Business Coach: A Must Have For A Successful Business

Most businesses fail because they have never been taught how to obtain financing and therefore they have no clue where to begin. The Small Business Administration reports that 97% of business loan applications fail.

The importance of seeking expert assistance when setting up business credit has many business owners turning to a business finance coach to help them establish their business credit. One of the biggest mistakes made by business owners is that they attempt to obtain business financing using their personal credit. You should never use your social security number to obtain business financing. Personal credit has to be separated from your business credit.

Until your business has three separate business credit scores, any financing that your business receives will be based solely on your personal credit scores and your personal assets. A good example of this would be if you wanted to buy a home, but you had no personal credit scores. You would get declined, and funding a business is no different. You need to have business credit scores established to even get looked at for a business loan. Having business credit scores established are just a start in the finance process. There are 20 other items that must be in place before you apply for business loans.

"Missing just one of the 20 items will get your business denied," says Finance Specialist James Christy. "If you follow the steps in a good business finance coach you will make sure that you have all of the items completed."

For example, Lenders will deny a business loan application if the business legal name is not listed properly with the 411 Directory Assistance. Another way financing can be denied is if your business has a bank rating below a low 5 or if your business doesn't have credit files open with the three business credit reporting agencies. Most lenders now require businesses to have three good credit scores. These are only a few of the items that must all be in place first before seeking approval for funding.

The process of establishing business credit is much more complicated than setting up personal credit. There is one business credit agency that will try to charge you $500 just to open your credit file. You do not have to pay it, and a good business finance coach will show you why you don't have to pay it. A good finance coach will set you up with all three reporting credit agencies as well.

A business finance coach instructs business owners in a step-by-step format on exactly what they must do to get their business ready to be approved for financing and how and why to build the business credit scores they need to get approved. A coach will show a business how to not only build business credit, but to build good business credit that the banks and other lending agencies will use to approve your loan request. A good finance coach will typically direct you to sources for business credit cards, vendor lines of credit and for other creative forms of financing.

To find a business finance coach to help your business build excellent business credit scores you might go to your favorite search engine Google, Yahoo, or MSN and do a search for the phrase "business finance coach".

Keep Your New Business Running

Market, Market and then market some more. So many small and home-business owners do what we call spot marketing. They market hard for their business, get a response then stop marketing.

Marketing must be an ongoing process. Let's repeat that... Marketing Must Be An On Going Process. In addition, you should have multiple marketing strategies. For example, we market on the internet through newsgroups, newsletters, press releases, forums, writing articles. We also market by running support groups, joining local groups and chambers, and being active and getting involved in the community. We give out our brochures and business cards. Your cards and brochures are not going to do you any good sitting in your files. We send out follow-up information for every cold call we make and speak to someone. While we might not do business with them now, we might down the road. However, we certainly won't hear from them, if they don't get something from us.

The following happened during a teleclass we sat in on: One of the other participants asked about getting customers for interior design work. She had a brochure with her services, and would give a free consultation to her clients. However, she wasn't turning those into sales. A couple of things we suggested were to 1) put pictures in her brochure of before and afters for homes she did; 2) offer to re-do a small area of their home for half price, so they could get an idea of her work. She loved the ideas, and thought they would work marvelously for her.

Remember, you won't get the business, if you don't ask for it. Along with the marketing you have to also be a salesperson. You have to ask for the sale. You don't have to be obnoxious about it, in fact, if you are, you probably won't get it at all. As most of you know, we never push anyone to order or do something with us, it's up to them. We want our customers to make an informed decision, and for it to be win-win for everyone, and that is how we conduct our business. You should also. However, realize that for certain businesses a stronger approach might be necessary.

For those that work with services only, you have to create a need for that person to act now. Those in real estate know, if the owner is not motivated now and is just fishing for price, the deal might not go. You have to make it go, either by using a new strategy or following up at a later date. There are some deals that do go even if there is not a lot of motivation, but because you were able to come up with a creative real estate strategy that peaked the owners/buyers interest now and for him/her to act now.

