Have you ever asked yourself how to start a home-based business? Read on to create the spark so you can start your own home based business.But, “How?” and “Where?” it’s one of the most common questions when starting anything new, right? In today’s age and with the advent of technology our options can be over whelming. Then, let this article jump-start your journey on starting a home-based business.1. Set Your Goals – 1st things first, be very clear with your goal setting. Don’t just start your engine and just drive; although you will eventually get somewhere the question is, is that where you wanted to be?
2. Evaluate yourself – Don’t just start any business opportunity just because you read it somewhere or a friend of yours told you so. Since your going to be part of this whole thing, then it is just best to assess yourself as well.
a. What are your skills?
b. What is it that comes naturally to you?
3. Equip Your Self – REMEMBER THIS! It does not mean that because you want to start a business, you are already qualified to run one. If it applies to life in general, then it applies to business as well. When your just starting out you will suck at it, so don’t worry cause its okay. Even if you answered none to both questions on evaluating yourself, you don’t have to worry cause you can give it to yourself by, learning and equipping yourself.So, what types of home-based business are out there? Before we continue, here’s a very basic point that is easily overlooked. Every business no matter what kind of business you have is always and will always be about selling, selling a product or a service. “Nothing happens, until something is sold!” So every business is about promoting a product or service. So our success in business and making money and in general is directly proportional to our ability to promote and sell things. Another thing about businesses is that it is a system that is supposed to make you more money, without you being stuck in it. Cause if you are stuck in it – then you own a job and not a business.These are some of the industries that allows’ you to learn and earn from home.
• Direct Selling and/or Network Marketing – Amway, Avon, Herbalife, USANA are some of the world-famous companies in this category. When joining companies like this, you are basically buying a complete business system that allows you to make money by “selling” their products directly or through your network.
• Internet Marketing and/or Affiliate Marketing – Internet marketing is the newest fad in making money or starting a home based business. This business system allows you to leverage on technology and the internet specifically to run your business system. Some of this technology driven systems can be run on autopilot, you set it up once and you watch your bank account grow.
• Work From Home – This is part of the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry. You can find freelance web developers, content writers, technical support reps, telemarketers and transcriptions in this industry. If you have a marketable skill that can be delivered using the internet, then sites like http://www.elance.com and http://www.getafreelancer.com would allow you to start your home-based or work at home services.Here’s a quick run down on why people are starting to join these home based money-making activities
• Being your own boss
• Working anytime you choose
• Building the future you have always wanted
• Spending your time on things that you value the most
• Compared to traditional business – it has lesser overhead expensesLatest News: Since the inception of Facebook in 2004, it has growth exponentially. Facebook right now is becoming the worlds’ largest market place with more than 500,000,000 Million users. Once you have decided on what and how to start your home-based business, make sure that you add Facebook marketing into your strategy.
Home Based Business With The Touch of IT
Public Schools: Education or Indoctrination
Educators have pondered for years the achievement gap between Caucasian, African-American and Asian students. In order to narrow the gap educators have tried segregating schools, they have tried providing comparable facilities and they have politically corrected all the pictures in the text books to reveal a member of each race of people and all gender possibilities. The academic performance of the child seems not to depend so much on these issues as the attitude of their parents toward the educational process. If the parents consider the school a glorified baby sitting service then it’s unlikely their children are going to perform well.
Like two ships passing each other in the harbor, Christians and secular humanists reveal two opposing viewpoints when it comes to the purpose and philosophy of education. Christians understand their responsibility in educating their children. Deuteronomy 6:5-7 reinforces the obligation parents have toward their children: “Love the Lord you God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”
The early American theologian and Civil War Army Chaplain, Robert Louis Dabney, said, “True education is, in one sense, a spiritual process. It is the nurture of the soul.” Because we are, by nature, spiritual beings we will develop our foundational concepts of spirituality during the elastic years of childhood and adolescence. Men are created to worship and worship we shall. We will either worship the one and true God or we will worship his creation (materialism) or ourselves (humanism).
The Puritan poet, John Milton, expressed the Christian view of education well when he said, “The end of learning is to repair the ruin of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge, to love Him, to imitate Him, to be like Him.” Education is not the primary responsibility of the schools, nor is it the responsibility of the government or the church. It is every parent’s responsibility to be sure his child is educated in the truth of God’s word. Even though John was talking of his spiritual converts, 3 John 4 fits well here, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” Christians believe that the sole purpose of man’s life is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. We find ourselves strongly opposed to anything that blocks us from that goal.
Those who believe that government schools are prohibited from promoting religion are deceived. They are prohibited from promoting Christianity but most any other religion is fair game. The religion most commonly propagated in our public schools is secular humanism. In the 1961 case of Torcaso v. Watkins the U.S. Supreme Court defined humanism as a religion. The first Humanist Manifesto openly identifies humanism as a religion and Julian Huxley referred to humanism as a Religion Without Revelation. He taught that Christianity was fading and in its place was emerging the religion of humanism.
