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More and more stay at home mothers are looking for hobbies and social groups to help them break out of the domestic routine, thus turning to the search for some of the top business ideas the internet has to offer. Others are searching for top business ideas to get that level of achievement in terms of financial stability while staying home at the same time.

Do you remember the days when our moms were purely doing domestic work and leaving the income making to our dads? Well that is no longer the trend these days.  Due to the rising cost for almost everything, keeping a house is not only about taking care of the laundry and cleaning. These days, women share the responsibilities of maintaining the household income to sustain the needs of the whole family.

When the economy went down and plenty of husbands were laid off, women have taken financial matters into their own feminine hands. Next thing we know—the quest to finding the most lucrative at home top business ideas for women is continually growing.  Notably, a lot of these women succeeded at pursuing their top business ideas from the four corners of their house.

When it comes to home businesses, we agree that there are endless options on what you can do.  Before getting yourself into any of these work from home business however, it is always best to pause and scan through the options and pick the top business ideas which are going to give you the biggest bang for your buck dollar wise and also suit your skills and personal interests.  With that said, we have laid out three crucial steps in identifying your top business ideas and how to turn them into your very own home based business:

Create a List of your strengths:

List the strengths and skills that you believe you are confident about showcasing. If it helps, picture yourself showing off your skills to your friends or neighbours. Do you always get high praises with your mouth watering desserts? Or how about when you train your dogs with a few new tricks? While it is important to be proud of what you can do, note that the skills we are talking about are skill sets that you can be proud of outside your circle of friends and family.  Once you’re done, you will use this list to evaluate your top business ideas…

Evaluate Your List:

Now that you have identified your top business ideas along with your strengths, right down the pros and cons of the home business ideas on your list. We have always used the simple technique of dividing an A4 page in half by drawing a line down the middle and one side write “Pros” and on the other side write “Cons”. Now simply fill the page for both Pros and Cons with anything that pops into your head regarding your top business ideas. Though it is always good to be motivated, the most common mistake people make is they often see their top business ideas through rose coloured glasses and only focus on the Pros of the business plan without considering at all the possible cons. Remember to keep a logical approach and look into the challenges you will encounter along the way. This will help you stay aware of situations that can compromise or derail your success.

Discuss It:

Though you have identified your top business ideas, it is still advisable that you talk to your partner or husband about your business plans.  Having a second opinion or a support group on your home business ideas will not only give you another perspective but it will give you a boost in morale and encouragement.  Discuss how your business plan can be materialized and which of your top business ideas will be more suitable for you and your family’s unique situation.

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The lovely Neil from Milk Relief Soap recently asked me this great question:

“What’s the difference between a business plan, and a marketing plan?”

I see a lot of people getting caught up in this, and often their business plan is actually more of a marketing plan.

The two are very much related; however they’re not the same.  I’ve got a different opinion from most people on what a Business Plan is and what it’s purpose is.  If you’ve looked at the Two Hour Business Plan then you’ll see that I define a Business Plan as being about what your business does, not a financial plan to take to the bank (although that’s part of it).

A Business Plan is ‘about’ your business – who your target market is, what you do (core business), your business goals, an action plan.

A Marketing Plan is how you attract customers and sell your product in order to achieve those goals – blogging, advertising, networking, attraction and conversion.

In October last year I gave a talk at The Business Mums Network Pampering Day on Business Planning.  To illustrate how the Business Plan, Marketing Plan and Action Plan all fit together, have a look at this diagram.

Make sense?  Your Business Plan is what encapsulates your entire business activities and goals, what drives and directs your actions.  Your Marketing Plan is one aspect of that, which directs your monthly, weekly and daily actions towards achieving those business goals.

In some respects your Business Plan is the What, and the Marketing Plan is the How.

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Do you have a business question that you would like personally answered?  Email me and ask away!

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A client recently asked me the following question about business expenditure, and I’m reprinting it (expanded a little from my original email answer) here with her permission. This is an issue that we ALL have to deal with – “How much should I invest into different areas of my business?”

