There are certain crucial factors that set apart some home based business ideas from others. When you are searching for the right opportunity all the information can all become a blur and it can be difficult to define what makes one opportunity stand out from the next.Here are 6 key factors that will help to put you in a significantly stronger position to take advantage of leverage and make money much faster.1). How Much Does it Cost?Obviously spending less sounds great but you probably know that the more expensive opportunities usually offer the bigger financial rewards… or do they? Keep your eyes peeled because this is not always the case. Home based business ideas with low entry costs can still offer very lucrative rewards and these are by far your best value investment.2). How much Can I Realistically Make?Some opportunities require you to pass up commissions which can mean less income. Other Companies are more geared to rewarding their representatives as they know that enthusiasm in their sales team will ultimately bring them the financial gain also. Look for the Companies that are paying their reps generously.3). How Quickly Can I Expect To Make Money?This will also depend on the structure of the Compensation Plan so look carefully at this. Sometimes what look like the best home based business ideas really only suit the top marketers, and the average marketers and newbies get left behind wondering what happened (or what didn’t happen!)Simple opportunities can get your home business off the ground and start paying you early in the game.4). What are the Risks?Whatever you spend, you’ll want to weigh up the likelihood of your success. Meaning, what you stand to lose verses what you will gain.Is it costing you a lot of money upfront before you have established if the business will work for you?5). How Many People Will I Need to Recruit to Make Money?Some of the best home based business ideas are with network marketing companies and require you to build a team, which means recruiting. So, how well you do in the business will depend on how many people you sponsor.Look at how many people you will need to sponsor before you start making the money you desire. Is this realistic for you to achieve now?6). How Complex is the Home Business System?I always feel that simple is best, as long as there is a good income opportunity. If you are trying to get new members to join and you are dealing with one of the more complex home based business ideas, it is more likely you’ll lose people’s interest before you can even go over all the information with them. If there are lots of products and intricate payment plans it can be harder on you to get others involved.When searching for the right opportunity use these as some of your criteria to help you separate the most simple and powerful earning opportunities, from some of the more complex ones. Look for compensation plans that are generous upfront, and once you start earning good money, your confidence will grow, and you can expand your marketing skills. Choosing the best home based business ideas will get you earning a full time income the most quickly. And don’t forget the most important skill you will need — Internet marketing.
Small Business Tax Advice How to Save on Your Tax With a Home Based Business
Want some helpful small business tax advice? Did you know that your Uncle Sam will actually pay you to start a home based business? That’s right, Congress has approved over 100 tax benefits that are available ONLY to home based business owners. These deductions, found in the Federal Tax Code, are 100% legal and 100% audit proof.Before we look at a few of these deductions and how much money this small business tax advice can put in your pocket, let’s look at how much is actually left out of your paycheck. While you know it is not as much as you would like, do you realize how much of your income goes to taxes? When you add up federal, state, country, gas, property, social security, unemployment, etc. the total comes to about 45%. By the time you pay your monthly housing, healthcare, food and transportation costs, you are left with about 20% to pay all others expenses and to enjoy life.Not a pretty picture. Fortunately, you can change that picture with a home based business. I can hear you saying; “I don’t have time for a home business I barely have time for my family and friends now.” And besides, you’re thinking, I certainly don’t have the time or desire to go to meetings or presentations to learn how to start-up and run a home based business. Probably, at one time or another you and your friends have discussed small business ideas that you might pursue.Now’s the time to stop talking and to take action to change your future. Are you on Facebook? Do you have a Twitter account? Do you use Youtube? Ever considered starting a Blog? If you answered yes to one or more of those questions I can show you how to turn these tools into a home business.Aside from the money you will make with a home based business, here are 5 significant tax breaks that can put $300-$500/month in your pocket.1. Home Office Deduction (Renters too; includes a percentage for utilities, maintenance, ins.)2. Business Use of Personal Vehicle ($1 for every 2 miles plus more)3. Hire your children (even as young as 6; big tax savings)4. Healthcare Costs (100% of out-of-pocket costs)5. Business Travel & EntertainmentMore good small business tax advice, there are only two qualifiers to be able