Starting a home business may seem like a great idea, but as soon as you start seriously considering starting one, you need to have a plan. Plans are good for anything and everything, even your favorite football team has certain plans or “plays” as they are called that are needed to follow for success. In business is not different and you need a plan of attack to ensure success for your home business.

Marketing your home based business starts online, but is a lot more than building and promoting your website. The key is to get people to get to your website, so the bulk of it is going to deal with advertising and marketing your website. You need to do the research and figure out what kind of customer you need to attract to your website and your home business. Demographics can range from anything like age, gender, income, location and more.

Attracting these customers to your website is one of the most important things a person with a home business can do. Some of these strategies can be fairly simple while others can be a bit more confusing but still pretty easy. Some of these strategies are search engine utilization or marketing, affiliate marketing and article writing or marketing. Articles are a great way to drive traffic because it can make the owner look very knowledgeable about the product or type of business they are involved in.

Marketing is very different than advertising; you are not selling the particular product or service. You want to educate people and potential customers how your business can fill their needs better than anyone else. You could talk about how much better quality your product is, how much cheaper it is, or even show that you have a better-informed and educated sales team. The list goes on an on but just be aware of the importance of both marketing and advertising because they both do different yet similar things.

Building trust is one of the key things when developing a business plan. You want people to keep coming back for different services or products because they like what your business is doing and how everything is handled. Say what you are going to do and then try to perform it beyond expectations and you will have a customer for life. Then that customer might spread the word about your business and you will get even more customers, and then you will know that your business plan was a success.

Are you thinking about approaching a Bank for finance to support your business? If you haven’t already gone to see the Manager then you may not know that the first thing he will want to see is your Business Plan.

Perhaps you are not convinced that all the time and effort needed in preparing a plan is essential If so then here are the main benefits for both you and your business.

1. No matter how good a communicator you are, you will never be able to convey your vision for the business as successfully as a perfectly put together Business Plan. It provides a clear understanding as to what you want to achieve. It allows you to express your ideas in a clearer manner.

2. Too many times business owners try to sell their idea verbally and at the end of the interview with the Bank the Manager is none the wiser than he was at the start. I think you can guess the outcome of many of those requests!

3. A Business Plan will help convince both you and the Bank of the project’s feasibility and viability. There’s nothing like having all the facts in front of you to clarify the key issues

4. There’s no getting away from the fact that a business owner who plans ahead comes across as being more ambitious and more focused. A well prepared Business Plan demonstrates you have vision and that you know what you want

5. With numerous ideas floating around in your mind, the pitfalls or stumbling blocks to success are never that visible. A mind buzzing and full of ideas will rarely achieve clarity. A Business Plan forces you to put your ideas down in writing and in an orderly manner. The result of this could be you going in a completely different direction than you initially thought of, or even abandoning your idea altogether. Not a pleasant thought, but which would you prefer? The loss of your hard capital or the opportunity to re-think your idea?

6. It is an ideal tool to monitor progress against the objectives you have set yourself (we will cover objective setting later). By checking progress against your Plan, you will be able to spot if you are moving away from your original vision and so you will know what has to be put right

7. Imagine if you didn’t have this check in place; an unnoticed change in direction or a slippage in achieving your objectives, if left uncorrected for too long, could be fatal to your business. On the other hand, it may transpire that a shift from your original vision could be a better alternative, but at least recognising this change allows you to adjust your course in a planned, structured and controlled manner

8. Every action you take has a consequence, and a Plan helps make these consequences much clearer. Being aware of the possible effect of your chosen direction allows you to plan ahead, leaving you better able to cope with whatever the world of self employment can throw at you. This is one thing that “mental planning” would not achieve

9. Putting your thoughts on paper may make you realise that you need to do more research on the demand for your product or service. It could also highlight that more investigation on your competitor’s products or services is needed. Additional research could help avoid a potentially costly mistake or even uncover a hidden advantage, which you had not seen before!

10. A Plan will guide you as to how much money is needed to make an idea work. In your mind you may have a rough figure of what you’ll have to commit, but until you do a Cash Flow Forecast you may not realise that an overdraft limit will be required, in addition to a loan for your equipment. If the mention of preparing a Cash Flow Forecast brings you out in a sweat, don’t worry as later in the book I’ll be showing you exactly how to do one

11. A Business Plan will help you get funding. One of the main reasons Banks turn down requests for loans is a lack of information to assist in making an informed decision. If the Manager doesn’t have enough knowledge about your idea or business then he won’t feel comfortable enough to support you. He has to understand your business before he can say yes. Some time in the future he may have to justify to his superiors why he lent you the money, so he needs as much information as possible to back up his decision. A Business Plan will make him feel much more at ease and so more able to say yes

12. By the time you have finished writing your Business Plan you will have a total understanding of your business; its strengths and weaknesses, the environment it operates in, what could potentially go wrong, and what you can do to ensure your success. Doing your planning on the back of an envelope is not going to achieve this

You should realise by now that it’s essential to have a Business Plan; it could be the difference between success and that dreaded “f” word – failure! It’s all about understanding the importance of planning ahead.

Spend time putting your thoughts on paper in a structured and logical manner. It will pay you dividends, both in getting the Bank to take you seriously and securing the future of your business.

Robert Warlow
Small Business Success

Before you officially “open the doors” of your e-business, you need to create a business plan. Turn your business idea into a plan that will help you succeed (or you may find while going through this process that it is better to scrap the idea and come up with something better).