For those in service businesses listening skills are a must. If you are not a good listener, learn to be. If you are constantly thinking only about what you are going to say about your product/service, you are missing out on what your customers needs are. The best way to think of your services or products is what are the benefits for your customers. Make a list of them, know them well and then you'll be better able to listen to your customers.

There are many different ways to get new clients, repeat business and to stay focused.

A Balance Life for Home Based Business

Operating a home-based business has many benefits as you already know, but its main drawback is that it often causes the line between your work and your personal life to become permanently blurred. Unlike those individuals who work outside the home and who know their day at the office ends when they get in their car and start the commute home, home business operators do not usually have a definite end to their day.

The reverse situation is also possible: they may not have a definite start to their day either. If you have a hard time breaking free of your work responsibilities or if you sometimes have trouble settling in to tackle them, these tips will help you bring both aspects of your life into equilibrium.

Separate Your Office From Your Home

If your work computer is in the living room where everyone in the family congregates, chances are you are being bombarded by distractions. Plus, when it is time for you to relax, you may find it difficult with the computer right there as a constant reminder of all the work you still need to finish and all of the communications you still need to respond to.

The answer is to set aside an area of your home just for work. If you have an office or an extra bedroom where you can set up your space, then you can block out the distractions simply by shutting the door. Also avoid putting anything in your home office that might prevent you from getting your work done, such as a television.

If you don't have an entire room to dedicate to your office, move your computer and materials into a room that is rarely used or that is normally unoccupied when you need to be working, such as a bedroom. Once you have separated your home from your office, you will find it easier to stay focused on your work but also to leave your work in its space so you can relax and enjoy the remainder of your home.

Create Specific Working Hours

One of the best things about running a home-based business is undoubtedly the flexible schedule, but it can also have negative consequences. On the one hand, your schedule may be so flexible that you only work 30 minutes a day or so hectic that you find yourself working at all hours of the day without taking a break.

The answer is to set your own office hours. Creating your own schedule still has benefits. For one, you can decide what time of the day you start, so if you're not a morning person, you don't have to get up at the break of dawn. Also, if you prefer to stop working when your children come home from school, you can consider that when you decide when to stop for the day.

Another benefit is that you provide clients and customers with a specific times when you are available to work with them. The most important thing to remember, however, is to set hours for yourself that you can live with. Once you decide on a schedule, you need to stick with it long-term, so be realistic about how long you can work without taking a break and how much time you'll need to accomplish everything that needs to get done.

And, no matter how much you may be tempted to keep working, you need to stop when you say you are going to stop. Taking a break allows you to come back refreshed and more alert, so you can be more productive. An overworked, overly stressed person simply is not an effective worker at home or in an office.

Draw the Line Between Home and Work Communications

Has this ever happened to you? You and your family have just sat down for a dinner around the table when a client calls to talk about your current project or a customer phones with questions about a recent purchase.

The easiest way to prevent work from interfering with your family is to keep communications separate. Start by having a second phone line dedicated to your work and attaching an answering machine or voice mail to the line.

When your work day ends, you can turn on the machine and let it handle any after-hour calls. An extra phone line also allows you to maintain professionalism. Imagine the embarrassment of having your young child answer the phone when an important customer calls.

You may also want to set up a post office box for all of your business-related mail. Not only will this prevent your important mail from accidentally getting thrown away with the junk, but it will also offer you and your family a level of privacy.

After all, you do not want to make your home address available to everyone; it's just not safe. If you use email or instant messaging as part of your business communications, you'll also want to establish separate accounts for those as well.

The key to running a home-based business is balance. While it may be difficult to stop working on that important project or to concentrate on work while your preparing for the holidays, striking that balance is essential for your well-being, your family's security, and your business's success.