to take advantages of the above deductions as well as over 100 others. Here’s what they are:1. Operate your business on a regular and consistent basis (the tax courts have defined this as 3-4 hours a week)2. Have an intent to make a profit.More good news; you can start your home business part-time while you continue with your present position. The Internet has changed the way we communicate, buy things and it can change the way you make the money you need to live the lifestyle you want.To learn more about the tax savings available to home based business owners, click on Resources on the right hand side of the page and watch the 5 minute video by Dr. Ron Mueller, Home Business Tax Law Expert. And, of course, contact me so I can give you further details.By the way, does saving $5,000 a year or more on your taxes appeal to you?How to Save on your Tax with a Home Based Business
5 Tools For Your Home Based Business Ideas
All the top home based businesses use the technology of the internet. We live in the digital age of emails, downloads, streaming data and mobile technology. If your home based business ideas do not include having an online presence, then you’re missing out on a worldwide market who can buy from you at any time of the day or night.Any legitimate home based business will need some investment to get it started and an online home business is no different. The good news is that the start up costs for a home based online business are considerably less than a traditional offline venture.Five Tools For Your Home Based Business.1. Domain Name.A domain name is the name of your website. It’s where your customers can find you online with an easy to use word, or sets of words. Your first option should always be to opt for a.com name when looking for domain name ideas for your home business as it is the universally accepted business domain extension.2. Website Hosting.Once you have your domain name, you’ll need somewhere to “rent” space for your website so that it can be live on the internet. Some domain registrars usually also provide hosting but do check the rates first. Once you have your domain and hosting sorted, you are well on your way to making your home based business ideas into a reality.3. Website.The WordPress website system is the most widely used website building platform on the internet. It has the functionality to help your home business earn online revenue as well providing a complete content management system. WordPress websites are reportedly used by such organisations as the New York Times, Ford, NASA, Pepsi and eBay. If it is good enough for them, then it will surely be good enough for your work from home based business ideas.4. Autoresponder.One of the best online business tools you can have is an autoresponder. Your autoresponder is the ‘salesman’ who works for you 24/7 – every day of the year. Autoresponder services are used to provide your leads with follow up information about your products and services via email. Remember that statistically, a prospect needs to see or hear your marketing message at least seven times before they take any action and buy from you.5. Continuous Education.It can be a frustrating process getting your home based business ideas from concept to reality. When you get stuck on a problem, you can lose focus and direction and that’s when they are most likely to give up. For example, getting a domain name and website hosting organised can seem a little complicated if you’ve never done it before. With ongoing business education, you can learn as you earn and draw on the experience of others for a fast-track to success.
How Successful Investors Prepare Their Real Estate Analysis
Successful real estate investors never rely simply on what others tell them. Once a prospective real estate investment has been located, prudent investors conduct a close examination of the rental property’s income, expenses, cash flow, rates of return, and profitability. Regardless what overzealous agents or sellers say, vigilant real estate investing demands a validation of the numbers.
To achieve this, real estate investors rely on a variety of reports and rates of return to measure an income property’s financial performance. And in this article, we’ll consider a few of these reports and financial measures.
Reports
The most popular report used in real estate investing circles is perhaps the Annual Property Operating Data, or APOD. This is because an APOD gives the real estate analyst a quick evaluation or “snapshot” of property performance during the first year of ownership. It does not consider tax shelter, but an APOD created correctly can serve as the real estate equivalent of an annual income and expense statement.
A Proforma Income Statement is also popular amongst analysts. Although comprised of speculated numbers, a proforma provides a useful way for real estate investors and analysts to evaluate an investment property’s future, long-term cash flow, performance. Proformas regularly project numbers out over a period of ten to twenty years.
Certainly one of the most important documents for a real estate analysis is the Rent Roll. This is because a property’s sources of income and income stream are vital to making wise real estate investment decisions. A rent roll typically lists currently occupied units with current rents along with vacant units and market rents. During the due diligence, of course, rents shown in the rent roll should be confirmed by the tenants.
