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A Home-Based Business Online
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Practical home business ideas, strategies
and resources for the work-from-home
entrepreneur
Issue 114 : December 24, 2001
Sent to 13,350 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-Based Business Idea of the Week - Event Planner
3. Feature Article - Look Before You Leap ... Is a Home-
Based Business REALLY For You?
4. Surveys and Trends
5. Success Quotes 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
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Hello again and a warm welcome to all the new subscribers
who have joined us since the last issue.
Well, here we are, Christmas Eve already. Where HAS the
year gone? I wish everyone a happy and safe holiday.
This week's article is a reprise of an article I wrote last
year. "Look Before You Leap ... Is a Home-Based Business
REALLY For You?" looks at the realities of home-based
business, what it really takes and the qualities you need
to have to make it work. Take these realities into account
before you make a New Year's resolution to quit your job!
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-Based Business Idea of the Week - Event Planner
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An event planner is someone who arranges special events on
behalf of clients, either corporate or private.
The client will tell the event planner what kind of event is
proposed and the budget for it. The event planner then
arranges the whole thing including finding the right venue,
issuing invitations, catering, transport to and from the event,
and accommodation. In addition, the event planner will be
responsible for meeting any special needs of attendees and,
in the case of corporate functions, probably also the
availability of presentation facilities such as audiovisual
equipment and the like.
The first step is to ascertain the client's objectives for the
event and whether it is a corporate or social event. Often,
corporate meetings will also include a significant social aspect
so the event planner for a management retreat, for example,
may also need to arrange for sightseeing or entertainment in
addition to the corporate side of the event.
Once the objectives are clear, the event planner will then
work with the client to set a budget for the event and decide
with the client where to hold the event. The event planner
needs to know who the attendees will be and where they
are travelling from so that accommodation and transport can
be arranged as necessary. In addition, the event planner will
arrange for catering, communications, labor, meeting facilities,
printing and supplies, entertainment, speakers, gratuities,
awards, insurance and anything else that may be required for
the specific event in question.
The event planner, of course, relies on third parties to actually
provide these services and will have an established network of
contacts with suppliers and vendors among caterers, hotels,
travel agencies, printers, furniture/ equipment hirers and so on.
Event planners vary in their approach to billing. Some take as
their fee a fixed percentage of the total cost of the event (say
10 - 15 percent). Other charge clients on an hourly basis. In
either case, event planners will require a deposit (usually a
percentage of the budget) to be used to make advance
payments.
The beginning event planner should expect long hours and low
pay when first starting out. The money will improve with
experience and reputation, but the hours will always be long
because although the planning occurs during the day, the
event is usually at night or on the weekend. Personal qualities
required in an event planner are leadership, organization skills
and attention to detail. A calm disposition is essential as the
event planner will have to cope with many last minute
"disasters" and personalities.
-----
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.
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3. Feature Article: Look Before You Leap ... Is a Home-
Based Business REALLY For You?
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© 2000-2001 Elena Fawkner
Working from home sounds wonderful, doesn't it? No commute,
no boss breathing down your neck, no fixed schedule, reward
for effort, control, work/family flexibility, not having to
worry about being laid off, leaving the office politics way
behind, not having to get dressed up, being with your
children. Is this what comes to mind when you think about
what it would be like to work from home? If so, take a
good hard look before you make the jump from paid to self-
employment.
Although these are all indisputably strong benefits of
running your own home-based business, they need to be
weighed against some pretty harsh realities if you are to
make an informed decision whether a home-based business is
truly right for you. These realities can be grouped into
three main areas: personal, financial and situational.
PERSONAL REALITIES
-> Commitment - you must be totally committed to making a
success of your business. It is important to distinguish
between commitment and mere interest. If what you want to
do as a business is only an interest, your enthusiasm and
motivation may wane over time. You must be absolutely
committed to the success of your business if you are to
achieve the success you desire.
-> Risk-Taker - one of the benefits of owning your own
business is that you don't have to answer to a boss. The
other side of the coin is that there is no-one to fall back
on if things go wrong. If you make a mistake or suffer a
loss, you wear it. For this reason, you must be comfortable
taking calculated risks. If security and stability are very
important to you, perhaps paid employment is a better option.
-> Self Motivation - again, there is no boss to wave a carrot
under your nose to get you moving. You must be able to
motivate yourself to do what needs to be done and that
includes the stuff you don't particularly enjoy doing.
-> Self Discipline - being your own boss means exercising
personal discipline to ensure that the work gets done.
There will be no end of distractions to tempt you away from
the task at hand when you're working from home. You will
need a healthy dose of self discipline to ensure you stay on
track.
