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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.

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The Real Deal About Starting a Home-Based Business

From the outside, it may look like the perfect ideal that anyone wants. For example, I’ve had people tell me that I’ve got the best of both worlds; that I have a home-based business as a freelance writer and I get to be with my kids all the time. They perceive that my freelance writing career comes with no worries, there’s not much ‘running around’ to do because my home-based business is a pretty ‘straight-forward’ one and that my kids are angelic all the time.

How I wish it was all true.

You see, as a freelance writer with more than ten years of experience in my pocket, I dare say that anyone with a home-based business can tell you that it’s impossible to start a business, yes, even if it’s just a small home-based business, without some planning. Because there’s a certain amount of passion and emotion that you’re going to be pouring into this home-based business of yours, you’ll certainly be yanking all your hair out trying to make sure that there aren’t any loopholes and that it would run as smoothly as a yacht on a hot, sunny, cloudless day.

Never truly prepared for your home-based business
As with becoming a parent, you can never be truly prepared for your home-based business. That’s the sad truth about life, about a freelance writing career and also about your home-based business. What you’ve planned for your home-based business may not roll out the way you have planned it to roll out and along the way, you will discover that you could burn all those strategic marketing and online marketing plans that you’ve painfully drawn up without causing a dent in the way your home-based business works.

But does this mean you ought not plan your business at all? That if you’re a freelance writer like me, you can start pounding on every door that you see, asking to be hired as their writer or blogger?

Essential to write a marketing and business plan even for home-based businesses
Far from it, I’m afraid. As unpredictable as it is, it’s still essential for home-based business owners to write out and plan their home-based business’ marketing strategy. No ship can sail without knowing where they’re heading and if you head in blindfolded, you’d better be ready for a surprise, then. It’s ‘good luck’ to you!

And if you’re thinking, ‘I don’t have anyone to answer to apart from…well, myself, what’s there to worry?’ but that’s what the whole worry is about. This makes your whole home-based business a very direction-less and eventually a very messy one. And the worst thing is that one fine day, you would start comparing your own home-based business with others and realize that they’re doing much better much faster – where did you go wrong and then you remember the marketing plan that you burned.

The way the home-based business works will change all the time
But this is the way business works – you’ll need to change and revise all the time but it DOES NOT mean that you can do away with planning out your home-based business. There are consequences to think about, a back-up plan and a strategy that you can fall back on.

One fine day, you will revise your home-based business, work on it, see that something’s not working, revise it, work on it, do it….well, until you feel that everything’s okie dokie.

And then something goes wrong.

Believe or not, this is the way the world works…this is the way your home-based business will work as well. And you’ve got to learn how to deal with this…but not without a marketing strategy and a home-based business plan.

The Key to Small Business Success Requires an Uncomplicated Commitment

Virtually every owner or manager will agree that operating a small business requires lots of hard work on the part of both managers and employees. It’s what is commonly known as “sweat equity”. Or in other words, hard work is required to bring the results desired.

Hard work alone is not enough. Additionally, the business owner must be prepared to make a commitment to building and growing the business. That translates to being on the job every day.

Unfortunately, some owners, such as those who purchase a franchise, assume that their on-the-job commitment is not necessary if they hire a manager to run the business. Sometimes that works. More often it doesn’t work so well. Nevertheless, operating a small business requires hard work by the owners and managers.

There are three fundamental steps in the process of the hard work that are not complicated, but necessary for success.

Getting work comes first. Whatever the business does, it must first promote and sell its products and services to the markets served. The business cannot depend on chance. To illustrate, if the business has the cure for the common cold, it must tell the market and provide a way for potential customers to contact the business to purchase the remedy. To get work or sell products and services, the business must make the market it serves aware of its presence and skills as well as how to contact the business. Fortunately, there are many affordable advertising and promotion options for small businesses that will contact potential customers who are likely to buy the products and services available for purchase.

Fulfilling and delivering customer orders is the second step. Whether designing, building, assembling or delivering products or services, small businesses do of good job of getting the work done. What they do not do so well sometimes is fulfilling the order or getting the project done on time.

There may be nothing more irritating or displeasing to a customer than a supplier or vendor who does not fulfill an order or complete a project on time. This happens far too often with small businesses. While it is desirable to get something done the right way even though it may take more time than originally planned, small business owners and managers must strive to meet deadlines or finish projects before the deadline if they want to be successful.

Paying bills and getting paid for the Work performed and delivered is the third step of the process.

Small businesses tend to pay bills to vendors and suppliers before the due date because they think the thought doing so will assure a good credit status with the vendor or supplier if the bill is paid before due. Paying the bill when due is good enough.

On the other hand, they will allow their customers to pay bills beyond the due date.

At the end of the fiscal year, most small businesses will complain that while sales were good, there was little cash in the company checking account. When asked why this is the case, Accountants and Consultants will reply that the cash shortage is in Inventory or Accounts Receivable. Usually the latter is the major contributor to cash shortfalls.

Small businesses do not do a good job of getting paid in a timely manner. It does not have to be that way and it should not be that way. In fact, it is very easy to assure timely payments when a consistent and uniform Accounts Receivable Collection Procedures Program is in place.

Accounts Receivable systems are a valuable asset to small businesses. The consistent application of Accounts Receivable collection activities will reduce costs which in turn improves margins and operation profits.

In closing, a professional Accounts Receivable Collection is not the dreaded last minute phone call to the customer that nobody wants to do. On the contrary, the process begins at the Point of Sale when buyer and seller agree to payment terms required and continues on professional and uniform communication between the buyer and the seller.