Time to Start a Home Business?

Maybe you are wondering if it's the best time to start a home business, what with the ailing economy and all. The answer is that it is always a good time to start a home business IF you have done your homework first.

Here are some tips:

• Don't just jump in - take time to do your homework. Research your target market. Scope out the competition. Determine how you will differentiate yourself. Identify the risks and how you will deal with them. Develop a launch plan - what do you have to accomplish and in what order? Develop some financial projections - what can you realistically expect in terms of costs, revenues and profits? Fortunately, the Internet is a wealth of information. The more time you spend on this step, the more pitfalls you will avoid and the less costly your start-up phase will be.
• Plan on developing a Website. You need a Website today to be credible. Ideally, your Website should be an online marketing platform for generating business. But it's not enough today to just put up a Website and sit back. Unless it is optimized for search engines, your Website will remain invisible on the Internet. Also, make sure to add Google Analytics to the Website so that you can analyze visitor behavior and make tweaks accordingly. Go to www.smallbizsmartmarketing.com if you need help. We'll give you a free consultation.
• Market your business. Take advantage of the free online listings offered by Google, Yahoo, Kudzu and SuperPages. Look for inexpensive advertising opportunities in your local press. Do an online press release with an embedded link back to your Website. Distributed free articles about your business subject online (again with an embedded link back to your Website). Send flyers or postcards to your local target market. And add a free online newsletter subscription box to your Website - email newsletters (in which you can promote your business) cost less then a penny each to distribute.
• Lastly, monitor your progress, and make changes as necessary based on the feedback you receive. Be sure to compare your actual financials to your projected financials. Are you on plan, or do you need to make changes? Are your expectations proving true?
  

Running a home-based business during retirement is a great way to generate supplemental income! But don't be fooled. The planning and start-up phases take a lot of work if you are going to be successful. Don't be in a rush to launch your "great idea." The more time you spend upfront in the planning phase, the better your odds of success.

Business Plan Sanity Check

For a small business or start-up, getting a "sanity check" for your business plan from an experienced consultant can mean the difference between success and failure. The small expense of having an experienced person review your business plan (or simply your strategy, whether it's written down or not) is more than recovered by the insights gained and the avoidance of costly pitfalls.

And for those of you who do not have a written plan that has been scrutinized by someone who is "business knowledgeable," recognize that you are winging it! Are your goals realistic? Are they achievable? Are they even the right goals for your business? And do you have realistic action plans to achieve your goals? Are you leveraging your strengths while minimizing your weaknesses? If you don't know the answers to questions like these, you may already be headed for serious trouble.

Too often, start-ups and small businesses don't even see trouble coming until it is too late to do something about it. That's the purpose of a well-thought-out business plan - to look ahead and increase your odds of success by avoiding likely speed bumps. The failure rate of businesses who don't take the time to think through their objectives and strategies is dramatically higher than those who accomplish this upfront and perform at least annual reviews.

Without a roadmap for your business, how will you know if you're going in the right direction? If you don't have the experience, aptitude or skills to prepare a business plan, then employ a knowledgeable consultant to help you put one together. It will be the best money you ever spend.