PMI Home Business

We received the following email from a couple enrolled in our education program

“Thank you.

After talking with you, we feel energized — a sense of purpose fueled with reality. Thanks for giving us your example.

I will follow up with the specifics you requested — our list of suppliers, purchase of the domain name create and specific categories, as well as the text I’d written in April for your review and suggestions.

We wanted to register our hearty thanks immediately.

Bob and Sandra”

We enjoy working with each client and helping them progress through our program at their own pace. The success of each of our students is important to us.

**information removed from this text to protect client privacy

Filed under: PMI by PMI Home Business on Wednesday, August 17, 2011
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Are you considering finally leaving your job to spend more time with your family? Setting up and operating a home-based business is for you. It would enable you to earn income while you stay at home. You would be your own boss and would not need to report to other people or to leave your home everyday just to work. Here are five recommended steps to putting up your own home-based business.

1: Choose your best business ideas

Fortunately, home-based businesses could be easily started these days. Thanks to the Internet technology, startups could easily connect to numerous people who could be customers or consumers of the products or services offered. There is a myriad of possible opportunities for generating money online. You could decide to operate your home-based business on the Internet if you really intend to earn good income through working from home.

2: Draft your working business plan

Such a document is not just for formality. You could very well use it as a strategic guide to your business path. In your business plan, do some research about your possible competition, the industry you are intending to join, your products and services, your business scale, and rundown of initial operations. It should tell you how you intend to operate and run the startup business. You could also include details about possible legal impediments, costs, and financial projections.

3: Seek necessary advice

Before you finally roll out your new business, seek appropriate and useful advice from the experts. You may have a meaningful consultation with financial experts or industry stalwarts. They could provide you sound advice and guidance on how to go about owning and running a startup business.

4: Have a winning name

By now you should already have realized the importance of finding and using a good name for your business. It should convey a great marketing potential and should be spared from possible legal rudiments (in other words, original). Business name registration without a doubt is a must. You should immediately register a good name you have come up with for your home-based business before some other people register it. If required in your community, get the necessary business license.

5: Obtain small business financing

If your planned business requires a significant amount of capital, you should start finding possible fund sources. Your home-based business may not require great capital. If that is the case, your own personal savings may enable you to ramp it up. Otherwise, you may need to consider several possible sources of capital like loans, part-time jobs, and cash advance facilities of credit cards. You may also try borrowing money from your family and friends.

Try to avoid any possible setbacks for your home-based business. Carefully plan it before rolling it out. This way, you could be sure it would operate without a hassle and possibly enable you to take returns on your investment.

Andrew Black contributes to small business forums, where he help small businesses with funding and business loans.

Filed under: PMI by Scott on Wednesday, June 22, 2011
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Drop shipping is a business model that allows you to sell physical products to end customers without shipping the products yourself. Drop shipping is great but not easy. There is a light but existing entry barrier that keeps most “get rich quick” folks out of it.

The drop ship business requires more work and dedication than throwing a blog or affiliate store. Its advantages are:

• Lower competition.
• You set your own profit margins.
• Buyers don’t get redirected to some other site. They buy from you and remain your customers.
• It’s a long-term business model.

Here is what it takes to start drop ship business from home:

