Blog archives for February, 2011

by changecase

The recent economic crunch has forced thousands of small business enterprises to close down, leaving millions of people without jobs, and thus a way of supporting themselves. If you, like many of those people, are feeling the pressure of the changing economic environment, or if you’ve already fallen victim to it – you are probably wondering how to find creative ways of augmenting your income to be able to comfortably and securely support yourself and your family.

Fortunately, there is an answer… The way you need to look at this economic climate is that it’s an amazing opportunity to progress yourself to the next level. With the help of technology these days the opportunities for taking charge of your own income are endless. You can now easily start your own business at home, on full or even on a part-time basis. One of the popular business trends now is starting up your own Commercial Cleaning Business.

OK – I know that this might sound intimidating to someone who has no entrepreneurial experience. But believe me – even a novice can have his own cleaning business in no time, if he knew the process and if he had the “winning formula”.

Here is a step-by-step guide – i.e. a shortened version of a “winning formula” – that will help you understand how you can start your own Commercial Cleaning Business:

1. Decide what kind of operation you will run.

You can start a cleaning business independently or you can franchise a cleaning business, which already has a proven track record of success. Each has its pros and cons…

If you start your business independently, the upside is that your profits are yours alone. Also, you will not be tied down to regulations and rules that might not be compatible with your own business goals and vision.

The downside is that you have to start with a blank slate. You have to do careful planning and research, you have to have business knowledge (or at least be willing to learn), and you would need to find at least the initial capital, because the financial risks may be quite big.

If you decided on a franchise, on the other hand, you will find that you’ll be given a ‘head start’. You’ll have a business model that is proven to work. You should be given a clear set of processes, and action plans – so all you’ll have to do is put in the work to make it work!

The drawback to choosing a franchise is that in most cases the ‘mother company’ will take a big cut from your profit margins – so not everything you work for will come back into your pocket. So make sure you weigh up the PROs and CONs and decide for yourself – choose the best option according to your skill set, your funds, and depending on what you want out of owning your own business.

2. Choose what type of cleaning service you will provide for your clients.

This might seem like a silly question, but there are many different services for consideration – and you have to be clear from the start what it is that you want to do. You can choose from the following: maid services, janitorial services, or carpet and upholstery cleaning services.

3. Make sure you know what it will cost you.

There are just a few costs involved in starting up your own commercial cleaning business – advertising costs, cleaning materials costs, and business setup costs. So you need to investigate what each could be, and plan accordingly – it makes sense right!

Luckily, there are *many ways in which you can fund your business without dipping into your own savings. You can sell your assets for cash or use as collateral for loans. You can ask trusted friends to invest in your business. As with all businesses requiring investment – make sure you present a very convincing business proposal.

As an aside – it doesn’t take much initial capital to get started. So even if you have to take out an initial loan, you should have covered it within a few weeks, and then you start making profit. Compared to a lot of other types of business start-ups – this is a relatively fast turnaround by any means.

4. Decide how you will get your customers.

To save costs, you can do ‘guerrilla’ type marketing, like handing out fliers, or doing cold calls (door-to-door or on the phone) to promote your business. You can target your marketing efforts quite easily.

The bottom line is that businesses need cleaning, and all businesses are listed either in the Yellow Pages or in online business directories like YelloBook, YellowPages, WhitePages, Google Local Business Directory, and Yahoo! and MSN local business directories. There are thousands of businesses that you can target and approach with your service offer.

You might need to make a few deals at first to get some customers on board. But once you get your ‘foot in the door’, your satisfied customers will be your new marketing ‘weapon’ through the word-of-mouth power of referrals.

On top of all that, the internet has provided us with an extra channel through which you can get new clients at a small cost, compared to any offline mediums – you just need to decide which ones work best for you.

5. Take good care of insurance, licenses, and taxes.

This would not cost you as much as you might think. A business license will cost you around a year. As for insurance, there are a lot of prepaid plans that ask for small monthly installments. You will most likely cover all your costs with the first deal you get and then you start making profits.

I probably don’t need to say this as it is common sense – do your taxes… Don’t try and skip this step – or you may find your business battling if the tax office queries your books.

At the end of it all, the key to building a successful Commercial Cleaning Business is to know your market inside and out, have a clear idea of what your are offering your clients, scope out the potential costs, and define clear business goals with a solid marketing plan.

The biggest hurdle for you would be getting your first client. After that you will have a ‘winning formula’ and it will be just a matter of doing ‘what works best’ and refining that process to maximise your profits. But don’t forget – planning and researching a project (or business opportunity) thoroughly before starting is a crucial part of succeeding…

by mkosut

Work from home reviews are types of reviews that help analyze the different sites that offer work from home jobs. These reviews are very important because finding legitimate, much less free, work that can be done at home can be very difficult. Plenty of the internet sites offering jobs that can be done at home, such as article writing, survey forming, etc. are scams and plenty of people have lost time and money trying them.

