Business Plus Baby

March 17, 2014March 17, 2014

A Guide to Building a Successful Business Online

Establishing a new business of any kind takes a lot of effort. In particular, aspiring online businesses have special challenges to overcome because the online marketplace is already extremely crowded. Successfully overcoming the obstacles and building your own online business requires preparation and extreme determination. The following are some of the things that you can do to build a successful business online.

Computers (Photo credit: aranarth)

Design your website so that it is attractive but also easy to use.

Visitors to your website should not arrive at your website and have to click on the link to the help page after reading the first page. The website layout should be simple enough that anyone could figure out what to do once they arrive at your website. After all, if visitors to your website have to struggle too much to figure out how to navigate your website, they might seek the website of one of your competitors rather than emailing your company to ask for assistance.

Have a brief but memorable domain name.

Get a brief domain name that is very reflective of whatever product you are trying to sell. In that way, people will be easily able to recall the name of your website. If people can recall the name of your website, they might be more likely to go to your website to make a purchase. Sometimes it is easy and free to register the domain name that you prefer. Of course, if the domain name you seek already belongs to someone else, it will be necessary to purchase the domain name that you seek.

Market your website in innovative ways.

Use Facebook and other social media sites to market your business. Also, you could go to local businesses and ask the business owners if you could leave some of your business cards in their store. Another thing that you could do is choose some small item to give away for free to the first twenty individuals who purchase your company’s product. Giving customers something free helps build good relationships with customers. Customers feel more satisfied. Satisfied customers might be more likely to make future purchases from your company.

Brainstorming (Photo credit: MikeOliveri)

Start a blog where you have articles about any topic you deem relevant.

The articles can be related to the product that your company sells. Or, the articles could pertain to some other topic. Within the articles on your blog page, include several links to your company website. Your blog will attract readers who will read your blog articles and then click on links to your company website. In this manner, you will drive more traffic to your company website.

Do an effective job with all of the aforementioned steps and your business will be on its way to success. Your customers will be very happy. Naturally, if customers are happy, they will tell their friends. In this way, you will continue to attract new customers. Your profit margin will increase.

March 13, 2014

Do you buy or sell on eBay? Make sure you check out eBay’s new Collections

I’ve been a regular eBayer for over ten years now. Wow, time has flown! I’ve mainly been a buyer but I’ve sold things from time to time too.

eBay has really grown up over the years. Long gone are the days where it was just a place to buy and sell second-hand items, although you can still do that of course. These days plenty of big brands have eBay outlets where you can pick up absolute bargains. And there are plenty of small home-based businesses like ours there, too.

The latest innovation at eBay is the ‘Collections’ feature. Collections are groups of eBay items hand-selected by eBay members, mixed and matched around a theme, concept or passion. A collection is like an online pinboard of items available on eBay. You can either be inspired by someone else’s collections or you can create your own. You may even find items you’re selling appearing in other people’s collections.

Collections are social, too. So you can follow the collections of people with the same style or interests as your own and they can follow yours. That’s great for the bloggers and social media fans among us!

I was lucky enough to be asked to create some collections before the feature was made available to most UK eBay users. You can take a look at my collections here.

As you can see, I found lots to collect! I’ve got a collection of bags for mums – some stylish, some big and practical for all the bits and pieces we need to carry around. I’ve created other collections to help you work from home, from the gadgets I can’t live without to the perfect work from home wardrobe. And did you know you can pick up some bargain business books on eBay? Neither did I at first, but now I’ve found them but I’ve got a collection of those too!

What I like best about these collections is that they show the many aspects of working at home as a mum, from having an office that doubles up as a family space to keeping your kids happy while they’re on the move. After all, a work at home mum doesn’t always work from home!

Think you don’t have business skills? Think again!

Are you thinking of starting your own business but fighting your own self-doubt? From time to time we all have those voices in our heads telling us that we’re not good enough, or that we just don’t have what it takes to succeed.

This can be a big problem for mums in particular, because our business role models are mostly wealthy, extrovert and male. It feels like there’s a huge gap between the dragons in the BBC’s Dragon’s Den and our everyday experience of feeding the kids and getting them to school on time.

But believe me, you have a lot to offer. Here are just a few examples of the valuable skills you’ve picked up as a mum:

Negotiation

If you’ve ever tried to convince a screaming two-year-old back into a pushchair or a three year-old that they don’t want chocolate for every meal, then believe me you have excellent negotiation skills!

Networking

Mums are fantastic networkers. I’m always amazed by how a group of mums can connect with and motivate many others to raise money for charity, get all hands on deck for a school event or help out another family that is having a tough time.

Event planning

Birthday parties, weddings, school events and fundraisers. There’s always an event in the diary if you’re a mum. And most of us are great at organising them, often with limited time and resources.

Patience

True, you may not feel like the most calm and serene person in the world when faced with the prospect of removing glitter glue from your carpet. But motherhood definitely teaches you that you can’t have everything precisely when you want it. Sometimes you have to get to work then wait a while before you see success.

Getting things done

Since I became a mum I’ve dropped my standards. And that’s a good thing! My inner perfectionist used to stop me from tackling some projects because the time wasn’t right or I needed to take yet another course first. Dealing with the chaos that comes with small children has shown me my timing will never be just right, I will never be organised enough and I will never know everything I think I need to know. These days I just get on with it. Maybe you’re the same?

Better to finish an imperfect project than to never start a perfect one.

Taken time out of your career?

Don’t overlook all the skills and experience you gained in your LBK (life before kids), whether that was archiving documents at the office or handling patients in a hospital!

It may seem like you’ve forgotten it all, but with a little practice it all comes back. You may not want to go back to the career you had before, but there will definitely be skills you can adapt and use.

