Six lessons from successful home-based businesses

Over the past 35 years, (especially the past 12 as a counselor for SCORE), I have worked with hundreds of small businesses and home-based businesses.  I have analyzed the marketing strategies of the most successful – those making over $100,000 a year.  I found that the successful ones do one or more of six things that others usually do not do.

1. Get people to “beat a path to your door”.  This is what all self-employed people want.  They think that if they provide a good enough or even a great product or service, customers will magically materialize.  So sure that this will be the case, most people going into business for their self don’t even plan on how to get business and are sure they will never have to sell.

Rarely, if ever, does that happen!

However, if you are good at what you do, with proper marketing, you can put together a plan that will draw people to you.

You can:

• Find a need that is not currently being offered … something people want so badly that they would do almost anything to get it.  
• Develop as high a profile as possible with those who need your skills.  Become so well known among the people who want your products or services that plenty of them know that you’re offering it.  
• Do the highly valuable things you do so well that everyone who uses you can’t wait to tell everyone else about you.  (This usually requires a little effort on your part and later I will show you how to do it).
• Make it easy for potential customers to learn about you.  This is much easier to do today than it was 15 or more years ago.  Today it can be as simple as a well designed professional website.

The better you are at what you do and the better known you are for it, the more easily and quickly you will attract business.  You should limit your business to those things you do best or take the time to master those things you don’t do best well before venturing on your own. 

We will discuss this more in number 2, tomorrow.