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A Home-Based Business Online
_______________________________________________________________
Practical home business ideas, opportunities
and solutions for the work-from-home
entrepreneur
Issue 132 : May 6, 2002
Sent to 12,959 Opt-In Subscribers
Editor: Elena Fawkner
Publisher: Fawkner Publishing
http://www.ahbbo.com
Contact By Email
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IN THIS ISSUE
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1. Welcome and Update from Elena
2. Home Business Idea of the Week
3. Feature Article - Choosing The Right Home Business
For YOU
4. Surveys and Trends
5. Success Quote of the Week
6. Advertise with AHBBO
7. Subscription Management
8. Caveat Emptor
9. Contact Information
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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.
The AHBBO quarterly 2-for-1 advertising sale exclusively
for AHBBO subscribers is now on. Details in segment 6.
This week's article is for those of you wanting to start a
business from home the traditional (i.e., pre-Internet) way.
Not everyone wants to run an Internet business after all,
but coming up with a solid idea for an offline business is no
mean feat. "Choosing The Right Home Business For YOU" is
at Segment 3.
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 .
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Access to a computer?
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2. Home Business Idea of the Week - Image Transfer
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You can transfer a photo, snapshot or other image from a
negative onto wood, cloth, paper, etc. Great for transferring
onto T-shirts, etc.
Here's how ...
All printing is done from the negative not from the photo.
Prepare two simple solutions as follows:
SOLUTION 1:
Dissolve in 6 fluid ounces of distilled water:
1/4 ounce of Silver Nitrate
1/4 ounce of Ferric Ammonium Citrate
1/4 ounce of Citric Acid.
Stir until dissolved and pour the contents into a dark bottle
until ready to use.
SOLUTION 2:
Dissolve 1/4 ounce Sodium Thiosulphate in 10 ounces of
water.
Bottle until ready to use.
Place the picture exactly where you want it, then mark
around it with chalk or something that will easily wash out.
Now take a piece of cotton, saturate it in Solution No. 1
and spread the solution evenly over the spot where the
picture is to be printed.
If you're printing on cloth, it will be a good idea to stretch
the cloth over a piece of glass and hold it in place with
spring type clothespins.
Now take a piece of heavy wrapping paper and make a
frame for the picture, cutting a hole just the size you want
the picture to be. Place this frame over the negative and
hold it all down tight with another piece of glass. If you can
clamp the two pieces of glass together with clothespins, so
much the better.
When you have it all prepared and held firmly together,
expose it to bright sunlight for several minutes, then remove
the glass, the frame and the negative. Apply Solution No. 2
to the printed area, and soak it well for about one minute.
This application of the second solution "fixes" the picture and
prevents it from fading out later when exposed to light. Rinse
the surface in clean water and allow to dry.
When you have familiarized yourself with these simple
directions you will have no trouble in producing remarkable
results that you will be able to translate into high-demand,
unique items.
You should be able to purchase all the above ingredients at
any good wholesale drug company or photographic supply
house.
-----
This is just one of over 130 ideas from the new "Practical
Home Business Ideas From AHBBO" e-book. Order it at
http://www.ahbbo.com/ideasbook.html .
_______________________________________________________________
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3. Feature Article: Choosing The Right Home Business
For You
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© 2002 Elena Fawkner
Pay any attention at all to your email inbox and you'd be
forgiven for thinking that the only way to run a business
from home is on the Internet. Sure, many people are
running spectacularly successful Internet-based home
businesses. Many, many more are doing so even more
spectacularly unsuccessfully.
But what if you're not interested in running an Internet
business? What if you want to start and run a home
business the old-fashioned way? Where do you start?
Actually starting any home business is the easy part.
The hard part's deciding what that business should be.
So how do you even start the process of deciding on the
right home business for you? The key is to be methodical,
realistic, objective and patient.
Step 1 : Personal Inventory
The first place to start is to inventory your skills,
experience, interests, and personality characteristics.
These are what you have to work with - your raw
ingredients, so to speak.
Make a list of personal qualities and factors that you can
throw into the mix. Include things like:
=> your personal background;
=> training and education;
=> work and volunteer experience;
=> special interests and hobbies;
=> leisure activities;
=> your personality and temperament.
All of these qualities and factors make up what you know
and what you're good at.
Step 2 : Identify What You Like
It's one thing to know a lot about something or be good at
it. It's quite another to enjoy it enough to want to make it
your life's work. So, remove from the list you created in
Step 1 anything that you don't really, really like doing or
which plain doesn't interest you. No matter how good you
are at it. If you're lucky enough to like what you're good at,
as a general rule, stick with what you know.
