Once you have made up your mind to start your own home-based business, your next step is to decide which home-based business model you want to adopt. You may ask what is a business model? On the basic level, it is a method of how you are going to operate your business to generate profit, in short, it means how you are going to make money to survive and grow. However, the business model involves more than that, it includes components such as value propositions, customer segments, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partners and cost structure which is proposed by Business Model Alchemist. I recommend you to check out their website, it has a wealth of information dedicated just to business model.

It is important that you select a business model carefully because it will affect your home-based business and living in the long run. The most common business model adopted by most home-based business is services and product-based model. The business owners trade their times to sell services and products for profit, if they want to earn more, they would have to charge more. While there is nothing wrong with these business models but often home-business owners find they have to struggle constantly to find new customers and market aggressively to remain profitable. All these could drain up the home business owners’ time and leave them little time to focus on other areas. Another main disadvantage of such business models is it relies too much on the business owners’ health and time, if these two were lacking it could affect their earnings tremendously.

What make a Good Business Model?

A good business model should have the following characteristics.

• Offer unique value that other competitiors cannot match
• Winning business model is hard for competitors to imitate
• Successful business model is grounded in reality

Finding a good business model is therefore important for startups, once you get it right from the start, it will save you a lot of headaches, time and resources. A good business model should help you to generate profit passively without too much of manual intervention and costs. Today, there are many new and innovative business models that have brought amazing success to the businesses, some good examples such as in the computer industry – Dell Computer has managed to eliminate the middleman channel and allowed customers to configure their own PC and purchase directly online at a lower price. In the airline industry, there is budget airline that cater to the general masses. In the software industry, users do not need to buy expensive software now but is able to subscribe to membership at a lower fee per month. These new business models have changed the way businesses are operating and some even have even replaced the old business models.

Different Home-Based Business Models

We can see that finding an innovative and sustainable business model is crucial to one’s success and it is even more crucial for home-based business as small businesses cannot afford to make too many mistakes. There are many business models in the various industries but we will only focus on those that are suitable for home-based business. Below are some common home-based business model examples:

Online or Web Business Models
This is the probably most common and popular business model for home-based business due to the ubiquity and convenience of Internet technology. Professor Michael Rappa has categorized the online or web business model into the following main categories, you can check out his website for detailed description of each model.

Affiliate Marketing Business Models
The affiliate marketing business model is probably the fastest and safest way to make money online. It eliminates the major business operations such as creation, manufacturing of the product to distribution of the product. Business owners who opt for this model only need to promote the merchants’ products and services and get commission for referring sales.

Blog Business Models
Blogging business model is one of the hottest business models of making money online now. Many people have become full-time bloggers and some even have made a fortune out of blogging. The Blog business model can be further broken down into several models, check out the Australian famous blogger – Darren Rowse and his 10 innovative blog business model here.

eCommerce Business Models
If you intend to sell products or services online, you can consider setting up an eCommerce store and there are few eCommerce business models you can consider such as Business to Consumer (B2C), Business to Business (B2B), Consumer to Consumer (C2C), Peer to Peer (P2P) and mobile Commence (m-Commence). You can learn the definition of each model from this article. If you find it is a hassle to set up your own ecommerce store then check out eBay, a platform that allow you to sell goods and services online with a small fee.

Social Enterprise Business Model
If you intend to produce products or services for social or environmental purpose and care less of the money aspect, you are in for the social enterprise business model. This has increasingly become a popular business model and may become the future business model because customers usually like businesses who have a good cause and social responsibilities.

Networking Marketing Model
The networking Marketing Model is also known as Multi-level Marketing Model (MLM), there is much confusion about MLM as it is perceived as a pyramid scheme but in fact it is not. It is a legitimate business model but was somehow abused by many businesses especially in the health, nutritional and beauty industries. Click here to learn more about MLM and its pros and cons, who knows, it may help to clear the air and become one of your money-making business model.

Franchise Business Model
This could be the least risky but the most expensive business model for home-based business. There are now a lot of home-based franchise opportunities in the market, you can check them out at Franchise Solutions or Franchise Sales at UK.  Adopting a franchise business model could be the fastest way to start a home-based business as the business concepts has already been tested and supports will be given whenever help is needed.

The above are just some business models that have tried and tested, there may be other new business models appearing but it is not made known yet. New business owners may have misconception that they can only adopt one business model at a time which usually is not the case. In fact, there are many businesses that use several business models together in order to achieve greater efficiency and profitability such as a membership subscription model combines with advertising and affiliate models.