-> Patience - starting a home-business is one thing; turning
a profit is quite another. You will not make a profit
overnight. Be prepared to be patient and frugal during the
first few months of your new venture.
-> Reasons - closely related to the need for self-motivation,
your reasons for wanting to work from home will keep you in
the saddle. If your reasons are to get rich quick or work
fewer hours, think again. A home-based business will
definitely not deliver.
-> Flexibility and Adaptability - you may have come from a
corporate environment where you enjoyed a certain status.
You may have had a secretary or assistant to take care of
the more routine aspects of your job description. In your
home-based business you will need to be prepared to wear
many hats, at least in the beginning. This means being
flexible and adaptable, being prepared to learn new skills
and willing to take on new tasks.
-> Willingness to Sacrifice - especially in the early stages
of your business, be prepared to make sacrifices in terms of
time and money to get your business off the ground. You
will need to be prepared to put in long hours and, more
likely than not, get by on less money than you were bringing
home from your paid job.
-> Work Ethic - the backbone of all of the disciplines you
will need to practice in your home business is your work
ethic. If you have a strong work ethic then the need for
personal discipline and sacrifice will come as no surprise.
-> Stress Management - the burden of your business's
success or failure will rest squarely on your shoulders. That's
a lot of responsibility. Consider your capacity for stress
management. If it's not high, learn ways to increase it.
FINANCIAL REALITIES
-> Cash Reserves - if business is slow to start, do you
have sufficient cash reserves to see you through? If not,
perhaps you should consider starting your business part-time
until it is bringing in enough of a profit to sustain you.
-> Retirement Planning - say goodbye to the employer-
sponsored pension plan and hello to the world of IRAs
(Individual Retirement Accounts). You need to think
differently about your retirement plans and should seek the
advice of a qualified financial planner in the early days of
your new business.
-> Health Insurance - say goodbye too to the perks of paid
employment such as free medical, dental, life and disability
insurance. You will need to take out your own cover for
these risks.
-> Vacation - no-one's going to pay you while you take that
two week vacation any more. And, while we're at it, who's
going to run your business while you're away?
SITUATIONAL REALITIES
-> Hard Work, Long Hours - if you think that working for
yourself means you won't have to work as hard or as long,
think again. Most likely it will mean more of both.
-> Interruptions - if you have children at home, be prepared
for constant interruptions. Being with your children, of
course, is one of the main advantages of working from home
but you will need to set limits if your business is to get
sufficient attention. The same goes for your spouse!
-> Distractions - beware of the temptation to take care of
household tasks during the time you have allocated to your
business. It's very tempting to run a load of washing or
vacuum the carpets instead of facing up to that business
task you don't feel like doing right now. Self-discipline
is crucial if you are to avoid procrastination undermining
your productivity.
-> Isolation and Loneliness - if you come from a busy
corporate background, at some point after the novelty of
working from home begins to wear off, you may begin to feel
isolated and even lonely. Be prepared with strategies to
keep the isolation blues at bay. See "Overcoming Isolation
in Your Home Business" at
http://www.ahbbo.com/Overcoming_Isolation.html for
some suggestions.
As you can see, although there are many wonderful reasons
to work from home, there are also many strong reasons why
a home-based business may not be the right choice for you.
Take a good hard look at the above realities and your own
personal qualities and motivations. Do you have what it
takes to make a success of your business? Are you prepared
to do what has to be done? Whatever that is? If so, a
home-based business may very well be just what the doctor
ordered. But, if you have any doubts, look very hard before
you make the leap from paid employment to your own home-
based business. You could very well be jumping from the
frying pan into the fire.
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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 home business ideas for the work-from-home
entrepreneur. http://www.ahbbo.com
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4. Surveys and Trends
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© 2001 Ryanna's Hope
===================
ADVERTISING ISSUES
===================
"INSTANT MESSENGER" POPULARITY AND TREND
Jupiter Media Metrix reported that the total time using
instant messaging jumped 110% at work and 48% at home
over the same time last year with work-related usage
jumping from 10.0 to 13.4 million unique users and
home-related usage rising from 42.0 to 53.8 million unique
users.
===================
THE SENIOR MARKET
===================
TARGET YOUR OLDER CUSTOMERS
According to Home Business, older Americans (55 and older)
are the fastest growing on-line group. Numbers are expected
to triple by the year 2004, reaching over 34 million users!
Over the year 2000 alone, seniors have increased their Net
presence by 38 percent alone. Design your websites and ads
to hit this rising crowd of viewers and don't wait until
tomorrow to do it!
OK, WHO'S GOT MORE STAMINA?
