Whether you intend to run a home based business or a conventional brick and mortar one, you can surely enjoy a lot of perks and privileges that is innate in having the same kind of business. While there is no such thing as a perfect entrepreneurial pursuit, one thing remains the same: there are unique advantages to it as much as there are advantages to it too. Now, a home based business may be worth comparing with a conventional brick and mortar business in terms of costs, marketing, and its market in general. Knowing these should help you decide which business type is suited best for you.Start-up Costs. More often than not, a conventional business will demand a lot on start-up costs. Renovating your place of business, the implements required to operate, and many other demands will call for a lot on your finances. This should not be the case when you opt to have a home based business though; as you have your home fitting just right to accommodate your entrepreneurial pursuits.Operational Expenses. Operational expenses may be less when you have your home based business. This is because you do not have rents to think about, and you do not have store staff to pay for. In addition to this, operating your conventional, brick and mortar business also implies that you have to pay utility bills too, on top of maintenance costs and expenses. This should not be the case with a business you run at home; as you pay your home bills, you pay your business’ bills along.Marketing and Promotions. A conventional brick and mortar business would compel you to have more and more people in order to gain back your investment and monthly fixed expenditures; thus, the need to have an extensive and intensive marketing strategies as well. This implies more costs on your end. The same is not true with a home based business though, as marketing in this kind of business happens by word of mouth.Market as a Whole. With a fixed area to undertake your conventional brick and mortar business, you have a very limited market. This is not the case when you run a home based business. With a business type as that of the latter, you can even be a travelling salesperson expanding your market constantly.With all these things in mind, aspiring entrepreneurs with less investment capacities should opt for a home based business; while those who have the means to risk may go for the conventional brick and mortar one.
Top Ways to Turn Your Small Business Into a Business Empire
Top ways to turn your small business into a profitable business empire.Small businesses are those businesses which may be started with small capital investments. There are millions of people who are running small or home businesses. Nearly 70% of newly started small businesses fail due to lack of capital, competitions and various other reasons.Before we look into the reason for success or failure of small businesses let us look into some of the most successful businesses that were started with some powerful and innovative ideas. if you start any small business in a routine way then you may earn just hand to mouth. To take your small business on top you must provide something new and innovative.How some of the ordinary people turned their small business into a global business empire:(1). King c. Gillette: A traveling salesman found that his straight razor had dulled and it has become impossible for him to make a close shave. Many time his dulled razor use to cut his skin as there was no sharpness left so he started thinking about new safety razor. A new idea about making a twin blade razor was born in which disposable blade may be put and replaced. Even though many engineers rejected the idea but he continued to experiment and today Gillette have become a billion dollar company. He introduced a low cost, disposable blade that can make close and safe shave.Summary: He faced a problem and wanted to find an innovative solution to that problem. Although he was a salesman with limited resources but he knew that idea can be turned into money. He realized that if his dreams can be realized then he can turn it into a profitable business empire. This is the power of innovative idea. An innovative idea can make unlimited wealth. Any small business can be turned into a big business empire if you try to introduce some new concepts.(2). Tory Kumon: A high school mathematics teacher in Japan, Toru Kumon, became concerned because his second grade school son was bringing home poor grades in mathematics. Encouraged by his wife to find a better way to teach his son, Kumon began to examine the textbooks and exercises being used. Kumon felt that there were better ways and looked for a different method for his son. The Kumons worked together and while his wife supervised the home work of their son, Toru Kumon re-wrote the exercises and drills for his son, giving him a slightly more difficult set of problems every day. By the time the son had finished eighth grade, he was working through calculus problems, easily and correctly, and could handle work found on university entrance examinations.Toru Kumon realized that if his son was having this problem, there would be other children in the same situation. Kumon then decided to take his methods to other parents whose children were having these same challenges. He did this by opening Kumon Learning Centers throughout Japan. Kumon was not without his critics, though. Members of the educational establishment were against him – primarily because it was not their idea. They could not refute the fact that the Kumon system works. Today kumon have more then 26000 centers in 46 countries. This is the power of a small and powerful idea!Summary: Kumon saw a problem – poor academic performance and defined it as an opportunity – opportunity to create a learning system that would resolve the poor academic performance problems. After working with his son and finding something that work, he found he could provide this service to other parents that were having the same challenges. At the same time, he could create income for himself. He provided something of value and a lower cost than many of the alternatives.