Working from home means that you are your own boss, your own accountant, your own lawyer and your own customer service. You do all the job and there is no one else to delegate these responsibilities to. So in this case, you have to get better acquainted with what it means and how it should be handled.

First of all, allocate a separate phone line or number to your business calls. It would be more professional to keep your private and professional lives in different corners, it will certainly contribute to your home-based business.

There are some simple rules that are great when you will have to deal with the customers.

Rule #1 With the customers, Be Polite and Helpful. Be ready to describe your service or product and show why it is better to use your services than those across the road. Offer free samples, offer some additional information on the subject so that the contact is established and the road to mutual trust is laid out.

To go customer-wise, you have to compile a well-presented portfolio, you can find a lot of tips and samples to follow on the net. There are websites that offer you to leave your potfolio with them so that the prospective employer can find you.

Rule #2 With customers, Be Grateful. Apart from showing your appreciation of the good job that you have done together verbally, send the best customers a gift or a personalized note, or invite for lunch. In this way you will prove that they are really valuable and precious, which will repay in kind.

Never leave your work unfinished. If you feel that you are not able to do it at the moment you can suggest another professional, who might have a similar qualification, to your customer. For this purposes, learn your competitors and make friends with them, you can form an excellent team.

You can also ask your customers to leave their comments and complaints at your website, so you can in this way improve your work and learn better what the customer needs.

[tag] working from home, home-based business, well-presented portfolio, gift, personalized note [/tag]

So where were we? In the previous articles we talked about the tips to help you and your home-based business succeed. You have acquired all the necessary equipment and ready to start. Here you have to make sure that your workplace is not in the center of your house battlefield with children running around and shouting out battle cries and picking up the phone when your potential client is calling.

It is better to allot a separate room to your home office, a well-lit and well-organized place where you feel comfortable. There are some tips that you might find useful:

1. Advertise yourself online. Joning online discussion groups and forums can provide you with essential information regarding your business. But what more, it can help you establish yourself as an enterpreneur and get clients. Some use it as an efficient marketing tool.

2. Become an expert. Again forums are a valuable method of making oneself heard. You can enter them after you have started to state that there is you and you are good at what you do. Post your opinions to various expert and analyst sites.

3. Get into spotlight. If you have a chance and time, you should get coverage in a local show or on a local or national TV show. You can create a show as ‘a free sample’ to share your knowledge with people. It is a great way to become popular and again advertise your products or services.

4. Perform your job brilliantly. This is probably the best way to sell. Get your job done as efficiently as you can and get ‘word-of-mouth’ information chain started. If your clients are satisfied and impressed, they will tell their friends and neighbors about you.

Business cards can also play a role. Order a good bunch of them to distribute not only among your friends and relatives, but give several of them to your clients so that they could pass them on. Offering several business cards also shows that you are confidence that they will be useful.

[tag] home-based business, online discussion group, forum, marketing tool [/tag]

Loving your profession and job is not enough for starting a home-based business. You have to put maximum of your perseverance and energy into it and think carefully what can be done for your business to go up and prospering.

You know or at least can agree that most articles that tell you about the ways to take the hassle out of it are written by the companies who want to sell their products or services. Your business is a baby that needs to be tended and taken care of.

Here are some tips that can help you to gain more profit faster:

1. Make a business plan. For this you will have to sit down and crealy state your goals and desires you want to be achieved. As well, compile a list of what you will need for this to happen. Write down everything from brochures to the services of professionals that you might need to resort to.

2. Get a clear focus. Do not disperse your efforts among multiple products for dropshipping. Do some market research to find out what sells and what there is a demand for.

3. Present your work. You can a offer free sample of your work to your prospective clients. People are usually eager to give it a try and you can use this chance to advertise your skills and demonstrate the quality of your work.

4. Offer your contact information. Provide your e-mail address, telephone numbers and website on your voice-mail. At your website arrange your contact section on the opening page so that it is well-presented and noticeable for the visitor.

5. Cooperate with other businesses. If you provide pet services, then you can leave your brochures at the local vet. If you are a writer, get published or published about in the local paper.

6. Take care of customers. If you are sitting and waiting for them to phone, getting desperate in this expectation, dial the number yourself and touch base. See how the customer is faring and ask if you can help them. Helping with the right advice or information can make you a valuable partner.

To be continued with the tips. If you can help me with any, I appreciate your sending comments.

[tag]home-based business, business plan, dropshipping [/tag]