Top Work From Home goes live on Facebook
Unless you have been living under a rock for the last year or so you have probably heard that Facebook is one of the fastest growing websites on the internet. If it is not by the time you read this post, it will soon be bigger than Google!
With that kind of growth I felt it was time to join Facebook so that my readers and subscribers can stay in touch with me where they are instead of me asking them to come to my site all the time for the latest and greatest tips and information on working from home.
So if you are a Facebook user please check out my Facebook page and become a fan, start a discussion, write on our wall, or post a review.
Top Work From Home Facebook Page
Is the Stuffing Envelopes Opportunity a Scam?
I get a lot of questions regarding the ads out there offering “stuffing envelope jobs”.
The ads and websites offering these “jobs” say the work done is just as the name suggests. You will be paid to fill envelopes with direct marketing for companies to advertise their products and/or services. You are usually paid anywhere from $.50-$5 per envelope stuffed.
This sounds simple enough but I have yet to find a company that proves its claims. In the past this may have been a legitimate job, but in today’s world there are machines that can do this task quickly and for pennies per 100 envelopes stuffed. If there is a company that will pay you to fold flyers, stuff them into an envelope then you have to ask yourself why don’t they have the funds to automate this process? Odds are they are not going to be able to pay you.
I would consider staying away from these types of companies.
If you are interested in working from home here are some companies that will help you find the perfect opportunity for you for free –> Free Work From Home.
Budgeting Sucks But It Is Vital To Your Business
When you are starting up a home based business one of the most difficult things to do is putting together a budget. The challenges come from the simple fact that you are planning without any financial history on which to base income and expenses. At times it can seem like complete guesswork, but as part of any business plan a tentative budget can be established with some thought and anticipation for the future.
When budgeting for your business there are always two main categories, income and expense. IN expenses there are several sub categories that can full under the description of controllable and uncontrollable. Some business owners like to believe and tell everyone that they can control every expense involved in their business, that simply is impossible. There are many things outside the control of a business owner. For example utility cost, the amount of rent, and other so-called "fixed costs" can, and do change, with the owner having no control over when or by how much.
The expenses such as payroll, insurance and advertising can be considered controllable and managed within a budget. If the business begins to decline the owner can control some of these expenses by laying off employees and cutting back on advertising. However, living by a budget will help maintain profitability in many respects but can also turn against you in the long run.
Cutting costs by cutting the payroll is never easy nor enjoyable and it often is a better investment to suffer the cost over runs on employee wages and still provide good customer service to the remaining customers until business picks back up. When owners attempt to do everything themselves they often burn out quickly. Also if too many employees are let go in the name of saving money there can often be a shortfall in customer service, and as a result it will not take long until there are no more customers to care for.
There are two ways to budget your business money and that is through set dollar amounts and percentage of income. Many businesses will budget their controllable expenses by the 
dollar and non-controllable by percentage of income. Obviously a good part of the owner’s time is going to be based on bringing money into the business and how much they have to spend on controllable expenses will be in direct relation to income.
For example, a company earning $20,000 a month in income has budgeted six percent for payroll, providing $1,200 for payroll. If the income level rises to $50,000 the budgeted payroll percent does not change but the dollars available for payroll climbs to $3,000. With an obvious increase in business to create the additional income, the owner will probably need the extra help to take care of business.
While a budget may be difficult to establish for a new business, it is a necessary process for all business owners. Taking the time to set up a budget right from the start will help ensure success in the future.
My First YouTube Video
As I am sure you know YouTube is rapidly becoming the most popular website on the internet – even more popular than Google!
I have been wanting to get a video up for some time but never got around to it. Well today I took action and did it!
I had some help from the kind people at Plug In Profit who actually created the video and allowed me to customize it a bit. But I still taught myself how to do all that and how to post a video. It was easier than I thought and fun. I plan to do more soon.
Anyway here is my video if you want to see it:
Is Your Advertising Effective?
When you run a home based business advertising will be an essential part of getting your business off the ground. When it comes to measuring the money spent on advertising vs reward the real question to ask is: “How do you gauge the efficacy of your advertisements?” In other words is it really just about the rise in the number of sales after the ad campaign started or perhaps the brand assessment is also a contributing factor?
In reality your advertising campaign’s success in not only a result of the quality of your advertisement, but rather also a lot of factors which include the kind of media which you have employed, the budget or your assessment, the objective of your advertisement, the phase of accuracy and consistency that is necessitated, who is your target market and the budget you have allotted for the entire advertising period.
These elements would have to be sufficed first before you’d be able to precisely proclaim that your particular advertisement is effective. That is the reason why a lot of people assert that it is intricate to gauge an advertisement’s efficacy. Aside from the need to consider many things, there are also other influential elements for that matter, such as the kind of previous advertisement that had been released and its quantity.
There are several ways to measure the efficacy of your ad campaign. On way is to use the cube diagram which measures the headings of your ads which include the sales, profits, attention, persuasion and communication.
Another popular way to measure the success of an ad, and probably the most popular is to conduct surveys. Surveys can test the brand or product recognition of the customers just after an advertising campaign. Actually, surveys can not only test the campaign but they can also be used to develop a campaign based on the results of responses to a product in a survey or focus group.
Regardless of the type of home business you operate advertising is an important component of your business success. Your advertisements be very beneficial to the promotional efforts of your business because it enables your clients to become aware that your home business exists and that you can provide products and services that they need. We all buy from ads weather we like it or not, and it is safe to assume that it will continue to do so for many more years to come. When you study the efficacy of your advertising campaigns and get them working perfectly the results can be amazing for your business.
Learn how to advertise online using the Google Adwords program from the expert on Pay Per Click Advertising Perry Marshal. Click here for his 5 days to success with Google Adwords course
