Do you work from home?

If you do, we’d love to hear your favorite piece of advice for others who work at home or are looking to start working from home on the topic of how to work effectively.

Simply leave a comment at the end of this article and share your tip! That way we can all benefit as we read each other’s advice. I’ll try to compile everyone’s comments into a follow-up article for next week.

If you can’t think of your absolute number one tip, feel free to just share one or more tips that can help other Sparkplugging readers learn how to get things done as a work at home entrepreneur.

Once again, today’s question is:

What’s your number one tip for working at home effectively?

Okay, I’ll go first. I’ve worked exclusively from home for over five years.

My number one work at home tip:

Separate. Create a special space and time in which to focus on professional work, and try to keep it separate from your home life. I’m not saying you should lock yourself in your home office from 9 to 5 every day – just that you should carefully decide when is “work time” and when is “home time,” and where you want your home office to be.

Every time I’ve followed that bit of advice, I’ve found myself enjoying the work from home life much, much more.

Okay, your turn! What’s your number one tip for working at home effectively?

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Could your home based business use some help? A little jolt to make you jump for joy?

We thought so.

Here it is, all free and all organized. Start clicking!

• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Share on StumbleUpon
• Share on Delicious
• Write on your favorite jeans: http://bit.ly/21homebiz

How to Start a Home Based Business

10 Signs that You are Ready to Start a Home Based Business – How to know if it’s truly time to hang up those shiny work shoes and trade them for your favorite flip flops.

Top 10 Internet Home Business Ideas You Can Start and Run in Your Underwear – Our all-time most popular article here at Sparkplugging, and with good reason. It’s a starter list of ideas anyone can use to get up and running in a home biz.

10 More Work at Home Internet Business Ideas You Can Do in Your Fuzzy Bunny Slippers – In case you prefer the mental imagery of cute rabbit feet over scratchy long johns (or whatever usually snuggles your undercarriage).

The Truth about Starting a Home Based Business – And the truth shall set you free!

Find the Right Home-Based Business to Start – With so many ideas floating around in your noggin, how will you know which one is the best? This guide will get you started on the right track.

How to Quit Your Job to Run a Home Based Business

10 Signs that You Should Quit Your Job to Work at Home – Wondering whether you should stick it to your boss? This article will help you decide.

How to Leave Your Job & Take the Freelance Plunge in 6 Months – A great mid- to long-term strategy to get you out of the cubicle and onto your living room couch.

How to Achieve Home Based Business Success

Top Ten Key Success Ingredients for Home Based Businesses – What really goes into making up a successful business for work at home folks.

10 Free Resources to Start or Grow a Home Based Business – Because this list can’t possibly hold them all. Hop on over to that post for even more helpful links.

A Productive and Organized Home Office – How to create a work space that actually helps you work.

Why do Entrepreneurs Need Inspiration? – Thoughts on the power of inspiration in determining your level of professional success.

The Virtual Assistant A Team: The Helpers to Business Success – How and where to assemble an awe-inspiring team of VAs to help you automate as much of your own business processes as possible.

Marketing Your Home Based Business

Free Market Research for Your Home Based Business – How to conduct research and find out what people truly want that matches what you can offer.

Free Market Research, Part II: Demographics – How to discover more about your prospective customers.

How to Save Money in Your Home Based Business

Energy Efficiency Saves Home Business Owners Valuable Dollars – How to take advantage of special rules that reward energy-efficient home businesses.

5 Strategic Ways to Lower Your Business Taxes – And keep more cash in your wallet.

How to Overcome Stress and Failure in Home Based Business

10 Questions to Ask Yourself When You Feel Your Home Based Business is Failing – We all struggle with feelings of failure at some point. Here are 10 great questions to ask yourself to help you respond to and overcome those feelings.

Work From Home? Don’t Sweat It – How to not go crazy while working from home.

Top Ten Working from Home Mistakes – Do you make any of these errors in your work at home business?