If you can find a winning business model for your home-based business, you are already close to success. However, the adopted business model will constantly evolve with the time, changes in business practices, industry trend and environment. Therefore, finding a successful home-based business model requires constant review and checking so as to keeping up with the changes. Moreover, choosing the right business model for the first time may not be easy but don’t be discouraged, an average home-based business will take 3-5 years to trial and succeed.

I wish you all the best in finding a successful home-based business model and if you have an interesting business model, I would like to hear from you too.

If you have been working in your home-business for a while, do you find yourself stuck in your business? Are you working more but getting less? It is not surprised if you are finding yourself overwhelmed, overworked and frustrated. You will have less and less time for leisure and rest as your business is taking away most of the valuable assets from you. Eventually you might end up hating your business or feeling you are a slave to your business rather than master to it.

Unless you can seek help earlier otherwise you will be stuck in your business forever. But the problem of most home-based business owners is they either do not know what they do not know or do not know who or where to seek help. I was in the same dilemma for the past few years until I came across an online business coaching program by Rich Schefren recently. It is known as Business Growth System (BGS) which focuses on developing strategies and tactics for growing one’s online business. It might sounds intimidating when the words like “strategies” and “tactics” are mentioned especially we are only a home-based not corporate business but they are a necessary evils if you want to get a breakthrough.

The BGS program covers a lot of concepts and practical advises and there are a few of them though not new but surprisingly, gave me some eureka moments. It made me realized my way of thinking and working were actually the cause of my business stagnant. Let me share with you some of them I find it useful.

Get a Vision

Rich Schefren in the BGS program mentioned that “you read a book from the beginning to the end but in business you do just the opposite”. Why? The reason is if you have a vision in mind, you can work backward to achieve what you want. A vision acts as a beacon in the dark so you can see clearly and guide you along the way. Without a vision, there is no way to know you have reached your destination; you are just watching your day gone by meaninglessly.

I always knew about getting a vision when starting a business but never take it seriously but after reading the statement “building your business from the end to the beginning” re-ignite what I have overlooked and re-align me to the correct path. For that! I’m very grateful to Rich’s program.

Change Your Role

To achieve breakthrough for your business, you should not perform the same roles as you started your business. Initially, you might be playing more of the employee and manager roles but you need to gradually withdraw yourself from these roles and elevate to the founder role. You should work on the business than in the business as you need to focus on growing the business rather than involved in the daily operation of fire fighting and challenges. You need to grow with your business; you should not be stuck in the same roles throughout your whole business phrase.

Stop Doing Everything by Yourself

Many home-based business owners tend to do all the works and usually the hard works by yourself. You could be either limited by budget or do not want to commit to extra responsibilities. However, you are not superman or wonder woman, it is impossible to do everything by yourself. You will be limited by time, energy and skills. In addition, you might lack the ability and knowledge to do certain job. For example, I’m hopeless in figures so accounting is not my forte, it will be best if I outsource it to some professional than doing it by myself. It could take me months to figure how to get my Balance Sheet balance but a professional accountant only takes a few minutes to do it.

Systemize Your Business Process

The program emphasizes the importance of systemizing your business into different processes. Edwards Deming ever said “If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you are doing.” Therefore, by systemizing your business into smaller processes help you to see the flaws and dysfunctional areas. In other words, if you view your business as a system, you could find the most efficient and under performance areas at bird-eye view. These allow you to quickly take corrective actions and re-align your business back to optimal performance.

This concept may sound aloof to home-based business but after trying it out myself, I find it extremely helpful. It allows me to see the loop-hole or gaps that I have missed out for my work process and I could describe the process in detail when I outsource to virtual team. The process is also a good reminder as sometimes I could forget the steps when I’m overwhelmed with works.

Hopefully, you find the above helpful to elevate your business. If you are interested to take a peek in the BGS coaching program, I have them listed as below.

Module #1:
The Big Damn Secrets to being a Real Entrepreneur that Almost everyone misses

Module #2:
Isolating, Developing and Profiting from Your Money-Making Strengths

Module #3:
Marketing Your Turf, Total Clarity on Your Big Objective, Generating Immediate Momentum

Module #4:
Your Mafia Offer – How to Re-Craft Your Business to Make an Offer that Cannot be Refused

Module #5:
The most powerful marketing strategies that No One Teaches or Talks About

Module #6:
Your Master Plan to Blasting Through Every Obstacle that Stands in Your Way Right Now

Module #7:
The Secret Language of Business Metrics

Module #8:
Set It and Forget It – Systemization and Putting Everything on Autopilot

Module #9:
Project Management – Exactly to Spec, On-Time, Below Budget, Every Time

Module #10:
Assembling Your Business Building SWAT Team

Module #11:
Making it All Seamless: Your Well-Oiled Machine

Module #12:
You’re Free … Now What?