(3)Amancio ortega: Amancio Ortega was born in the year 1936 in Spain. His father was a railway worker and his mother worked as a maid to support the family. Due to the financial problems that his family was facing, at the tender age of 13 he started working as a delivery boy at a shirt makers shop. Thereafter he worked for a lot of stores and tailors and closely studied as to how the products and cost of the products changed as they traveled from the manufacturer to the consumer. As a result of this study he became focused on the importance of getting the products directly to the consumer by eliminating the middleman. During his experience of working as a manager of a local clothing shop he realized that only rich people were able to afford high fashion clothes because of the high prices they came with. Having observed this, he was determined to manufacture high fashion clothes that were low priced and accessible to all. He continued to gain experience and knowledge while working until 1963 when he started his own company with just $25. He started designing and making fine bathrobes and started selling it to customers and also started supplying them at various stores. Later on with the profits that he earned with the help of this business he started his own factory. Today his personal worth is more then $20 billions. This is the power of innovative ideas on which a small business is developed into a business empire.Let us try to shed some light on the innovative ideas that he used to turn his small business into a fortune.(A)He realized that the high end fashion clothes were only accessible to rich people as only they could afford it. A major portion of the price margin was consumed by the middlemen. To eliminate this problem, he started creating high end fashion clothes or rather look-alike of top fashionable clothes for the masses at affordable prices by eliminating the middlemen. In this way then number of people who bought his clothes increased and in turn he became very popular.Benefits to the consumer: Due to Amancio’s innovative idea, the middle class people who could not normally afford costly and latest designs were able to avail these fashionable clothes at reasonable rates.(B)Direct Retailing: Amancio realized that middle men like wholesalers, semi wholesalers were deciding the final selling prices of these clothes and thus they ended up being very costly. Thus he opened his own string of stores called ZARA where he passed the margin that was being taken by the middle men to the customers.(C)When Amancio started his business; the industry standard was to introduce new fashion twice a year. Thus people had to wait for a very long span of time and would visit the shop only twice a year to buy the new fashionable clothes. Amancio introduced the unique concept of instant fashion by introducing latest designs and new fashions within 2-3 weeks. This in turn pulled people to his shops many times in a month. This also helped customers by bringing new designs to them and the shopkeepers were benefited too because of the constant visits by the customers.(D)Modifying unsold designs: Some designs do not sell as much as the popular ones. What Amancio did was to change and alter the failed designs so that they would be sold. He did this by putting up new patterns and accessories on the old designs.(E)Advantage of information technology: To know more about what type of designs sell and what type does not sell and also to know more about the unsold stocks, Amancio took advantage of information technology that allowed him to monitor the unsold inventories. This also helped him realize the actual taste of the customers.Summary: Amancio ortega started a small business with just $25 but today his personal net worth is more then $20 billions. At the time he started his business there were already thousands of businessmen, designers, and established fashion houses but only he was able to make it to the top because he introduced something new in his small business and rest is history.Most of the self made billionaires possessed or developed the following qualities to become rich and these are necessary for success in any business: They started with a small business and developed into a business empire. Some of the qualities required to develop a small business into a business empires are as follow.1. A burning desire to become rich
2. A fixed goal and a sound business plan to materialize it.
3. The faith and persistence in your efforts and making the tough decision of never to give up even after many failures.
4. A practical plan of action
5. Developing the ability to organize information and creating something new out of it.
6. The ability to innovate
7. Working towards developing new ideas and innovations instead of worrying about the investments required for the business.
8. Compensating for lack of education with self education and mastering all specialized knowledge with practical experience.
9. Finding ways to make money without any capital
10. Trying to create something new that would provide additional benefits to the customers or to the industry.
11. They are never ashamed to take up even a small job so as to learn in and outs of the business and to sharpen their skills in the field.