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One thing I would like to know is what percentage of your money received from your business should go to what? For example, after you pay your recurring bills, what percentage should you set aside for marketing, for continuing education, and for taxes and for yourself to use as income for your household. I don’t know if there is a definite answer for this but some sort of guideline would be great so that I can create good money habits.

Here is what I replied:

I’ve heard a lot of numbers tossed around, like 20% of profit goes back into marketing, you should be spending around 10-20% on education, (I think those were the figures) but to be honest it’s a very individual decision.

Ideally you should have a budget forecast as part of your business plan. In an ideal world that would happen, and you’d stick to it and/or have more profit than was forecast and less expenses. But we live in the real world where things are neither so simple nor so black and white.

Some questions for you to consider:

How is your household budget? If you’re scraping to have enough to pay for groceries then that’s where your business money is going to go. Even though they’re in separate accounts, (you DO have a separate business account, don’t you?) if you’re struggling financially then that’s what you’re likely to spend it on. Your money habits in your personal life will be the same as your money habits in your business.

When that’s sorted out:

Assuming your personal household budget is in good shape and you’re not scraping from week to week:

How much do you have to put aside for GST/VAT or other taxes? Put it in a separate account until you have to pay it. Put away more than you think you’ll need and for heaven’s sake don’t touch it for anything else. The ATO/IRS/whatever your country’s tax office is called will chase you down and make your life h**l if you are short on your taxes.

Make sure you have enough aside to pay any ongoing costs such as stationary, coffee with clients, website hosting, phone or fax accounts and any other recurring type expenses. Put that away as well in a separate account if you can – you don’t want to have a hundred different accounts but a tax account, a bill-paying account and a general business account are fine to manage.

Then it’s the hard decisions – the how much do I put into marketing, education etc.

Depends what you need

Does your marketing plan include a lot of costly advertising? Marketing will be higher. Is your marketing plan mainly free stuff online? Much lower cost. You don’t HAVE to put a lot of $$$ into your marketing, there are ways to market for free or low cost. However, for some types of businesses, they need to be advertising etc.

Only you can say how much your marketing budget should be. Time wise, you should be putting as much time and effort into marketing as you possibly can.

Education is the biggie for most businesses, WAHM or not. You could spend thousands and thousands on education and not bring a single extra client in.

This comes back to your long term plan for your business – where do you want it to be in one year, three years, five years? What do you need to learn in order to get there?

What skills do you need that will increase your value to clients? Will those skills justify the cost? Are you in the catch-22 of needing a skill to make money, but can’t afford to pay for the course? (time to drink the cool-aid and sell the kids)

Also, you can’t forecast a lot of what you’ll need to learn because technology changes so fast. You may have to pay to keep current, you may be able to find it free. But there’s no point thinking that you’ll decide everything as you go along, you have to have somewhere and something to aim for so you have a measuring point to aim at to decide if a particular skill or course will help you or not.

Everyone’s answer is individual

It really comes down to a combination of your personal situation, your goals for yourself and your business and what you’re doing at the time. There’s no definitive answer that suits all businesses and business models.

I sent this to her with the comment “I hope this helps” and she replied back “No this didn’t help at all. You are suppose to say you have to do X Y and Z. Just kidding, this was very informative actually. The best information I’ve received so far on searching for answer to this kind of question.” LOL.

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To learn why a business plan will always save your a$$, let’s first go on a holiday! Read on…

Picture this:

It’s a Saturday and you’re enjoying a peaceful sleep in (you know, those things you had before you had kids).  And your darling hubby bursts into the room and says “Honey, get dressed!  We’re going on a holiday!”

“When?” you ask, as you crack open one sleepy eye and try to process the sentence through a haze of sleep-induced blurriness.

“Right now” he says “Cmon, the kids are in the car waiting”

So you get up and get dressed, he assures you that you don’t need to pack “It’s all taken care of”, hop in the car and off you go.

“So where are we going?” you ask nervously, thinking of all the appointments and plans in your calendar for the next week.