While most adults age 50 or above are more likely to be
intermediate Internet users testing the waters of the Internet,
their heavy online habits have set them on a fast track to
become fully accustomed to the medium. Compared to 18- to
24-year olds, they spend on average 6.3 more days per month
on the Internet, stay logged on 235.7 minutes longer and view
178.7 more unique pages per month.
=====================
MEN AND WOMEN
=====================
SORRY GUYS, BUT ONCE AGAIN THEY TAKE THE LEAD!
According to a study of 2,198 Internet users released by
Internet customer service provider PeopleSupport, 63% of
those who shop online more than once a week are women.
There is an obvious logic to these findings, since, as
PeopleSupport CEO Lance Rosenzweig notes: "women have
traditionally been responsible for 80% of household purchases.
As more purchases take place online, women will continue to
take charge in that world as well."
However, women's dominance as Web shoppers is occurring
faster than expected. In 1995, women made up just 15% of
Internet users; that number has since increased to about
50%. "Over nine million women have logged onto the Internet
for the first time in the past year, and 58% of all new Internet
users are now women," says Rosenzweig. PeopleSupport
expects that female Net users will outnumber male users by a
3-to-2 margin by 2003.
GOING AFTER WOMEN ON THE NET
Why is the female audience so desirable? According to a
survey conducted by Women.com, Harris Interactive, and
Proctor & Gamble, women control 80 percent of all purchasing
decisions, and 73 percent of women regularly access product
and service information online. Nearly 90 percent of the women
surveyed said they were the primary healthcare decision-
makers.
Now here's an interesting note: During my research into
advertising history, McCall's magazine of 1906, yes - 1906 -
revealed new advertising since according to surveys and
publishing questions, women were making most of the
"purchasing decisions."
That, folks, was nearly 100 years ago.
================
CUSTOMER ISSUES
================
ACCORDING TO ERNST AND YOUNG, THIS IS WHAT CUSTOMERS
WANT MORE OF WITH REGARD TO INTERNET BUYING. GOT IT
COVERED IN YOUR ADS?
Lower shipping costs 63%
Lower/more competitive pricing 61%
Easier to find Internet site 22%
More choices/selections 21%
Guarantee of credit card security 20%
More information about products 16%
Faster shipping 16%
Toll-free telephone support 14%
LEARN THE BASICS ON HOLDING A CUSTOMER
The CRM Report from eMarketer highlights three important
factors businesses should consider:
1. It is estimated that 9 out of every 10 interactions that a
company has with a customer are not transactions; instead,
they are some form of communication.
2. According to Bain & Co., the cost of acquiring a new
customer can be as much as five times the cost of holding
on to an old customer.
3. Studies conducted by Harvard Business School have found
that companies can increase profits by more than 25% if they
simply reduce customer defections by just 5%.
========================
WHAT DO THE YOUTH WANT?
========================
SO WHERE IS THE YOUTH?
The US houses the greatest amount of young people who
actually buy online -- 43% of the youth in the US have
purchased a product or service online.
=======================
AND OF COURSE...THE FRAUDS
=======================
WILL THE REAL FRAUDS PLEASE STAND UP!
The Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC) of the US
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reports that as of May
2001, 64% of the 30,000+ complaints logged with the IFCC
thus far have been related to online auctions. The IFCC says
that 84% of all internet auction fraud is perpetrated by
individuals, and the remaining 16% is orchestrated by
businesses.
The IFCC's definition of internet auction fraud includes the
following wrongdoings:
*Non-delivery of items
*Misrepresentation of the value of an item
*Triangulation: involvement of three parties in which
the perpetrator steals goods from online merchant
*Fee stacking: adding extra charges once bidding is
complete
*Sale of black-market goods
*Multiple bidding by same buyer under different aliases
*Shill bidding: false bidding by the seller.
------
WANT MORE?
Ryanna’s has published over 45 business articles nationwide
for the home entrepreneur. You can obtain free info about their
offer of “Cash Making You’ve Never Seen...” and you can
obtain free ebooks and other articles at their site. Subscribe to
their free ezine “Surveys and Trends For Entrepreneurs” too!
Go to: http://home.sprintmail.com/~rypublish/
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5. Success Quotes 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
"Sometimes the only thing we do to avoid success is refuse
to be energetic on our own behalf."
-- Barbara Sher
"The measure of our future success and happiness will not
be the quality of the cards we are dealt by unseen hands,
but the poise and wisdom with which we play them."
-- Joe Klock
"It never occurs to me that there are things that I can't do."
-- Whoopi Goldberg
"First, almost all of us can do heroic things with our lives if
we believe in ourselves and our goals. Second, most
directions we need to actualize our goals are housed within
ourselves."
-- Marsha Sinetar
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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
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, 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.
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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