cake earful: Great Tips for Small Online Businesses 2012

Take great pictures to increase sales. Nothing is more disappointing to customers than cruising the Internet for something to buy and stumbling across a product that sounds great but has a bad or non-existent picture. Let customers see what they are buying by displaying quality photographs on your website of all the products that you offer. Take multiple pictures to show different views when necessary.

If you are selling a product that you make, be absolutely sure that you know how much it is costing you to create, because you do not want to be losing money. A basic wholesale mark-up would be twice the price of cost. A standard retail mark-up would be twice the price of wholesale. Make your price-point something both you and your customers can live with.

Many people think that they can start a business at home with nothing and make it work. While this might be the case sometimes, you should always have an emergency fund and an investment set aside, to help grow your business and offset any sudden emergencies. A good business has a good cushion, and does not red line its way to the top.

Dress for success. In a home office scenario, you may feel the desire to work in your pajamas. Just because you can doesn?t mean you should. Dress up for work like you would for any other business. This puts you in the right mind set to be as productive as possible.

You will want to rent a post-office box for receiving any mail related to your home business. It is not safe to publish your address online, and you need to be careful. Having a PO box is a security measure and will prevent someone you don?t know from coming to your home unannounced.

Once you decide to start a home business you need to get online. It is essential that you choose the right host for your site. The first thing you need to do is figure out what your needs are. Do you want a simple HTML site or do you plan on including features such as a discussion board, a database and ecommerce? Your hosting company must support all of the features you need at a reasonable price.

You can write off part of your internet bill on your taxes if your home business is internet based. Be honest as this will protect you in case of an audit.

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If you are going to splurge on any home office furniture, splurge on a very comfortable office chair. You are going to spend many, many hours in this chair and if it is uncomfortable, you will not be as productive as you could be and you could technically, do damage to your body.

Join a few online forums and discussion groups that focus on the subject of home business. A quick Internet search will turn up quite a few good sites, and you can glean some wonderful information from them. There are also many online blogs that you will find helpful. Don?t be afraid to ask questions.

If you are going to start a home business you should only sell items you have an interest in. If you don?t like or believe in what you are selling then you won?t convince your customers to buy it either. If you don?t like the product then don?t sell it.

If you have developed a product that you want to sell on a wholesale basis, identify your potential business customers through search engine results, local stores or word of mouth. Contact these stores via email, asking them if you can send them a free sample or wholesale package with several samples. Follow up after sending to help make the sale.

Make sure your home business web site looks professional and is designed with the user in mind. While there are numerous options to build your own site for little or no cost, often investing a little in a clean and professional design pays off quickly. Visitors are more likely to return again or recommend your site if it is easy to use and appealing.

Take breaks. Keeping a home business going can take a lot of work, and many work at home business owners work non-stop as long as they can. This is a mistake. Taking regular breaks makes you in fact more likely to have a clear head when dealing with business issues.

Find out how to accept credit card purchases for your home business. There are several wonderful web sites online that can help you with the process. You can also check with your bank to see if they can help. You need to make it as convenient as possible for people to buy your product; if it is a hassle, they probably will not want to bother completing the deal.

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