1. Discover a niche You need your small and focused place in the market to succeed. There are hundreds of books and blog posts about discovering niche for your new website. The process for drop shipping is the same. You only need to focus on product niches. You are not interested in people who want to know how to take photos of butterflies – unless you have special butterfly camera to sell them.
2. Find suppliers Finding just any supplier is easy. The challenge is to find suppliers who will want to work with a small one-person business and at the same time have good prices and reliable delivery. There are several reliable (paid) directories online which list checked and proven drop ship suppliers. There are thousands of free or paid directories offering outdated or simply fake lists. You can also try to do the hard work and search yourself, contact suppliers, one by one, ask for quotes and whether they will work with you. Whatever you choose, don’t neglect this process. The reliability of your suppliers will make or break your business.
3. Build a store Many drop-shippers sell on eBay. It’s a great platform and certainly cheap way to reach buyers. It’s also a cut-throat place where buyers look for lowest prices and there are always sellers to offer them. It’s fine to sell on eBay, just don’t consider it the only place to run your business. You need to build your own web store. If your budget is low, start with WordPress and e-commerce plugin or open source shopping cart software. If you can afford custom development and design, definitely go with it. Your store will convert better if it doesn’t look like some quickly set up site with a free e-commerce script. At the very minimum you do need a domain name, your own custom logo and premium theme for your store.
4. Promote your store You need to build traffic to your web store. You can work hard on SEO and link building or you can pay for visitors and hope to convert them. The first method is long and slow, the second is quick and expensive. Usually you’ll have to mix both to succeed. Don’t forget also the new channels – Facebook and Twitter can turn into great sources for targeted traffic and great platforms to socially interact with your customers.
5. Follow up with your customers It’s several times easier to sell to someone who have already bought from you once than to a stranger. So make sure your customers are happy with their purchases. Follow up and ask them. Insert their emails in a newsletter and send them useful information and hot deals once in a while. Give them reasons to come back and buy again. If you care for your existing customers you may soon reach the point where you don’t need more traffic to your store. Old customers will buy again and again and new clients will come through the word of mouth. Think long-term.

Author byline: If you want to start with drop-shipping, make sure you can find good suppliers. And if you have money on hand maybe you’d prefer to buy an established drop ship store rather than building one from scratch.

Filed under: PMI by Guest Post on Wednesday, June 15, 2011
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You might think that this post is a little far out from the other posts in this site. I know that too but I think this subject needs to be discussed here for the benefit of those who make money online by working at home.

Many people think that working in an office is a far cry from working at home. Many of you think that it is more difficult to be in an office environment than being at home. At the office, you have your boss who hovers at you from to time. You get yelled at if you make mistakes and you cannot sleep at will.

You can lounge anytime at home though. You can eat whatever you want and work whenever you feel like doing it. Nope! I hate to burst your little bubble but it’s not as easy as that. When you work at home, you have many other responsibilities to juggle.

You need to maintain your home, take care of your kids and pet, plus other gazillion things to think about. If you don’t how to manage your time well, you will drown in these tasks. To help you become productive at home while making money online, you might want to follow the tips in this post.

• Make a list. List what you need to do for the entire day – both work and home tasks. You can use a planner, post its, or your computer for your list. Mark what you will be doing on a specific time and make sure that you finish what you set out to do an a given time frame.
• Do household chores before busying yourself with work. You will not be able to concentrate on your work if, at the back of your head, there is a pile of dishes to wash. As soon as you finish all your pending household chores, you will notice that you will breeze through your work because you can now focus.
• Plan ahead of time. For example, you can make use of your rest day or Sunday to plan your tasks for the week. Again, take note of the pressing matters that should be done, the errands, and the work tasks that should be finished during that week. It is helpful if you rank your list according to their importance. Remember to stick to your plan and schedule.
• Set a break time. Your brain will function well if you are well rested. Take breaks from time to time to relax.
• Avoid distractions. You are well aware of what your distractions are. Turn off your phone, avoid checking personal emails and social networking sites (except if this is part of your work), turn off your TV, log out from skype or yahoo messenger, or stay away from online games. Instead, turn all your attention to what needs to be done. you can do all those after work time anyway.
• Relax. There are times when your mind does not work despite all the effort you have been putting through. If this time comes, walk it off and rest for awhile. Time is wasted if you continue staring at your blank monitor. Take a break and do something else to relax your mind. When you come back to your work, you’ll see that you are doing better.

You see, working at home is not as easy as you think. As I have said, there are many other tasks that need your attention too. But if you will set a plan for your work, you will find it easy to manage your work and home duties.