Work From Home and Make More Money

Why do you work from home? Hopefully you enjoy what you do and want to enjoy the lifestyle being at home can offer you, however is it because you want to make money so that you can have, be and do more in your life?

When you work from home you have so many advantages over many traditional businesses. You have more flexibility so when you do have to put in the extra hours, at least you're at home and don't have to spend long hours off-site.

However, just because you work from home doesn't mean you shelter yourself from doing what any successful business owner would do. They recognise that their customers feed them.

Who pays you? Your clients do and never forget that. Unfortunately many people do. They take your money and then vanish off the face of the earth. And if you do hear from them you know they are only trying to sell something or business is not going well. The silly thing is, if you look after the hand that feeds you, they will look after you.

Keep in regular contact with your clients, particularly the top 20% (both current and past) who have provided you with the most income.

Still keep in touch with the others via newsletters etc. However the top 20% of very special clients need extra attention.

A monthly 'how's things?' call. Find out how life is treating them, without expecting to sell anything.

Send the occasional gift …a book, tape, movie tickets. Thank them for their business. When special times of the year occur send them a Christmas Hamper, New Year's Calendar, Easter eggs at Easter. Little things which show you care.

When you get referrals, reward the referee with a thank you card or gift.

Do what most people in business don't do. You will be amazed that if you consistently (that is the key word here) make the extra effort, you will continue to get repeat business or more referrals.

My Story

For the past two years, I had engaged the services of two separate property managers to look after our investment properties. The property manager of company no. 1 was never pro-active. The only time he spoke with me was when I initiated contact because I had a query or was unhappy about their services. Company no. 2 was exactly the same except that they kept in touch via a newsletter which really was of no use to me as it didn't mention anything about property management. Mostly the information was about properties being sold.

It was very interesting that both property managers contacted me only when they had been notified by my new property management company that their services were no longer required. In fact, both of them were very upset. They were upset? I'm the one who was paying them, not the other way around. They both wanted to know why I was changing and I certainly told them.

When the new property manager did an inspection on one of the properties, the tenants were home. They told my new property manager that the old company provided very poor service and they were very slow following up any problems they had. I told that to the old company and the manager replied 'tenants always say that'.

Anyhow the point of this story is to spell out that because people don't say anything, doesn't mean they are happy with your services. Also as a business person you need to be on the ball. Be pro-active, not re-active.

And to do all of this you need to learn how to get organised, manage your time and yourself as effectively as possible. These are not skills most people are born with. They need to be learned. When you work from home it is vital that you circulate in the real world and grow your mind.

The Final Word

There is plenty of business around, however most people spend heaps of time chasing it, take the money and run off to the next person. Yet it would be so much easier to look after what you already have. (And the same applies to your personal life.)

by Lorraine Pirihi

10 Things You Will Like About A Home Based Business

Here's a few things I've discovered along the way that you will like about owning your own home based business.

1.You Are The Boss
How many people endure a Boss that undervalues your contribution to the organization? Or one who takes credit for your work. More than you might think! Own your own business and you are the boss! You take the credit win, lose, or draw.

2. Work The Hours You Want
That's right! Suppose your spouse works the late shift, you would rather be home during daytime to take care of the children. And you would prefer not putting the children into day care? If you are self employed, you can easily re-schedule your work to fit your family situation.

3.No Long Commute
A friend once spent 4 hours commuting to work each day. Talk about stress. She was tired before the work day began! Say goodbye to the long commute when you are self-employed. Your longest commute might be from one the bedroom to your home office.

4. Goodbye Office Politics.
Have you experienced office politics? The co-workers positioning themselves with power figures to move up in the organization. Say goodbye to office politics!

5. Less Stress
Working in a familiar home environment will reduce your stress load. At home, you work at your own pace. If work gets hectic, you take a break. Put your feet up and relax.

6. Dress Codes
No more confining business suits, uniforms, or conforming to a stiff dress code. If you handle all your business over a computer or the telephone Dress The Way You Like!

