If you are looking for a free business opportunity, you are on the same track that millions of others are on searching for financial independence. It seems that everyone is looking for new ways to make some extra money and the first thing they think of is, “How do I find free business opportunities?” Whether it is with a part time job from home or starting your own home business from scratch, there are numerous ways to make money, so long as you have a grasp of how to go about it.The Best Home Based Business is…The best home business is a free one. However, free home based business opportunities are difficult to come by, especially if you are looking for legitimate ones from that you can make money with instead of losing money. While legitimate companies to partner with can be found, it usually take s a few tries to find one that will not try to defraud you of your earnings or give you a runaround story as to why you aren’t working correctly to earn the money that they have claimed.Too good to be True?Some of the better opportunities for a free work from home jobs and businesses include two characteristics from which you can determine if it is a “problem” opportunity or a good one such as:No start up costs. Many “free” home based businesses claim you can make a lot of money if you put out from $50 to $1,000 of “start up money”; money you will never see again. These “start up costs” are what make the people running these frauds rich, and they play you like a puppet on a string because they know you are willing to do anything once you give them the initial payment.
Monthly fees after the initial “free trial” are a sure sign that your free opportunity is anything but free. If the company’s promotional material for the new business is labeled “free”, then it should be free – not free for a day, free for two weeks or even free for a month. These “free trials’ do almost nothing but lure people into contracts that are nearly impossible to break; all the while they have your credit card number and continue to charge you monthly fees because you did not follow their “cancellation procedures” properly. These types of programs make their procedures difficult to navigate hoping you will not figure them out and remain enrolled until you report them, but by then it is too late to get your money back.Many people try their hands in anything just to make a few dollars, including survey sites, cash mail order clubs, etc. – you name it, they will try it. This is because many people do not realize how easy it is to get trapped into thinking someone who is trying to help you is only trying to get rich themselves instead. Any time you think that you have found the perfect free home based business opportunity, always read the fine print to see what you are really getting into.
How Not to Lose Money With Free Home Based Business Opportunities
7 Things to Consider When Engaging Small Business Consultants
Many small businesses are experts in their field and know their own business inside and out. However lots of small business owners lack the time or expertise required to implement certain projects. That’s where a small business consultant can step in and help.
In order to achieve a successful project it’s important to be clear about what you want your consultant to be able to do for you. Just as important is selecting a consultant with the right skills for the job, but how do you make sure you don’t get off on the wrong foot?
Here are some things to consider:
1. Are you looking for a research/diagnostic approach or do you need help with implementation?
Firstly are you looking for someone to take a diagnostic approach to a business problem you are facing? For instance, which market segment should you enter? Or what product line should you sell? Or is your business need about implementation? For instance, you’ve identified that you need to be on Social Media and need a marketing consultant with the expertise to make this happen.
The two needs are different and some consultants are better in one area than the other. To find out whether your prospective consultant prefers to work on implementation projects or research projects ask them. Don’t be afraid to ask them for specific examples of projects they have worked on and how they have tackled projects similar to yours in the past.
2. Ask prospective consultants how their clients are better off after they leave.
What sort of outcomes were they able to achieve for their clients? Look out for wishy-washy answers. Look for specific examples and outcomes. Does this fit with the sorts of outcomes that you would like for your business? Where they able to increase website traffic by a certain percentage, reduce staff turnover by a certain amount or generate more business for the client?
Picking the wrong person for the job might end up feeling like you are pushing water up a hill with a rake. Not only will the results be less than optimal but it may end up being a costly and stressful experience also.
3. Be careful of wanting champagne on a beer budget.
Do you want fast, cheap or talented? You must pick two out of the three. There is a triangle trade off here. You can get premium talent, faster results or a cheaper cost but Taylor Swift won’t teach your team how to sing tomorrow for free if you see what I mean.
Often a small business owner will set a budget and then begin the search for the best talent and/or fastest result within that budget. From my experience a budget-driven approach can often compromise results. Your best approach is to establish your desired outcome, then judge each potential candidate by how likely they are to be able to achieve that outcome.
4. Look for a solid “About Us” page.
Ask consultants about their qualifications and their approach. With so many so-called ‘experts’ out there it’s really important to identify who is qualified and able to do the job for you. Ask prospective consultants questions about their skills and experience to determine whether they are fit for the job. Are they methodical in their approach? Do have a history of achieving quality results for clients? This will help you to avoid being mislead by organisations with few processes, a glossy website and no real qualifications or experience.
5. Ask yourself whether you think you will be comfortable working with the consultant.
Do you think they are going to be the right fit for your business? Can you see yourself and your team working well with them? Sometimes it’s less about the exact industry experience they have had and more about their ability to get results.
6. Think about goals and outcomes first.
Don’t pick a technical specialist to do a job when you really need someone who can deliver a sales outcome. Think about your goal first, what are you trying to achieve? For instance, if it’s conversions and leads from your website then perhaps what you really need is a marketing consultant to advise on the layout of the website rather than just a technical person to do the build. A technical person can definitely build the website for you, it will function beautifully, but will it achieve your goal of converting traffic to sales?
7. Be wary of small business consultants who are all things to all people.
A good consultant will be honest about what their speciality is and will not simply be a ‘yes’ man or woman. They will push back on projects, ideas and suggestions that they don’t think are right for your business or are beyond their area of expertise. Look for a consultant with backbone not someone who lets you steer the project without alerting you to the danger that lies ahead because they are too afraid to question your judgement or afraid they will upset you. I’d rather have an expert question me and make suggestions than sit back and watch me sink the ship!
So whether it is a marketing consultant or a small business consultant you are looking for, many of the same rules apply. Identify what you need and look at it from an outcomes perspective, work out who has the expertise to help you achieve your goals and whether or not you are comfortable working with them. Look for someone who is genuinely interested in working with you and passionate about what they do.
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.