Starting your home-based business is a step toward financial and personal freedom. You choose your hours, afford what you want for your family and build the life you’ve always dreamed of. Of course, if it were that easy, everyone would do it. There are so many factors when it comes to making sure your home-based business is successful. From creating a website that works to form a Florida LLC, every step is important!
Home-Based Business Tips for Success
Before you jump in, perhaps we’d better look at some home-based business tips to ensure there are no nasty surprises ahead.
Invoice your clients
When you switch to home-based self-employment, the revenue stream from your business becomes your sole means of supporting your family. You won’t have time to make money any other way. This is it. You need invoicing (click to create an invoice online).
Instead of chasing every client with follow-up email after follow-up email, repeatedly requesting that the client check their inbox and their spam folder for their bill, you can go one better. Invoicing is neat, timely, professional, and can help you pay.
An invoice gives your client a breakdown of your services, billed at the agreed rates. You can also provide details of how to pay, removing any opportunity for the client to suggest that they were unsure of the details. Unscrupulous clients may otherwise attempt to sidestep payment, leaving you wishing you’d invested in invoicing software much earlier.
Create a work schedule (and stick to it)
Clients want something for nothing. They may pay you for three or five hours or a set piece of work that you estimate will take around 10 hours to complete, which is fine. But then they will want extra meetings to check on progress. They will want changes along the way. They will want extra changes once the work is complete. And they may need even more time at the final sign-off stage to gain the approval of stakeholders before paying.
This adds to your original time frame, taking a 10-hour task into the 20-hour bracket. Ensure you design a work schedule that allows you to complete your tasks for all clients on time. This means you must stand your ground and request further payment from clients who think their changes were included in the price.
Learn to be professional across channels.
Communication is vital. How often have you spoken to online vendors (for example, when ordering a personalized item from a private seller on an e-commerce site) only to find that their response is essential, unwelcoming, borderline rude, and filled with spelling and grammar errors?
How you choose to communicate your brand is up to you. But if you choose the quick and dirty method of barely getting your message over the line, don’t expect that customer to return. Greet anyone who gets in touch. Thank them for taking the time to check out your brand. Point out any special offers, answer their query, and offer further assistance. It’s not rocket science, but it is the science of selling.