Rates of Return
Capitalization rate, or cap rate, is one of the more popular rates of return used by real estate analysts. This is because cap rate offers a quick first-glance look at a property’s ability to pay its own way by expressing the relationship between a property’s value and its net operating income. Cap rate also provides real estate investors with an easy method for comparing similar properties.
Cash-on-cash return measures the ratio between a property’s anticipated first-year cash flow to the amount of investment required to purchase the property. Though cash on cash return does not account for the time value of money or for cash flows beyond the first year, this shortcoming is often overlooked because it does provide an easy way for real estate investors to compare the profitability of similar income-producing properties and investment opportunities quickly.
Internal rate of return is more complex because it requires a computation for time value of money and therefore requires a financial calculator or good real estate investment software. Nonetheless, it is widely-used by analysts because internal rate of return reveals in mathematical terms what a real estate investor’s initial cash investment will yield based on an expected stream of future cash flows discounted to equal today’s dollars. In other words, internal rate of return converts tomorrow’s dollars to today’s dollars and then computes your return on investment.
Here’s the point.
Take the time to conduct a thorough real estate analysis. Create the reports and returns and hold the numbers up to the light. This is the only reasonably certain way of making the right investment decision on any prospective real estate investment. If you do your real estate analysis correctly you’ll know whether the investment makes good financial sense or not, and almost certainly guarantee your real estate investing success.
Social Investing: What Is It?
Social investing has received a lot of interest in recent years – especially following the financial crisis. Most people, however, are left wondering: What is social investing? Let’s answer this question.
To understand what social investing is, we must first consider how traditional investors look at the world. In traditional investing, investors weigh investment decisions by looking at two broad factors – risk and financial return.
Risk, Return – and Social Impact
Each investor has a certain comfort level across the risk-return spectrum, and he or she does their investing within that band of the spectrum. An investor might be comfortable giving up some of their return if an investment is safer. On the other hand, the same investor might be willing take a little more risk with an investment if it translates into a higher return.
In social investing, a third factor is thrown into consideration – social impact. Social impact means that the enterprise supported by the investment yields some benefit to society beyond the income it generates for investors. Conversely, an enterprise can also have some negative impact on society, and a social investor will also take this into consideration when making investments.
Just as traditional investors are willing to make a trade off between risk and return, social investors are willing to make a trade off between risk, return and social impact. If an enterprise is doing something that’s improving the environment, for example, a social investor may be willing to give up some financial return or assume greater risk on that investment depending on his or her individual comfort level.
In short, social investing can be defined as considering the social impact of an enterprise when making investment decisions. By this standard, a number of investment approaches fall under the umbrella of social investing: mission investing, responsible investing, double-bottom-line investing, triple-bottom-line investing, ethical investing, sustainable investing and green investing.
Social Screening
Within the universe of social investing, there are two broad categories: social screening and impact investing. In the social screening methodology, an investor comes up with a list of social standards that he or she wants his or her investments to meet.
The investor eliminates any company that does not meet these standards and then invests in the “socially responsible” companies that do meet the standards in a way that meets the investors risk and return objectives.
A number of socially responsible mutual funds have emerged that use such an approach. They adopt a social screening methodology, define a large basket of investments that adhere to those standards and then have their management company invest within that basket to meet the financial objectives of the mutual fund.
Impact Investing
The second broad category of social investing is known as impact investing or, sometimes, community investing. In impact investing, rather than investing in companies that do no harm, investments are made in companies that do social good.
Enterprises that fall under the impact investment heading perform services that have a charitable or social purpose but also have a business model that can generate income and support a financial investment. They straddle both the charity and business worlds.
Impact investment enterprises might be structured as non-profit or for-profit companies but rarely do they take the form of the large public companies listed in the capital markets. As a result, making an impact investment is more difficult and usually takes the form of a private investment in the form of a note or loan.
Impact Investment Sectors
So what exactly are these impact investment enterprises? To get a better sense, let’s look at some of the sectors that qualify as impact investments.
