small business, Self improvement, working at home, mental health, cooking, hobbies, gardening, wellness, health, fitness, motherhood and raising families

IN PLANNING YOUR MARKETING CAMPAIGNS OBSERVE WHAT YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE BUYING 

  Make sure that your sale items have been purchased at reduced prices.  Plan months ahead and you can get the best buys.  By searching for good prices, your suppliers should recognise that are doing aggressive marketing and you may find they will get behind your promotions.  This can be a huge benefit for you to have a supplier helping you get good stock at good prices to promote.  

Marketing is a game.  Understand the essence of these 2 questions.

Truly, that is right.  Marketing is a game and it is one that all small business owners need to master if they want to run a successful business.   A marketing campaign has to be one of the most important jobs a small business owner needs to do successfully and consistently. 

BEFORE YOU COMMIT to any advertising make sure you know what you are going to advertise. 

Work that out FIRST, then work out how you are going to get the announcement out there. Not the other way around. 

Once you have made the ‘WHAT” decision you can then work out HOW you are going to market and WHO you are going to advertise with.  There are lots of cheap ways to advertise. One of the very best ways to help you with your advertising costs is to LEARN and USE the phrase “I will get back to you”.  Advertising agents hate it, but it will save you being committed to something on the spur of the moment then regretting it.  THERE WILL ALWAYS BE ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY, ESPECIALLY IN THIS CLIMATE.

BUY YOUR OWN TICKETS ONLINE AND SAVE 

There are any number of online travel packages and here is how to find them.     1. Travel e-newsletters – sign up and get the latest news  

You can keep yourself updated with the latest offers of the online travel agents and airlines. Just log on to their site, sign up for their e-newsletters and you will get the latest information through email.

2. Visit a number of sites and compare

Always compare the different offers on the net before you pick any. You might come across an agent with a better package. See if the offer is actually as lucrative as it seems.  You just might find that it doesn’t include the airfare that you expected.

 3. Consider the discounts offered but also any restrictions 

Do not hesitate to check out all the possible areas where you might have a discount. You can encash your Air Miles or frequent flyer miles if you have any. AAA/CAA membership or affiliations can also give you concessions. You can also save money if they allow children or senior discounts, or family rates.

4. Leave your requests on the travel sites and let them get back to you

You can make your work a lot easier if you leave it on the travel websites. You can specify your criteria, and will be informed by email when the prices come near to the one that you stated.

This year is going to be a year when anyone in any sort of business at all is going to have to be very marketing savvy. You will learn marketing skills this year that will carry you through the year and from which you will benefit from for many years to come. 

FIRST AND FOREMOST – don’t be suckered into any paid advertising until you are 100% ready.  You are better off to miss ‘a good’ deal than do some irrelevant marketing.  There will be more marketing deals being offered to you this year than ever before, so don’t feel obliged, and most of all -

DON’T FEEL YOU HAVE MISSED THE BOAT. 

THERE WILL BE ANOTHER ONE!

Take time out and plan your marketing for the next 3 months. Normally you should work on a year, but the way the market is at the moment it is best to only make definite plans for no more than 3 months. 

Sure, have a rough guideline for the rest of the year, but define the next 3 months.

Changing times have made many people rethink their income earning position, either because they are forced into doing so by being put off, or they are insecure in their job.

Either way, setting up a home based business need to be planned. 

A consideration at the top of the list, if you are going to start a new home based business, is to work out how soon you need to see an income from what you do.

If you are looking to start an internet business for example, it could take quite a few months before you have learnt the skills to succeed and build a presence on the web, but if you are going to making a product, all you will need to do is have an outlet where you can sell it.  Taking these two examples, both have the potential to become very good businesses in time, but the latter is more like to have a return in the short term.

The other very important consideration in the first stage, is to assess what it is going to cost you to get a work at home business up and running.  Some people have been fortunate in that they have been made redundant and have left with a little nest egg which will help them over the intitial phase.  But do look at this carefully and assess your situation.  Be realistic, leave the pipe dreams for marketing your business. 

THE WORD FAILURE IS ONE THAT CONJURES UP ALL SORTS OF NASTY THOUGHTS!

