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Starting a Home-Based Business – Tips for Beginners

When looking into starting a home based business many beginners are faced with challenges they never saw coming, and a few well placed tips can be worth their weight in proverbial gold. If you are looking into getting off on the right foot, or making sure you don’t bite off more than you can chew, take a deep breath, relax, and go over the following tips for creating a successful home business.Home-based Business Tip #1: What industries interest you? The saying goes that a person who loves their job never works a day in their life. The inverse is true as well, the person who either hates or even just merely dislikes their job will grind through hours of work and just be thinking about getting it done and going and doing something else. Especially with jobs that have no boss or schedule defined by management goading you on in your work it is important to do something that interests you and keeps you motivated.

Make a list of industries that interest you, and make a list of companies within those industries.
Simplicity is important when comparing companies. The simpler the marketing plan, the more attainable it is. Cross off any companies that seem overly complicated in the way they do business.
Home-based Business Tip #2: Know what you are able to give. Many companies publish flashy sales videos with the promise of giving the opportunity to make millions, and while this may be true the real opportunity is IN HOW YOU MANAGE YOURSELF AND THE EFFORT THAT YOU CAN INVEST INTO YOUR BUSINESS. Ultimately financial success comes down to effort. When considering any kind of home based business, remember that the you are everything from the CEO to the delivery boy. While most CEO’s are not fitting in business calls between soccer practice and ballet lessons, you are. So measure your ability to put out effort, and know what you are able to give to your business. This will inform what business you choose to become a part of. Find a business model that you can work with. This means that maybe you pass up the higher activity, higher pay models, and go for an approach that is more laid back.

Write out your daily or weekly schedule, and determine how many hours you can devote to growing your business.
Home-based Business Tip #3: Have realistic goals. Lets be honest, the reason most people get involved with home-based businesses is to make money. “My goal is to be a millionaire.” Awesome. That is a fantastic goal, but that isn’t going to happen in one fell swoop. Have monetary short term (1-3 months), medium (1-3 years) and long term (3-5 years) goals that are realistic based of your level of effort. If you have a short term goal of making a million dollars, but can only invest 2 hours a week into your business you are most likely (notice I said most likely) going to fail and end up becoming discouraged. Setting goals that are realistic will keep you motivated and moving forward. Knowing how much money you are looking to make, with how much effort, will begin to eliminate businesses from your list of options.

Write out your short, medium and long term goals.
Cross any companies off your list that do not leverage your time and effort effectively.
Select 2-3 companies that interest you, have simple marketing plans, and don’t break your time/effort budget.
Home-based Business Tip #4: Look for leadership. The number 1 reason for failure in the home-based business world is poor leadership. It is vitally important to have a sponsor who is able to coach, mentor, and guide you towards success. You should feel comfortable that all the information that your sponsor has gathered is at your disposal. Stay away from companies that tend to have lone-wolf representatives, or that give a lot of focus on moving up the marketing plan without developing leadership skills. These companies are more intent on making money themselves than in helping you make money. Talk to various people within each company, as different personality types work better than others. Do not gamble your success or failure on a personal issue that develops between you and your mentor.

Interview several people to “qualify” your sponsor.
Select a sponsor who you are comfortable with, and who will do what it takes to make you successful.

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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.

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Investing and Property Management

I have had lots of people over the years ask me, in my opinion, what is the most important thing about investing in real estate? Everybody always assumes its price, location or timing the market correctly. After over 1300 real estate transactions primarily to investors worldwide, I can say without a doubt that property management is the single most important piece of the investing puzzle. In real estate, you can make a mistake on price, pick an iffy neighborhood, or hire a bad contractor and still be profitable. Hire the wrong property manager and you can lose your shirt overnight! Don’t get me wrong, location, price and rehab are huge factors in real estate investing and are very important. With the right property management company in place though you can make a mistake or experience a down turn in a market or neighborhood and still realize a good return on your investment through positive cash flow. A good property manager protects your investment in the long-term.

Obviously, the next question is “how do I find a good property manager”? Here are several tips on picking a good management company. This does not necessarily mean you; someone else will be managing your property.

Get a referral. Typically, when you invest, there are people in your peer group or circle of influence that are investing in the same market you are or know of someone who is also investing in that market. Ask them who they are using, who they used to use, and why they switched. Find out what they like about their management company but more importantly find out what they don’t like about them. The management company may do a great job of placing tenants but are lacking in the communication department; without communication, you’re sunk! Access to your management company is very important for the investor’s peace of mind. There is nothing worse than leaving a message or sending a couple of emails and all you hear are crickets in the background. At first, you assume they are busy and will get to you soon. After a while, though, investors start wondering why no one is responding and that’s when panic sets in. Did the tenant leave? Did the management company run off with my money? DID MY HOUSE BURN DOWN? Generally, none of the above is true but a good property manager will respond within 24 hours of your inquiry.

