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A Home-Based Business Online
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Practical home business ideas, opportunities
and solutions for the work-from-home
entrepreneur
Issue 151 : September 23, 2002
Sent to 13,573 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 - One Foot In Each Camp
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 from Elena
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Hello again and a warm welcome to all the new subscribers
who have joined us since the last issue.
This week's article is for those of you building a business
on the side while still holding down a full-time job. If
you know where to look, you may find you have more time in
your day than you think you do. "One Foot In Each Camp"
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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2. Home Business Idea of the Week - Specialty Travel
Agency
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Unlike the typical travel agency that will put together a run-of-
the-mill package tour, book a flight, arrange car rental and
hotel bookings, a specialty travel agency focuses on the
speciality travel market: the adventure seekers, special-
interest groups, specific geographic locations etc.
As a specialty travel agent, you may choose to focus on one
specific segment of the specialty travel market, such as
adventure holidays, or on several segments. You may combine
white-water rafting holidays, treks in Nepal, African Safaris
and ecotourism, for example.
Specialty travel will require you to have an intimate
knowledge of the segments of the markets you intend to
focus on. So, if you decide to specialize in trekking holidays,
you're going to have to know your stuff and that means
getting out there and doing it for yourself first so you know
what you're talking about. Likewise, don't decide on bird-
watching tours as your area of specialty if you know nothing
about birds. Pick something you're enthusiastic and
knowledgeable about and you'll be well-placed to package
memorable holidays that your clients will talk about for years
to come assuring you of repeat business and word of mouth
referrals.
Useful books:
Home-Based Travel Agent: How to Cash in on the Exciting
New World of Travel Marketing by Kelly Monaghan
Guide to Starting and Operating a Successful Travel Agency
by Laurence Stevens
Marketing and Selling the Travel Product by James F. Burke
Barry Paul Resnick
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This is just one of over 130 ideas from the new "Practical
Home Business Ideas From AHBBO" e-book. Find out more at
http://www.ahbbo.com/ideasbook.html .
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3. Feature Article: One Foot In Each Camp
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© 2002 Elena Fawkner
You have a full-time job but secretly you yearn to break
free of the corporate shackles and strike out on your own.
You have a great idea for a business but you need the income
from your job to pay your mortgage and to feed yourself
while you get it underway. Sound familiar? This article
considers this dilemma and suggests how you might make the
break from paid workforce to your own full-time home business
when financial necessity dictates a regular and
uninterrupted monthly income.
This may be obvious but it bears restating: if you need a
regular paycheck to survive, DON'T give up your day job
until you have another regular, consistent income stream to
take its place. This applies even if you are absolutely
convinced that your business idea is a surefire formula for
financial success. It may be, but even the most successful
businesses take time to get of the ground and most have a few
false starts before they finally take off.
If you can't afford to give up your paid income while you
build your business, then you have no choice but to start
your home business as a side project and run it alongside
your job. To make any sort of progress in your home
business, plan to devote two to three hours a day at an
absolute minimum to your business.
Because your time is extremely limited, you need to be
ruthlessly efficient with what you do with it. For example,
can you find spare pockets of time during your workday? If
you are running an internet-based business and use a
computer as part of your day job, this MAY be a possibility
but be careful here. Don't risk your job for your business
if you can't afford to lose that income. I'm not suggesting
here for a second that you conduct your business on company
time, at least when you have work to do. If you have some
downtime during your day, though, then do look for ways to
use that time productively.
Other ways to squeeze time out of your day include foregoing
TV in the evening and/or getting up an hour earlier. In
other words, get your priorities straight.
If your home business is related to your paid job, be
extremely careful not to create a conflict of interest for
yourself. In particular, do NOT deal with your employer's
clients as part of your business. Not only is it unethical
but, when the time comes and you make the break from
workforce to full-time home business, those clients may well
follow you and your employer would have every right to take
legal action against you for breach of your employment
contract.
Another difficulty you can get yourself into in this area is
where to draw the line, if challenged, between what is
confidential information and what is just general knowledge
you carry around in your head. You cannot use confidential
information you obtained in the course of your job in your
business. Your general knowledge is not considered
confidential information. Examples of confidential
information include customer lists, knowledge of the systems
and procedures of your employer's business, trade secrets and
the like. For these sorts of reasons, it really is advisable
not to choose for your home business what you do in your job.
It is a good idea to be discreet in the workplace about your
extracurricular activities. Don't go out of your way to
advertise the fact that you have started your own business.
At best you will expose yourself to the increased scrutiny
of your boss who may be concerned you will conduct your
business on company time. At worst, you may jeopardize your
chances for advancement if your outside activities convey
the message that you are only a temporary fixture who will
leave as soon as your business starts generating enough
income for you. Although you may not be particularly
concerned about career advancement because you plan to leave
to run your own business, at least consider your position if
your home business dreams don't pan out the way you hope.
It is very difficult to resurrect an ambitious image once
you've let it slide.
Finally, and especially during this 'double duty' period be
sure to allow sufficient time each week for relaxation and
taking care of yourself. This means paying attention to
your nutrition, exercise routine and getting adequate sleep
and well as allowing for pure downtime. The demands on your
body during the double duty period can be pretty intense.