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So if you find yourself stuck in your business and wish to free yourself or get a breakthrough, I highly recommend you look through the coaching program yourself. It may ends your frustration early by directing you to the right path and perspective. It has 30-day refund policy so make good use of it and see whether it does any good for you and your business.

There are many home business owners who might want to sell their proud products online but might be intimidated by various ecommerce technologies and procedures. Also, there are some who want to create online store to sell their digital products but confused by the many ecommerce platforms available in the market.

If you are just starting or intended to look for a more robust, reliable but yet affordable ecommerce platform for your online store, you might want to consider getting a hosted ecommerce solution. Usually most home business owners would either purchase and install the ecommerce software in their servers or use an extension or plugin to add an ecommerce functionality to their blogs or sites. They are both feasible ecommerce solutions as they give you full control but you will face constant upgrading and maintenance issues which might be a problem for those of you who are not so technical savvy.

What Is Hosted Ecommerce Solution?

A hosted ecommerce solution is all-in-one ecommerce solution provided by the ecommerce hosting companies. They not only provide the hardware but software as well and with additional features like marketing, analytics and reporting tools. They will constantly upgrade their ecommerce software and provide regular maintenance so that bugs could be fixed immediately. This will help to eliminate the upgrading and maintenance issues and give more peace of mind to home business owners.

While there are many advantages of using hosted ecommerce solution, you might want to be careful as some of them charge transaction fee from your ecommerce site revenue. And it could be very expensive when your online store grows bigger but fortunately there are some ecommerce hosting companies do not practice this. One of them is Bigcommerce, they only charge a flat subscription fee for using their services and the fee is very affordable, starting as low as US$25 per month.

An Online Store That Can Be Setup in Minutes

Bigcommerce offers you everything you need to set up an online store. It is like having a real physical store with everything planned, decorated and furnished with relevant cabinets, lighting, furniture and storeroom. What you need to do is to move in your products and lay them out nicely for display.

Similarly, Bigcommerce offers you an online store that is ready for business anytime. They have a helpful step-by-step guide that guide you what to do in order to get your online store up successfully.

Free Online Store Templates

If you are worried about the look and feel of your store, they have 100+ free and beautiful storefront templates that you can pick one to set the look and feel of your storefront instantly. You can also change the colors anytime to match the branding you want to create.

Bulk Import and Export

One of the most time-consuming tasks of creating an online store is inputting the product information and it will become extremely tedious when you have a lot of products. It might takes ages to input all the product information such as product ID, photos, description, pricing, tax rate and shipping cost. Luckily, Bigcommerce has a bulk import function where it can import your spreadsheet but provided your spreadsheet must follow a standard format required by Bigcommerce. At the same time, it can bulk export your product information so that you can save it into external backup.

Automatic Organization of Products

One common problem for every ecommerce business owner face is how to organize products? Whether it should be by categories, sub-categories, sub-sub-categories, brands, pricing, manufacturers, color & size? The list can go on if you have a wide range of products but Bigcommerce makes it easier for you to organize as it has already catered such features in its system. You only need to activate to use it so your visitors then can easily surf through your store based on different criterion.

Viewable on Mobile Devices

If your target customers are smart phone users, you will be happy to know that all the online stores built using Bigcommerce is mobile phone friendly. In other words, you online store can be viewable on most mobile devices without the hassle to build another mobile friendly store.

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Looking at the above incredible ecommerce features, you can be rest assured that building an ecommerce website is not as intimidating as you thought. There might be several ecommerce building options available and you can always choose a simpler option to begin such as a hosted ecommerce solution. Once you are familiar with the in and out of ecommerce technology and how the whole things work, you can always look for an add-on or advanced ecommerce solutions.

If you are planning to start a home-based business soon, you may find yourself overwhelm with great amount of preparation works and planning. Below is a checklist that might be of help to get you organize, focus and avoid missing critical areas during the startup.