12. The ability to turn even $1 into thousands.
13. Creates opportunities for themselves instead of waiting for them to happen
14. They mastered all the specialized knowledge that is required for the selected business and tried to learn everything that is necessary to make a fortune
15. Developed their ability to create the best.
16. Creates and develops only such things that have a demand or that will be sold for sure.
17. They are never afraid of competition and beat it with the help of better products.
18. They always think and plan 10-20 years ahead of the time
19. They develop a profitable idea to attract investment.
20. They start initially with a knowledge based or skill based business.
21. They learn how to think like a customer and constantly try to find ways to provide goods and services at a low cost and with high value.Summary: whatever small businesses you want to start first of all make a research about the ideas that are being used by top and successful companies. Now try to find some loop holes or better solutions and try to introduce them in your small business.
The Increasing Rise of Internet Affiliate Marketing Business and Home Base Businesses
Millions of people across the world desire to work for themselves from home. Some of us want to be our own boss because of the flexibility we can gain as a result of working for ourselves. Others are very much attracted to making extra money or more money than what they earn from the 9am – 5 pm normal job, while working for lesser hours. The cost of setting up an offline business can be mind-blowing and breath-taking as compare to setting up an internet affiliate marketing business and an online home business. Only few people can really distinguish the differences cost while.Many people, who do not understand starting an online business or an online home base business involves lesser cost than starting any offline business, are very scared of starting one. Internet affiliate business and home base businesses are increasingly becoming very popular since most people have now realising that the cost for setting up one is minimal or can even cost nothing at all than they ever have thought of. This has led to the increasing rise of internet affiliate marketing business and other online home base businesses. As a result of this rise, this has fetched a fortune to many people. It is now a booming business, yet the market is just too young than you would think.Now the basic essentials for setting up your own home base business are, a computer with an internet connection, a mobile phone or home phone, and a little space in your bedroom or sitting room. Some people will even work sometimes with their top on their bed in their bedroom. Only your laptop with an internet connection will make a complete office for setting up a very big business from home.Affiliate marketing is a big business as it can provides anyone the opportunity of selling products and services to millions of people across the world via the internet. It is a very lucrative business if it is done properly.The starting point is to pick the kind of market, (that is product or services you would be interested in promoting). Ask yourself, is the product or services you have picked a hungry market? Are there many people out there who will be interested in that kind of product / services? If the answer is yes, then you have landed yourself a business and an opportunity to make some good money. If the answer is no, you must not continue with that product or service because that will not make you money. That means you have to research other markets in order to find a hot niche market that will sell like a hot cake or candies.The next thing is to evaluate your skills. Do I have the skill that is required to become successful as an online affiliate marketer, or a home base business owner? If the answer is no, then you have to learn and acquire that knowledge. Like said earlier, it is a very lucrative business / industry, and for that reason it is worth acquiring the right skills for becoming successful.There are ten thousands of already made products ready for anyone to promote them and earn commissions. Hope you have heard of Amazon and eBay affiliate programs, though as a matter of fact the earnings is not much to writing home as compare to some great affiliate networks out there.All the hard work in producing the product has all being done for you. All you have to do is promote, earn commissions and enjoy your life at home with friends and family. Choosing the right niche is the key to succeeding in your new business. Imagine promoting a hot product that pays out $45 per sale. $45 x 500 sales per month will fetch you a fortune of a whopping $22,500 in just one month. There are supper affiliate marketers who will make more than 500 sales in just one day. I know you will doubt this fact but I am going to prove this in just 2 simple ways out of several.The best way of running a sustainable and profitable internet affiliate marketing business or online home base business is by using social media and building a great list. There are some people who have up to 200,000 to 500,000 and even more than 1 million followers on twitter alone. Let us say they intend to promote a product that is paying out a $45 commission per sale. Again, let us say they tweet this product to their 1 million followers and only 1% percent of the followers choose to buy from their affiliate link. That affiliate just made $450,000 from just one tweet (1,000,000 followers x 1% followers buyers = 10,000 followers buyers x $45 commission per sale = $450,000 for tweeting that one particular product). That is a whopping $450,000 and can happen in a day.There are lots of online marketers with an email marketing list of more than 500,000 to more than a million subscribers. You compare that list to the twitter marketing illustration I discussed earlier above and decide for yourself why it is worth to set up an internet affiliate business and an online home base business. Also see for yourself why millions of people across the world are diving into the online industry. This reason has led to the increasing rise of millions of people setting up an internet affiliate marketing Business and an online Home Base Business.