 hours but will only receive
$100 that week. Or less. But other weeks, you'll put in
the same number of hours and bank $1,500. It's swings
and roundabouts.
It's a good idea to review your expenditure of time against
revenue generated on a monthly or bi-monthly basis to get
an accurate picture of how you're tracking.
The point is to know what your time is worth so you can
ensure you're getting the maximum return on your
investment that you possibly can.
It will also help you to determine when the all-important
big step of hiring employees is the most cost-effective
thing to do. If you can generate more income from each
hour if you are free to devote your time to business
development activities than it will cost you to pay an
employee to take over the routine, administrative tasks
that are currently sucking up all your time, you should
hire the employee. If you don't know what your time
is worth though, how will you ever know when that time
has come?
So, next time you're not feeling particularly motivated
to write that article and think you'll maybe just go read
the newspaper for an hour or so instead, consider this.
Would you rather spend $20 to read the newspaper at
11:15 on a Tuesday morning or would you rather read
it for free at 7:30?
Time is money and money is time. Spend them wisely.
------
** Reprinting of this article is welcome! **
This article may be freely reproduced provided that: (1) you
include the following resource box; and (2) you only mail to a
100% opt-in list.
Here's the resource box to use if reprinting this article:
------
Elena Fawkner is editor of A Home-Based Business Online ...
practical business ideas, opportunities and solutions for the
work-from-home entrepreneur.
http://www.ahbbo.com
_______________________________________________________________
FREE NEWSLETTER - How to make $100,000.
Free Internet Income Course with ongoing training
on how to create multiple Income streams world
wide completely on the Internet. FREE TODAY!
http://www.BusinessProductsCo.com/serv04
_______________________________________________________________
4. Surveys and Trends
_______________________________________________________________
© 2002 Ryanna's Hope
==================
ADVERTISING REALITIES
==================
Every human being on earth is either "right" or "left"
brain dominant with regard to how they perceive
everything around them. The "analytical type" will be
left brained. They pay particular attention to detail,
and are logical and deductive in their thought process.
"Right brain dominant" are those who see things in a
"romantic" light, and who are very emotional.
Artists of all types fit into this area. While most of
the US population is "left brain dominant," 45% make
up the "right brainers."
=====================
ADVERTISING TIME LINE. . .
=====================
1918 - The first test kitchen in an ad agency is
created in the Chicago office of the J. Walter Thompson
Company.
1918 - A New York toy firm begins manufacturing the
Raggedy Ann doll; the doll soon grows into a $20-
million-a-year business.
===========================
ONLINE PRODUCTS AND PURCHASING
(according to Key Findings)
===========================
* Consumers rarely make a purchase on their first
visit to an online store. Typically, they visit a website
3-7 times over 20 to 30 days before buying.
* When searching for a product online, consumers
most often type the product name in a search engine
(28%), go to a store’s URL (23%), type the brand
name in a search engine (9%), type the store name
in a search engine (5%), or go to the shopping page of
a search engine (5%).
===================
KEY FINDINGS REPORTS...
===================
* When asked what the internet was like, Americans
compared it to a library (45%), highway (15%),
shopping mall (14%), wild west (8%), school (7%), town
hall/meeting place (3%), and banking/investment office
(3%).
* Americans with household income over $35,000 prefer
that businesses contact them via direct mail (34%).
Less preferred methods include print ads (30%),
television (25%), radio (5%), e-mail (4%), the internet
(2%) and telemarketing (0%).
* Internet users say that pop-up ads are more
annoying than e-mail spam, by a 65% to 34% margin.
=====================
YOU SHOULD ALWAYS CONSIDER USING PRINTED
MEDIA TO ADVERTISE
=====================
The top reason for not having Internet access
among households with incomes of less than $25,000
was that access is too expensive, indicated by 72
percent of survey respondents. Additional reasons
that low-income users do not choose home access
include already having Internet access at work or
school (12 percent), not wanting to tie up the phone
line (10 percent), not wanting children using the Web
(6 percent) and difficulty of use (4 percent):
Online Publishers Assoc.