1. Be Mentally Prepared
Starting a business is not easy; starting a home-based business is even more challenging because you are going to face all the risks, difficulties and responsibilities alone. You might be wearing many hats at the same time hence working long hours will be a norm and it can be mentally and physically straining. Be prepared to sacrifice your leisure, holidays and even money during the start up as your business will need time and patience to see result. Also be prepared to bounce back fast when you encounter failures and obstacles. Don’t forget to check with your family, are they willing to accept you working full-time at home as home-based business is still a new concept to many. If you are not mentally prepared for all these, starting a home-based business could be a very painful process for you.

2. Select a Business Type
If you are determined to go ahead then decide what type of business you plan to start in terms of your skills, interest, knowledge and experience. You can click here to check out the list of ideas for home-based business. Select a business that you love and passionate about so you will enjoy your business everyday.

3. Understand your Industry
Research your target customers, competitors and market, if the competition is tough, it will be good to find a niche market so that your business has a higher chance of success. Think of the product or services you are offering that can be different from your competitors and what kind of added values you can bring to your customers.

4. Business Plan
Prepare a business plan as it will be the blueprint to lead you from where you are now to where you want to be. The business plan must also include the strategy and tactics to achieve the objective. Click here to view a sample of good business plan.

5. Naming your Home-based Business
Once you’ve decided on the type of business, think of a good name for your business. It should be easy to pronounce and remember. If your target customers are located globally, you may like to check whether the proposed name has been taken and does it has other meaning. Because a same name with the same spelling could mean different things in different countries and cultures.

It is also wise to research on the web first before registering your business name especially if your business name is also your domain name. For example since eHomepreneur.com is also my domain name, I would need to check its availability before registering it. This is crucial because if the domain name is taken, then you would need to think of another name otherwise your company name does not tally with domain name which could cause confusion to your customers. You can check domain availability with your web hosting company or go to networksolutions.com directly to check online.

6. Legal
Before you apply a business license for your home-based business, decide its business structure, will it be a sole entrepreneur, partnership, limited partnership or private limited? If you don’t understand the difference, click here for definitions. Also check whether you need to apply any license for using your home as a business office and any regulations to comply with.

7. Obtain a Business License
Obtain a business license from your city and country permit and check is there any permit you need to apply such as fire, sign and seller permit.

8. Financial Issues
Once you have obtained the business license, you can use it to apply for a business bank account and get a check book. Prepare a financial plan for at least 12 months; determine your startup capital, projected earning, budget and operating costs.

9. Accounting, Record Keeping and Tax Advice
It is advisable to get a professional accountant to establish an accounting system for your revenue and expenses recording before you start your business. A proper accounting system will save you a lot of errors and headaches during your billing and annual income tax filing. In addition, the accountant should be able to advise the most tax-effective business structure and what expenses you can claim.

10. Is your home suitable for Home-based Business?
Check your home whether there is extra room or a corner suitable for running a home-based business? Do you have the necessary facilities, equipments and stationery? Make sure it is well ventilated, lighted and protected so that important information will not be destroyed accidentally.

Also check will your business affect your family or neighbors such as any noise created or any privacy or security issues? Is there any adequate parking area for your customers?

11. Government Grants and Assistance
There are always government financial grants and assistance readily available for startup business. Find out from your local council on how to apply for these grants and thus help to cut down your startup costs.

12. Advertising and Marketing
Advertising and marketing are important as you need to create awareness and publicity for your home-based business. To start marketing your business, you will need to create business identity such as logo, business card, letterhead, envelope and website or blog to differentiate your business from your competitors. Increase your business visibility by exploring different media.

13. Hire Help for your Home-based Business
It could be overwhelming if you are going to run the whole business by yourself, hire extra help if you need to, after all, nobody is good at everything. Some works like accounting, graphic design, advertising and marketing can be outsourced to vendors or freelancers so that you could focus on your core activities.

14. Time Management & Self Discipline
Time management is even more critical when working at home as there are a lot of distractions. It calls for stringent self discipline to plan and manage your time well. Having a work schedule will help you to stay on track and committed to your daily activities.

In addition to the above, you may like to check out this article from BusinessWings, it highlights the A to Z things you would need to consider for a startup business.

Before going into the topic, let’s look at what is a niche market? It refers to a group of customers who has a unique need but often overlooked or couldn’t fulfill by large businesses. Why finding a niche market is important for home-based business because this will give you the marketing edge and is the first step toward a successful and profitable business. You need to know who your target customers are so that you can focus your energy, time and marketing for their needs precisely.