Ask the management company that you are considering doing business with for references. Ideally, I believe you want 5 to 10 references from previous clients as well as current clients that have been using the management company longer than 1 year. If they are not willing to provide you with any past clients, pass on them. When you get the references, CALL THEM. Ask them the same questions about what they like and don’t like.

Get a list of policies and procedures from the management company. You need to know how they handle marketing of the properties for tenants, late payments, evictions, maintenance calls, inspections, accounting, owner disbursements, etc. A good management company will have this information readily available.

Find out if the management company is licensed in the state you are investing in. Most states require that the property manager is a licensed real estate broker and are held accountable to their state real estate board. There are many “property managers” out there that are not, but have taken this opportunity to increase their income while investing is hot. Though they may be cheaper, DO NOT USE AN UNLICENSED MANAGEMENT COMPANY! You will have no recourse to police them.

Find out what software program the management company uses. There are a few good property management software programs that are web-based such as Buildium and PropertyWare that give the property owner a portal login so you can access your account via the web 24 hours a day. A good property management company will log all tenant calls, maintenance concerns, payments, late notices etc., into the software program. This is beneficial to both parties as a majority of an investor’s questions or concerns can be addressed by logging into the software program and looking at the info at hand there. This eliminates a lot of phone calls between the property manager and the owner. It also helps the owner to narrow down questions or concerns by addressing specific information found in their portal.

The reason for investing is to get paid. You need to know when the money comes in, where it’s at, what your expenses are, and when you get your payments. Most management companies reconcile accounts 1 month in arrears. Rents collected in 1 month are disbursed the following month for the simple fact that not all expenses come in time to get an accurate accounting to disburse rent proceeds in the same month. Each management company is different but should be able to tell you to the day when to expect payments on a monthly basis. You also need to know when to expect the quarterly or annual accounting needed for your tax man. Again, a good software program makes this much easier for the management company to keep track of and share with you.

To me, the fees that a management company charges are important but not as important as the previous items in this list. I have seen it over and over again where somebody picks one management company over another based solely upon fees. 3-6 months later after dealing with terrible tenants, bad accounting practices and more, the few hundred bucks they saved cost them literally thousands of dollars. Here is a brief run down on the fees you can expect to pay.

Monthly Management fee: usually 7-10% of collected rents depending on the market you are investing in. Higher rental amounts usually equate to lower monthly fee percentages and lower rents are higher percentages. A few companies will have a set monthly fee of somewhere between $50-$100 dollars per month.

Leasing Fee: usually 50-100% of the 1st month’s rent; again depending on average rent amounts. Most property management companies employ commissioned leasing agents that are usually paid a percentage of this fee up to 50%.

Set up Fee: this is charged for the time it takes to set up the new accounts, generate bank accounts etc., usually around $100 dollars.

Vacancy Fee: some management companies will charge a flat fee per month on a vacant unit. Their reasoning is that a vacant unit still requires someone to keep tabs on that property usually on a 1-2 week cycle to verify that the property is secure, yard is in good order, rental signs are in place and visible etc. I have found that only about 50% of property management companies charge for this service. Unfortunately, I have also found that half of the ones who don’t charge for this are not checking the properties periodically and sometimes a small issue turns into a bigger more expensive issue down the road.

Advertising Fees: most good property managers do not charge extra for the marketing of the vacant units to potential renters as they are paid when the properties become occupied and the advertising expense is covered by the leasing fee. Some property managers will give you the option of extra paid advertising if you have a property that is tougher to rent than usual.

Maintenance Fees: most management companies use maintenance as a profit center; some more than others! Due to the volume that some management companies do they are able to procure vendors at a much lower rate than what you could get on your own thereby allowing them to make a profit on certain maintenance items. Yard mowings are a great example of this. A large management company may be mowing 100 yards a season and can negotiate a volume deal at $15-$20 per yard to them. They, in return, “sell” this service to you at the market rate of $25-$30 per mowing. It is still a good deal for you as you are hands off and would expect to pay the same price if you were only contracting to have 1-2 yards mowed. On the other hand, some management companies go to excess on other maintenance issues such as repairs after a tenant has moved out. Typically, the security deposit should cover most items necessary to make a property re-rentable unless a bad tenant was placed and they have trashed your property. Some management companies use this as a way to increase their profits by over charging for these repairs. I recommend having a 3rd party inspect and/or bid any repairs that seem excessive to you.