Sunday, November 18, 2007

Gas Prices and a Home Based Business

Many are the reasons that a Home-Based business might sound attractive to people nowadays. Among them are working in an arrangement that allows more quality time with the family, working for you versus working for someone else, or working on your own schedule versus answering to the schedule requirements of someone else. If you ask any four people why they want to build a home based business, you might get 4 different answers.

Add fuel costs to that list! As gasoline creeps up toward $4 per gallon, many people are going to have trouble paying for that trip to work and back each day. Building a home based business is one of the greenest business models around, unless of course your home based business involves driving (for example, a mobile eBay consignment business).

If your home business does involve driving, can you re-form your business plan to cut back or eliminate your driving? If you're still looking at home based businesses, perhaps consider driving requirements as criteria. Look for the home based businesses that require little or no driving such as a Drop Ship Home Business or a Home Business taking Infomercial Calls. According to all indicators, the cost of fuel isn't going down anytime soon!

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Saturday, November 10, 2007

To Be Innovative In Today's Market Requires Some Structure

Is innovation just a buzz word or reality for businesses today? According to Andrew Graham, CEO of Kepner-Tregoe, Inc., "The factors that must be in place to support innovation are not a mystery. Companies that rely on ‘innovative thought’ to advance their product development, sales and customer service processes must be sure that they close any gaps in their capacity to encourage and support this breakthrough thinking."

So how can you tell if your business has the proper factors in place? You can perform your own "innovation health check" by looking closely at some key variables.

Does your organization have a clear strategy? Strategy defines the field in which an organization operates and involves questions such as "what products will the firm offer and how much will the firm invest in each?"

Do your company’s business processes measure up? Business processes are the workflows through which business is conducted. Consider, "How can we do this better" or "How would we do this if we had no constraints?" Ask, do we have methods in place for addressing innovation issues?

Does your organization have clear goals and do you measure results? In order to be innovative, your company must have clear, strategy-driven expectations for innovation. Goals must be defined and measured and results must be reported.

Do employees have the inherent skills or the tools necessary to learn to be innovative? Hiring innovative people is one way to foster innovation, but innovation skills and knowledge can also be taught, and creativity nurtured.

Leadership is critical to success. This is the overarching factor that affects all of the other variables of innovation. Leaders must establish an organization’s strategy and ensure that innovation goals are being met, successes and failures measured, and innovative people developed and supported.

But that's not all. Other factors that can make or break an organization’s ability to innovate are structural and cultural. Do information systems enable people to share ideas and learn from the past? Are structures and roles impeding innovation or enabling it to blossom? Does the culture -- including the reward system -- encourage innovation?

What do you think? Leave me a comment.

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Monday, October 15, 2007

MLM Lead Generation

Become a resource for your down line.

Need to jump start your home based mlm business? Are you looking for:

- mlm leads?
- mlm lead lists?
- mlm email leads?
- double opt-in mlm leads?
- targeted mlm leads?
- exclusive mlm leads?
- free mlm leads?
- mlm phone leads?
- single opt-in mlm leads?
- mlm genealogy leads?
- cheap mlm leads?

"Become a resource for your down line".

Help them build their home based mlm businesses. Not everyone is equipped with "born networking talent". Not everyone has an unlimited "warm market" or extensive "circle of friends". What happens if they OR you move or get transferred to a new city or state? How do you continue to build your business IF you don't know anyone? For all these reasons and more, the following mlm lead generation resources are an ABSOLUTE MUST for your home based mlm business survival. Expose your down line to these "low cost" mlm lead resources and watch their businesses EXPLODE!

AND of course,
as their business grows,
isn't yours growing?

