Unless you have been living under a rock for the last five years, you undoubtedly have been impacted in some way by the state of our global economy. It is a fact that many have lost homes, jobs, and in some cases their lives due to the economic downturn that has had a largely negative impact on the way that people live, work and think about earning a living. Though much is said about the negative aspects of the financial times in what we live in, I would charge that this is the best time, and most importantly a vital time to either begin a home based business or re-energize a business that may be dormant. There are three key reasons that I make this statement.The first reason is for tax benefits. Unless you plan on going to jail or living on ‘the run’ for most of your life you will have some tax liability and exposure if you earn an income. Many miss the point and think that if they can just make more money, all their problems will disappear and life will be great. There is nothing wrong with making more money, but what is more important is keeping more of what you make! Home business ownership allows you to make legitimate deductions that will lessen your tax burden and result in you keeping more of your money. Some of the most notable deductions that you can make for having a home business are: Home office (Space, and utilities needed in running the office), Office supplies, Furniture, Other equipment (e.g. computers, copiers, faxes), Software and subscriptions, Mileage, (Travel, meals, entertainment and gifts), Insurance premiums, Retirement contributions, Social Security, Telephone charges, and Child labor (as in employing your own children). This initial dozen are a great start, but by no means is a completely exhaustive list. You can build an additional income stream by having a home based business and keep more of your money in the process.The second reason for establishing a home based business is to create an additional revenue stream to compliment any full time employment that you may have outside of the home. CAGR, inflation, and all of the other indicators basically tell us that everything is more expensive today than yesterday and will continue to go in an upward trend. Plain and simple, it takes more money to maintain the same standard of living year over year. Most corporations are not increasing their pay to employees at the same rate as inflation. In fact, most pay less within recent years. To cover the gap individuals must become creative in producing additional income for themselves and their families. Home based businesses allow for almost a limitless variety of options to accomplish this task, while keeping overhead low and the potential upside high. Best of all, if the business is chosen carefully, it can become an asset that can be transferred from parent to child or other family members to create perpetual generational benefits.Last, but certainly not least, the home based business can be the ultimate ‘Plan B’ in case your full time work ceases. In the event of a lay-off, down-sizing, company closure, a home based business can provide the revenue to keep your home above water and repel creditors (mortgage companies, etc.) while you replace your lost income, or decide to invest 100 percent of your time and energy in your home based business. Having the peace of mind that additional revenue streams exist during tumultuous change in the corporate world is priceless. To under estimate the importance of having a ‘Plan B’ is like not having car insurance. You just don’t want to go there, because sooner or later you will need it. In addition, the security of having additional income in the face of medical emergencies or for retirement is huge. How many times do we read that medical emergencies are the number one reason for individuals filing bankruptcy or that people who should be retired have to continue to work because they simply can’t afford retirement?If you have not thought about starting a home based business, give it serious thought and find something that you believe in and go for it. If you have a business, but have not done anything with it for a while, get busy. Death and taxes are a reality that we all must face, but if you can reduce your tax burden and live a quality life as long as possible, I think we all can agree, would be a great thing.
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.
A Simple Product Creation and Product Launching Formula
If you tried to think of people involved in product creation, who would come to mind? You may think of Edison, Franklin, or maybe Henry Ford. Would you ever think of yourself as someone who can create a quality product? Product creation is actually relatively easy and product launching is not that tough either! If you follow a few easy to understand steps, you could be starting the product creation and product launching process sooner than you think.
The first step in creating your information product is to know and understand your market. This can be very time-consuming, especially if you are unsure of what to do or where to look to know your market. Studying your niche market and understanding the buzz words and buying patterns can ease the process dramatically. Personally, I would recommend networking with someone who has had success in the niche market you are considering and learn from their results. If they are into product creation and not very business savvy expect some hesitation. If they only sell products and have nothing to do with product launching or product creation you may your first affiliate (sales person)! Something else you can use to find hot trends is with the Google Trends tool.
The second step is the product creation process. Take your niche market and brainstorm ideas and topics relating to it. There are a lot of product launching contests going on recently relating to a newly created internet marketing tool. There are so many aspects to the mentioned niche that literally, and unfortunately, anything can be considered an Internet Marketing tool. The reason that anyone can basically create an Internet Marketing tool is because of something called Private Label Rights products.
What I use private label rights products for, and highly recommend them in this specific manner, is to cure writer’s block especially when it is lingering. Many people base their entire product creation and product launching on a private label rights product. This is where you can start to shine and build a strong brand for yourself. If you set goals for yourself, short-term goals to be exact, you can see your product creation come into being much faster and there is a good chance with less revision needed. If you keep hitting time restraint road blocks; however there is nothing wrong with a slow and steady approach, you can consider outsourcing portions of your project. Outsourcing can be an extremely huge benefit or just as great of a disaster.
You can find someone to outsource work to at a freelance site such as Guru.com or eLance.com. When reviewing proposals it is almost mandatory you perform a background check on them as you are in essence hiring them. Doing a background check on freelancers is as easy as asking for samples of their work and reviewing feedback on the freelance site from previous customers. Depending on the size and requirements of your project this can add up to a decent sized investment, so caution is very important. One tip I always recommend to people looking to hire an individual is to ask them what they can provide you that no one else can. This simple question gives them a chance to “toot their own horn” and acknowledge where they feel most competent as far as their skill set.
The final portion of the product creation and product launching formula is the launch. This can literally make or break the effort, time, and maybe (if you invested) money you put in to your project. There are numerous aspects to product launching and although their relevance is debated in terms to their effect, experts agree all must be followed. The person in your field who you asked for product advice from can help you substantially if you have kept in touch. If not, the first thing you need to do is to create a visually appealing website with flawless design work.
I also mentioned outsourcing before, this is one aspect of product launching I have little strength in and I always outsource this portion. The website does not have to be large however the content (ad copy in Internet Marketing) must be stellar and as perfect as possible. This is where advertising knowledge or experience is beneficial. When the site is set up you now put a lead capture form on your website.
I put two lead capture pages on all products I create on the internet and is one of the best methods of getting a solid start when you are in the product launching stage. When you gain information from a prospect or someone looking to get paid for referring sales you are able to provide them updates or specials. Many people abuse their prospect or affiliate lists by in turn emailing them with a new product daily and I find the recommendations to be totally unrelated to their original need, problem, or interest.
Another stage in the product launching stage is creating a free report or demo version of your product to entice the product to sign up to your email list. Using proper follow up with this can help generate numerous sales for you. One thing you need to ensure is that your free product completely relates to your main product that you are looking to sell.
You are now ready to advertise your product launching to customers as well as the opportunity to sell for affiliates. This is the single aspect that many product creations and launches fail on. It is actually not entirely difficult. One thing you can do is write articles (and a good amount of them) on topics relating to your product. I am a huge advocate of giving a solution in forums. When you join a forum you are normally offered the opportunity to create a signature. In your signature, you should enter the link to your opt-in or lead capture page. When you respond to posts, you are advertising your opportunity.
It is not impossible to create a product and it does not have to take a long time. You need to setup a plan and stick to it. If you get stuck, look at similar and successful products to your own and try and see how they did it. When you sit down and brainstorm you will be surprised with what you can imagine.