Business Tips: Working from Home
 How to get work, have benefits, get repeat business.... 

1. Collaboration. When you work in an office of other people, it's fairly easy to collaborate. When you work by yourself, it's not so easy. You may be aware of their home workers forum. Other forums exist, too. Some of these are very good, and some just waste your time. When you think about it, the same is true of people in in a traditional office.
    
2. Health Insurance. Working as a "wage slave" gives you some benefits you aren't going to get very easily on your own. At the top of the list is health insurance. If you belong to a professional group (e.g. the IEEE), you can probably get a discount on such insurance. However, most people who strike out on their own end up paying outrageous rates because they can't fit under anyone's umbrella. Well, you will be pleased to know third-party services  can help you out and lower your costs.
    
3. Free publications. When you work for an employer, you have access to many journals and publications at no charge to you. When you strike out on your own, you no longer have access to these resources. Fortunately, several third-party services and trade organizations have free or low-cost publications available to their members. You need to develop an array of sources for such publications, including your local public library.
    
4. Work assignments. At the office, your boss gives you work assignments. Granted, many of these are fodder for the Dilbert comics, but it is these assignments that keep your paychecks coming. How do you get work when you are on your own? You'll need to handle many functions to make this happen: résumé preparation (yes, you need a résumé, even if self-employed), job leads, networking, etc. The good news? Nearly any trade organization you join will have resources to help you with these functions!
    
5. Business management. When you work for an employer, then someone other than you has to run the business. Doing so means dealing with plans, procedures, models, ideas, suggestions, taxes, forms, laws, finance and much more. And this can be overwhelming. Once again, you need to turn to trade organizations. Today, you can find these over the Intertnet.

From the list above, you can see there is a definite advantage to tapping into some existing resources--such as trade organizations, professional organizations, and third-party services. Here are ten free tips to help you succeed:

1. Know your target market. Who are your customers? To whom to you want to sell? Focus your efforts on this group and don't try to be everything to everybody.
    
2. Keep records. You should be using software to track expenses and income. Keep note of what  is working for you and what is not.
    
3. Review your business strategy often. How often is often enough? How about continually? For some businesses, this is barely enough! Review to see if what you are doing is working, and what isn't. Then, think of some recommendations for a scheduled formal review.
    
4. Know the competition. What are they doing to make the buying experience better for the customer?
    
5. Price based on your costs. Don't price your products or services lower than your competitor just to make a sale. This isn't fair to anybody, and it is not a sustainable practice.
    
6. Use an accountant. You'd be surprised how much an accountant can do for you. Ask an accountant to review your business plan (if you don't have one, then ask your accountant to help you draft a simple one), your accounting methods, your tax filing methods, and all the financial aspects of how you do your business. You may well find the accountant's fee is less than the money the accountant saves you.
    
7. Outsource. Whether this means hiring a maid or a programmer, be thinking about those tasks that take you away from your work and which of those you can afford to pay someone else to do.
    
8. Excite your customers. To succeed today, it is not enough to please a customer. You must think of small things you can do to make the customer feel so pleased that s/he brings other people to you.
    
9. Be ethical. Shortfallings in ethics cost you in the long run. If you are working from home, then your reputation is one of your most important assets. Don't gamble it on "e-mail marketing" or other shortcuts to sales. If people don't trust you, your business will ultimately fail.
    
10. Schedule downtime. You may think "a few years of hard work" will have you "all set" for a "normal pace" later on. The truth is, the sustained stress of too much work shows up in your demeanor, the quality of your work, and the overall success of your business. And it does not do so in a positive way. Even if you need every spare second, plan for an afternoon with a friend or loved one.

Business Excellence Resources

Success in business depends on preparation. Those who wing it are those who fail. But don't prepare just in your area of technical expertise. Prepare there, yes. But also:

• Keep learning about your own field. There's a reason why state licensing boards require continuing education. Apply this same concept to whatever areas you work in. If you are licensed as, say, a CPA, then continue your education also in the areas of customer service, productivity, time management, and other areas that will help you do your job better, faster, and at more of a competitive advantage.
• Learn about related fields. For example, sales people should learn about marketing and operations. This helps you when promotions are considered.
• Network. Get to know people. Ask them about what they do. Show an interest.
• Establish your presence in your professional organizations. Join the top two or three of these organizations, and attend meetings. Become an officer in one, and take that position very seriously.
• Play nice. No matter how good you are, your career is going to stall if people don't like you. So show respect and be fair. Don't worry about popularity, worry about your reputation.
• Know your business goals. Often, people let themselves get diverted from their business goals. They start staying busy, instead of focusing their time and other resources on their business goals. Remind yourself daily about why you are doing the job you do.
• Respect your customers. The customer isn't always right, but the customer always deserves your respect.
• Differentiate. Rather than copy a competitor, offer something a little different. But make it something worth the customer's attention. For example, is there a small annoyance that's common in your industry but that you can eliminate?
• Offer value. Don't compete on price alone; that's a race to the bottom. People will pay for value, so provide that and charge reasonably for it.
• Keep moving. What worked even a few months ago may not work now. Don't change your core values (integrity, great customer service, good quality, etc.), but do examine your offerings, business processes, and anything else that affects the price of what you sell or the quality of the customer experience. Do this on a continual basis, and you won't get stale.