More Tips for Home Based Businesses

18 Amazing Articles to Help You Work at Home – Yes, even more articles to help you out! We’re pulling out all the stops with this article.

How to Show Up in the Google Local Business Directory – This can be a great way to strengthen your brand, increase traffic to your business website, and grow your business.

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1. Legal Resources for Home Business Owners
2. 10 Free Resources to Start or Grow a Home Based Business
3. Top Ten Key Success Ingredients for Home Based Businesses

Here are a few example ideas I came up with that you can use a shared Google Calendar to help promote your web site or business.

• If you are a speaker, publish a speaking schedule. You are probably already doing that through Google Calendar already. Maybe you are publishing the calendar to your website. If you are, people can also subscribe to the calendar via Google Calendars or iCal. Promote and publish those links too.
• Is your site or blog all about soccer? Create a calendar around the different soccer matches either around the world or the locality that your readers are most interested in. Let them know how they can subscribe to that calendar.
• Maybe your visitors are mostly business people or marketers. How about creating a calendar that shows when quarterly taxes are due, a reminder when to start their holiday marketing planning and when to start promoting? Enter the dates and weeks of holidays and observances they can use for promotions.
• Similarly, if your visitors are moms, how about a calendar with suggestions of places to visit, things to do, seasonal reminders or shopping and menu plans.
• If you are a coach. Create a calendar around a program let’s say, a 60 day organizing program that users can subscribe to and they be reminded or things they need to do each day or each week to help them move along.

Use your imagination. Think of the calendar as a free reminder tool for your visitors. Remember that you can enter a link in Google Calendar entries. This can encourage subscribed users to click through to visit your site, an offer or simply lead people to read old but timely posts.

Don’t think it would work? This is the third year I am creating a calendar for bloggers of the many blogging opportunities throughout the year. It is very popular and I get people asking when it will be updated each year. Great tool to keep you in front of your audience at all times through the year as well. You can get a PDF copy of this calendar as an example for your own project. This year, I will be creating both PDF and a online ‘live’ version using Google Calendar.

Image courtesy of yalcin Eren

Lynette enjoys discovering new ways to use technology or new technologies to use in a business and in turn help her clients apply them. You can find also Lynette at her blog, Twitter and Facebook

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After paying a visit to Pointy Haired Dilbert’s blog. WHOA! Now this guy can chart! From cool management dashboards to project management to creating a Twitter client with Excel? Now that is something interesting.

He’s also got a bunch of downloadable templates you can grab and utilize for your business. Kinda want to make me finally break down and get a copy of Excel. Well… maybe I’ll just go make a dashboard. That’s something I’ve found that I need to keep me on track lately.

Lynette enjoys discovering new ways to use technology or new technologies to use in a business and in turn help her clients apply them. You can find also Lynette at her blog, Twitter and Facebook

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The program is my 42 Day Launch Incubator.  I created the curriculum last year, led my first group to great success and then made the whole thing available as a self study course.  The group coaching option is only available two or three times a year and I would love to have you join me for this session.

I know that there are literally hundreds of you reading this who have been thinking hard about creating an info product.  I don’t normally put a lot of pressure on you – but I want to apply some right now – fall is a great time to create a new product.

Maybe you want to create something like…

• A Beginner’s Guide to a Frugal Holiday Season
• Ten Simple Steps to Total Computer Security
• Sixteen Homeschool Science Projects Under $10 Each
• Top Blogging Secrets: How The Pros Get More Readers
• Five Videos You Should Star In This Fall And How It Will Help You Promote Your ________.
• Common Social Media Blunders And How To Come Back From Them
• Web Time Wasters: Tips for Getting More Done Online
• Turning a Wipeout into a Win!
• Top Guest Blogging Strategies For Traffic & Profits

Whatever it is that you’ve been thinking about sharing with others, I can help you chunk up the process and get it done at last.

