Your Scrapbook Business

If Your Business Is Not Unique, It Is Dead.

Imagine this: You live in a world where almost all consumer goods are the same, the products all look alike, restaurants serve similar food and pretty much everything looks the same.

It would be a boring and problematic world, because consumers would have lots of choices, but all of which look the same and fulfill the same purpose.

Successful brands are inevitably linked to their respective niches, e.g Coke is famous for its cola, Mcdonalds is known for burgers and so on.

What you need is top notch branding that makes you stand head and shoulders above your noisy competitors who are simply using price- slashing techniques or hard sell.

The question is, do you have the mega budgets of companies like Mcdonalds or Coke to spend on branding? Probably not.

But is it possible to brand your business so effectively that people identify it with the niche it is involved with?

Yes, and in fact right now I am going to recommend you a unique eCourse that contains powerful branding strategies you can use to transform your business into a force to be reckoned with in your niche!

Name of the Product: The Upsell Report:  How To Get Customers To Spend More Money

Product Description: The report shares proven techniques that will help you increase your profits by showing you how to get your existing customers to spend more.

Who This Product is Intended For: People that write and/or sell products or services and would like to increase their income.

Uses: This report reveals several ways to offer additional products to your customers to increase your earnings. You’ll learn how simply asking for a sale is sometimes the easiest way to get it. No matter what you sell, you can always sell more and upselling makes it so simple.

Pros: This report is short and easy to follow. A quick read, it includes step-by-step instructions on when, where and why to use the upsell technique. You’ll find several ideas to help you understand how upselling works. The examples, hints and tips found inside will make it easy for you to apply it to your own product or service. You’ll even discover how NOT to do an upsell. Yes, it can be done wrong and the techniques will not work if you do it this way.

The money is in the list, but growing that list, especially when you’re first starting out, isn’t all that easy. Let’s look at your options.

1)You can buy traffic via google adwords or by buying ezine ads
2)You can work on SEO to get people to your signup list via search engines
3)You can write and distribute a bunch of articles which each will result in a few signups

Do you see a common theme here? You either have to spend a lot of time or a nice chunk of change to build your list. Neither of which is a good option in my opinion.  I used to do all three of these and while they all work, having to spend all that money or time get’s old pretty quick.

I was about ready to give up on this whole list thing when I came across this report by one of my favorite Internet Marketers - Jimmy D. Brown. The report is called “How To Drive Free Traffic To Your List Page With Ezine Articles” and you can get your copy here.

Name of the Product:

Homepreneur Habits:  How To Run A Successful Home Business
By Jimmy D. Brown

Product Description: A Standard Operating Procedures Manual for Home Business Owners

Who This Product is Intended For:  Anyone that wants to run a successful home-based business but is overwhelmed by where to start and how to run a business effectively.

Uses: This report shares ways to set up and operate your office so you can more easily maintain your business.  It will also help you establish a workable schedule. You’ll learn how to you implement systems that work for your individual business.

In this report, you’ll also find photos of Jimmy D. Brown’s office which I found fascinating. I now know what his desk looks like, what kind of white board he uses, and what tools he finds essential to running an almost 7 figure business online.

Pros: It includes easy-to-understand language and uses photos to illustrate points.  You’ll find systems that can easily be tailored to specific situations and implemented with ease.  Jimmy shares real-world examples as well as includes a bonus FAQ section.

Cons: None I could identify.

It is easy for time to get away from us.  We can get bogged down in the details.  When it comes to your home business, losing track of time is crucial.  Find out where your time is going and how to rectify the situation.

One way to see where you are losing time is with a time log.  We stress “where” instead of “if” because everyone loses track of time.  It becomes a problem when that loss of time leads to burning the midnight oil to meet client deadlines, or stress because one or more activities coincide with each other.

Stress is one likely result of lost time.  Consistently finding yourself in stressful situations can affect your entire life and your health.  Avoid all of that with a few simple experiments.

One is using a time log which was mentioned earlier.  A time log can be as simple as a spreadsheet document that you can fill out with the names of activities you did during each day of the week.  A time log is like a food diary.  It tracks your current time management habits for later evaluation.

3 More Steps to Building a Successful Direct Sales Business

It takes determination, perseverance and stamina to build your direct sales business into a strong-standing, thriving company that will continue to grow and multiply. So, how do you do that? How do you build your business when the excitement, rush and newness wears off?

Here are 3 things you should do immediately to lay the foundation and create a successful direct sales business.

1. Attend your first team meeting right away. Don’t make the mistake of procrastinating on this one. It’s not wise to put this step off until after your first show. Thinking you’ll start going later is also a mistake. If you were recruited today, and there’s a meeting tomorrow, go.

