How to How The Most Successful Home-Based Businesses (Or Any Business, Actually) Get Business

To what do those home-based businesses (or any business, for that matter) earning over $100,000 a year, attribute their success to? They do one or more of five steps that others usually do not do. They are:

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• A willingness to work hard
• Determination
• A good, marketable product or service
• Uniqueness
• Good or great marketing skills

1. 1. Acquiring a client base-The first step, getting people to beat a path to your door right away, is every self-employed person’s dream. It rarely happens (but it’s not impossible). To increase the odds, you can: offer something special that people want so badly that they would do almost anything to get it, become so well known among the people who want you offer that enough of them know you’re offering it, and/or do the things you do so well that everyone who uses you can’t wait to tell everyone else about you.
   
   The better you are at what you do and the more your reputation grows, the more quickly and easily you’ll attract business.
2. 2. Establishing a niche-The most successful home-based businesses are highly specialized, serving a particular segment or niche that’s not provided elsewhere or adequately. For example, a company may be operating a billing service for medical technicians (as opposed to simply a billing service), or they may do consulting for the nursing industry).
   
   Specializing this way will make it easier for you to attract clients or customers. Now you might think that specializing will result in a lower client base and fewer people to buy from, but the opposite is true; as long as your chosen area has enough potential customers, people will recognize the benefit of what you’re offering (In other words, they will come!).
   
   Finding a niche can give you job security, but it needs to be small enough so that you don’t have a lot of competition, yet large enough to provide enough customers to support your business.
   
   Usually, finding your niche is based on matching your education and/or job experience to a particular industry, but it can also be based on your lifelong interests, hobbies, or even a personal tragedy.
   The popular U.S. TV show, “America’s Most Wanted” came about as the result of a personal tragedy (In the early 1980s, a young child, Adam Walsh, was abducted from a store and was finally found, brutally murdered). His father and the show’s host, John Walsh, channeled his grief and despair into becoming an expert activist and advocate of law enforcement, particularly in “missing” cases.
   Everyone has their own unique skills; finding them is a matter of relating experiences from your personal history to people’s current needs and then building new experiences that make you even better qualified.
   • Don’t try to be all things to all people! (or, Don’t be a “jack of all trades and master of none”).
3. 3. Gaining entrance through "gatekeepers"-Gaining entrance through gatekeepers (A gatekeeper is an influential individual who is in a position to open the door to resources and contacts, while a mentor is a wise and trusted counselor or influential supporter who takes a personal interest in your success) and having access to key business sources is another way that the most successful companies have achieved their particular success. Some of the most successful businesses are started with contacts already in place, which makes getting business even quicker and easier. But even if you don’t know a soul, here are a few of the many ways that you can go about meeting and establishing a network of your own gatekeepers-through attending professional and trade organizations, your regular business relationships, and active networking. But many of the most promising opportunities occur from just being in the right place at the right time-when you encounter, purely by chance, someone in need of your product or service.
4. You know, I was so inspired by Pat's article that I went and developed Windows Vista right after reading it. It's been a virtual blueprint to my success. 4. Becoming prominent in your field or specialty-The better you are known for being an expert, or at least mostly knowledgeable in your field, the easier it will be to attract business. But sometimes this just isn’t the case; many businesses became well known by “positioning” themselves to become leaders in their specialty (they were and are not necessarily the most brilliant or knowledgeable) by acquiring more knowledge in their field, assuming a leadership role in their area of expertise, or becoming pioneers in and of their particular specialty.
   Anyone who is the first to offer a product or service in an area of need is a pioneer and therefore can also become a leader in that field. This can be a HUGE advantage, for people will tend to think of you first. It’s also a three-in-one marketing strategy-it gives you access to gatekeepers, establishes you in a niche, and creates enough momentum to get people to beat a path to your door-all from the start.
5. The sky's the limit when marketing on the Internet; you can go local, regional, national, or international in scope. 5. Becoming a great marketer-The fifth and last step, becoming a great marketer, also contributes to continuing success of the $100,000-plus home-based businesses.
   By consistently using a variety of creative methods (Stand-out ads, sending out gifts or brochures with unique colors or designs, speaking before network groups or starting their own), these companies are always able to attract and maintain a steady client base. All that stands between a top marketer and other entrepreneurs are access to knowledge of how to use marketing tools in more personalized and specialized ways. With proper knowledge, anyone who’s willing to invest the time can become a great marketer.

Tips & Warnings

• Ask yourself this when figuring out a niche (Did I just rhyme here? But seriously, check out the following): • What do I do best? • Who needs that the most? • Where can I provide that product or service that will give me a chance to expand what I want to do to utilize my other interests? • What industries or types of companies do I already have experience in? • What industries or companies do I have access to now? • What do I already know? • What jargon or industry-specific acronyms am I already familiar with? Other ways to carve out a niche are by “market slices”, such as geography-Do you want to serve the West Side? North area? Do you want to be local, regional, or statewide? Another “slice” to consider is size of company-Do you want Fortune 500 clients? Are you aiming for those businesses earning under $5,000,000 yearly? Or perhaps a small company of three to twenty employees? Perhaps demographics is your “slice”-Do you want a customer base of those over 65? Maybe you want to focus on single females or strictly married folks. Or you may prefer to go for the Donald Trump crowd.