It is a mistake to think that your product or service is meant for everyone as everybody needs it. There was a saying when “it is for everyone, it is for no one”. I made the same mistake before for my other business thinking that if I cast my net wider, I should be able to reach out more customers and make more profit. Initially, my web consultancy business was targeting at small businesses but later I thought if I could also sell my services to corporate companies, I should be able to make more sales but I was wrong. There were so many web consultancy companies out there that the customers were only interested in my prices and nothing else. There was no chance for me to prove my expertise and experience. The lesson learned was it is better to be everything to someone than something to everyone. Never try to be a generalist and fulfill everything, you will find yourself facing a lot of competitions and you will have to try very hard to market yourself instead of focusing on your talent and expertise. Offer your customers your unique service or product and quality not the pricing.

If your target market is targeting at “everybody market”, try to break it into a “somebody market”, for example if you are offering graphic design services to small business, try to break down the small business into specific industry then into specific operators such as from a F&B industry to restaurants operators. From the restaurants, you can further break down into specific cuisine like Western, Asian or European. But make sure there is sufficient size and growth potential so that you can profit from this niche market. Most importantly, they have money to spend and pay you.

Once you become specialized in one niche market, you are intimately familiar with the market needs and problems; you can then start offering niche product or service variety; that is either to increase its breadth or depth where your competition cannot offer. This is a good way to beat your competitors as unique selling proposition (USP) is hard to replicate and you can use this strategy to position yourself against your competitors and dominate the niche market.

By focusing on a specific niche market also helps in creating precise marketing messages easily. We know that customers do not respond well to general messages so when crafting marketing message that contains their lingo or languages, you will find that your customers respond far faster and frequently. At the same time, knowing your customers’ lingo also helps in your website keyword research and planning. Knowing what type of keyword phrases your customers are searching is important to attract quality traffic to your website. In addition, knowing related keyword phrases that they used is equally important as it gives you a good idea of what else your customers are looking for and how often they want it. Use keyword research tool such as keyword elite software to find out more related keywords that could bring you more sales. It’s also an excellent tool to reduce your advertising cost if you are planning your PPC ad, you will know which exact money-making keyword to target to generate leads.

With all the above said, you will realize that why finding a niche market is therefore important while planning your business; the last thing you want is not to waste your precious time and energy focusing on the wrong market and customers. As this is one of the vital steps to a successful home-based business, it’s worth spending some time to research and identify your niche market before starting your home-based business.

There is a growing trend of home-based business in the recent years, according to report from National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE), the home-based businesses are on the rise in the United States. There is no known figure for the global statistics but definitely it is on the rise as many countries are facing economic crisis now where the jobs are scarce. Many people were retrenched and had problem finding new job especially older workers are being hit the hardest. Creating a job for oneself by starting a home-based business, therefore become a more viable choice for many. Read the rest of this entry »

For those of you who are new to starting a home-based online business, you’ll be concerned about the amount of times, efforts and costs required to start your home-based business. You worry that at the end of the day, the result may not justify all the hard works. While there is no silver bullet for making a profitable home-based online business but there is one business model which is also my favorite will take away most of your worries, risks and obstacles. This business model is known as affiliate marketing business model and it is probably the fastest and safest way to start a home-based business online.

Why Affiliate Marketing Business Model?

1. Save the Operation Costs and Hassles

If I tell you that you can just start a business without any product or service? You do not need to be involved in any singles of business operations – from manufacturing the product to finding the right distribution channel. Best of all, you can totally avoid the nasty customers and forget about the customer services. Do you believe it? Yes, it is possible in affiliate marketing business model because you are selecting a fantastic business model where everything is handled by the merchants. All you have to do is pick the right market and the product you are passionate about; promote them actively to customers then drive them to merchants’ websites to make the purchase. You will be rewarded handsomely if you could drive more sales to their websites.

2. Low Cost for Startup

Cost is the number one concern of starting a home-based online business. The good news is you do not need a big capital to start up as most affiliate programs are free to join. As long as you have a PC or laptop with internet connection; you are ready for business.