Many are awakening to the fact that our schools have become more focused on indoctrination than education. Our public school system is based on an industrial revolution model that came out of Prussia. It is a system that is compulsory. You must send your children to school and you must pay taxes to support the educational welfare system. Why do so many Americans think education is free? The average cost of paying for a child’s education is between $10,000 and $12,000 per year. It costs a whopping $27,000 to educate a child in Washington, D.C.
The social agenda seems to be to convert our children to humanism. They are taught that homosexuality is an acceptable and alternative lifestyle. They are taught that marriage is no longer between one man and one woman but can include partners of the same sex and a multitude of other combinations. They are taught that we all evolved from nothing and God had nothing at all to do with our existence. They are taught that the fetus in a mother’s womb is simply a mass of cells that can and perhaps should be aborted as the mother wishes. The result: the minds of our children are clouded about the existence of God, they are gender confused and they no longer believe in the value and sanctity of life.
90% of Christians send their children to government schools in which federal law forbids the mention of the name of Christ. Some of them have no choice because they cannot home school and they cannot afford a private Christian school. These parents must do all in their power to counteract the humanistic indoctrination their children are learning at school. It will require an organized effort to read and explain the Bible to their children in the home setting.
Other parents use the salt and light argument for sending their kids to public schools. They often say, “My child will be a witness for Christ.”. A study done by the Southern Baptists indicates that 88% of Baptist youth who graduated from public schools left the church. Our missionaries are not converting others, instead they are being converted. They are going up against a systematic effort of organized policy and well-developed curriculum that is designed to indoctrinate social servants of the state.
I am no enemy of public education. I know many wonderful Christian teachers and administrators here in Columbus, Georgia. They love Christ deeply and they are doing all they can to be a light shining in a darkened world. Most of my Christian teacher friends stay in government schools because they believe it is important to demonstrate Christianity to their students and co-workers. I agree with them but that is only half of the command of Christ. He also said, “…everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 10:32) We are instructed to boldly declare the name of Christ. If you follow this directive in the government schools you will be looking for another job.
Neutrality is not an option. I am teaching my six-year-old son the concepts of driving an automobile. The line in the center of the road provides a parameter for travelers. If you decide to straddle the line you may lose your life. “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.” Straddling the fence on this issue can be fatal. We must not only demonstrate the lifestyle, we must proclaim his name boldly. Don’t be deceived by the politically correct approach to Christianity in government schools. If you are not for Christ…you are against him!
Christ addressed this problem in Luke 6:40 “A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.” When it comes to secularism, nine out of ten Christian students will cave. If our children have secular teachers they will likely embrace secular teachings, if they have Christian teachers they likely will embrace Christian teachings. Who is your child’s teacher?
Effective Marketing Strategies in Product Creation
Marketing includes matters such as pricing and packaging of the product and creation of demand by advertising and sales campaigns. There are other options, of course, like product creation, resale rights marketing, joint ventures and the likes, but they are merely secondary to the above.
If you take the freelance route, it is important to ensure that all rights to profit from the final product, or any materials produced in its making, remain yours. Bookkeeping, physical product creation or delivery of goods can be done better with specialized help. Determining the purpose of the product is vital in niche product creation.
Implementation of Methodology – The choice of implementation of Six Sigma methodology depends on whether development is required on existing processes (DMAIC) or on new process/product design creation (DMADV). Determining what you really want to sell, something that you can be relaxed selling is the first step at the creation of a niche product. With the technological advancements in the hosting industry, from automated control panels and scripts that simplify creation of accounts; to complete turnkey solutions, there is no excessive need to worry about spending time on the actual product sold to the customer.
For instance, you should be prepared to either perform yourself or to subcontract the completion of the following tasks:- Product idea research (are there any existing products or patents already existing for this idea)- Product specification document training (what it will do, how it will look, how will it be powered, and how the user will interface with it)- Marketing study (what it will be named, who would buy this, how much would they pay, how will we get customers to purchase the product)- Schematic or electronic circuit design process- Creation of a bill of material or BOM and an approved vendor’s list or AVL for each component in the design, preferably with multiple sources identified, with a BOM and AVL for each assembly level in the product- Printed circuit board layout design process (single sided board, double sided board, or multilayer board; size of the PCB; board material)- Mechanical packaging design with user interfaces (displays, buttons, switches, key. This removes all product creation costs from your budget as a marketer.
No other database of affiliate programs offers such a possibility for profit on either the affiliate side or the product creation site. Your chosen niche should allow for the creation of more than one product or service.
There are several marketing strategies that are necessary in the creation of a successful e-commerce web site – Email marketing (broadcasting) of prospects/customers – Effective use of auto responders (generate automatic email messages) – Online Newsletter – Online Form / Survey to capture your prospect’s email address – Electronic Product Delivery (if you sold a digital product) – Advertisement (Ad) Tracking – Back End Sales – Affiliate program etc.