Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Floor cleaning in Texas

Carpets get all of the abuse in the home, and they get substantially more abuse than normal when they are in a home with a home based small business located in it. It can often be very convenient to have our customers and clients come to our home based office, but it can add to the traffic levels walking across our carpets and even without the added wear, if you have small children it can be a bit embarrassing to ask a client to come in when you know there is a juice stain in the middle of your beige carpet.

The Steam Team of Texas, http://www.thesteamteam.com/austin-restoration-services/smoke-fire.shtml, would like for you to stop by their website and find out about all of their services, which go well beyond carpets to encompass all kinds of flooring from hardwoods to tiles.

If you live in the Dallas and Austin area and are not having any success with the do it yourself carpet cleaner solutions then The Steam Team would like to help you clean your flooring, remove odors from pets, smoke and other damage, and get you back your confidence in asking a client to step into your home knowing it will be a reflection once again of the care you will give to their needs.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Sewing on old fur coat

I've been working on sewing back together a antique fur coat that the owner's kid was wearing when they played with the dog - or at least that is the tale I heard and I have no cause, having seen how badly damaged the coat is, to doubt the story.

When I got the coat it had already had some major repairs made to it, and I still could not safely put it onto my dress form. I've got it on the form now, however, finishing up a few final stitches to piece it back together as best as I can, but there are major pieces missing and what was present has been sort of Frankensteined back together in bits and pieces.

It has, surprisingly, gone back together in reasonably decent shape, and will be going back home tomorrow. I'll be glad to let the poor fingers rest a little bit from trying to get the needles to go through the tough leathers and not demolish the frail leathers.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

7 Questions to ask before you buy something for your home business

It is not easy to work at home, there are a lot of distractions and you need to make smart choices on what you really need for your home office vs the toys you would like to have because they are new and cool.

Take the iPad as an example. Yes, I would LOVE to have one, but... do I need to have one? When it comes to products such as the iPad or cell phones with two screens there needs to be a balance point between want and need.

Yes, I want an iPad, but I can do my work without one as I save up to be able to get myself one for next Christmas. Maybe. We'll see how the finances are going.

Before you buy that kewl new gadget or a more powerful computer stop and ask yourself a few questions:

1) Do I really need this to do my job?
2) What will this do that nothing else can do?
3) Is the price going to drop soon, and can I get by without it until then?
4) Will I strain my income if I buy this?
5) Could I buy a less expensive brand that does the same thing?
6) Why do I want this? List 5 good reasons to get it and 5 reasons not to.
7) Have I researched what others in my work area have to say about owning this item?

I think if you get through those seven questions you should be ready to ask a few more of your own, and have a better idea on if you want a new gizmo, or if you really do need to make that purchase.

Labels: , , ,

Saturday, May 07, 2011

Vista Print Business Cards

Vista Print business cards.

Get 250 free business cards at Vista Print. Choose from 42 designs and full color printing. Already have a design you want? You can upload your design and use your own custom designs and logos.

As I am writing this they have an 80% off sale, so if you need business cards hurry and check out what Vista Print has to offer by clicking the banner below.

Confidence - Starting a Small Business

Another question I asked regarding small business owners was "Are you confident in your abilities without being over confident? Do you know that you can tackle a specific task and quickly do a good job?"

I have seen people that say "I can do that!" and then fail miserably at the task. They find out that it is harder than it looks. I have also seen people that will quietly do a task to perfection with no boasting that they can. They knew they were able to do it, and were confident in their skills without exaggerating them.

I think that a important skill for anyone that runs a small or home based business is to be able to confidently do a task that they need to do, and to be self confident enough to know they can do it. If they can't, they need to be able to be honest with themselves - and the client. This does not mean they can not do the parts they know and hire someone else to tackle the parts they do not know, but it does mean that a small business owner should never promise a customer something that they know they can not deliver. Know your skills and have confidence in your capability to do the things you know how to do, but never exaggerate your skills.

Labels:

Take charge - Starting a Small Business

In the Starting a Small Business posts earlier, I asked "Do you prefer to have someone else tell you what needs doing, or do you step forward and take charge when something needs to be done?"

Someone that runs a small business needs to be able to tell themselves what needs to be done. They can not sit around and wait for someone else to say "You need to do this" because there is no one else around that can tell them that. The owner of the small business or home based business needs to be able to tell themselves what needs to be done and to oversee themselves as they do it, and perhaps most important, they need to assure that they do their best work possible.

Repeat customers and referrals come from happy customers. So early on the small or home based business owner needs to develop the habit of stepping up and getting the work done to the best of their ability, and doing each job as good as or better than the last job.