7. Spend More Time With Your Family
This is a great opportunity to get the family involved in your business. And spend more quality time together.

8. Use A Skill You've Never Had The Opportunity To Use
You have ample opportunity to use your marketing skills, managing skills, accounting skills, people skills, sales skills, computer skills, and many other task you've been itching to try.

9. Realize Your Business Goals
You've taken that first difficult step toward personal and business success. By Striking out on your own and starting a home based business.

10. Boost Self Esteem
You now have more control over your financial and personal future. This will lead to a boost in your self esteem on many levels.

These are only a few of the things you will like about owning a home based business. Once you've started your own business you will add many more to the list!

by BB Lee

Outsourcing: Increasing Your Success and Reducing Your Stress

When you picture a business professional’s typical office scenario, what comes to mind?

A classy man or woman, dressed in a high priced business suit, an overflowing briefcase sitting on the corner of the desk, dictating memos and delegating tasks to a very overworked secretary?

How about a home-based business owner, sitting in their basement office, kids pulling at their pant legs while they are spending far too much time dealing with their correspondence and other administrative tasks?

Either of these sound familiar?

Well, these may be true but, with our ever-changing business environments and with the ease of using the Internet, more and more business professionals, especially small business owners, are altering how they conduct their daily activities.

Sure, they still have their offices, sometimes in their homes, but they also have more time to spend on generating revenue or to be with the kids than ever before.

How, you ask? Well….they outsource some or most of their non-core tasks to professional, reliable fellow small business owners who take pride in helping other businesses succeed by providing them with a helping hand.

These days, almost any normal (or even not so normal) task that a small business owner usually does, can be accomplished by an outside source.

Let’s take a look at the typical daily (or so) tasks that are usually needed to be done:

1. Read and respond to incoming mail and email

2. Enter account payables and receivables into accounting software program

3. Prepare a quotation for a potential new client

4. Order flowers for the spouse’s birthday

5. Reserve a spot in the local industry trade show

6. Update pages on the company website

7. Clean the office

8. Update your contact database

9. Book airline tickets and make hotel reservations for an upcoming seminar

10. Attend a networking breakfast

This list gives you some idea of the many tasks that need to be done each day by most small business owners. And, this is only a portion of what is usually required to be done.

Some of these small business owners run their businesses from their homes, which means there is the added activities of dealing with “around the house” things (that everyone seems to think you have all the time in the world to do), running errands (ditto), tending to the family, and accepting those calls from telephone solicitors who somehow know you are at home to answer the phone.

It’s all kind of like a math equation… the tasks ADD up, which SUBTRACTS from running your business smoothly, which EQUALS a less successful business and a more stressed out business owner.

So, let’s look at our list above again and see how many of those tasks can be accomplished by someone off-site; and who would be the best person or business to help you out.

Of the 10 items listed above, only two need to be handled, or at least started, by the business owner.

#3 – (Prepare Quote) This task should be developed by the business owner. Now, this doesn’t mean they have to do it all. They can put together the specifics of the quotation and then have a Virtual Assistant format and produce the final outcome.

#10 – (Networking) Again, this is something that can’t be outsourced, although, if the company is large enough, a representative can attend the meeting in the place of an owner.

#2 – (Accounting) This task is a perfect candidate for outsourcing. There are many companies that provide exceptional bookkeeping services. If you are lucky enough, you can find one that can take care of all of your accounting tasks, right down to your yearly income taxes.

#7 – (Clean office) Once again, this can be handled by a reputable office or house cleaning service, and for relatively cheap.

#6 – (Update website) This is something that can be accomplished by an experienced web designer, and usually by way of a contract or retainer agreement for ongoing maintenance.

#4, 5 & 9 – (Flowers, tradeshow, seminar arrangements) These are all best handled by a professional concierge service. They can take care of everything from booking a limousine to arranging hot air balloon rides to corporate event planning.