Take care and remember these tips.

Author’s bio: Marcy Gray is a home-based worker who is also battling her time management problems. Aside from being a hardworking daughter, she also writes about a variety of topics such as danby ddr7009ree and whirlpool ap51030k

Filed under: Business, Guest Post by Guest Post on Monday, June 13, 2011
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If you’re the owner of a home-based business it’s important to save money wherever possible. Getting the best deal on insurance is one of the things you should strive to do. Following are some insurance tips for home business owners.

Necessary Coverage

There is a difference between what you want and what you need. In order to operate a home business efficiently, you need to watch your overhead. That calls for you to only buy what’s necessary, and forget about the frills. When talking about insurance coverage that means making sure you have enough coverage without spending more than you need to.

Types of Insurance

Basically there are three types of insurance your home-based business will need. They are pretty much the same as any homeowner would carry: property, health, and life. Property insurance will protect you in the event someone is injured while on your property. Health insurance will provide you with a source of income and pay medical bills if you’re injured or become sick. Carrying sufficient life insurance will mean your family will be financially protected if you pass away. A fourth type of insurance that most homeowners carry is vehicle insurance. If you don’t use your vehicle for business purposes you won’t have to include it in your business insurance policy. If your home business makes a product or sells a service, you may also need to look into liability insurance, which will protect you in the event of a lawsuit.

Decide What Your Needs Are

Knowing what you want and deciding on how much of it you need are two different things. Since you know you will need property, health, and life insurance, you now have to decide on how much of each type to buy. Develop a checklist of possible problems that could pop up under each category of insurance. Carefully determine how likely those potential problems could be, and decide how much of each type would be prudent to carry. Your answer is totally subjective–there is no definitive way of knowing if you’ll ever need the coverage, but the old adage of better safe than sorry should be a guiding principal.

High Deductibles, or Low Deductibles–That Is the Question

One of the most difficult decisions to make when taking out insurance coverage is whether or not to take a chance on a high deductible policy. It is an accepted procedure within the insurance industry to offer lower rates for high deductibles. While this sounds good on the surface, it could lead to disaster if you have a lot of little problems that require you to file multiple claims. With a high deductible policy you would have to pay a lot of money out-of-pocket for each claim, which would negate any savings you previously enjoyed. On the other hand, if you’re fortunate enough to have a minimal number of claims you will have saved a lot of money on insurance premiums.

Dedicated Savings Account

One way you can improve your chances of making the right decision is to go with a high deductible policy while at the same time protecting yourself by opening a savings account for emergency use only. This type of dedicated savings account will not only allow your money to make money until it’s needed, it will let you enjoy the reduced insurance premiums from a high deductible policy. If you go this route you will need to use the self control necessary to leave the money in that account alone unless and until you actually need it.

Shop for the Best Deal

After you’ve determined what type of coverage you will need, and the amount you feel comfortable with carrying, it’s time to find an insurance company that will offer the policy you want at a reasonable price. That means you’ll have to go shopping. The first step is to get some price quotes from various companies. Going online and getting quotes is a fairly simple procedure, and will provide you with a starting point. Start calling various insurance companies and explain your needs. Compare the insurance quotes you get from the brick and mortar companies with the online prices you’ve attained and make a determination on a carrier. Don’t sign any papers until you’re completely satisfied that you’re getting the coverage you need at a price you’re comfortable with.

Guest post from Bailey Harris. Bailey enjoys writing about business, insurance, finance, and related topics.

Filed under: Business by Scott on Friday, May 27, 2011 | Social tagging: Business > home > insurance
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One of the biggest obstacles that can prevent a freelancer from earning an income is the inability to respect his project deadlines. Unfortunately, the fact that you are working from home, combined with several other factors that you unfortunately cannot control, can often easily make you lose track of time and thus unable to deliver your project on time. Obviously, this is something you absolutely need to avoid since an unhappy seller will invariably leave you negative feedback and this may drastically affect your freelancing career, especially if you are new to the community.

