How To Find New Customers For Your Home Business

By Blake Michael


People all across the world have ambitions of one day starting their own business and enjoying a steady stream of income that does not require them to be employed by anyone else or take orders from a higher food chain. This is a very reachable goal and many do accomplish it, but it can take some hard work and dedication. The following tips are a great way to get your dream on the road to a reality.

Find an area in your home that is peaceful and quiet, and make this area your designated work station. This should not be an area that already has a purpose, like the kitchen or your bedroom. Keep it private and free from things that will distract you from work.

Treat yourself like a professional. Have business cards made, sign your e-mails with a proper title, and go through your entire day making decisions as if you worked at a corporate building. Your business is run from your home, but you must still carry yourself as a professional so that potential customers and clients will regard you as such.

When running your own home based business it is important to remember not to get easily distracted by new ideas. It is important that you give things time to work out. For your business to succeed, you must be able to focus. Stick with one thing that you are working on and make it a success. Do not jump from project to project.

Use an online credit card acceptance company while you are getting your business off the ground. Propay allows you $1,000 per month of credit card transactions for a low per-transaction price and minimal setup. Paypal and 2Checkout both allow you to accept credit cards on your website with no setup or monthly fees. As your business grows, you can move to a bank-provided merchant account if necessary.

Do more than your customers expect. One of the things customers love most about home business operators is the incredibly personal touch they feel when they interact with you or receive your products. Give your customers a surprise sample or coupon with their order. This does not have to cost you a lot -- but it will build a large amount of goodwill with your customers.

Make sure your computer is protected. Since it is your main way to do business and make money, you will want to make sure you don't lose it. Keep your data backed up on a separate hard drive and install virus scans and firewalls. This way, you can be fully protected.

Before you start a home business, be sure to research your market first so that you know what products or services are in demand. No one is going to buy what you are selling if they don't want or need it. Find out what people actually want, and then offer it to them.

Put important information about your home business on the first page of your web site. You do not want it to be difficult for potential customers to find what they need to order from you. Talk about why your product is valuable and give a description of the item. Have a way for them to directly connect to your ordering information right from that page.

Apply for a 'Doing Business As' license from the state where your business is located. This is the registration for your business name, and allows you to operate as a business. In most states, you have to pay twenty dollars a year to renew this license. Find out if you need other licenses for your particular business.

When you start a home business, one of your first thoughts may be: "Great! Now I can write off a room in my house on my income tax." But get some advice from your tax preparer and take a critical look at this. It may not be worthwhile to take this write-off but lose that room to other uses.




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