1. Try MLM Mastermind Leads!
This company offers mlm leads complete with phone number, address, and email address. MLM Mastermind Leads has a program that allows you to "test drive" 100 free leads . They only charge you a $7.95
processing charge. They also offer free mm lead training and mlm lead training resources. You can even join the MLM Mastermind leads affiliate program and earn up to 55% residual income as you build your business and help your down line build their home based mlm business. This is an excellent source of incremental income that DOES NOT interfere with, but ONLY SUPPORTS your PRIMARY mlm business. Every member of your mlm business down line should at least test drive the free mlm leads!

MLM Mastermind Leads! - Jump Start Your Home Based MLM Business.
Phone verified mlm / network marketing leads. Test drive 100 free leads and free training for the next 30 days!

2. Try NPros!
NPros is a resource for work at home, home based businesses, MLM, network marketing and direct sales company information. NPros offers the following programs:

a.) Promote Your Home Based MLM Business Opportunity
Add a Rep Listing to Your Company Directory Listing on Npros. Looking for business leads? How about potential reps already interested in your home based business opportunity? Targeted searches on sites such as Google and Yahoo return thousands of hits to Npros work-from-home company directory. Potential reps interested in your business are already looking at the information. Why not have them see your name as a rep contact for more information? Click here to get to NPros. Once you log on, click on the Company Directory and follow the link to add your information for a three or twelve month period. How much is one new performer worth?

From the NPros site, you can also click on Put Your Name and URL in front of Prospects . - This will take you to the form that allows you to add yourself as an NPros rep contact. Prospects visit Npros seeking info on home based businesses. Put your name where they can see it.

b.) Create a Classified at NPros
NPros Audience is Your Target Market. Npros visitors are seeking information on network marketing and direct sales business opportunities. Our site is viewed by thousands of unique visitors each month. No other form of advertising gives you direct access to your target market.

All Npros classifieds receive rotation on our main index page and a guaranteed minimum of 2000 front page views. You can reach thousands of prospects each month, and add a link or email address for prospects to reach you. Your ad will run for at least 4 months and cost only $25.00. Every member of your mlm business down line should have one!

Put your business opportunity in front of your target market today. Add Your Classified TODAY!

c.) Open a NPros Safeleads Account
Npros Safeleads are opt-in requests from visitors to Npros seeking information on new or specific home based business opportunities. Use the Npros Safeleads program to contact leads requesting information about new home based business opportunities or your specific home based mlm business opportunity. The opt-in mlm leads range in price from $3.00 to $.50 cents depending on their age. This is an excellent source to get specific targeted mlm leads from prospects that are interested in your home based mlm business opportunity. Every member of your mlm business down line should open an account!

d.) Join the NPros Affiliate Program Join the Npros Affiliate Program. Earn a 30% referral commission when you encourage other home based business professionals to visit Npros and promote their business opportunity through Npros Classifieds, Rep Listings, and our new Rewards Portal.

Earn an additional 30% of the total affiliate commission earned by every one of your referrals. This is an excellent source of incremental income that DOES NOT interfere with, but ONLY SUPPORTS your PRIMARY mlm business. Every member of your mlm business down line should be an affiliate member!


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Friday, October 12, 2007

New Online Credit Card Search Tool Could Save Your Business Cash

If you're like most small business owners, you've used credit cards at some point in your business to keep your cash flow positive. And you may not be getting the best deal for keeping the maximum amount of cash in your business. Now there's a tool you can use to determine if your credit card deal is the best you can get.

CreditCardClients.com, a research and development company specializing in interactive applications that support consumer finance decisions, recently announced the launch of the Business Savings Agent, a free online tool that enables small businesses to save thousands of dollars in credit card bills by finding the optimal savings strategy for their debt. The Business Savings Agent pulls from a database of hundreds of credit card offers to present your business with the top 10 credit cards that will save you the most money, in just two short and user-friendly steps. The tool is available at: www.creditcardclients.com/business-savings-agent

"The need for affordable and truly valuable financial resources for small businesses is greater than ever," said Ziv Yirmiyahu, president of CreditCardClients.com. "The Business Savings Agent breaks down the complexity of credit card offers and is a free, user-friendly resource for managing small business debt."