3. No Risk Involved
   There is no risk involved in affiliate marketing business model simply because you are not involved in any of the business operations except promoting the merchants’ product or services. The only risk I could see is probably the advertising and promotion costs if you spent your money on paid advertising. However, you have the choice not to go for paid advertising as there are many other ways to promote the affiliate products and services.
4. Your 24×7 Cash Generating Machine
   If you set up your affiliate marketing business model and promotion right, it can become your powerful cash generating machine as it runs 24×7 non-stop everyday to earn you money online. You will not need to trade time for money and give you the freedom to enjoy long holidays or break. There will be no customers bugging at you or vendors calling you, you are totally at ease and carefree; you will really appreciate this when you fall sick. Could you recall how often you could get a peaceful rest during your medical leave?
5. Fastest Result
   Compared to other business models, affiliate marketing could you give you the fastest result and return due to the time, money and effort saved for business startup. However, affiliate marketing also relies heavily on your promoting and marketing skills to succeed. Therefore, it is good to invest in some education or training, I would highly recommend you read up “The Super Affiliate Handbook” from Rosalind Gardner, it is a must read for new affiliate marketers and aspiring home business owner. You can learn how an ordinary woman like her without much computer knowledge could make $50,000+ per year just by selling other people’s products.

Having known the major benefits of affiliate marketing business model, it can be only beneficial to you if you could try it out yourself. I will be covering more on how to incorporate affiliate marketing business model into your home business in future posts so check back for more.

Once you decided to set up an online business, the next important thing to consider is to set up your first online business office aka website. It is going to be your life blood of your business so it is worth to invest quality times and efforts into it.

Setting up your first online business office is much easier than setting up a physical business office. At least, it eliminates the times hunting for the office space, furniture and equipment. But one thing for sure, you have to choose the right office so that you are rest assured that all your business assets are safe and well protected. In addition, you can get the right support from your office landlord when needs arise.

Choose Your Online Office Venue Carefully
Likewise, when you are setting your first online business office, you must be sure that your online office is safe and well protected away from hackers. Therefore, your online office must be hosted in a secure place. In the Internet world, this can be done using a web hosting company’s server.

It is advisable to host on professional web hosting company as they always update their hardware, software and keep up with the latest technology. In addition, they are professional who can provide good support when problem arises. This saves you a lot of time trying to figuring what the problem is and you could focus on what you should do best.

There are, however, many web hosting companies out there and due to cut-throat competition, many of them try to attract customers by offering cheap web hosting packages. Usually, these companies’ server and software are not up to date so you might run into endless list of technical problems when you sign up with them.

Gets a Reliable Web Hosting Company
The last thing you should worry is how to configure your website and worry about the server performance. Hence, choosing a reliable web hosting company is vital to your online business success. I have tried many web hosting companies and met numerous technical problems over the year. But it never crossed my minds it could be due to web server problem until I switch to my current web hosting company – HostGator.

Why the Current Web Hosting Company?
So far, the website I hosted with HostGator has not met any major technical glitch during the last several software upgrades. In contrary, my other websites with other web hosting companies have a lot of problems after upgrade. They are either failed upgrade, login page could not be accessed or the site went haywire. It is totally a time waster when these problems crop up.

Industry Leader
HostGator is the leader in web hosting industry. Its server configuration is specially configured and catered to the needs of online business owners and hence extremely popular among many Internet and Affiliate Marketers. It is common to see many successful online business entrepreneurs highly recommend using HostGator for web hosting.

Unlimited Domain
If you plan to run few online businesses together, getting a web hosting plan with unlimited domains can help you to cut down your cost. You only need to register for the different domain names and direct them to the same account which saves the process of registering separate weh hosting plans for individual domain names. At the same time, it helps in managing different website as everything is in one place.

24hr Support with Online Chat
To those of you who are not technically savvy, having a 24hr support with online live chat could be a dream. This is one of my main requirements when I switched to HostGator. It is important to have prompt online support as your problem can be quickly solved and minimize frustration. As we know frustration encourages self-doubt and can destroy any aspiring online business owners especially the beginners.

Earn Extra Income
If you do not know, you will be pleased to know that HostGator offer referral program (or affiliate program) where you can earn commission while you are using their services. They have a comprehensive referral program where you will be paid when you refer customers to them. I have used the commission they paid me to offset the web hosting costs so in another word, it is a free hosting for me.

If you hope to achieve likewise, you can go to their website for more information.

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Nevertheless, the most important thing is to get a trustworthy web hosting company for your first online business so that you can have a head start on your competition and achieve your online success earlier.

Do you have great business idea?
Do you think your business idea is a great concept?
How can you test it out and do it fast with minimal risk?
If it is a good business idea, do you have the money to execute it?

I believe most of the business owners will often face the above situation while running your business. Your eureka moment may came out of the blue and you feel strongly it will bring you great profit but just do not have enough funding to implement it. It will be a pity that great ideas are lost due to lack of funding but finding an investor is another challenge. In addition, there is a risk involved when your idea is not tested and no one is willing to invest on unproven idea. So in this post, I would like to share with you how you can launch a great business idea without any money!