The reality is that if we never failed it would mean you were 100% perfect in everything you do, or you have not tried to do anything.

My hubby has a saying that, "even his mistakes are perfect!"

When you start a home based business it is a given fact that you are going to make mistakes.  If you understand this from the start, then you can look at your mistakes as part of your learning curve to success.

Everyone has different talents and will fail at certain things that others may find extremely easy, but that is OK, just make sure that you do not let your mistakes get your down.

I know, depending on the size of the mistake, that can be easier said than done.  Some people make mistakes work noting, like losing $1M, and others only $1, but each is a learning curve nevertheless.

Analyse your mistake, learn from it, and move on.

Sometimes we forget how good we are at certain things, and let the negative take over.  Always remind yourself how good you are.

When I started working at home years ago, I tried several things.  I made money at each, but I could see that my skills were not really in those businesses I was doing.  It wasn't til I bought an internet business and started writing as a career that I really found something I loved.  My failing there was not analysing how good I was at what I was attempting to do, and sometimes even consciously ignoring the actual thing that eventually made me give up the business.

One of the most memberable was a party plan giftware business.  I had to carry some heavy boxes, and I knew from the outset that my back was not that good, and in the end I had to stop because of it.    I saw this as a failure in that I ignored the fact of a bad back, but it took me one step closer to finding something that I did like, because party plan had always been something I had wanted to try.

The process of elimination may be the way you will have to find out what you really like doing.

'BE PREPARED' AS THE GOOD SCOUT SAID 

Family holidays need to start out on the right foot?   Sometimes it seems so difficult to get everything organised, what with packing all the clothes and games, you can land up cursing yourself for leaving behind vital documents or the most essential travel accessory.

I always found when I was going on holiday that the ONE THING that helped me be organised was have everything in the clothing side washed and ready to go, whether I was going to take it or not.  If everything was clean it was just a matter of grabbing what I wanted to suit the weather we were travelling into.

 And to make the job easier and save your precious time, there are even many websites which offer travel planning tips, services and travel kits with all necessary accessories like games, travel gear, footwear etc. So your travel planner is just a click away.   Zooming off to a family getaway gets more worrisome when you have kids in tow. In this case, it’s always wiser to plan the trip days or weeks ahead. Now to help you get ahead with your holiday planning, here are a list of travel musts which you may have a look at: ·        Papers and documents like hotel-booking and car-rental coupons, hotel directions, travel and health insurance etc·        Credit and debit cards·        Money·        Photo identity·        Membership cards of clubs, if you have any·        Travel tickets·        Medicines

As a home business owner you do not have the luxury of having clients popping in for a chat as you do with say, a retail shop.  A quick chat can often lead to another sale, or your client sending someone to you because of what you may have been disucssing.

When you are working at home you need to keep a list of everyone you do business with, or even talk to regarding your business. 

USE AN AUTORESPONDER TO DO YOUR WORK – IT IS SO EASY!!

The best way to keep in contact with these people is to set up an autoresponder and send out regular emails with news on your products, or anything else you can think of that your contacts may be intereted in.  You may have a list of retail buyers, your wholesalers, and prospective buyers.

This type of contact is a great way to foster trust.  You will find that by having this type of contact you will get many more repeat purchases.

TRAVELLING TO A FAMILY HOLIDAY IS OFTEN VERY STRESSFUL FOR THE PARENTS

Eliminate stress by being organised.

Here are some suggestions for keeping things on a roll:

• keep sweets and sweet drinks to a minimum then the kids won't have heighten sugar levels
• have pop corn for the kids (messy but will stop them being hungry)
• have a wet cloth in a plastic bag, plus a towel for mop-ups, and a box of tissues
• a small pkt of baby wipes is very good to travel with as they do a multitude of tasks
• if the children are going to be watching videos keep the selection minimal so that they do not argue over so many
• take plenty of breaks
• pre-pack some sandwiches – make them the day before and refridgerate
• carry a container of dried fruit and nuts – they stave off hunger
• have a selection of games on hand
• play games like spot the color red, the number plates starting in 'B', the white number plates and the like

Look for ideas on finding cheap accommodation so that you can spend your money on holiday entertainment.