Christmas Vacation for Your Home Business - A Survival GuideWritten by Donna Schwartz Mills
On Monday morning not too long ago, I braced myself for a deluge of email. I had not switched on my computer for three days and just knew I would have a couple of hundred emails. I was wrong. There were 486. That afternoon, our postal carrier left a basket of mail that must have weighed a couple of pounds. 'I need a vacation,' I muttered to myself. But that was problem. Monday was my first day back from one, and I vowed I would never take another. I eventually came to my senses, but I still tend to think of time away from business with a mix of excitement and dread. And those feelings are looming large right now as I anticipate my daughter's holiday break from school - which this year, lasts for three long weeks. The December holidays were one of reasons I opted for a work-at-home lifestyle. When I worked outside home as a corporate event planner, our first big convention of year always occurred second week of January. This meant I had to work 10 hours a day, six days a week each December (although I got Christmas and New Year off). I resented fact that everyone else was home decorating house and baking goodies, and vowed to be able to do that one day. Now that I'm a home based entrepreneur, I can keep that promise to myself. But as a one-person shop, I need to take steps to insure that my business will still be here after decorations have been put away. Imagine orders, customer service calls and income opportunities we miss by being away from our posts for a couple of weeks! The fortunate thing about a December break is that most of Western world is occupied with same things: holiday get-togethers, family activities and religious observance. All business slows down mid-December as people focus on their faith and families. The exception, of course, is Christmas shopping. If your business involves selling gift items, you may not get a holiday break until December 25. If that's case, I suggest taking at least week off between Christmas and New Year. A vacation - even a short one - will allow you to recharge your mental batteries, resulting in increased energy and creativity on January 2. It will also help you avoid feelings of resentment I experienced at that event planning job. The trick to taking time you need and starting back up smoothly is in how you prepare your business for your absence. Here are some tips: 1. COMMUNICATION IS KEY No matter when you begin your holiday break, you need to let your clients know. Two weeks before any vacation, Angela Strosnider of Virtual Office and Business Solutions announces it to her clients, relatives and others. 'I take laptop and check for any emergency mails as well. Besides that I make an autorespond message to all emails about when I'll return,' she says.
| | "How To Decide What To Sell on Your Web Site"Written by Milana Nastetskaya
When you decide to start an online business, most important decision to make is what to sell. There are three types of products you can sell on your web site:1. Hard goods - produce something yourself - become a reseller for another company - examples: jewelry, booklets, clothes 2. Services - can you do something better than others? - can you perform a service that others are willing to pay for? - examples: graphic design, business consulting, research, translation 3. Electronic product - develop it yourself - obtain rights to it - examples: software, e-book, tutorial, newsletter In deciding what to sell consider how much money you can afford to invest into your business, what is in demand and most likely to bring you profit, and what your passions are. Obviously, most money-demanding business is one selling hard goods. There is inventory to keep, materials to purchase, contracts to sign and so on.
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