“On holidays” he replies cheerfully.  And HE sure seems to know where you’re going, even if you don’t.

“But where on holidays?  For how long?” this really isn’t feeling right to you.

“Wherever we end up.  And I don’t know, how long are holidays normally?” Hubby is starting to seem not quite so darling and a bit more annoying every minute now.

“So what are we going to do there?  What kind of clothes did you pack?” Maybe that will give a clue to where he’s taking you and for how long.

“We’ll do whatever is happening when we get to a holiday somewhere.  And I didn’t pack anything, we’ll sort that out as we go” is the cheerful reply.

Ok, that scenario is nuts

Really, nobody sensible would do that, would they?  Then why do so many businesses get treated that way, with a happy-go-lucky “I’ll sort it out when and if it happens” attitude.  Why not plan for as much as possible – both good and bad – and prevent as many problems as you can?

Approximately 98% of WAHMs don’t have a business plan.  So the chances are pretty good that if you’re reading this and you’re a WAHM then you don’t have a business plan, or at least not a current one.  Am I right so far?

And by business plan I mean one written down on paper, not just in your head.  Having a plan in your head is pretty much worthless.  It has to get out of your head, onto paper, and have foundations and business strategies put in place to execute it.

If you’re one of the rare few who DO have an up to date business plan then well done.  Pat yourself on the back and take a bow.  You’re a rarity and well above average.  It’s also likely that you’ve been around for a few years and experienced first hand the advantages of a business plan.

Why WAHMs don’t write business plans

Here’s a list of the most common reasons that I hear around not writing a business plan:

• It’s too hard
• I don’t know what to put down
• I don’t need one for a home business
• It’s in my head
• I don’t have time
• I had one but it didn’t work
• I tried and it was too complicated
• I know what I’m doing
• It started as a hobby and I never got around to it
• What’s a business plan?

Planning your business is like planning your family

Think about this – there’s a lot of similarities between planning your business and planning your family (although I won’t insist on you writing down your family planning).

• Some people plan their families years in advance and the timing works out perfectly for the families and they grow precisely in line with their plans
• Some people get a family when they least expect it – what started as a bit of playing around suddenly takes on a life it of it’s own and you’re responsible for it
• Sometimes people will have a great family, and suddenly something outside their control happens and the unit is damaged, separated and destroyed.
• Some people plan for a steady increase in their family, but nature ‘happens’ and they get double or triple what they were expecting
• Or you hook up with someone, and suddenly it’s a package deal and you get fully-developed stepkids, full or part time, thrown into the bargain
• Some people plan to have a family, but no matter what they try and no matter how much money they put into trying – nothing happens, their family never grows and they eventually give up trying and go on with other life.

‘Business plan’ is not a four letter word

All those reasons we saw above are just excuses.  None of them are valid, legitimate reasons when you really get down to it.  If you’re going to have a business then treat it as a real business, plan for growth and development and make it happen.

Want to get off to a quick start?

If you’re in the 98% of WAHMs who don’t have a current, written down business plan then check out our No-Plan-Preneur Quick’n’Dirty Business Plan guide.  Priced at only $6.95 and designed to be both fast and easy, this ebook will give you a quick shot of motivation and get you  and your business headed in the right direction.

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Here’s the first freebie for January!

It’s half hour audio on how you can set yourself apart from everyone else by planning your next 12 months.

Yes, I know every man and his dog on the internet are doing goal setting right now, and I’m not going to apologise for being one of them.  Because it’s so important.  This audio isn’t just about setting goals  it’s about strategising and putting a solid foundation underneath them that will help you actually reach those dreams.

In the audio I talk about:

• Developing your goals
• making them challenging and personal
• Suggestions for what to do when you don’t know what goal to set
• Strategising, and planning
• Getting your subconscious to help by putting your goals on autopilot

We all have dreams for our businesses.  Every single one of us. Set yourself apart from the rest and do something solid and effective towards achieving your dreams.  Download this audio and listen to it.  Do the exercises in it.  Practice visualising your goals.  And see them become reality in your WAHM business.