Affordable housing is one sector familiar to most people. Most people support an organization like Habitat for Humanity by making donations, but a foundation, for example, might support them by providing a low interest loan to fund the organization’s projects.
Microfinance is another impact investment sector. A microfinance institution makes small loans to entrepreneurial people in developing countries to give them the opportunity to start or grow their own business and lift themselves out of poverty. A microfinance institution works similar to a bank, so it is able to generate income and support investors.
There are many other similar sectors that generate income and have a social mission at their core: fair trade, community development organizations, social enterprises, etc. In each sector, companies can often find investors who are willing to give up some financial return or take on a bit more risk because of the social impact that these organizations have.
How To Succeed At Online Product Creation The Easy Way
Product creation could be a frightening subject for a lot of Internet marketers to face. Some folks who get in the game with the intention of making a full time income are completely ignorant as to how an online business operates. One of the most profitable ways to create online cash is by creating a product that others are happy to pay for.
Product creation is legitimate method of generating money through internet marketing but many entrepreneurs get it wrong. They start by imitating their Internet marketing gurus by creating information products on Internet marketing in hopes of getting rich the way their heroes did. The problem is that they usually don’t know what they are doing and enter a highly competitive niche with very little marketing experience or connections.
Here are a few tips for effective product creation that may help you get on the right track:
Start by finding a profitable niche with low to moderate competition. If you conduct some rudimentary market research and keyword research, you’ll find many opportunities in areas that will surprise you. Amazon and eBay are two great places to brainstorm for product ideas.
Developing Your Product does not have to be a difficult project. You can find experts in the right field for your niche and pay them to write the material while an artist designs the packaging and website or blog. You can outsource the entire product creation part of the project after you conduct the research and testing to ensure profitability.
Sales and marketing strategies should be created while developing the product and learning about the market. Some experienced marketers use pay per click to drive traffic to their offer page; some folks outsource the entire marketing campaign to affiliates through ClickBank or other affiliate programs.
Product creation does not need to be hard, particularly when the merchandise is electronic. E-books, videos, audio and multi-media products sell very well. They are distributed immediately to customers electronically. Once you have a good feel for a niche market, try to service your customers with associated products and upgrades. If you want to earn money online through product creation, you must understand supply and demand. The majority of new online marketers fail miserably because they go after highly competitive markets or forget to research their chosen niche properly. You have to create your products according to the needs, wants and desires of the prospective customers.
Information Product Creation: Never Compete on Price Because There Is Only One You
Information product creation requires extensive preparation, no matter which niche you work within and you want to make sure that your information product has a successful launch. That probably sounds scary and intimidating but here’s the thing: this is a one time effort and it will pay off in a foundation that is strong enough to get your ideal clients to invest in your high-end programs and services without the perils of a traditional funnel. This article will teach you a few of the things that you need to remember if you’d like to invest in yourself and start on the information product creation path using your unique talents and abilities. Remember that you never have to worry about anyone ripping off your ideas because if you understand how to properly position yourself around your story.
Understand Both Strengths and Weaknesses: It is good to have an impartial view of your own strengths and weaknesses when lay the foundation of selling yourself within the information product creation process. It helps you figure out where you are, what you lack and how to move forward so that you get as much growth as possible. It is more than important, it is urgent if you want to create fast success for yourself to have personal positive reinforcement and deep belief to provide yourself the support you need so that you can get over your own limitations to ensure that your information product is as valuable as it can be.
You also need to know exactly who your competition is so you can study them and use their methods to help you improve your own standings. Down recreate the wheel, but understand the wheel and position yourself going uphill from the competition. Check out which kinds of opportunities you’ve already got and try to figure out how best to use them while taking care to remember your strengths and weaknesses. This is a great way to figure out where you stand against your competition which helps you figure out how best to grow.
