Working From Home

Working at home is a doable thing. It may seem like it’s something that only certain people do, but that’s just not true. You’ve just got to poke around and see what’s out there. There really are quite a few opportunities, many of which don’t require credentials or extraordinary skill sets.

–Start with some Google searches: online jobs, telecommuting jobs, work at home, etc… Look the sites over carefully.

–There are some scams out there, but I think the number of them is small. You just have to be wary of sites that spend too much time telling you what a great job it is and not enough time talking about the job itself.

–If possible link directly with the sites for the companies that are offering the jobs and skip the middle men. There are many sites that list other sites’ job listings. It can get confusing.

–Don’t forget to look for telecommuting jobs at big companies, places like Google, for instance. Often they’ll have work at home positions. I have a friend who’s a stay-at-home dad. He works 10-20 hours per week for them and gets paid pretty well.

–Don’t be intimidated. Be curious. Send emails and ask questions. Since it’s all online, the worst you’ll get is an email with the word “no” in it.

Marketing A New Idea

Marketing an idea starts with a web page. You can hardly do business anymore without one. If you schmooze a bit, you might find someone who’d be willing to make one for you for a modest fee, or better yet for free, but don’t skimp. In order to market anything in the vast sea of advertising that is the internet, you’ll need something that is superlative. Make it the absolute best it can be, otherwise it will get lost in the shuffle.

Once you have a web page, you just need to consider your customer. Who are they? If you have a product of some kind and a web site, you probably already have a fairly good idea who your customers are, but you need to clarify that idea, so that you can picture your customers in your mind. Spend some time and describe them to a friend and then put it on paper and be tough on yourself and make it as specific as possible.

Once you know them, you just need to think about where they spend their time and money. What are their other interests? Talk to people you’re not competing with and take in their suggestions. Check out how your competition is marketing their products. Imagine you are one of your own customers. Once you know where they are looking, all of the places they’re looking, you just need to put your advertising there. And don’t forget, in advertising, more is better.

Bookkeeping For a Small Business

Bookkeeping is something I know enough about to know that it’s not rocket science, but it does take some figuring, some getting used to. For a medium to large-sized businesses you can “outsource” your bookkeeping and hire the services of a person or company who’ll manage it all for you.

But, most folks starting their own businesses are starting small and in that case there are a few different options, some things to consider. Just like computer classes for new computer owners, at most community colleges, you can find classes about bookkeeping for small businesses. There are also books you can buy to learn. Whether you do your own books or not, being educated about bookkeeping is a good idea.

If you do your own books, you’ll want to buy some software to make it as easy as possible for you. If you want to cut corners, you might get away with trusting the software instructions and skip the college course, but I don’t recommend it. You’ll be better able to use the software if you know what it’s doing for you and what you would like it to do for you. Also, some software is going to be inexpensive and some of it is not and knowing the ropes of bookkeeping will help you decide what you need in terms of software.