Running your home based business while studying at university is a great way to make some extra money and to hone your entrepreneurial skills. You must have heard stories about some enterprising students who set up their home ventures and made decent money from them. You may be wondering how they did it.In the current grim economic times, students can ideally distinguish themselves by setting up and managing their own business. This will not only perfect their entrepreneurial skills but also make money in the same time.Distinct advantage:If you are a student and managing your home based business, it gives you a distinct advantage in the highly competitive job market. The home venture that you set up while studying at university can turn into a real business enterprise later. Let your student days be the groundwork for sharpening your business abilities.You will learn about cash flow management, marketing and managerial skills. At the same time you can later, if you wish, take up a corporate position since any employer will recognize and value the skills that you have developed. Although when people normally get the taste of business management, the normally do not tend to work for others.Developing the business idea:Many universities encourage their students to develop their entrepreneurial ideas and often there is a good support system for setting up a home based business. You might want to find out if your college has appointed anyone that can help you with this.You should consult and take guidance from other successful student-entrepreneurs. This will help you gain not only the start up experience but it will also translate your business ideas into real entrepreneurial programs.You don’t have to be a student on a business course to start and run your enterprise. By setting up your own ventures, you are also perfecting your managerial skills. People from all walks of life have shown their capacity to run successful businesses.Becoming creative:You need to pick up some creative ideas to earn extra money. With hard work and innovative ideas you can turn a home base business into a great source of income. If you have a burning interest in some hobby, think of cultivating it and converting it into a concrete business plan.Striking a balance:You may have to sacrifice a bit for running your enterprise while being a student. For example you may miss going out with your friends. Sometimes your business engagements will interfere with your studies especially during the exams. It may force you to cram for exams and work late into night to get through the course.However, a diligent student can manage it. It may be difficult initially but you will get used to it. You will be able to know how much time you have to spend on business and when you have to pay attention to your university course.Student-entrepreneur ideas: There are unlimited opportunities on the internet for students turned entrepreneurs. Your professors or staff may have some connections and ideas to help you establish your enterprise.All you need is to keep your mind open. There is no doubt that starting your own home based business needs a good amount of optimism. Students have the kind of optimism which is needed to get started. Your entrepreneurial ideas can become a great source of income while you study and even after that.
Home-Based Business Opportunities – Top 5 Reasons Why They Can Work For You
More and more people are realizing the benefits of running businesses from the comfort of their homes. Recent statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that an estimated 4.12 million people are currently working out of their homes. As the aftershocks of the global economic crisis continue to take its toll, people have turned to home-based businesses to make ends meet…some even made a fortune from this trend. But what really makes such ventures advantageous and how can they work wonders for you? Here are the top five reasons why it pays to work at home.
- Personal Freedom. You can take control of your life and become your own boss. You can opt to work right in the comfort of your home environment and you get to work at your own pace and exactly the way you want. There are no dress codes, no tight schedules, no office politics, and no headaches from being stuck in daily traffic. All you need is to put your heart and mind into it, along with a little discipline and time-management skills. People are also choosing to combine their careers with families, so they could spend more quality time with their loved ones and take on a more proactive approach in raising their children.
- You Can Earn More. The principle behind this is quite simple: the harder you work the more income you generate. The amount of money you make is directly proportional to your level of performance. This means you don’t have to wait for promotions or a raise as a result of salary hike or performance appraisal. By investing extra time and effort, you can achieve the financial liberty that you have always dreamt of.
- Less Risk and Low Start-Up Costs. Running a home-based business requires less capital investment as compared to a freestanding business or setting up an office. With a little smart planning, you can get started and once your business is running, it’s generally less expensive and easier to maintain. In addition, you get to enjoy a number of tax benefits when you use your house as your personal office. You can deduct your operating expenses from your taxes. This is in contrast to traditional jobs wherein not everything related to your job is tax deductible.
- Leverage Savings for Competitive Advantages. This has something to do with the low overhead costs of starting a home-based business. Lower business operation costs can empower you to be highly competitive, not only in terms of price but also with respect to the quality of products and/or services you offer. You can pass on the money you save from rent to clients in the form of lower prices. This will certainly increase your profitability in the long run.
- More Room for Professional Growth. Being your own boss enables you to take on different tasks and learn new business management skills. You are free to take on different responsibilities and be the accountant, sales director, strategy setter, marketing professional, business development manager, customer service representative, bookkeeper, etc. This allows you to update your knowledge and skills as you gain more experience with the various aspects of running a business. Your life won’t be boring like it used to be with your regular work schedule in your previous job.
This list of benefits of home-based business ownership and how they can work for you is not all inclusive. There are a lot of other advantages but there are so many to discuss in this short article. However, from the top five reasons mentioned above, it’s quite evident that virtually anyone can try to reap such benefits, and it’s quite likely that we will see more of them in the near future.
Effective Marketing Strategies in Product Creation
Marketing includes matters such as pricing and packaging of the product and creation of demand by advertising and sales campaigns. There are other options, of course, like product creation, resale rights marketing, joint ventures and the likes, but they are merely secondary to the above.
If you take the freelance route, it is important to ensure that all rights to profit from the final product, or any materials produced in its making, remain yours. Bookkeeping, physical product creation or delivery of goods can be done better with specialized help. Determining the purpose of the product is vital in niche product creation.
Implementation of Methodology – The choice of implementation of Six Sigma methodology depends on whether development is required on existing processes (DMAIC) or on new process/product design creation (DMADV). Determining what you really want to sell, something that you can be relaxed selling is the first step at the creation of a niche product. With the technological advancements in the hosting industry, from automated control panels and scripts that simplify creation of accounts; to complete turnkey solutions, there is no excessive need to worry about spending time on the actual product sold to the customer.
For instance, you should be prepared to either perform yourself or to subcontract the completion of the following tasks:- Product idea research (are there any existing products or patents already existing for this idea)- Product specification document training (what it will do, how it will look, how will it be powered, and how the user will interface with it)- Marketing study (what it will be named, who would buy this, how much would they pay, how will we get customers to purchase the product)- Schematic or electronic circuit design process- Creation of a bill of material or BOM and an approved vendor’s list or AVL for each component in the design, preferably with multiple sources identified, with a BOM and AVL for each assembly level in the product- Printed circuit board layout design process (single sided board, double sided board, or multilayer board; size of the PCB; board material)- Mechanical packaging design with user interfaces (displays, buttons, switches, key. This removes all product creation costs from your budget as a marketer.
No other database of affiliate programs offers such a possibility for profit on either the affiliate side or the product creation site. Your chosen niche should allow for the creation of more than one product or service.
There are several marketing strategies that are necessary in the creation of a successful e-commerce web site – Email marketing (broadcasting) of prospects/customers – Effective use of auto responders (generate automatic email messages) – Online Newsletter – Online Form / Survey to capture your prospect’s email address – Electronic Product Delivery (if you sold a digital product) – Advertisement (Ad) Tracking – Back End Sales – Affiliate program etc.