Launch on Time: No matter what, even if you haven’t officially announced your “launch date” you should launch the site when you’ve said you would. This will force you to stick to your goal and actually work on it. Thinking that “I’ll launch it when I think it’s ready to launch” will only hinder your efforts. You’ve got a responsibility that you need to live up to with your launch, and you can’t move back on that one. If you get close to your launch date and you are getting hung up on your self limiting beliefs in your information product creation, don’t worry this about getting it out there and not perfection. As long as it is usable you should launch it. Launching on time is the professional thing to do and it is more important than creating a “wow” effect in your site visitors. You can always update/upgrade your website when you have to, so there shouldn’t be any issue with that.
Analyze Your Own Concept: If you want to make your information product creation successful you need to understand how good your concept is: is it really going to work for your chosen audience or would something else be better? You already know about your competition; how does your concept measure up? If you haven’t come up with your own idea and are trying to work with someone else’s concept, do some more work on your own before your launch. People want original ideas because they’ve seen too many other me-too websites already.
Test Your Concept Before You Commit To The Information Product Creation Process: One of the biggest failures people have with information product creation is not testing an idea before putting a lot of effort into producing an information product. PPC to a small 5 page site with a landing page is a great way to test an offer before you even produce it. If people will sign up to get it, you can be sure that you can create an information product that will target eliminating the pain of your target market. The small amount of money will be invaluable in using crowd sourcing to direct the final outline of the information product creation process.
You’ll have lots of hurdles to clear after the launch of your information product and the only way to truly take care of them is to follow the advice in this article to work smarter. Plenty of people work hard, but it is the ones who work smarter who make real money online with the information product creation business model.
Plan To Succeed With Information Product Creation: Why You Need To Split Your Process Up
One of the keys to succeeding in information product creation is to break the process up into discrete steps. This frequently isn’t an instinctive reaction for the typical information marketer. Especially on the internet where small sized learning products are the norm.
However, it is extremely important to your ultimate success. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if you don’t do this you probably won’t succeed… even when you are starting out let alone as you move forward.
Your product creation system should do this for you if only to help you to understand the overall task.
But why?
In this article, I’m going to ignore chunking and focus on the practical aspects. That’s not to say that chunking isn’t important. It is. It’s important to understanding and to learning the process. But while you can use the same chunks as you move forward, long term your focus needs to be on the operation of the system not the understanding of it. Unless of course you are constantly training new people!
So why is chunking important to long term use of the product creation process? (Yes, I know systems design uses a different term for this process but I’m not teaching you systems design. So I’m going to use the word learning content designers use.)
The first reason that having individual discrete tasks is important is one of schedule estimation. Frequently it is very difficult to estimate how long the total task of creating a product will take. After all, the size and type of the products matters as does the number of products in your product funnel. And those are just the most obvious elements. However, estimating a discrete task is often much easier. The total can then be estimated as the total of the discrete tasks.
Secondly, scheduling a large task can be problematic. However, by segmenting the task into a number of discrete tasks, you gain a much greater flexibility in scheduling. Not only that but as your business begins to add people you are able to schedule multiple people to the product creation.
Finally, segmenting a large task into smaller discrete tasks allows you to have much better control over the product creation. This affects two different areas — status and quality.
By segmenting your process into discrete tasks you are able to schedule and record the progress at much more detailed level. As a result you are more in control of the status of the product creation. You know what everyone is doing. When they should complete it. And how much it should cost. You also know exactly what has been done.
You also improve your overall quality. Instead of waiting until everything is done you can check quality as you go. This allows you to immediate react to low quality products without absorbing their costs. This means that you have less rework and your rework costs less. And if the product is not going to meet its quality requirement you will know about it in time to stop the development, change the requirement or fix the product.
A Guide on Successful Product Creation and Internet Marketing
Product creation in Internet marketing is getting stiffer and stiffer nowadays owing to tough competition between Internet-based businesses. Putting up a new product requires plenty of brainpower and finances along with an ability to take risk. With that, even if you have the product well-set already, you have to position it strategically in the Internet landscape for others to notice. You should get the interest of Web users and turn them to actual customers. Aside from the usual physical products, many different products that thrive well on Internet marketing include E-books, membership sites, and video lectures.