#1-10 – Except for #10 (which is best handled in person), and #7 (which is not something that can be done from afar), the remaining tasks can all be handled by a Virtual Assistant (VA). Now, not all VAs provide all of these services but, more than likely, they can either recommend someone who can or get the details from you and ensure that a fellow colleague will do the work according to your needs.

As a fellow small business owner, being able to provide a full-service benefit to a client is something that most VAs take pride in. If they do need to subcontract work to someone else, they make sure that the contractor is aware of their level of professionalism and that it is the VAs reputation that is at stake, something most will go to great lengths to ensure is held in the highest regard.

Outsourcing is a relatively new concept to most business professionals but, as more and more of them begin to realize the benefits that they can take advantage of by utilizing the off-site services of Bookkeepers, Concierge services, Virtual Assistants, and more, the more successful and less stressed out or overworked our business communities will be.

by Janice D. Byer

Starting A Home Business With Small Investment

Have you always wanted to work at home? Have your own business? Didn’t think it was possible? No more commuting in traffic (plus gasoline prices right now are ridiculous). No more "business attire" (work in your jammies) and no more Corporate America breathing down your neck. I didn’t think it was possible. I had always been a pessimist. Didn’t think I could do it. Didn’t have the knowledge or skills required.

I had worked in the travel/customer service industry for 25 years. I was laid off over two years ago after 9/11. I submitted my resume to countless job postings with no response. Obviously after awhile I was feeling unwanted, useless, and depressed. No job prospects, no money, no direction. I not only needed an income, I needed a purpose, a reason to get up in the morning other than the cats and bird needed to be fed.

What was I going to do?

The light bulb finally came on in my head and I realized that I had some resources right at home. A computer and internet access. I normally surfed the net to shop

(shopping mind you, couldn’t afford to buy) and playing computer games to pass the time.

I happened upon an opportunity to take surveys online. Sounded easy enough and for a $35.00 investment to access a database of survey sites I could start making some money. I registered with every survey site listed in that database. A tedious task! In two months time a made $102.50 and a $10.00 gift card. I wasn’t going to pay the bills with that kind of money. Back to the same dilemma!

What was I going to do?

I started searching the web for information about working from home. To my amazement there are countless opportunities. Now the question was not if I could have my own business but what kind of business did I want? I’m not a salesman! I didn’t want to have to worry about inventory, packaging, shipping, merchant accounts, etc. I had very little money to invest, so my out-of-pocket expenses would have to be low, really low.

I found a website which offered me the chance to start my own business with incredibly little cost. The following lists what was provided:

1. A domain name registered for $30.00.

2. Hosting of my website at a low monthly fee of $24.95.

3. My website was created free of charge which included a free auto responder.

4. I had to join five affiliate programs (signup was free) which their links would be placed on my website. These were some of the top affiliate programs (paying good commissions with multiple income streams). I found many favorable recommendations for them at several different websites.

5. They immediately got me started on how to build a mailing list fast and how to generate traffic to my website.

6. I was provided a home business tips newsletter that goes out to my email list on a daily basis. I don’t have to do a thing, it’s automatic.

7. Plus, I am provided with more tools, tips, ideas and marketing strategies (from well known "Internet Marketing Gurus") than I thought possible. All free of charge!

They’ve done the research and testing to know what works and what doesn’t. Just have to follow their lead. These people give you step by step instructions. Go to any internet marketing website and see how much information is given freely. I think you will be as amazed as I was and still am.

Now don’t get me wrong, there are some costs involved. But I’m talking a couple of hundred dollars not thousands! I have been overwhelmed with information, ideas, tools and resources!

No one is going to do it all for you. You will have to spend time learning and working to promote your business. Point is YOU too have the opportunity to have the best boss in the world, YOURSELF!

Take action now, don’t wait, and grab a piece of the internet boom for yourself. As I said before I was always the pessimist, but now I see a half full cup instead of a half empty one.

By Debra Hamer