Come check it out.

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• Flickr – to search for Creative Commons Licensed images to use on blog posts
• WordPress.org Codex – to search for code snippets, functions and template tags
• WordPress forum – to look up solutions to problems
• Youtube – to find videos that I can blog about or add to my site/resources etc
• Internet marketing forums – to see what people are saying about a topic I want to write about and question they are asking

Each one of those web sites have their very own search feature so what is the problem? No problem. I just like to cut out a few steps and clicks if possible because some of these sites especially WordPress, I search several times a day. Bookmarking and navigating to these sites take time.

So, I installed this cool little Firefox plugin called Add to Search Bar. This lets me add the search function for any web site to my Firefox Search Bar. Which means less looking up for a web site in the overloaded bookmarks folder and less clicking to get to the right page to search.

If you liked this article, you might also enjoy:

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You can start off by simply purchasing a secure thumb drive. Drives like Ironkey comes built in with military grade encryption key. The data will self-destruct if a brute-force attempt is detected and even comes with a backup service. Starts at $79. Sandisk and Kingston also offer secured USB drives that start at a lower price. Ironkey however looks like they are top of the grade.

Another way is to install encryption software onto your existing drive. Truecrypt and DiskCryptor are two free ones you can use. These allow you to encrypt folders, the whole drive or part of the drive and save some cash. There are drawbacks to these software based options. For example, you may need to have administrator rights for any computer you plan to use the drive on. You may also be required to install the software on any computer you wish to use the drive with. For some this may defeat the purpose, but if you’re simply traveling from one place to another e.g. office to home where you have full control of both computers. This will definitely work.

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I’ve got a line up of really interesting moms who are all doing something to earn an income online.  You’ll get to meet them and you’ll have access to a bundle of really terrific freebies.

Welcome the the WAH World

All the details are here: Totally Free Tuesday

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This week’s Spark an Idea Thursday is About Something You Want So Bad You Can Taste It.

I’ve got a big list myself right now… I want a new laptop, an iphone, a new car and twice the income   (Easy peasie, right?!)

• Susan wants a new Nikon.
• Laurie wants a laptop.
• Traci wants to get published.
• Jenn wants to come home full time again.

And elsewhere on the web:

• Tiffany wants the freedom to travel!

If you’d like to chime in on next week’s Spark an Idea topic – “Spark an Idea About Purging” , we’d love to have you join in.

Do you ever just feel the urge to purge?  Feel free to take this topic anywhere you like!

Grab our image and make your post by 9am EST on Thursday the 10th of September, then tweet me to let me know and I’ll include you in the round up post here on Sparkplug CEO.

If you liked this article, you might also enjoy:

1. Spark an Idea Thursday: Motivating Others
2. Spark at Idea Thursday: Following Your Gut
3. Spark an Idea Thursday: Taking a Business Holiday

This week’s Spark an Idea Thursday is About Being a Lifetime Learner. Since our awesome Sparkplugging Authors are definitely leading by example on this point, they’ve got some great advice for us:

• Susan learns from several books at a time.
• Leslie says to make learning part of your daily routine.
• Traci learned to keep on learning from her grandparents.
• Jenn keeps her mind open and makes more money with eBay.
• Brandie says to listen more, talk less.
• Lynette says that learning is not all about degrees.

If you’d like to chime in on next week’s Spark an Idea topic – “Spark an Idea About Something You Want So Bad You Can Taste It “ , we’d love to have you join in.

Share something from deep inside that you have a huge will to accomplish – and what you’re doing to prepare for it!

Grab our image and make your post by 9am EST on Thursday the 3rd of September, then tweet me to let me know and I’ll include you in the round up post here on Sparkplug CEO.

If you liked this article, you might also enjoy:

1. Spark an Idea Thursday: Motivating Others
2. Spark an Idea Thursday: Wanting it So Bad
3. Spark at Idea Thursday: Following Your Gut

A wiki is a website that uses wiki software, allowing the easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked Web pages, using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor, within the browser.