If you take some time to think about what you’ve learned from being a mum, I guarantee you’ll have a goldmine of skills and experience you can use in your new business.

(This article previously appeared in My Family Magazine – read it online or grab a print copy in supermarkets and many other places across the UK)

February 11, 2014

Is being a virtual assistant a good choice for a work at home mum? The answer might surprise you…

This is a guest post from Caroline Wylie of the Society of Virtual Assistants.

In Emma Jones’ book “Working 5-9” being a VA is the very first job she recommends for people wanting to earn money at home in the evenings. As a mum myself, it is a great job to run alongside your family commitments such as the school run or bunging on a load of washing. But with almost half of married women doing 13 hours + of household chores each week, it’s no surprise that our businesses sometimes suffer from working from home… (Source: Institute for Public Policy Research 2012).

I wanted to know just how much an impact being a mum had on home businesses – the results are a pretty interesting read. The Virtual Assistant industry tends to be typically female dominated with a stereotypical VA being a mum with young children juggling childcare alongside running her business – that’s the picture that gets painted time and again when people talk about VAs.

But when you look at the numbers, is The Mummy VA a reality or is it a Mummy Myth?

Each year we take a snapshot of the VA industry in the UK Virtual Assistant Survey – a survey of real VAs which looks at everything from how much they earn to what marketing methods work best.

One of the issues we researched was to do with working mums. Firstly, are VAs typically mums? Secondly, are they working without childcare in place juggling their commitments? And lastly, does it affect your income?

We’ve now asked these questions three years in a row – and the results are fairly consistent:

Just 35% of VAs are mums with young children.
The percentage of WAHMs who have no childcare in place is 1.5% of the industry – which has fallen in the last 2 years from 4%.

So “The Mummy Myth” (as I call it) is just pure fantasy – it’s actually comparable to the amount of men working in this female dominated industry at just 1%. The drop in VAs without childcare in place would also suggest that it’s not sustainable to run a VA business without childcare – these VAs have clearly either left the industry or put some childcare in place.

What we also wanted to know is: Are these mums earning less?

We looked at the rates mums charge compared to the non-mums – the mums without childcare were earning over 24% less than the average VA rate.

You could argue that the hours available to work are hampering their earning potential – that is, until you look at what other VAs working the same amount of hours earn, and the mums without childcare are still earning 20% less than those working similar part-time hours.

Fact: If you want to earn a living from being a VA – you need childcare in place.

But it’s hard when you’ve perhaps voluntarily opted out of the traditional workforce in order to look after children. You have to be able to justify the increased cost of childcare vs your (hopefully!) increased income. This research would suggest you can charge more if you have more consistent working hours in place.

The full UK Virtual Assistant Survey can be purchased at £25 from: societyofvirtualassistants.co.uk/va-products/

January 24, 2014

Budget control tips for online small business owners

All businesses are taking extra care with budgets and there is no room for waste. However, because small businesses don’t benefit from the same economies of scale as large businesses, it’s even more critical to take control of the budget. Why not spend a few minutes working your way through this checklist in case there are any new ideas you haven’t tried yet?

Aim Low

Most businesses work to targets, whether that’s a sales target, or a footfall target. So, a good way to motivate yourself to improve your budget control is to set yourself a reduction target. For example, if you set yourself a five per cent budget reduction target for the next year, then that is much more likely to motivate you into sitting down and looking for areas to cut. To ensure that you’re on track, it’s a good idea to put regular budget slots in your diary. That way, you have time planned to deal with budgetary matters.

Power Down

Gas and electricity prices can be a worry but there are lots of ways to cut down on usage. For example, take a look at your opening hours. Many small business owners are on the premises a long time before opening and a long time after closing. Consider whether this is really necessary, or whether you’ve been drawn into the habit. If you’re not the first in and last out, make sure that your employees aren’t falling into the habit of face time at the cost of your power bills. To get a better idea of power peaks and troughs, invest in a small wireless monitor. This can be installed in minutes and only costs a few pounds. Very quickly, you will be able to establish whether power usage is matched by productivity and you’ll be able to adjust your opening hours accordingly.

Staff Hours

No one likes to cut staff hours or lay people off. However, in difficult times, sometimes there’s no choice. Before going ahead, it’s worth finding out whether anyone would like to reduce their hours voluntarily. It may be that one or more of your staff would like to work shorter hours so they can pursue another interest, take a part-time course or spend more time with family. Before taking any action though, it’s well worth checking the ACAS website to make sure you’ve taken account of all the ins and outs first.

Surprise Suppliers

Scrutinise your suppliers and determine whether you could get more for less money. Many suppliers rely on customer inertia to get away with pricing that is less competitive than it might be. Even if you’re otherwise happy with your suppliers, it’s worth opening up discussions. They may be willing to cut a deal with you as it’s usually cheaper for them to retain loyal customers than it is to go out and find new ones. Work your way methodically through every supplier, from your gas provider through to the window cleaner and get the best deal you can.

Don’t be Stationary with Stationery

Carry out an audit of working practices and ask yourself (honestly) whether they’re as effective and efficient as they might be. For example, if you regularly send out festive cards to your customers, consider whether an electronic message might be just as well received. This will save a small fortune in time, stationery and postage. Similarly, if you regularly send customers reminders and other letters, why not think about putting in place an email reminder system? Again, this saves time, stationery and postage and may well be more convenient for your customers.

By setting aside a small amount of time on a regular basis, it is possible to make a significant difference to your outgoings. Keep up the good work by scheduling a yearly budget meeting with yourself to review the year ahead and ensure that your business is not paying out more money than it needs to. That way, you can minimise the impact of annual inflation on your company.

Would you like a copy of my latest workbook, Make That Decision! Your ultimate procrastination-busting guide to what to do next? Just click the link!