Step 3 : Match Your Likes With Marketable Activities
If Steps 1 and 2 still haven't suggested feasible home
business ideas, review the following activities that have
proven marketable for others and weigh them against
your "likes" from Step 2:
Crafts - pottery, ceramics, leadlighting
Health and Fitness - aerobics instructor, network marketing
for a health products company, home health care
Household Services - cleaning, gardening, shopping
Professional Services - attorney, architect, interior
designer
Personal Services - make-up artist, hairdresser
Business Services - business plan writer, meeting planner
Wholesale Sales - antique dealer, dropshipper
Retail Sales - children's clothing, widgets
Computers - web design, internet training.
You get the idea. This is not an exhaustive list, obviously.
You can visit the AHBBO Ideas Page for a list of over 500
home business ideas at http://www.ahbbo.com/ideas.html .
Step 4 : Make a List of Business Ideas That Fit With Your
Likes From Step 2
By the time you're done, you'll have a hitlist of possible
matches between your skills and interests on the one
hand and home business ideas utilizing those skills and
interests on the other.
Step 5 : Research
Armed with your list from Step 4, identify those ideas that
you think have marketable potential and then research
whether that belief is accurate. In order to have
marketable potential, the idea must satisfy the following
criteria:
=> It must satisfy or create a need in the market. The
golden rule for any business is to either find or create a
need and then fill it.
=> It must have longevity. If your idea is trendy or faddish,
it doesn't have longevity. Go for substance over form in
all things.
=> It must be unique. This doesn't mean you have to invent
something completely new but it does mean that there has
to be some *aspect* of your product or service that sets it
apart from the competition. This is easy if you go for the
niche, rather than mass, market. Don't try to be all things
to all people. You'll only end up being too little to too many.
=> It must not be an oversaturated market. The more
competition you have, the harder it will be to make your mark.
It's unrealistic to expect no competition, of course. In fact,
too little competition is a warning sign either that your business
idea has no market or that the market is controlled by a few
big players. What you want is healthy competition where
it's possible to differentiate yourself from competing
businesses.
This all gets back to uniqueness. If you can't compete on
uniqueness, you must compete on price (or convenience).
If you're forced to compete on price alone, that just drives
down your profit margin. Not smart business.
=> You must be able to price competitively yet profitably.
The price you set for your product or service must allow
you to compete effectively with other businesses in your
market, it must be acceptable to consumers and it must
return you a fair profit. If any one of these three is off,
move on.
=> Your business must fit with your lifestyle. If you're
a parent of young children and you primarily want to start
a business from home so you can stay home with them,
a real estate brokerage business that requires you to be
out and about meeting with prospective clients is obviously
not going to work.
You'll instead need to choose a business that can be
conducted entirely (or near enough entirely) from within the
four walls of your home office. Similarly, if your business idea
would involve having clients come to your home, you're not
going to want an unruly 3 year old underfoot as you're trying
to conduct business.
=> Your financial resources must be sufficient to launch and
carry the business until it becomes profitable. No business is
profitable from day one, of course. But some are quicker to
break even than others. If your business requires a
considerable initial capital outlay to start - computer, printer
and software for a web design business, for example - it will
take you longer to break even than if the only prerequisite
was the knowledge inside your own head, such as working
from home as an attorney.
If your financial situation is such that you can't afford to quit
your day job until your business is paying its way, this, too,
will mean it will take longer to break even than if you're able
to devote every waking hour to your business. Just do what
you have to do. That's all any of us can do.
Step 6 : Business Plan
Once you've gone through the above process and identified
what appears to be the right business for you, the final "gut
check" is to write a business plan for your business, much as
you would for a presentation to a bank for financing. Include
sections for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats,
and set goals for what your business needs to achieve for
you, by when, and how you are going to get there.
There are plenty of good resources online about how to
prepare a thorough business plan. A great place to start is
at About.com (http://www.about.com). Just type "business
plans" into the search box.
Although it may seem like a waste of time and effort to
complete a business plan if you don't intend to seek outside
financing, taking the time and exercising the discipline needed
to really focus your mind on the important issues facing your
business, you will be forced to take a long hard look at your
idea through very objective and realistic eyes.
If your idea passes the business plan test, then you can be
reasonably confident that this is the right business for you.
If you come away from this exercise feeling hesitant,
uncertain and unsure, either do more research (if the reason
for your hesitancy and uncertainty is lack of information) or
discard the idea (if it's because you don't think your idea is
going to fly). If this happens, just keep repeating Steps 5
and 6 until you end up with an idea and a business plan that
you're confident is going to work!
Although it's frustrating to wait once you've made up your
mind to start a business from home, this really is one situation
where the tortoise wins the race. By taking a methodical,
systematic and disciplined approach to identifying the right
home business for you, you give your business the best
possible chance for long-term survival, hopefully avoiding
some very expensive mistakes along the way.