As such, one of the most important things to do when embarking in a project is to quote a deadline that you are absolutely sure you can meet. Otherwise, you run the risk of not being able to deliver on time, which will obviously cause you to panic and can be extremely stressful. When you are bidding on a project, many freelancers mistakenly assume that a faster delivery date will increase their chances of being selected. They thus give short deadlines in the hopes that this will impress the buyer into choosing them.

However, this is often far from the actual truth. The thing to understand here is that if the buyer has already selected a deadline for the project, it is well within your rights to choose that last day as your delivery day. The fact that a deadline has already been specified means the buyer does not expect to receive a complete project before. In such instances, if you feel that you cannot complete the project must earlier, you can explain why you need the time quoted when bidding on the project.

Of course, you however still want to deliver a bit before the deadline whenever possible. While this is not a big factor in increasing your selection chances, it can nevertheless still be an advantage if the buyer cannot select between two quality bids. In such cases, a shorter deadline could work to your advantage. When you prepare your bid, you should thus give a deadline that you absolutely know you can stick to.

A good deadline estimate, regardless of the project, is to work out how many days you actually need and add a couple of days to it to cater for these little problems you could not originally account for. For example, if you had a coding project that you know would require 10 days as long as you worked on it according to a set schedule, it would be preferable to quote 12 instead of those 10 days. In this case, even if something happens and delays you, you have two extra days to complete the project. And if you do manage to work on it according to the schedule you prepared, you will be able to deliver the project even before the deadline, which will no doubt please the buyer and may even result in an extra bonus.

Ashvin Sawmynaden works with Paradise Cove, a popular ile maurice hotel which is also very famous for its stellar spa ile maurice services.

Filed under: Business by Scott on Wednesday, May 25, 2011 | Social tagging: deadlines > project
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In recent times, the phenomenon of working at home has steadily grown in popularity. People are able to enter various avenues when working from home nowadays; whether you are simply taking advantage of the home computer and internet, you have decided to set up your own business or you have chosen the profession of a freelance writer, working from home can throw up many conundrums.

Speaking from experience, it can be difficult to find the motivation to begin work on any given day at home and then persevere with it. It can be of particular complexity if you have only just begun to work from home, having spent the majority of your time in an office. But, during my time as a freelance writer, I have come up with some tips to remain productive throughout the day. It is my hope that they can in some way assist you:

Have a work room

The best tip that you can follow is to set aside a room specifically for work. It doesn’t need to be a grand study, as long as it’s quiet and holds whatever you need for working. This way, once you enter the room you know you’re in your work environment and it’s time to get down to business.

However, some people may not have a room free in the house, a common problem if you live in a flat (again, personal experience for this one!) or have a large family. If this is true then the best you can do is disconnect anything that could be of distraction, such as the TV. Even getting someone to block access to certain distracting websites, such as social networking websites, can do wonders for channelling your internet usage into helpful sites, rather than spending 2 of your working hours chatting with a friend about last night’s football game on an instant messenger!

Give yourself a schedule

Set yourself a realistic time table and condition yourself to work to it. Make sure you don’t do too much or too little work a day; remember, not doing enough work won’t bring in the money you want, while doing too much work is likely to lower the quality of what you produce. A good time to set is around 5 hours a day with regular breaks.

This time table isn’t for everyone of course, and those who have other commitments such as a family life, college or university studies may find it hard to reach this target. It’s important to set your own boundaries.

Make sure everyone else knows your schedule

An essential tip if you live with family or flatmates. Social distractions can often be the hardest to resist, whether it’s just going for “a quick half” at the local with a flatmate or reading a story to a son or daughter.