This audio is a free gift to you, to assist you in achieving your dreams and goals for your business.  Please share it around, send the link to your friends, post it on forums, twitter it….

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[download id="3"]

Right click the link and “Save As” to download to your hard drive.

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I wanted to let you know I listened to your mp3 last week about business goals and it’s really helped me.  I was one of the ones who just had ‘do more with my business’ as a goal for the year, but after listening to the file I was able to specify exactly what I want, and break it down, and so far I’m keeping up with it.  So thank you for that!
Melissa Smith

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We’ve recently looked at Why we systemise our business, and How to write systems. Today we’re going to look at systemising your emails.

Firstly lets be clear on one point. You’ll never be able to pass off all emails to your VA and never deal with emails yourself again. No matter how much of a Tim Ferriss fan you are, it’s just not going to happen. Think about it, if you email me with a question about your business and Coaching, do you want it answered by a VA or would you like a personal answer?

What you can do is systemise and create templates for the most common questions that you’re emailed about, and delegate those. A PA/VA can be a great help in sorting emails, dealing with the run of the mill one’s, and freeing you up to deal with only those that require your personal attention.

What can you delegate? Questions that get asked regularly, invoices, payments and other accounting emails, quotes for work if you have ‘package’ options, stock ordering and supply, appointments, requests for non-personal information, the list goes on.

What should you deal with? Anything that is a one-off email, any complaints, requests for interviews, anything that requires a personal touch.

Why create templates for email? How often do you have to answer questions via email? If you’re having to rewrite the same answer to the same question each time then you need templates. Think about the questions that you’re asked. How many of them are similar enough that you can use a template or script to answer them? How much time will you save when you don’t have to reinvent the wheel and rewrite the emails every time?

So, the How. Where do you start? If you’re like 99.9% of Business Owners you already have the makings of email templates and scripts in your email client. Look through you sent emails, emails to clients, suppliers, contacts from your website etc.

Group all the questions you’ve been asked into like topics and use the emails you’ve written previously to create a standard template answer. Write the templates in word docs, and save them using the question as the file name.

Group the docs into folders based on what they refer to, such as ‘Quotes’, ‘Ordering’, Wholesalers’, etc. This makes it easy to find the doc again when you need.

Next time you receive an email asking for information, you simply go to the appropriate folder, copy and paste the template into an email. Check that it answers the question properly and send it off.

If you have a PA, VA or Admin Asst, they can more than pay for themselves by filtering your business email. They can deal with the standard emails that the templates work with, and anything that doesn’t have a template is sent off to you for answering.

What do you think? How could this work in your business? What questions are asked repeatedly?

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Last week we looked at Why we Need Systems in our business, even in our micro business where there’s only one person doing everything. Today we’re going to look at How and Where to start building those systems.

It starts with you. You’re the boss. Your job is to plan for expansion, and this is the first step (after your business plan). McDonalds systems enable 16 year old kids to run a busy restaurant. Your systems will enable you to work more efficiently, to identify hiccups and roadblocks in your business and to get people to help you when you need it.

So where do you start?

The easiest way to start is to write down every hat you wear within your business – Receptionist, Bookkeeper, Manufacturer, Copywriter, Supplies, Order Fulfilment, etc.

Under each heading then write a list of the tasks that position is responsible for – yes, even when it’s just you doing it all. Note that here you’re writing each task, not each step of the task.

Eg: Receptionist – answers the telephone, makes bookings, filing, taking orders.

Once you have each task, draw a flowchart for that task detailing each step from start to finish. This is where some shortcuts come in – skip the basic tasks. When it’s just you, then you don’t need a manual to answer the phone.

You do need a written down system for anything that you can envision yourself delegating at any time in the future. Usually, this will include tasks such as packing and posting orders, bookkeeping and emails (we’ll cover emails in a future post).

Write down your systems in a way that is so simple and basic that you could pull a teenager in off the street and ask them to follow it. That’s a really good test of a system by the way, if you can hand it to a person who’s never done the task before and they can follow it then it works. If they get hung up on any part of it and begin asking questions then you need to add in more detail.