Too Good to be True
Does it sounds too good to be true? Yes, it is. If you think your idea need $X amount of money to implement, you can get the needed money for free through a platform called crowdfunding. The process of crowdfunding is normally done through the internet.

How it works?
You can just go to those websites that offer crowdfunding services and launch a project to ask for the needed money to fund your idea. All these crowdfunding websites will do all the backend, administrative and legal works for you so you can focus solely on raising the money or fund you required.

Each crowdfunding websites has different purposes, target audiences and constraints so pick the one which is most suitable to your needs. For example, some crowdfunding websites require you to raise the exact amount you ask for before they can release the fundraising amount to you while some websites allow you to get whatever amount that have gathered. The crowdfunding websites will charge you a fee for using their services and it is normally between the rates of 5%-9% excluding the fee charged by payment gateway like Paypal and Amazon payment.

• Pros of Using Crowdfunding
  Unlike investors who invest in your business, the fund you get from crowdfunders do not interfere the daily operation of your business or demand monetary reward in return. In other word, you maintain 100% ownership of your idea. You continue to have the freedom to do what you want and benefit from the direct feedback from those who contribute. However, you are required to give some rewards in exchange of contribution, for example a copy of your work, complimentary gifts or services.

  The greatest benefit of using crowdfunding is once you started a project, you are already building a community and you could benefit from the viral marketing as these supporters help to spread the news of your project through word of mouth.

• Cons of Using Crowdfunding
  The risk involved is when you expose your great idea to the public, it may inspire a lot of copycats. Next, if you need large capital, for example beyond $1 million for your idea, crowdfunding may not suitable for you. Moreover, you have to convince a large crowd that your ideas will work in order for them to contribute so publicizing and marketing your project during the process is critically important.

Examples of Crowdfunding Website
There are, in fact, quite a lot of crowdfunding websites available where you can turn to for funding but majority of them focus specifically on creative artists, designers, filmmakers and musicians. Hence, for your convenience, I have extracted a few crowdfunding websites that are meant more for business ventures, entrepreneurs and startups.

It is mentioned by TechCrunch as the first global crowdfunding tool for startups where you can access to global experts and funders for your project. It is a platform not only open to people looking for fund but also a place for investors looking for interesting startups to invest. In other words, besides getting fund from the public and community, you can get direct investment from investors as well but be prepared to prepare a detailed business plan.

GrowVC has a different crowdfunding business model than the rest as it charge subscription fee instead of one-time fee from the project you raised. Unlike other crowdfunding website that gives you only monetary support, they also have sweat equity investment where experts can invest time and sweat in your business to improve your business venture. For more information on how their model can help you, visit their blog.

Unlike other crowdfunding website, it is free to join KickStarter which made it an attractive option for many startups. They only charge a flat fee of 5% of the fund you have raised if you meet the fundraising goal.

The beauty of using KickStarter is you still have 100% ownership of the business and revenue you generated. The contributors will not gain anything from your venture. But in order to attract enough funding for your project, you must be willing to offer attractive reward (or offer terms) to funders so that they are more willing to fund your project.

The only drawback of using KickStarter is it requires your project to meet the fundraising amount and time limit that you have set otherwise no fund will be released to you.

Like KickStarter, it is free to join IndieGoGo. It may look an attractive option for some as it does not have constraint to meet the funding goal like KickStarter. However, KickStarter does not allow you to have any money if you cannot meet the funding goal but in IndieGoGo, you are allowed to keep whatever amount you have raised. They do charge a slightly higher fee for unmet funding goal though while the normal rate is 4%.

Besides the above website, there are other crowdfunding websites also worth exploring. They are Amazee, CreateaFund, CrowdFunder, Profounder, PeerBackers, Quirky, CoFundOS, FundBreak and Venture Socially.

Tip: Get Funded Quickly
Finally, a tip on how to get your idea funded quickly: establish your group of followers or fans as early as possible. They are the one who usually will be more interested in your idea and more incline to support you since they are your followers/fans. So do take action today and you can leverage on your followers when the needs arise.

One common mistake that most home business owners made is not spending enough time and investment on creating their business marketing collaterals. Most of them are overwhelmed by running of the business that they might have overlooked this. Unknowingly, marketing collaterals are the core means to reach and communicate to your potential customers. Hence, if you are one of the home business owners, you might want to consider producing an adequate set of marketing collaterals to support your marketing activities. The marketing collaterals will not only help to create awareness and visibility but also help to build your brand and promote good images to your target market.