=====================
QUESTION IS: "ARE THEY READING THE ADVERTISING?"
=====================
Most (64%) at-work internet users check their e-mail
on a regular basis during the day, 34% check it a
minimum of six times. The average user receives 22
e-mails per day and spends 49 minutes reading and
managing it. Many users can’t stay away: 42% check
their business e-mail while on vacation and 23% check
it on weekends: Online Publishers Assoc.
------
SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
Subscribe to "Surveys and Trends" with an email to:
mailto:rypublish@sprintmail.com and say 'survey' in the
subject line.
_______________________________________________________________
ARE YOU TOO OLD TO BE HIRED? BABY BOOMERS WANTED
National company needs people to market high-demand
professional service in a wide open US market. Part time
or full time, online and off, 30% commission, high ethical
standards required. 1-877-828-1979
http://www.comfortcommunications.cjb.net/
_______________________________________________________________
5. Success Quotes of the Week
_______________________________________________________________
Security is not the meaning of my life. Great opportunities
are worth the risks.
-- Shirley Hufstedler
In all labor there is profit.
-- King Solomon
It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult undertaking
which, more than anything else, will determine its
successful outcome.
-- William James
_______________________________________________________________
YOU HAVE A DREAM! MAKE IT COME TRUE!
Finally - a course that tells it ALL! Have unlimited money
- perfect health - a great relationship - just like you
always wanted. Don't change your life - TRANSFORM IT!
Get The MASTER COURSE now! Special reseller program.
http://www.roibot.com/w.cgi?R5469_mc
_______________________________________________________________
Like This Ezine? Click to Recommend-It® to your friends!
http://www.recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=866724
_______________________________________________________________
6. Advertise With AHBBO
_______________________________________________________________
Ezine (electronic magazine or newsletter) advertising is
the most cost-effective and targeted form of advertising
online today. This is because the ezine's editor has already
done the hard work of bringing together a large group of
readers highly motivated by the subject-matter of the
ezine itself.
Therefore, assuming you place your ad in an ezine with
a subject matter that fits with what it is you are
marketing, you can be confident of reaching a select
group of highly targeted prospects for your product or
service.
AHBBO offers four different advertising packages:
(1) top sponsor ad placements,
(2) single ad placements,
(3) ad paks (4 ads for the price of 3), and
(4) exclusive mailings.
To learn more about advertising in the AHBBO ezine,
visit http://www.ahbbo.com/advertising.html .
_______________________________________________________________
7. Subscription Management
_______________________________________________________________
Please note: email addresses for ALL returned mails are
automatically deleted from the AHBBO subscriber database.
If you have a free email account and want to continue
receiving this ezine, please make sure you clear out your
mailbox on a regular basis!
To SUBSCRIBE to this Newsletter send a blank email to
mailto:join-ahbbo@zip.netatlantic.com. If you're an AOL user,
the subscribe link above may not be clickable for you. In this
case, just send a blank email to join-ahbbo@zip.netatlantic.com.
To UNSUBSCRIBE from this Newsletter send a blank email to
mailto:leave-ahbbo@zip.netatlantic.com - be sure to
send the email from the address you are subscribed with
- %%emailaddr%%. If you're an AOL user, the unsubscribe
link above may not be clickable for you. In this case, just
send a blank email to leave-ahbbo@zip.netatlantic.com.
To CHANGE your Subscription Address
Please UNSUBSCRIBE following the above instructions
using the email address you are currently subscribed with
- %%emailaddr%% - and then SUBSCRIBE using the
above instructions using your new email address.
If you find this newsletter valuable, please forward it
in its entirety to your friends, family and associates!
_______________________________________________________________
8. 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! Remember, if it sounds too
good to be true, it probably is.
_______________________________________________________________
9. Contact Information
_______________________________________________________________
Elena Fawkner, Editor
A Home-Based Business Online
Contact By Email
http://www.ahbbo.com
_______________________________________________________________
All Rights Reserved