When you’re satisfied that it’s written in detail and is easily understandable save an electronic copy in a special folder labelled “Systems” on your computer and then print out a copy. File the hard copy somewhere easily accessible – you’ll be using it regularly.

Keep working through each task until you’ve done them all, or at least the one’s with more than five steps.

The hardest part here is the actual doing. Finding the time to work through a task and write down every step, everything you do in the process. One good way to do it is to have someone observing and writing down what you do. Swap with a friend, you observe her and she can observe you.

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What are Systems and why do you need them?

A system is a written down process for a particular task within your business. When collected together, the systems form the Operations Manual for your business.

Now, I can hear you saying, “Why would I need one? I work for myself/at home/sole trader.” Why? Because having up to date and easy to follow Systems keep work flowing smoothly, prevents overwhelm because you know what you’re doing and where you’re up to. They allow you bring in staff members and train them, they add value to the business when/if you ever decide to sell it and they allow you to hand over tasks to other people – such as family members – so they can help you. Systems save you time and money.

You already have systems for most tasks within your business; you just haven’t vocalised or written them down. Often the systems don’t actually work that well, because they’ve evolved over time, rather than been designed for maximum efficiency and ease of use.

- When you answer the phone, do you have a particular way of answering and a set of words that you use to answer?  That’s a system.

- Do you have a procedure for registering new clients and recording their information? That’s a system.

- Do you have a routine for packing orders, checking them and posting them out? That’s a system.

- Do you have a process for receiving, distributing and answering emails? That’s a system.

Heck, we have systems for our housework, for our kids, for gardening. We just don’t recognise them and label them as such.

How often have you looked at some work for a client and had to figure out where you were up to with it? What had already been done and what still needed to be done? What if you had a written down checklist that began with the new client and followed their work through to completion and was then filed? How much time would you save, how much more work could you take on? How much more profit could you make?

How often has someone offered to come in and help you with some aspect of your business when you were overbooked and stressed beyond belief, and you said no because it was easier to do it yourself than to teach them how to do it? What if you could hand them a folder, walk them through it once, show them where everything is that they need and then leave them to it?

Are you one of those business people who talks of getting a VA one day “but just has to catch up with my emails/bookkeeping/orders first”. Imagine how much easier it would be if you could email your VA a document that tells them exactly how you want the work handled, complete with examples and text templates.

When are you planning to bring order and structure to your business systems?

Coming up in Part 2 – How and Where to start building your business systems.

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Have you got a million ideas running around your head and need to get nail them down?

Do you know what you’re doing but have so much to do that you don’t know where to start?

Have you got several projects running at the same time and need to schedule your work so they all get the attention they deserve and none are forgotten or neglected?

Are you a Visual learner and need a way to track past, present and future tasks?

If any of these sound like you, then you need a Project Board.

So…. What’s a Project Board? It’s a large piece of cardboard, butchers paper, or similar that you use to plan and track the tasks and timeline for a project. I use Excel for mine, firstly because I find it easy to sort tasks; and secondly because my handwriting is so messy it’s the only way I can read what I have to do. I have clients who hand write it on butchers paper, whatever works best for you is great.

Once you start using a Project Board you’ll never look back. My only complaint with it is that I haven’t worked out a way to put it on my phone yet – but I’m sure it’s just a matter of time.

A Project Board is a simple tool to get your ideas out of your head, to provide structure and a logical sequence for all the tasks involved in a particular project. It provides an at-a-glance update on how something is going, what’s been done and what still needs to be done.

If more than one person is involved in the project then it can include Who is doing What and When.

I start with listing all the tasks required for a project on an Excel spreadsheet. It’s a huge brain dump, where everything you can think of that needs to be done is written down. Larger or complicated tasks need to be broken down into the smallest possible task. Then working backwards from the completion date, I put a date for the task to be done next to each item, and who is to complete it if that’s needed.

