How To Start a Home Based Business

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Starting a new business is scary, exhilarating, challenging and at times downright confusing. It's easy to get overwhelmed by the huge number of tasks in front of you. When you get in that state, step back and think, "What can I do today that will get my message in front of my customers?" If you're thinking about this all the time, the other details will fall into place.

The first thing you need to do is decide on the goals for your business. What do you personally want to get out of it? How many hours do you want to work? How many employees do you want to have? How much money do you want to make? The idea here is to get as clear a vision as possible of what your business will look like when it is established so you'll know what needs to be done to get there. For a very clear step-by-step method to do this, I highly recommend a program called E-Myth.

Next, do the math. So many people—including me—have learned the hard way that the business they created is not capable of meeting the goals they set for themselves. To help avoid this problem, do some market research to determine how much you'll be able to charge for your product or service and what volume you'll be able to sell. Think about how many hours you'll be able to work in a day and get a rough idea of the maximum amount you could make. Once you have rough estimates for those figures, you can decide if the money you could make or the time you need to put in will be worth the effort. You'd be surprised at how many people spend years working in a business that is just not capable of becoming what they hoped it would, even if everything went perfectly.

Many new entrepreneurs think success is all about developing a great product or service, but actually it's all about selling it. Before you spend tons of time and money developing your product, make a prototype or develop a clear and concise description of what it will be, and do some market research. Figure out who your prospective customers will be, and go talk to them! Ask questions. Find out what they'll pay. Consider their feedback and modify your design accordingly. Look at other companies that are selling similar products or services. Find out what they charge, how they market and what their competitive advantage is. Go into their stores and watch their customers. Find out what they are doing and why, and how customers respond. Once you think you have a clear understanding of what the market wants, then move ahead with your product or develop your service.

You'll also need to decide what kind of company structure will best fit your plans (S Corp., LLC, sole proprietorship and so on).

If possible, work out of your home for awhile or rent the minimum space and equipment necessary to run your business. It's important to keep your overhead as low as possible, at least until things start to take off. Resist the temptation to rent a nice office and fill it with furniture and equipment. I used to think that was impressive, but I came to realize it was just expensive.

Turbo Charge Your Website

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Turbo Charge Your Website
By Greg Mate and Barry Byers

brought to you by SearchEngineAcademy.ca

Search Engine Optimization and Web Site Design Go Hand in Hand.
Barry Byers of www.SearchEngineAcademy.ca discusses new opportunities for small and medium enterprises on the web.

“Like most things, unless you know what you are doing, it’s not likely to work. The same holds true for Internet Marketing,” said Barry Byers President of Search Engine Academy Toronto .

“For many businesses simply “putting up” a web site is a major coup. They write a few pages of facts about the company. They hire a web site designer to add some graphics and bingo! They are online,” said Byers. Indeed, it sounds simple, right?

It’s so simple that 55% of Canadian businesses have a website. A November 2005 Report from Statistics Canada states that in 2004 total online sales, by private firms, reached an estimated $26.5 billion.

So, what’s next for these businesses to do? “They then sit back and wait for the business to pour in. Then, wait some more. Only to realize that the time and money they invested is not paying off,” said Byers. So what is the problem?

“Just because you build a web site it doesn’t mean they will come,” he says. “The programming used to write your web site has to be “coded” in such a manner that Search Engines like Google and MSN can find it, and understand it. A competent SEO firm will ensure that the guidelines detailed by the Search Engines are adhered too when programming (or reprogramming) a web site.”

Enter the next generation of Witch Doctors. They call themselves “Internet Marketers” or “Search Engine Marketers” or “a SEO” (a Search Engine Optimizer). They are the Merlins of the Internet who claim that their hocus pocus techniques can take you from Internet obscurity to financial freedom. How?

Imagine how many widgets you could sell if your site was listed on the first page of www.google.ca. If the SEO does their job right your web site can vault towards the top of the “Organic Listings” (as apposed to the Sponsored Ads) on the Search Engines.

Big whoop? There were 19,888,000 visitors to the top 100 Internet properties in Canada in December 2005 (data from COM Score Networks). What could just a 1% share of that traffic to your website do to your business? More like a big whoopee.

“If there is a great deal of competition using SEO techniques for your product or service, it may not be easy to get to the top of the Organic Listings,” said Byers. In which case, rather than a cost of $1,000 to $4,000 to reprogram your web site, hiring an SEO firm could cost from $1000 to $5000 per month to higher still as ongoing optimization is required to maintain a high page ranking. “Yet the Return on Investment may warrant the expense, he said”.

Some companies prefer to pay to be listed at the top of the Search Engines by purchasing “Sponsored Ads” also known as Pay Per Click (or PPC) ads, where the advertiser pays each time someone clicks on an ad that leads to their web site. There is an online bidding process that determines your placement and the PPC costs involved. The more competition there is for a search term the more expensive each click is. The advertiser can set a maximum daily budget, or temporarily halt the campaign, or end it altogether at any time.

However PPC is susceptible to “Click Fraud” and must be monitored very closely to ensure that someone, a competitor perhaps, is not simply clicking on your ad to burn through your budget without resulting in sales or leads for you.

According to studies by Eye Tools, Inc of San Francisco, over 80% of all Click-Throughs are to the Organic Searches Results versus the Sponsored Ads. “The expense of SEO can seem high, but the potential returns can be huge,” said Byers.

Well, if that weren’t enough, after finally deciding to have your web site reprogrammed, you knew there had to be something else, right? “Properly writing the code of your web site is only half the battle,” said Byers, “once someone lands on one of your web pages, you only have 5 seconds for them to find the information they are searching for or else they will abandon your site.” He said you must make sure the site is written to meet the needs of the user. “Make sure the user finds what he looking for and finds it fast. This way you will likely meet your objectives if you can keep them on your site.” In Internet-speak the more “sticky” your site is, the more time people will spend on your site. Of course the more chance you have of selling your product as well.

Using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) may more bring more traffic to your website, and Internet Marketing may result in making more money for your business. “There are no guarantees however, so it’s best to be well informed before building a website in-house or outsourcing the work.” said Byers. He suggests combing the wealth of information available on the Internet, and/or to take courses offered online or even better, to attend courses in person. “This way you will be better able to either perform the SEO work yourself, or hire and better communicate with an outside firm” said Byers.


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About Gregory Mate & Barry Byers
Gregory Mate is the Co-Director of Training of Search Engine Academy Montreal and Toronto with Barry Byers. Together, they teach 2-day beginner, 3-day advanced, and 5-day all-inclusive "hands on" search engine marketing workshops in the Greater Montreal, Quebec and Greater Toronto, Ontario areas.

About Search Engine Academy
The Search Engine Academy is the first search engine optimization training designed for people with little or no previous experience with SEO. It also has a detailed certification program for current SEOs to ensure they possess the most current and correct skills. The Search Engine Academy was formed by industry leaders Robin Nobles and John Alexander. Each of the Search Engine Academies are independently owned and operated by licensed associates of the Search Engine Academy.

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