So, in other words, it is a web site builder. What’s so special about that?

The web site building feature is not the interesting part. The interesting part is the fact that anyone can create, edit, add on and correct the information on the page anytime, anywhere using just a simple web browser. It’s kind of like Bob writing a proposal which he then sends out to Nancy and Jack for them to look over. They scribble their notes or cross out lines of text and send it back to Bob. Many people working on one document. The only difference is, the document is web based and everyone who has access to it can view it – instead of being passed around.

Yet how does something like this fit into a small, solo entrepreneur business like most of us have? The best answer – a wiki would make a fantastic knowledge repository. Here’s why.

We solo entrepreneurs carry an awful lot in our heads. I used to think this was great but these days, I don’t want to remember. I want to offload because my memory is not always accurate or reliable , it helps a lot to unload what’s in our heads onto writing. Writing (or in this case typing) things down makes us more relaxed since we know the information is filed away safely and not forgotten. When you have less to remember, you’ll also function better. Kind of like our computer memory. The more you load it, the slower it becomes until it finishes processing everything.

Writing things down is also great when you outsource your tasks. Now, you don’t have to spend so much time training someone. We still have to invest a little bit of training to get someone new up to speed but if you have tasks and procedures documented, your personal time commitment is reduced. You can tell them to study/read the document and ask you questions if unclear. Great time saver.

Again, where does the wiki fit in? I think a wiki is perfect for internal documentation like this especially when you outsource your tasks because then, the burden of keeping accurate documents is distributed. Sure you can just as easily write up documentation on your word processor and send it out but if your VA makes a suggestion that you decide to implement or if there’s a change in policy or a simple edit for clarity, you still have to edit the document.

Using a wiki, your VA can edit the document without having to wait on you or have files sent to each other. This can reduce email volume plus, any edits become live immediately. The result, your team always has access to the latest information.

How do you set up a wiki? You have the option of installing the scripts on your own web site. This is probably better if you’re not comfortable storing information on a third party site and aren’t afraid of a little geek speak. You could check these out:

• MediaWiki
• DokuWiki
• WikkaWiki

Or you can have completely hosted wikis like:

• Pbwiki
• Wetpaint

Lynette enjoys discovering new ways to use technology or new technologies to use in a business and in turn help her clients apply them. You can find also Lynette at her blog, Twitter and Facebook

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My favorite is Genbook. This is a pretty complete system. They offer a free basic account where you can take advantage of most of their features. You can start scheduling appointments online in a matter of minutes. I love the ability to assign staff to certain services. It is super simple to use but not lacking in customization. Just tons of features for free. Premium accounts start at $39.99 a month and you also get the ability to take payments before scheduling the appointment. Perfect for any offline service who doesn’t have an e-commerce component yet.

Other services in this area include

• Acuity who also offer a free account have have two other levels at $10 and $19 a month.
• Schedulicity at $29/month for one user and $49/month for 2-20 users.
• Appointment-plus who has three plans beginning at $39/month.

Prefer to do it yourself? Whenever there are fully hosted software, you will usually find standalone software that you can pay for a one time fee, get it installed on your own web site and managed yourself. Here are a few I came across.

• Schedule Organizer
• hitAppoint
• A Plus Appointment

Lynette enjoys discovering new ways to use technology or new technologies to use in a business and in turn help her clients apply them. You can find also Lynette at her blog, Twitter and Facebook

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This week’s Spark an Idea Thursday is About Following Your Gut. I invited our authors to share something they’ve learned either by lesson or observation from a favorite blogger.

• Laurie says HALT!
• Traci says your gut may know better than  your head.
• Jenn says a happy heart makes for a happy business.
• Brandie says to follow your inner compass.
• Lynette says just go already!