The long and difficult process of product creation begins with ideas. They are easy to get – compared to the effort that comes with analyzing the market for that idea. Before the idea turns to a product, businesses often spend money, even amounting to millions of dollars, to ensure the success of the new product that emerges from an idea. Businesses undertake many types of market research and surveys before releasing their products to the public. Now, you may think that because your business is small, you can’t afford research or you don’t have to do research; you can and you should. The Internet allows you to disseminate materials needed for your market study to many people at once without your having to spend a cent.
It is a common maxim in business: Look at your destination first before mapping out your journey. So what are the goals you intend to accomplish with your product creation ventures? The everyday travails of your business may make you forget the end in sight. On the other hand, prepare to entertain new developments that come to your mind in your product creation. Your conception of a product may have started this way, but a few tweaks here and there along with some market research results and it ends up another way. Take it as the result of a creative process, not as a failure to reach your goal. After all, your product creation activities are intertwined with a long-term goal that you should strive to sustain at your utmost: profit generation. So if your less profitable initial idea evolves to a more profitable product, be thankful!
With your product made up already, start doing some aggressive Internet marketing. A product purchase typically comes after more than five times a customer is exposed to an informative call-to-buy message. Thus it is important to get the contact details, like the e-mail address, of potential customers who are on the brink of a sale. Use the results of your market research to determine the demographics to which you should concentrate your marketing efforts.
With consistent product creation, you can make an inventory of your products that you can market in due time. Just keep making products – the moment you succeed in making and marketing a product, customers are surely wanting more from you, so give it to them. Keep them on your side through constant product creation.
Considerable Factors Involved in Product Creation & Marketing
The niche you have chosen should allow creation of more than one product or service. 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 need to worry about spending time on the real products sold to the customer. The main ones are keyword selection, sales copy principles, graphics, affiliate programs, product creation, online payment processing, auto responders, and search engine optimization.
Once you’ve earned money from this type of information product business, you can invest in the creation of your own products if you want, or start offering more informational products that allow you to sell your knowledge. But the creation and production costs of a similar big ticket in sequence product, although higher, are still pretty low. A key by-product of this process will be the creation of 3-D, Computer Assisted Design art.
The Association for Financial Professionals permits the following activities for repatriating funds: Research and Development activities, advertising and marketing programs, hiring and training new recruits, acquiring patent and other rights to intangible property, improving transportation, funding capital investments with the purpose of job creation and job retention & funding product responsibility or environmental claims.
It prohibits certain activities like: Tax payments, Payment of executive recompense, Payment of dividends, Redemption of stocks, Debt investments and Portfolio investments. Therefore, before repatriating the money, you must consider whether it is worth or not.
Checklist on what artist and product development necessitate includes: Exceptional vocals, musicianship and/or songwriting skills, Continued education and enhancement of musical skills, Quality equipment, Performance ability, Image creation and maintenance, Plan of action, goal setting, excellent promotion materials including photographs, press releases and artwork, Business management skills, Marketing, Publicity and Promotion knowledge, Online and Offline Professional management, Basic knowledge of recording, producing, engineering, and mastering, Basic knowledge of manufacturing, distribution, and sales online, brick and mortar and air-play, Good choices in members, staff and advisors, Physical and mental preparedness, Basic knowledge of finances, accounting Law and legal issues etc.
The goals for doing so are for the product owner to: Communicate the whole, Determine and communicate when releases are needed, Determine what functionality is sufficient for each release & focus on business value derived from the releases. The delivery team on the other hand will see the whole, learn about the steps to realize the vision, learn the business priorities, provide technical input to the roadmap and provide estimates for the projected features. The salesperson must lead the prospect through the various decision criteria needed in order to secure a sale. Whether your idea is the development of a product, launch of a service business, or even the creation of an event or program for a non-profit, creativity is the root of all entrepreneurial efforts starting with the vision itself.
People quickly learn to spend their time on marketing and product creation, rather than repetitive tasks. Apart from empowering companies and individuals, there should be a particular focus on identifying labor intensive businesses that have the potential to make a significant and positive impact on employment creation as well as those businesses that have a product or service offering for export markets with the final objective of booming local economies.