Your small business may be facing a greater challenge than ever before in terms of limited financial resources. Coupled with today's sub-prime mortgages restrictions, more and more small businesses are relying on credit cards for everyday business expenses. As a result, the percentage of businesses with a significant amount of debt is rising.If this sounds like an issue you are dealing with in your business, take a look at this tool and see if it can help you.

What do you think? Leave me a comment.

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Backing up Data is Very Critical

Speaking from personal experience, I have a suggestion - in fact, I demand that you establish some sort of back up plan for ALL your data, not just what you believe to be critical. For instance, I created some extensive spreadsheet analysis for my two home based business web sites: Sponsored by: Gourmet Chocolate NBG and Home Based MLM Business Opportunity NBG. At the time, I did not consider the data critical, so I didn't do anything to protect it. I later realized that the information was very valuable because it outlined the keys to optimizing my web sites for my chosen key words. I also used this same formula to optimize two other web sites: Sponsored by: NBG Mortgage Finders and Free Mortgage Quotes NBG. Check them out. See if you can figure out what my key words are.

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Is Your Business Safe From Cyber Crime?

By Denise O'Berry

A recent report published by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, states that the median loss for fraud cases in businesses with fewer than 100 employees was $190,000 per incident. That's a lot of cash for a small business with tight cash flow. To help prevent this from becoming an issue in your business and to build awareness, the month of October has been declared National Cyber Security Month.

As part of this month’s activities, Capital One Small Business is partnering with The National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) to educate small business owners about the risks associated with cyber crime. Here's what the NCSA and Capital One suggest that small businesses owners do:

1. Conduct a risk assessment
To protect customer information, conduct an initial risk assessment of your small business online and operating systems. This includes determining if any sensitive information (anything that is critical to your bottom line, e.g., customer database) is attached to the Internet. There are several components of a comprehensive risk assessment. Most importantly, small business owners should install updated anti-virus programs, anti-spyware programs and firewall on all computers. Make sure to keep these programs, along with the operating system and software up-to-date with the most current patches. In addition, ensure that all employees use effective, complex passwords. Passwords should be changed every 60 to 70 days.

2. Educate employees
It is essential that managers and employees have a basic understanding of cyber security, including company-specific procedures and overall best practices. Small business owners need to integrate a cyber security rollout plan within the yearly business plan. This plan should also include steps for measuring success.

3. Back-Up critical information
Make regular (weekly) back-up copies of all important data and information. Creating back-ups on a regular basis ensures that critical data is not lost in the event of a cyber attack or natural disaster. Store all back-up copies away from the office, such as on an external hard drive, and use encryption to protect any sensitive information about your company and customers from thieves and hackers. Encryption programs encode data, making it unreadable until the user enters a password or encryption key to unlock it. And don't forget to test your back ups to make sure they work!

4. Create a contingency plan
Small business owners should have a contingency plan in place in case the business suffers a cyber security attack. The contingency plan should include steps on how to continue business operations at an alternate location when necessary. This plan should be tested annually.

5. Sign a security agreement
Have all employees sign a security agreement in order to demonstrate that they are taking cyber security seriously and are active participants in helping to maintain a secure online environment. This agreement should also require employees to report any suspicious online activity or known Internet crime to the proper authorities.

For more information on how to keep your small business safe, visit Capital One Small Business and the National Cyber Security Alliance websites.

What do you think? Leave me a comment.

Get Your Employer Identification Number (EIN) Online In Minutes From The IRS

By Denise O'Berry
originally posted on Wednesday, October 10 2007

The Internal Revenue Service has established a new web-based Employer Identification Number (EIN) Assistant that will instantly process requests to generate an EIN in real time. Just answer a few simple interview questions and receive your EIN immediately after the information is validated. Then download and print the EIN confirmation notice and you're ready to go. To apply for your Employer Identification Number, visit the IRS website.

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