What are Marketing Collaterals?
The marketing collaterals are actually a collection of marketing materials like logo, business card, brochure, flyer, poster, letterhead, envelope, catalog, invoice, banner, fax template, powerpoint presentation template, direct mailer, product brochure, blog or website that used to market and promote your home business.

As a small home business owner, you might start with a tight budget so it is not necessary to get a full list of them at the beginning. Different businesses require different marketing collaterals at different stages of business cycle so the first priority is to identify the most essential marketing collaterals for your current needs. For your convenience, I’ve compiled a list of top ten most essential marketing collaterals for every home business should process.

1. Logo
   This is the first item you must get as it is the identity for your home-based business. It is like a face where your customers can identify your business from other competitors. If you have a unique and memorable logo, you are already half the battle won especially when you are competing in a very competitive and saturated market. Unfortunately, most home business owners prefer to homemade their own logos but might not aware that it costs more harm than good. A business logo will increase in its equity value  when the business grow in times so investing in a well-designed logo today is actually one of the critical steps for your home business success.
2. Business Card
   Business card is the next essential and important marketing collaterals that every home business owners must have. It is almost synonyms to every business owners’ identity card as it lists down the most essential business information like business name, address, contact number together with the business owners’ personal name, email and telephone number. The business card is sometimes used like a mini promotional flyer as some business owners like to list down their product and services behind their business cards.
3. Letterhead
   Besides the logo and business card, the letterhead is also a part of the business identity. It is normally used for formal communication so a simple and clean letterhead is recommended than a graphic-oriented letterhead. A fancy letterhead with heavy graphic or colored background is not suitable for print out as it costs a lot of wastage on printer inks. Nevertheless, letterhead has changed its format slowly from a physical printout to digital format as people tend to email correspondence then snail mailing them now.
4. Envelope
   As most transactions are done online today, there is less need for envelope. However, envelope is still as important because most formal correspondence (for example, when you are dealing with government, finance and legal bodies) still require businesses to use their official letterheads and send via snail mail.  Some bigger business organizations may require small business owners to mail them the invoices so do not ignore envelope. If you have budget to spare, make your envelope the same look and feel as your logo, business card and letterhead as it is also a member of the business identity family.
5. Website / Blog
   This is one of the indispensable marketing collaterals that you must have especially when you are conducting an online business. A website or blog expand your reach to larger group of customers not only locally but globally. It is accessible 24×7 making it convenient for your customers from different time zone. It your website or blog has ecommerce features, your customers can help themselves with transactions without any manual interference making it an autopilot sales machine for you.
6. Powerpoint Presentation Template
   If you need to give presentation to your customers all the time, having a powerpoint presentation template is a great time saver. It saves you from reworking on your powerpoint slides whenever there is a presentation. The powerpoint presentation template should inherit the look and feel of your business identity family as the consistency of image and colors will help to promote professionalism and credibility for your home business.
7. Company Brochure
   The company brochure is simply a fact sheet of your business. It describes the nature of your business, mission, vision, date of business established, contact information and the business owner’s bios. Company brochure is useful when you are meeting new customers, suppliers or even media people. They are a great presentation tool as well as a great marketing tool so don’t leave your office without it.
8. Product or Service Brochure
   The product or service brochure is used to support the sales process so it should be concise and persuasive. Its main objective is to inspire buying decision from the customers so the brochure should be well designed with the product specification and benefits clearly listed. Most product or service brochure is normally printed in A4 paper and folded into 3 panels for ease of transportation. But there are business owners who prefer to be printed A4 size and presented to customers together with the company brochure as a sales kit.
9. Promotional Flyer
   The promotional flyer is usually printed in A5 paper size and used for distribution. Generally promotional flyer is used for advertising, limited promotion or to create awareness of your products or services. Flyer is especially well-liked by most new businesses as it can be an inexpensive way to promote their businesses. However, to be effective, you must know where to distribute your flyers otherwise you might end up polluting the environment.
10. Price List
    A clear price list will help to expedite enquiry process as it facilitates communication and eliminates the time required to do quotation. However, there are some business owners who are not comfortable doing this because they are afraid of copy cat or imitation from the competitors. A good rule of thumb is often not to engage in price war with your competitors, offer value-added services that your competitors are not able to compete. However, if your services or products where you need to quote base on case-by-case basis then it is a different story.