My spreadsheet is set out with a row at the top labelling the project and the required completion date, in very large letters.

Then the columns are organised into: Date (for the task to be done), Task, Who by, and Done (or Completed).

When I’ve listed all the tasks and put dates on them I like to leave it for a few days to think about it. There’s always something that I remember later that needs to be included, or a task that I realise has to be broken down into even smaller tasks.

When I’m ready, I use the ‘Sort Data’ function on the spreadsheet to sort the tasks in ascending date order. Have a look at them and make sure that everything is in a logical order. Check to see that there isn’t a task that HAS to have something else completed first. If there is, edit the dates, add in the task if needed, and re-sort the data.

When you’re happy with it, and certain everything is included in the correct order, print it out on the largest sheet of paper you can find. Put it on your wall where you can see it easily.

From here it’s easy to start at the top and work down through the tasks. The ‘Done’ column is there to be ticked off when the task is completed.

If you’ve got more than one project on the go then I prefer to use a separate sheet for each project. If you wanted to, you could include all the tasks together, different coloured fonts for each project, and then sort them all by date. I find this hard to tell how far a single project has progressed, although I know people who use this method.

An alternative to this would be to have a master list with the tasks for all projects and a separate sheet for each project and tick them both off as tasks are completed.

When you’ve completed the project, don’t throw away your Project Board. Add a page to it, or write on the side, how well it worked, feedback you received, what you learned and what you would do differently next time. File it away somewhere safe, and next time you need to do a similar project you have it already more than half planned.

If you’ve written it on a computer as I do, you can simply add your comments to the file and save it in a particular folder for ‘Completed Projects’. You may never use it again, but if you do then you won’t have to repeat all your work and you’ll have your feedback from the first time around.

This is my way of keeping track of tasks and projects, what do you use? What works best for you?

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“If you don’t know where you want to go, any road will get you there”

The other day you worked out what it is that you want to achieve and you picked the five goals that will have the biggest effect on your business in the next year. Today we’re going to chunk them down to manageable steps, and look at ways to keep them strong in your mind.

Chunking Down the Goals

Firstly, just writing the goal isn’t going to make it happen. You need to take action, and you need to work out what has to happen first, then the next step, and the next, and so on.

Take your first goal and list out everything you have to do on the way to achieving that goal. Organise that list into a logical sequence, and then work out what has to be done on a month by month and then week by week basis to reach that goal.

Planning your goals this way makes them achievable. Instead of a huge goal in 12 months that looks enormous, now all you have to focus on is this weeks tasks. And then next weeks tasks. No task should be so large that it’s overwhelming – if you have any like that then you need to break it down to the smallest possible task.

Do this for all the goals on your list.

Keep the Dream Alive

So we’ve decided what we want, and we’ve chunked it down into easy tasks. Now what? Well, now we need to focus on the big picture – the end goal – while working on the everyday tasks. If we only focus on the small tasks, that weeks work, then we lose sight of what we’re aiming for and can find it hard to be motivated.

Every day, at least once a day and preferably a couple of times, I want you to sit down for five minutes and visualise yourself at the end of the 12 months, having achieved those five goals.

Two Parts of Visualisation

Firstly I want you to read your goals aloud. With excitement in your voice. Don’t whisper them so no-one else will hear, read them aloud in a strong voice. This uses three of your senses – eyes, mouth and ears – and implants those goals into your subconscious.

Secondly I want you to close your eyes and imagine you’ve achieved your goals:

SEE the end result of those goals, imagine you’re looking at your Sales figures printout and the $$$ at the bottom is the goal you set.

FEEL the pride in having achieved that. Allow yourself to feel the sense of achievement of having a great business.

SEE your business growing further, and being strong and successful. FEEL how that would feel for you.

Just Do It

The visualisation is the part that most people don’t do. They don’t see the point. Sadly, the visualisation is what really keeps them motivated and helps drive them forward towards the end goal. Don’t let this be you.

Practice it. Make the visualisation of your goals a habit. Trust me on this and Just Do It!