You will learn so much at the meeting, meet other goal oriented people who are making their direct sales dreams come true and it will help build a strong foundation for your business. You will most likely receive materials that will help you build your business and keep you motivated.

When people attend direct sales parties, they have certain expectations. There’s probably an expectiation to have a good time. However, you can go further than that. Here are a few easy tips to make your direct sales parties more fun and ensure everyone has a great time.

1. One great way to get the party off to a fun start is to host a contest to get people talking and mingling. For example, you could showcase a layout and have the guests guess how many products were used to create it.  Or select an item, have your guests “call out” different ways to use it. Then show examples of several ways. This will get your guests thinking about the versatility of a product. Plus you might even learn a new way yourself to use in the future. Perhaps an extra prize for the guest who comes up with a new idea.

2. Smile. A good, old-fashioned genuine smile is contagious and it’ll spread like butter on a hot day. Welcome each guest like you would a long lost family member and make them feel welcome and appreciated.

When you work from home, it’s easy to fall into a rut. You get up in the morning, get your coffee, head to your office and start your day. It’s easy to lose enthusiasm for the day and thus lose a bit of energy and productivity. The good news is that sometimes all it takes is a little change in your surroundings to re-energize. Here are five tips to re-energize your home office and yourself.

1. Paint. Scientists have proven what many people have known for a long time: color has an effect on our mood, our energy and our productivity. Colors like blue and purple tend to lull us into a relaxed state while reds and yellows tend to make us feel a bit more energized and sometimes, depending on the hue, agitated. Paint your office a color that fits your needs. A change in color can be very energizing and it’s an easy way to spruce up your home office for relatively little money.

2. Add lighting. Anyone with seasonal affective disorder, SAD, can tell you that light, natural light in particular, is very important for energy levels, mood and productivity. If you don’t have a lot of natural light in your home office, add some. You can add light fixtures in key locations and you can use natural spectrum light bulbs to simulate the sun’s rays.

Creating a business plan is your very first step if you are planning to build a successful business.  Whether you will be searching for investors or not, this plan will be the blueprint to your success.  Your scrapbook business plan could consist of market trends, financial planning, competitive analysis, exit strategies, marketing and promotional options, essentially everything about your goal.

How to Use Your Business Plan

Step 1- You need to spend some time planning your business.  Your business plan is the foundation for this planning.  If it’s comprehensive, it will guide your decisions, outline your goals and help you create strategies to achieve them.  So, schedule a time to beginning planning your business right away.

Step 2- When planning make sure to refer to your vision and mission statement to make sure you’re staying on course.  If your vision is to become the single biggest online source for scrapbook wedding layouts then your strategies and decisions should reflect that.  If you’re offered an opportunity to partner with a wedding photographer website, then you’ll need to see if that partnership supports your vision.

The first step to getting started in direct sales is choosing a company to represent. When most people think about direct sales companies, names like Mary Kay, Avon and Tupperware come to mind. While these companies are well-known and popular choices, there are also many scrapbooking and rubberstamping companies offering direct sales programs. You’ll find a list of resources at the bottom of this post.

When you join a direct sales company, there will be some fees involved. The company will likely provide you with a start-up kit, product samples, as well as materials such as catalogs and order forms to help you get your business started. Direct sales companies work by paying their salespeople a commission on all items sold. This is quite different than actually being a company employee, as those who work for retailers are generally paid a salary, as well as a commission. With direct sales, the commission rate is substantially higher, but you will only earn money if you are making sales.

From the food and drink, to decorations and invitations, planning a party or crop takes a lot of time and effort that many people just don’t want to do or have the time for. However, if you enjoy party planning and have a knack for organization and creativity, you can hire yourself out to those who are pressed for time and earn extra money by doing the party planning for them.

When planning parties for others, you should have a consultation with the customer to find out exactly what they want for their party. You will need to discuss with them the approximate number of people attending, any themes or décor ideas, venue choices, speaking/instructor needs and menu options. Be sure to take careful notes and draw up a contract that specifically states the choices made and the services to be provided, to protect you both.

What if you are only intersted in earning a part-time income with your scrapbooking hobby?

You already possess the ability and passion for scrapbooking, so why not utilize your talent to make a little extra money. There are several ways you can bring in extra cash without sacrificing too much time or expense on a larger business venture.

Online Sales

With the internet, selling online is actually quite easy. If you already have an inventory of your finished items, you can start selling online right away. A great way to get started is through Etsy.com. Setting up a craft store on Etsy is very easy and free. The fees are quite affordable with a small listing fee of 20 cents and 3.5% on each item sold. The listing fee is good for 4 months, plenty of time to get your item sold. Of course, it will take effort and some marketing on your part to get your items noticed. Etsy offers many resources, articles and information on how to effectively sell your items.