Labels:

Car insurance

And now a word from one of our sponsors.

AIM AUTO INSURANCE offers auto insurance rates and quotes. Visit their website to learn more about their service and to find out about the different kinds of insurance from liability policies to no fault insurance.

Their website also offers a look at the six major insurance companies in the United States - such as AllState, Progressive and Geico.

They also offer information on what an agency broker is and what common terms used in the car insurance industry are.

Before you buy car insurance, make sure you at least know the options available to you

Self Starters Wait for No One - Starting a Small Business

In my last post I asked if you were a "self starter and problem solver that can tackle a necessary task without being told what needs to be done?"

When it comes to being able to run a home based business, this quality is a biggie, but not necessarily the biggest.

It is essential to be a self starter, someone that can tell themselves to get up from the sofa, sit down at the computer, and work on a specific work related task.

If you can come up with a million and one reasons why the dishes need washed now, the floor needs vacuumed before you can work, the car has to be washed, groceries need bought now... if you can procrastinate with the best of them, then you really should reconsider if running your own business is the right thing for you.

And when I say sit at the computer and work - Farmville is not work. Not unless you work for Zynga and get paid for the game. Neither is Collapse, Tetris, Bejeweled, or solitaire. If your work computer has any games on it, you should consider removing them. If you have a computer that is dedicated to work, that one should never have any games on it. Leave the games on the family computer.

Self starters do not wait for someone else to say "stop playing the game and do that work" they see the work sitting there waiting and make sure that it is taken care of before they move on to something else.

That is part of what makes them a problem solver. I think any self starter is an innate problem solver as well (but not necessarily vise-versa - problem solvers are not necessarily self starters). A self starter can see a task and solve the problems associated with that task, or can find the right person for the task that can solve the problems.

This makes it essential that those who want to run a small business be good self starters that can make sure the necessary jobs get done, that they get done on time, and that they are handled to the best of their capability to handle them.

Labels:

Starting a Small Business - What you need to know

Do you have what it takes to start up a small business?

There are certain qualities that people that run their own business generally have in common, and those qualities can be used as a basic starting point in determining if someone has hat it takes to start a small business.

Are you a self starter and problem solver that can tackle a necessary task without being told what needs to be done?

Do you prefer to have someone else tell you what needs doing, or do you step forward and take charge when something needs to be done?

Are you confident in your abilities without being over confident? Do you know that you can tackle a specific task and quickly do a good job?

Are you willing to work longer and harder than you would need to if you worked for someone else? (We're talking no weekends here people - I'm writing this post on a Saturday afternoon when the sun is shining and my ATV is begging me to get out and hit the trails for the first time this summer.)

Can you prioritize your spending and separate money that can be spent from money that can not be spent? This is a BIG one.

I'm going to look more closely at each of these, and more qualities of small business owners, in greater detail, but this gives you an idea what qualities go into a potential small business owner.

Labels:

Trade show advertising for your business

Even when you work at home, chances are you still do a trade show or twenty during the year. Even if you only make it to the occassional trade show, the Trade Show Displays that are so often seen at shows are also a great way to attract some attention to your Saturday Market or holiday bazaar booths.

Creating a sale booth for your home made craft goods or a trade show booth to display your skills or services is a great way for the small home based business owner to get out and meet potential customers and clients. By using something as simple as outdoor Vinyl Banners you can make a great sign for your business that can be used at shows, markets and even at home to help make your home office look that much more like an office when customers and client stop by.

Check out all the trade show products that Post Up Stand has to offer. Want something unique to pass out to your customers? Check out their retractable banner pens that come with 6.3" x 2.7" banners that pull down from the pen and then retract back up into it. Great for advertising or as a fast map to your business's new location or -- there has to be millions of ideas for these, and I would love to hear what you would do with a retractable banner pen!

Friday, May 06, 2011

Speed Reading

Working at home means that every second is valuable and another missed chance to earn money to pay the bills. So, it is essential that things that might take some time be made to move faster. I love to read, but I never have the time to. As a result I have found myself thinking for the first time in many years about speed reading.

I first heard about speed reading from my mom years ago when she mentioned it and, at my asking what it was, showed me ads in a magazine and explained it. I always equated reading with relaxation so have had the mindset that slow is the best speed. Now, however, I need to reverse that thinking and learn to speed my reading up.

In a test I clocked my standard reading speed right now to be about 165 words per minute. According to the below video, average reading speeds are between 125 and 200 words a minute. I seem to already read at about an average speed, even though I thought I read rather slowly, so it should not take much for me to speed up my reading speed - if I can just stop the tendency to want to silently recite what I read.

Business Blogs - Blog Flare
Privacy Policy