Putting a business plan together may seem like a daunting task. I will take you step by step through the process of creating a business plan, making the process a little easier for you. Putting a business plan together will include completing a market analysis, a competitive analysis, an advertising plan, pricing, branding, a sales strategy, and much more. This article will go over some of the basics.

You will want to consider marketing, financing, your target market, distribution of your product, finding out who your competition is, etc. In addition to considering these factors, you will want to set realistic goals for your small business.

Ask yourself the following questions: What is the purpose of your e-business? To make money, right? That’s one purpose. What are some others? Perhaps you have created or found a product that the world just can’t live without and you want to share it. Maybe you offer a service that will help others. You might have a hobby that you want to turn into a profession. Write down your purpose, whatever it is.

After you know what your purpose is, answer the following questions:
– Why am I committing my time and resources to this endeavor?
– How will I be helping others?
– What needs will this business meet?
– How will I be helping myself (owner), or ourselves (owners)?
– What “greater good” will be served with this business?

Once you have answered these questions, you can form your company’s mission statement. Your mission statement identifies your company. Keep your mission statement to a few sentences. You can adjust your mission statement as your company grows and changes, but the core values included in your mission statement should remain the same.

What is your Company’s Purpose?
What is the purpose of your e-business? To make money, right? That’s one purpose. What are some others? Perhaps you have created or found a product that the world just can’t live without and you want to share it. Maybe you offer a service that will help others. You might have a hobby that you want to turn into a profession. Write down your purpose, whatever it is.

After you know what your purpose is, answer the following questions:
– Why am I committing my time and resources to this endeavor?
– How will I be helping others?
– What needs will this business meet?
– How will I be helping myself (owner), or ourselves (owners)?
– What “greater good” will be served with this business?

Once you have answered these questions, you can form your company’s mission statement. Your mission statement identifies your company. Keep your mission statement to a few sentences. You can adjust your mission statement as your company grows and changes, but the core values included in your mission statement should remain the same.

Preparing to Launch Your Online Business-Strengths and Weaknesses

As you go through the process of planning your online business, you may not have the answer to every question we ask. Don’t worry if you don’t have all of the answers now, because that is the whole point of doing this plan-to help you find and discover the areas that might sneak up and get you in the future.

Having gone through the process of putting this plan in place, however, you will be better prepared to face unexpected turns and situations. Answer the questions you can and think about the ones you can’t. There are a lot of details that will come together as you go through this process.

Part of making your online business successful is knowing your strengths and your weaknesses, along with the (potential) strengths and weaknesses of your company. What are you good at? What is your company good at?

– What are the strengths of your products? Price? Selection? Variety? Quality? Brand association?
– What are the strengths of you and your partners or team?
– What are your strengths with respect to reaching customers and telling them about your product?
– What are your leadership or organizational strengths?
– What is the vision of your company and how is that a strength?

The answers to the above questions may be the reasons you want to start an online business in the first place. You must also look at your weaknesses. Good business owners strive to identify areas of weakness so they can turn them around and make them areas of strength. It’s better for you to discover weaknesses than your competitors or customers to discover them for you!

– How will the business run from start to finish?
– Do we need to hire people?
– Where will our products come from?
– How will we get the word out about our company?
– Do we have enough money to survive the start-up phase?
– Do we have a good system in place to track orders and make sure our customers are happy?

Preparing to Launch Your Online Business…Make Opportunities & Prepare for Unfortunate Circumstances

Successful online businesses take advantage of opportunities, whether they be changes in customer tastes or preferences, unmet market needs, or market niches that have never been addressed. What opportunities do you see that make you excited about your online business opportunity? Before you start an online business, consider:

– Do you see an unmet need?
– Is this a frustration you have experienced yourself?
– Is there a common feeling that something is missing among people you know or have talked to?
– Have there been changes economically, politically, or otherwise that have set a good stage for your online business?
– Now it’s time to play devil’s advocate and imagine what elements or factors could potentially harm your online business. It is important to identify such things that could adversely affect your business in order to prepare for such circumstances. Preparation is sometimes the best defense. Consider:

How will competition affect you?
Are you able to meet anticipated demand?
What if UPS goes on strike?
Is your business seasonal, and will that adversely affect your cash flow?

If you plan on starting an online business, consider writing down your business description and strategy. By now you know your company’s purpose and your strengths and weaknesses. Use that information as you work out your business strategy.

The key element in your business description is to address how your business will meet the needs of your customers. In other words, how are you uniquely positioned to get your needed product to the right people and make money in the process?

Now let’s discuss the strategy behind your business. Consider:
– What type of business are you (retail, manufacturing, consulting, etc.)?
– Will you need employees?
– Where is your business located?
– What are your hours of operation?
– How do you plan to make money?
– What costs will be involved?
– How much money do you need to start, and how will that money be spent?

Now is the time to tout you and your team. Your confidence, enthusiasm, and vision are incredibly important to the success of your business, and to gain the confidence of investors. They are ultimately investing in YOU, so sell yourself and your team!

Consider:
Who are your team members, managers, or partners? What is their level of education? Do you or they have any experience in similar ventures or businesses? Are you particularly passionate about your products? Why? Who will be in charge of what? Who has final decision-making authority?

Every business can potentially be faced with challenges. What risks might you face in your business, and how will you be prepared to face them? Consider:

Have you in the past, or are you currently facing litigation? Do you have access to an attorney? Do you have adequate insurance coverage for your business? Who is in charge of record keeping, and how are those records stored and protected? Do you use an accountant?

Once you have a plan for your online business, you need a website. When conceiving your website, before you think about colors, pictures, or even format, take into consideration the answers to the questions above and come up with the purpose of your website. That will make your web design process a lot easier.