Because of the scams online, these reviews are often read by a lot of jobseekers because it can be very hard to differentiate the real job offers from the fake ones. Also, plenty of work from home offers can look good and easy to do because of its very good marketing pitch. But eventually, people find out that the job offered is not really what was initially presented. Work from home reviews can be one of the ways to see if a work from home job is legitimate and actually pays money, not takes money.

Much like in getting an office job, a jobseeker researches the company that he/she is applying in to. The same should be applied to work from home jobs that are offered. The company offering the job must be researched as well. Its track record, credentials and other information can be very helpful in determining whether a job offer is real or if it is a scam. Research is the key so as not to get duped by people who put up work from home scams. Work from home reviews are a good way to search for a legitimate job.

Most reviews state the pros and the cons for the work from home offered by sites. Most reviews also state the amount of work available and the money corresponding to obtaining such work. These reviews also state if there are hidden charges or fees that are to be paid supposedly to get the job. All in all, a home review can help to determine if a work from home job offer is genuine. Reviews about work from home can also determine what the job really offers  and what it really entails, not just as a marketing pitch.

But not all work from work from home reviews are accurate. Some work from home reviews cannot be trusted. Some are written just to ruin the reputation of some legitimate job offers. Some also write home reviews to protect the work from home scams that they are putting up. The scammer themselves writes the reviews so that they may seem more credible to jobseekers. Although this rarely happens, home reviews should always be checked. It is also best to seek multiple reviews that are backed by testimonials of people that can be trusted and contacted for verification.

by minxlj

Work At Home Programs That Are Not Scams

The internet is so full of crap these days that it’s hard to weed the scam free work at home jobs from the non scam free work at home jobs. This is especially true when it comes to work at home jobs! Most just aren’t scam free and in the end you don’t know what to trust and what not. And what is even sadder is the fact that A LOT of people, that call themselves ethical marketers, are in fact pushing this same non scam free work at home jobs junk over and over again! It makes no sense at all!

What I like to do in this short article is reveal a simple 3 step method so you can weed out the scam free work at home jobs from all that non scam free work at home jobs that is floating around the net. But before I do so, I have to add that it’s not bullet proof. Even despite this method, there are some really smart scammers out there that know these things and even counter it by using these same principles to look like a scam free work at home job. But you are looking for REAL scam free work at home jobs… right? So let’s get it kicking…

Step 1: A good, scam free work at home job page always has a good headline. Often times even a great lead capture page that goes into a salespage. This lead capture page is there to pre-qualify a prospect. If someone is serious enough, they will opt-in to get more information. Having that said, I’d like to give you 1 great example of a great page that promotes a scam free work at home job. Just go to http://www.superaffiliatemarketingsecrets.com and check it out. This page is not mine, I just wanted to send you there to show you a great example at work right this moment. Work At Home Programs That Are Not Scams

The lead page is good and the program he promotes is a very good one. It has all the features of a scam free work at home job because it delivers what it promises… pure value!

Step 2: If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is! The sad fact is that most things that sound too good to be true, are too good to be true. ESPECIALLY when you look for a scam free work at home job! This includes “get paid with survey” type of websites, “data entry” type of stuff, most online mlm’s, matrix scheme’s, etc. And if it also has a terrible salespage(read: Looks like it’s been written by a 10 year old boy)… watch out… 9 out of 10 times it is most certainly not a scam free work at home job at all! In fact… it screams NON SCAM FREE WORK AT HOME JOB if this is the case!

Step 3: Research and learn. Look… when there’s another one of those programs floating around… it is definitely worth to research it a bit to see what the experience of other people are. If it’s really a scam free work at home job! Don’t be shy… walk inside a forum and ask about their experiences with a certain program. If it’s really one of those scam free work at home jobs or not. But watch out though! There will be sad people, trying to make a quick buck, telling you that this program you want to know more info about is a scam free work at home job and then sending you to their own affiliatelink! Don’t buy into that… these guys are usually just in there for the money and they say it’s great because they want to make that extra sale or 2. I truly despise people like that… instead of pointing people to stuff that works… they just try to sell you on crappy shit and most certainly don’t want to show you scam free work at home jobs at all. I am sure that if they even had 1 ethical bone in their body’s and would review that stuff before they send it out, they wouldn’t even think twice about NOT promoting it! Work At Home Programs That Are Not Scams