------
** 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
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4. Surveys and Trends
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© 2002 Ryanna's Hope
=> ADVERTISING REALITIES
THEY MAY BE ONLINE, BUT THEY'RE NOT THE ONES BUYING
Andersen Consulting and Online Insight report that the
number one myth in online marketing is to target the youth.
The report states that, in reality, 10% of the population
accounts for 70% of spending -- 44% of online buyers are
over 35 years old and 36% are over age 25.
=> THE TREND OF THE WEB BROWSERS
Mozilla was the original name for Netscape's browser, now
called Navigator. Some people claim that the term is a
contraction of Mosaic Godzilla (e.g., Mosaic killer), since
Mosaic was the number one Web browser at the time
Netscape began developing its product.
In 1998, Netscape decided to make the source code for
Navigator freely available to the public. The Netscape group
responsible for releasing the code is called mozilla.org.
But the project was disrupted by AOL's purchase of
Netscape in 1999 for $4.2 billion.
After three months since its last version change, the Mozilla
Web browser took another baby step last week towards its
first official product launch.
Check it folks at mozilla.com!
=========================
Advertising Time Line...
1910 - Electrical current for domestic residencies becomes
standardized. Electrical appliance prices fall markedly over
the next 20 years.
=========================
=> CLASSIFIED ADS - FAST GROWING AND STILL UGLY?
According to the New York-based Jupiter Research, spending
on online classified advertising grew 38 percent from 2001,
rising to $1.2 billion this year. By 2007, that figure will almost
double to $2.3 billion -- making it the Web ad industry's
fastest-growing segment.
Jupiter attributes much of this growth to marketers' increasing
shift of offline ad dollars to the Internet -- as illustrated by
the 15 percent drop in traditional classified spending from
2001 to 2002.
Overall, Jupiter predicts that the U.S. online ad market will
continue to grow from $6.2 billion in 2002 to $15.9 billion in
2007, a compound annual growth rate of 21 percent. In 2007,
online ad spending will represent about 7 percent of total U.S.
ad spending, up significantly from the approximately 2 percent
market share it currently enjoys.
=> SELLING OR ADVERTISING IN ONLINE MAGS?
The glossy stock and the perfume samples aside, most
Americans still would rather read a traditional magazine than
one online, according to a survey from InsightExpress.
The study found that Americans would rather not substitute
their traditional paper magazines for the online equivalent,
even though many online publications offer free content. In
part, that's because scrolling and clicking is more difficult
than turning pages -- especially when relaxing with a magazine
in the bathtub -- and the portability and convenience of
traditional paper magazines is more attractive to American
readers.
The survey revealed that only 34 percent of the population
reads any magazines online, citing reasons such as
inconvenience (54 percent); online banner ads, pop-ups, and
general distractions (47 percent); prices of online magazines
(43 percent); and eye strain (23 percent) as the primary
reasons for frequenting newsstands instead of Web sites.
Though online magazines have an advantage in that they
can deliver real-time news and information, they don't stand
a chance when competing for a reader's undivided attention.
Online is not the magic bullet publishers were hoping for to
retain readership.
=> WATCH OUT...THE PAPER IS "OLD NEWS" TOMORROW
In spite of the preference for offline magazines, newspapers
are reporting success with their efforts at launching Web
subscriptions.
In spite of the preference for offline magazines, newspapers
are reporting success with their efforts at launching Web
subscriptions. International Demographics' annual Media
Audit took a look recently at online newspaper subscriptions,
specifically for the Albuquerque Journal in New Mexico and
the Tulsa World in Oklahoma, and found surprising results.
In a 2000 survey that was conducted seven months prior to
the initiation of the subscription fee, the Tulsa World site
attracted 16.8 percent of adults [in the Tulsa market] to its
site. Four months after the fee was imposed, The Media
Audit surveyed the market again and found that 18.2 percent
of adults in the Tulsa market had accessed the World site
during the past 30 days.
------
SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
Subscribe to "Surveys and Trends" with an email to:
mailto:rypublish@sprintmail.com and say 'survey' in the
subject line.
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_______________________________________________________________
5. Success Quote of the Week
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People become really quite remarkable when they start
thinking that they can do things. When they believe in
themselves they have the first secret of success.
-- Norman Vincent Peale
_______________________________________________________________
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6. Advertise With AHBBO
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**AHBBO Subscribers Only**
Two For One Advertising Sale Now On
Just mention you're an AHBBO subscriber when placing your
advertising order between now and the end of May and you'll
receive the same again, absolutely free.
===
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 .
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7. Subscription Management
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8. Caveat Emptor
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Although all of the information presented in AHBBO is
published in good faith, I accept no 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.
**I do not endorse any advertisements unless stated to the
contrary. Your money, your decision, your responsibility.**
All advertisements are accepted in good faith. However,
advertisers are solely responsible for the content and
accuracy of their classified advertisements and I give no
warranties, nor accept any responsibility, 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