Schewanick Computer Services

How to accomplish your goals in 2006:

1. Become more involved in networks. Talk about yourself and the things you like to do away from your business. People, even those on Ryze, are a little afraid to do business with someone who they don't know a lot about. It may take time, but I can assure you if you are your self, it will help your business more because they will see your name and know exactly what you sell and begin to trust you. Be active, even if it's only for 30 minutes a day on Ryze, it will help you out.

It costs you nothing to be involved with Ryze. Go to http://www.ryze.com and sign up for a free account.

2. Purchase business cards to leave at stores, daycares, schools, and to put into your bills and correspondences. You can reach a lot of people by looking outside the box.

3. Get a 3-ring photo album one that is small enough to put in your purse. Inside it put your "goals" in picture form, a new house, a new car, your baby's picture, your future garden, your future vacation. Look at it at least once a week. Whenever you wonder why you are doing this take it out. Also add inspirational sayings that cheer you up, read those when you need a lift!

4. Make some flyers to hand out to businesses and customers.

5. Start a free blog account at http://www.blogger.com. You may be asking what a blog is? A blog is an online journal or miniature website that you can post your thoughts to everyday. A lot of people use it as their websites or as their weekly newsletters and send their subscribers to their URL for updates.

Get a free feeder (a feeder is a link so that others can go to your blog when ever they want) so you can post this in your signatures. I believe I got mine from http://www.rssfeeder.com or you can look at the site where you do your blog and they will have places for you to go get an RSS feeder.

6. Give out suckers with business cards strung through the stick.

7. Purchase candy wrappers and add a catchy slogan and wrap them around a candy bar.

8. You can also use bookmarks.

9. Purchase some form of promotional items with your personal information on it.

Example: pencils with your website on them. Pass them out at fairs, schools, leave them everywhere I go (everyone loves pencils and freebies). You can buy these at bulk prices at http://www.orientaltrading.com.

I've seen ladies get small ziplock bags and add their business card and a piece of candy to the bag. The point is to get noticed. Trust me, when people get bags the first thing they look for is the goodies and skim over the papers. Start small, go to the dollar store and buy a big bag of candy and attach them to your business card and send to the filler groups.

10. Filler groups:

What are filler groups? These are a group of home-based business owners that swap anything from business cards, flyers, and other promotional items along with information on their home-based businesses.

They then send these out to their customers, hand them out at fairs, etc.

11. Network more with those that are in your niche. For example, baby forums and mom sites (not just work-from-home moms, but all types of sites for moms). Find other networking groups in your local area. Welcome Wagons, Chamber of Commerce, go to a local OB/GYN and see if you can add some flyers to their New Moms baskets. Bringing some homemade treats or doughnuts to give to the nurses, gets you a big foot in the door.

If you cannot find a group in your area that fits your needs, start one. Meet in a coffee shop, once a week or once a month. Discuss ways you all can promote your businesses, exchange your business cards for referrals, then hand them back to that rep when you have your next meeting.

12. Offer deals to customers, both new and old customers. I always keep information from all my customers and do follow ups to see how they liked the product and if they know of others who might have a need for my products. Everyone loves free samples and discounts.

EXAMPLE: Referring others save 20% off next order or receive a free gift etc.

13. Make up labels for your mail. Put your label on everything you send out. Many people see your label and read it and eventually you will get a customer. Don't count on this as your only avenue, but you should have many avenues and ways of advertising your business.

14. Make up some flyers and hand those out. Post them where you know traffic would be good for your products. Example: bingo halls, daycares, play grounds, senior centers, etc.

15. Run a special for a week, a month, whatever it takes to bring new customers to your site. Just be sure not to offer too big of a discount so you don't make any profit.

16. Purchase a car magnet to use while you are running errands. You can be "working" while you are doing errands.

17. Purchase or make a yard sign.

18. Always when out running errands or shopping leave your business cards with people you meet or where people will see them.

19. Advertise in a local newsletter or newspaper.

20. Advertise in http://www.thriftynickelads.com for about $6 or so. You can pick what state and city you want to advertise in.

21. Sit down and figure out a schedule for your business, how much time you will spend working everyday. Learn to take a few hours off, the emails will wait. Put business hours on your site so customers know what your hours are and than you won't feel so stressed about not contacting them right away.

Say you want to have your hours between 9-5 pm. Put on your site that if you contact me after 5 pm, I will get back to you tomorrow. Say the same thing for weekends. You will check all emails, but will get back to them on Mondays, or set up a couple hours for Saturday, this is up to you. Just remember you need to take time to relax and enjoy things around you or you will get burned out.

22. Get organized! Purchase an organizer that fits both your needs and your family needs. Have it big enough to be able to use it for both family and business so that you have everything right there at your fingertips instead of in 2-3 different places.

23. Set yourself a budget at the start of every month. Figure out where your advertising went well the month before: was it on free sites, writing articles, posting on networks, purchased ad space. Keep track of where you post and how much business you received from each form of posting. Remember people need to see your ad at least 7 times before they will even click on a banner or a link.

24. Take one day a week and write down everything you need to do the following week. I like to do this on Sunday nights. I pull out my organizer and fill in all the work I need to do for business, the kids after school activities, the days of my yoga classes etc. This way I know exactly what is going on at the start of the week. As the week progresses every night I re-look over my schedule to see what I still need to do or start looking ahead for the following week or month.

25. When you first start working a home business you pour your whole body and soul into your work, profits may come slow so what I like to do is set aside a small portion of each sale into a "Rebecca Fund". What is a "Rebecca Fund"? This is crazy money  money I can use to purchase myself something I have been wanting. I know you want to re-invest all your profits back into your business to help it grow but if you look at it as saving $1-$2 for you it will make you feel good when you see something that you want that you can get it. Of course insert your name into " Fund" it does make a difference 

26. Start a diary. Write down all your frustrations, your successes anything that you need to get off your chest. Get rid of the frustrations! Don't sit there and dwell on what is bothering you! Talk about your successes even if its only small, I was so thrilled with my first sale even though it was only $5.00, but it was my first sale. Have you ever gone to a mom or pop store and seen a $1 bill hanging on the counter or wall? Well they were excited about their first sale you should be too! For that matter, take a $1 out of that first sale and put it into a picture frame and hang it in your office every time you have a hard day stop and look at the framed dollar.

About the author:

Rebecca White has been marketing online for over 3 years. During the 3 years she has used e-books and software products that she has purchased to help her become the well known WAHM internet marketing expert that she is today. She started out on the internet not knowing how to build a website, not knowing how to market online. Visit her site today and learn while you earn http://www.experts4wahms.com