Don’t multitask

This is something freelancers may particularly have issues with. While it is commendable and encouraged to dedicate some time a week to looking for other jobs, make sure you’re not on more than one at any given time! Apart from being difficult to change your mind set from one task to another, writing a paragraph about dental insurance in the middle of an essay on the Cold War can seem out of place to say the least.

For some, having just one task at a time can be difficult, especially for students. This is what makes rotating days so useful, so you can do one day of your freelance work and then concentrate on your studies the next. If you find yourself with a large work load this might not be possible, but actually having a different location to do each type of work can help to create a barrier between the two; for example, doing university study at the library and freelance work at home can help create a gap between the two and set your mind to that particular task.

This article was written by Lewis who is a freelance writer for medical and dental websites including the Cosmetic Dentistry Guide.

Filed under: Business by Scott on Wednesday, May 4, 2011 | Social tagging: home based > tips > work from home
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What is Cloud Web Hosting?

A website that is cloud hosted functions by way of multiple servers that are connected to each other. Traditional web hosting involved a single dedicated or shared server, whereas cloud hosting takes advantage of the resources of multiple servers. In effect, this means that processing power is no longer a worry – in fact, it’s unlimited, because you can constantly increase the amount of servers your site is connected to at any time.  You might not realize it but if you use Google you are already an active part of cloud web hosting because all their searches are facilitated through the use of cloud hosting.

What are the Advantages of Cloud Web Hosting?

1. The biggest advantage of cloud web hosting is the scalability factor. As already mentioned, you can add more servers as you see fit, therefore eliminating the stress of slow processing.
2. As a result of point 1, you can expand your website as you see fit without limitation. In the past, website owners who decided to upgrade from a shared server to a dedicated server had to go through the pain of moving the entire website to the new server. Thankfully cloud web hosting has put an end to such hassles.

What about cost?
Cloud web hosting is definitely worth the additional cost. In fact, it’s very cost-effective. You pay for the server power you actually use, as opposed to paying for access to a powerful server ‘just to be safe’. Think of it like paying for garbage disposal by weight instead of paying for the removal of a full refuse bin even if it’s only half full. Up to now it’s been necessary to pay for dedicated or shared server infrastructure that often sits idle for extended periods of time. There’s no value in a service like that.

Cloud web hosting also offers great peace of mind to your customers and this, in turn, will increase revenue. The embarrassment of having a customer’s website fail is really something you don’t want or need. This won’t happen with cloud web hosting because there’s really no such thing as processing overload. Customers’ websites will not fail with cloud web hosting. The value in that peace of mind is more than just financial – it increases your credibility as a business and draws new customers to you.

Cloud web hosting is worth every penny and, in the long run, can end up saving you money.

Learn on doing free people search on this website.

Filed under: Business, Guest Post by PMI Home Business on Monday, May 2, 2011 | Social tagging: cloud hosting > hosting > website costs
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Whether you’re still dreaming of working at home or are already running your own business, there’s one practical element that you need to think clearly about; where you’re doing your actual work, and setting an office at home accordingly.

Why should you set up a home office?

There are several reasons why it is a good idea to set up a professional working environment at home, but let’s run through the top points:

1. Professionalism – You may want to arrange any meetings to take place at your client’s workplace, but this may not always be possible.  If you do need to invite someone to your office, you need a professional workplace that shows that you mean business. Having a professional workspace may actually help you to have a more professional attitude towards your business, helping you to be more efficient.
2. Getting a good work-life balance – Any self-employed business person will know the struggle to get a good work-life balance.  If you work in the same space where you play with your kids, entertain your friends or just relax, striking the balance can be that bit harder. Having a separate office creates a clear distinction between home and work, both for you and your family. It’s much easier to tell family you need to work when you can close the door and have some peace.
3. Health and Safety Matters – When you are your own boss you need to take care of your own welfare, and that means giving proper consideration to health and safety. Back pain is a widespread problem, and hunching over a laptop balanced on your knees is a recipe for chronic conditions.  Constant computer use can also cause Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI), lead to deterioration of eyesight and other health problems. You need a working environment that’s fit for purpose, to keep you healthy.

