Business Building Advice and Ideas

Question

I just got laid off from my job as a Secretary and I need to start making money right away. What would you suggest?

Answer

For starters I would suggest that you begin putting your great office skills to use immediately as a freelancer and work from home.

Your office skills are in high demand on guru.com and elance.com.

Go to each site and look at all the work that is posted. Review each site and create your own profile detailing your skills and availability. Please do not underestimate your skills.

Each site will show you how to quote on projects on their site.

You could probably have yourself setup by the end of the weekend and start quoting on projects on Monday morning. Get to work and best of luck!

Question

I run my own carpentry business and it is growing like crazy.

There are never enough hours in a day to get everything done. I have several guys working on projects with me during the day, but when I get home at night I still have all this office work to do.

My business is based out of my home. I need help with the administrative work, but I do not have space to accommodate an onsite Admin Assistant. What can I do?

Answer

Have you considered hiring a Virtual Assistant? A virtual assistant is an excellent idea for many reasons.

First off, they work from their office or home office, not yours.

The second great advantage is that they work on a contract basis, meaning that you only pay them for the exact number of hours that they work on your business as opposed to paying them for sitting in your office all day whether they are busy or not.

A virtual assistant can help you maintain and even grow your business further by looking after your email, following up on outstanding invoices, booking travel arrangements, maintaining client relationships, creating and executing new marketing plans, and simply organizing your weekly appointments and schedule so that you can stay on top of things.

Make a list of the things you would like your virtual assistant to do and start interviewing a few immediately. You will love the benefits and you will actually be able to relax in the evenings.

Question

A friend and I have been kicking around some great business ideas. One of our ideas is that we would love to start our own website about how to make jewellery, but we do not know anything about designing or creating a website. I am able to use Word and Excel quite well.

I have read so many websites that say "you can build a website in an afternoon". Is that true? Should I sign up for that or do I need to take some courses in website design first?

Answer

Funny you should ask that question. I use to think that I could create a website on a Saturday afternoon, no problem.

And I didn't even see the websites you are talking about. I just thought, how hard can it be? Well my husband smiled and walked away because he knew I couldn't get it done in one afternoon.

Guess what? He was right.

Building a website is an excellent business idea, but if you are going to do it, you want to do it right the first time.

This means that you want to learn how to research your ideas, check out your competition to see how they handle things, think about what direction you want your site to go and think about how you will make money with your website business.

You have many options when it comes to buying a domain name and finding a company to host your website.

The Internet is full of selections.

Many hosting companies even provide website templates to help you get started. Most of those companies assume that you know what you are doing and that you just need a company to host your website for you. If you do know, then that is great.

However, if you are just starting out and want to create your first website business then you may want to select a hosting company that also offers a full education program.

If you choose a hosting company that offers a full education program on how to plan and build a website business, plus provides you with hosting space, domain name and online support, you will be ten steps ahead of your competition.

Creating a website business can be a lot of fun, especially if you are going to work on it with someone else. You can divide up the work and get more done in a shorter period of time.

If you would like to learn about a company that offers a full education program on how to build an online business, then click here for more information.

Good luck with your new business!

Question

I love to travel and go on cruises, and I have often thought about becoming a travel agent. I have looked at the travel agent programs at our local community college. I could afford them but it would mean being away from my young children quite a bit. And working as a travel agent in an agency would also mean that I couldn't be home with them.

So I started looking on the Internet and I found a few travel businesses that I thought were intriguing. They said that they were home based businesses, which would be a good thing for me.

Each of them talked about buying into their business and then recruiting other people to buy in as well. That is not the type of business I am looking for.

I want to help people make their travel plans and book their trips for them, not sell a travel business to other people. What can I do to become a home based travel agent?

Answer

I did some research and found two great companies that are simply travel businesses.

The first advantage is that both of them offer the option of either setting up a retail location or a home based business.

The second advantage is that they both offer training programs and on–going support. One business is more expensive than the other, so you would need to check them both out and see which one appeals to you more. Best of luck and happy travels!

These two great companies are:

Travel Professional International (AKA TPI)

CruiseShipCenters

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