You don't want to be taking on this challenge if you're
rundown, unfit and aren't getting enough sleep. All areas of
your life will only suffer if you're in this state. So, stay
ahead of the game by eating right, exercising and getting
plenty of sleep and relaxation.
After some time, your business will begin to generate income
for you. As you start generating more income, you will
begin to turn your mind to deciding at what point it becomes
uneconomic to continue your day job. This is because, at a
certain point, your business will reach 'critical mass', the
level at which it becomes uneconomic to continue your day
job because the return you get for your time and effort is
greater from your home business. This is because your
salary doesn't vary according to effort and results (at
least not directly), but your home business income does.
As a general rule, you will need to wait until your business
is consistently generating the same level of income on a
proportionate basis to the time you spend on it before you
start seriously considering quitting your day job. Once you
get to that point, test the elasticity of your income. If
you double the number of hours a week you spend on your
business does your income increase commensurately? If so,
your income is elastic. If you double your time input but
your income only increases by half, then your income is
somewhat inelastic. You need to calculate how much time and
effort you need to expend to generate in the form of
business income what you are currently generating from your
paid job. If this is 'reasonable' by your standards then you
can begin to seriously consider quitting your day job. If
not, you need to find ways to leverage your business so you
can generate more income from a more acceptable commitment of
time and effort.
Only when you have satisfied yourself that you can generate
from your business sufficient income on a CONTINUOUS and
REGULAR basis, should you consider quitting your day job.
That's only the threshhold question, though. Behind it are
a whole host of other issues to think about before making
the break. For example, how will you fund time off? As a
self-employed person you can forget about paid vacations.
Even if this doesn't concern you financially, consider what
will happen to your business if you're not around for two
weeks. Also, as a corporate employee, you probably enjoyed
comprehensive medical benefits at your employer's expense.
Again, these are gone. Be sure you take out your own
insurance and think about income protection insurance as
well. If you contract an illness that puts you out of action
for a month, again, what happens to your business? You will
need to take out normal business insurances as well such as
public risk. Consider here whether clients will be visiting
you at home. If so, ensure your insurances cover injuries to
business clients. This is something that probably won't be
covered under your general homeowner's policy.
Build up a network of contacts before you quit your day job.
Not only will they be an important asset to your business in
the longer term, they can also help alleviate the feelings
of isolation that you can expect to experience early in your
home-based career. Something else to do before you quit
your day job is to prepare yourself mentally for the
realities of working from home such as the need for self-
discipline, feelings of isolation, your tendency to
procrastinate to name a few. Educate yourself by reading
about what running a home business is REALLY like to
minimize the culture shock when it happens to you.
Prepare your family too for the changes that they can
expect. They need to understand that although you are at
home, you are still working and they need to respect your
limits during worktime. Of course, set up your home office
as if it were a corporate office. Make sure you have two
telephone lines and dedicate one to your business telephone
and the other to your fax/internet connection.
And one final piece of advice, when you first start working
from home, establish a "going to work" routine, at least to
start. This will get you into the routine of working even
though you are not leaving the house and you won't develop
bad habits (such as procrastination or lack of direction)
that will be difficult to break later on.
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** 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
The following is an extract from the current issue of Larry
Wack's excellent weekly ezine, "Surveys and Trends". Follow
the link at the end of the segment to subscribe for the full
version.
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THE WINNERS? Auction and Nigerian Frauds Take A Bow!
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Auction fraud accounts for nearly 43 percent of all reported
Internet fraud in the US, reports Internet.com.
This is according to a report from the Internet Fraud
Complaint Center (IFCC).
Non-deliverable merchandise and non-payment accounted for
Nearly 20.3 percent of complaints to the IFCC in 2001.
The Nigerian letter fraud made up 15.5 percent of complaints,
while complaints regarding credit/debit card fraud and
confidence fraud, were also reported.
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ARE YOU HITTING THE "ON-LINE MOMS?"
What Is It With Those Ladies In Charleston?
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eMarketer reports that American mothers spend longer online
each week than teenagers.
According to a new survey from Digital Marketing Services, a
subsidiary of AOL, mothers spend an average of 16 hours and
52 minutes online per week, approximately four hours and 35
minutes more than American teenagers.
Mothers in Charleston, South Carolina, go online for the
longest, according to the study.
The average time spent online by women in Charleston is 21
Hours and 8 minutes.
Mothers in Tampa, Florida come second with 20 hours and 58
minutes spent online per week.
The most popular online activities for 97 percent of mothers
Are email or instant message communication.
Around 93 percent of them use the Internet to get news and
current events information, while 90 percent go online to get
local information.
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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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An idea must not be condemned for being a little shy and
incoherent; all new ideas are shy when introduced first
among our old ones. We should have patience and see whether
the incoherency is likely to wear off or to wear on, in
which latter case the sooner we get rid of them the better.
-- Samuel Butler
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6. Advertise With AHBBO
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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
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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.
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9. Contact Information
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Elena Fawkner, Editor
A Home-Based Business Online
Contact By Email
http://www.ahbbo.com
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All Rights Reserved