So what do you need to set up a home business?

You don’t need much to create a separate work space, but the ideal solution would be to have a separate room.  You can decide for yourself exactly what equipment you need (business phone line? company web connection?).

You will need a desk and a chair; it’s very important to choose the right one for you. You should be able to sit with your feet flat on the floor and your knees slightly lower than your hips. Your lower back should be supported, and you should be able to rest your arms on your desk with your arms at a 90 degree angle.

If you are working on a computer you should aim to place your monitor in your eye line, so you don’t have to look down at the screen.  Wrist supports can help to ensure your arms are aligned correctly, minimizing the risk of RSIs.

Note: If you use a laptop, you should consider setting up a laptop station, with a separate keyboard so you can position your screen correctly.
If you use your phone a lot, you should consider buying a headset so that you don’t have to cradle the receiver, placing strain on your neck.

Setting up an effective home office is simply a case of using your common sense and trying to minimizing the impact of sitting still for long periods of time.  For a professional appearance, a clear work-life distinction and your health, make sure you get it right first time.

Katie Saxon works with Get Back Supplies, providers of quality ergonomic office furniture to keep office workers’ backs healthy.

Filed under: Business by Scott on Monday, March 28, 2011 | Social tagging: Business > home > office
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Productivity at home can be difficult, especially as you won’t generally have the level of hardware, software, and resources typically found in an office environment. If you normally work in an office and know you will have to work at home for a short period of time, then plan ahead, and ensure you have the right tools and options available to you while away from your primary place of work. If, however, you work at home full-time, then you need to learn to be more productive with the resources available to you, and turn your one-man operation into something much more efficient.

1. Outsourcing Firstly, don’t be afraid to delegate. Just because you may be working from home, doesn’t mean you can’t get things done by other people. Consider outsourcing aspects of your work as a way of enhancing your overall productivity – some examples of which are below:

• oDesk: This find-a-freelancer type website has become increasingly popular over the past few years, as more and more people are realising they can outsource tedious tasks for a fraction of the cost typically associated with going to an agency directly.
• Fiverr: A website in which people advertise to do almost anything for $5 – this can be an extremely useful way to get some small tasks completed for next to no money. Need a quick jingle creating, or a poster advertising your brand? You can probably get it on Fiverr.

2. Toolsets Working in an office you can get accustomed to using the tools that are seen as standard in most workplaces; including simplistic ones such as Microsoft Outlook. Although you may not be able to afford an exchange server or an expensive mail database, there are some great free alternatives available such as Gmail – allowing you to use a combination of a large mailbox, with integration into the other Google products such as Google Docs.

Avoid spending money on expensive software that you may only use sporadically, as there will usually be a free alternative that does the task in a much more cost effective manner.

3. Connectivity With the rise in smart phones and the ability to be connected to the internet, there is no reason you can’t be switched on to your business no matter where you are. Checking the internet and your emails has become standard protocol for people out of the office (including a home office), but there is also no reason why you can’t be available by phone when away from your primary location.

VoIP systems allow for the flexibility to be connected to your phone system no matter where you are (providing there is an internet connection), and this be the perfect solution to ensure you don’t miss an important call when away from the main point of call.
Similarly, if you are working with some freelancers as part of a team, then you can ensure you are constantly connected through the use of mobile applications. oDesk provide a useful mobile application for monitoring the progress of your outsourced team, and Basecamp (the project management tool) have recently launched a mobile-friendly version of their website.

The above was a guest post by business VoIP specialist PackNet. If the nature of your business means you (or your employees) often have to work from home, then the flexibility that a VoIP system offers may be the perfect solution to your telecoms requirements.

Filed under: Business by Scott on Friday, March 25, 2011 | Social tagging: Business > home > productivity
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