If you’d like to chime in on next week’s Spark an Idea topic – “Spark an Idea About Being a Lifetime Learner “ , we’d love to have you join in.

Share how you keep your mind and heart open to learn new things.

Grab our image and make your post by 9am EST on Thursday the 27th of August, then tweet me to let me know and I’ll include you in the round up post here on Sparkplug CEO.

If you liked this article, you might also enjoy:

1. Spark an Idea Thursday: Motivating Others
2. Spark an Idea About Being a Lifetime Learner
3. Spark an Idea Thursday: Wanting it So Bad

Great examples of this is how opensource software have formed communities where everyone tries to help each other out. Technically, this is not something brand new, but the tools can be. Traditionally, forums have been the tool of choice. But these days, you have great tools like Get Satisfaction and UserVoice.

These are very well built tools that allow users to post their questions, let other users to chirp in to say “me too” or answer questions. As a business, you can set up your company and use it like your official help desk. It is kind of like a merge between a forum, a personal Yahoo Answers system and a help desk.

The pros:

• You don’t have to maintain the software
• You get the ability to tap into the knowledge of the masses – since there’s already a user base there, if they are familiar with your product, others can answer your customer support issues for you, alleviating your work burden
• You get to use a pretty cool and well built piece of software that would cost you to build or set up on your own and you get started quickly
• You get to establish a professional support system where you can manage requests and provide support in an orderly and organized method
• You get to see what the people actually think and feel, granted, you already see this using your own system but user sentiment and feedback is better captured by these systems which means you can get a better overview or what people are actually saying.

The cons:

• If you’re using the free option, you do not get to moderate any posts made by others. This is good and bad. Good in the sense that it encourages transparency but bad in a sense because even if you upgrade and get moderation turned on, you have to provide a reason. To me, it’s like having a ‘boss’ over your shoulder – not exactly my preference.
• It can get pricey. Get Satisfaction starts at $99/month. UserVoice does have a much more affordable starting point at $19/month but if your system is pretty busy, you may find yourself hitting the limit pretty quickly.
• You can lose your branding. Branding options only come with paid accounts and for that, refer to con #2. Your customers are directed to a site where they can quickly get distracted with other things. On your own system, you can better control what you present.

What’s the verdict?

I’m not entirely sure. I think it is great if you don’t already have a system in place but want to setup something where you can organize and respond to people effectively. But if you already have a system, then you fragment your support by also setting up on these sites. While I love the idea of crowdsourcing, it is very enticing to me, including the transparency, I’m not sure I like having someone looking over my shoulder when it comes to support issues.

Also, crowdsourcing works a lot better if you actually do have a big following and user base. For smaller companies with limited exposure and user base, at the end of the day, you or your staff will still end up providing the bulk of the support. I’ve decided not to take advantage at this time.

Lynette enjoys discovering new ways to use technology or new technologies to use in a business and in turn help her clients apply them. You can find also Lynette at her blog, Twitter and Facebook

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USB cords

You don’t have to use the cord that came with the device – unless it has a very unique plug that is. USB connectors are pretty standard. If it is the same type of connector, I usually dump the newer cord into a cord bin and keep just one out that I will use with multiple devices. For example, my camera and phone shares the same connectors so I will use the same cord for both.

Cableyoyo

I really like this because I can stick it up the side of my cabinet when I’m in the office – eliminating the need to take up more desk space and when I am on the road I just grab the whole thing and pop it in the bag. It stays neatly wound and organized.

Power Station Organizer

Don’t have one of these yet but oh so tempting! To be honest though I would prefer something I can hang on the wall instead of putting on the desk because desk space is already so precious around here.

Socket Pocket

Now this surely looks promising! I am uncertain it is something I would use much at home though because my power outlets are all obstructed with permanent stuff like furniture. But, I can certainly see how this can get handy when traveling. That is one of my major problems in a motel room. Charging the gadgets and finding a place to put the gadget while charging without having to trip over the wire and send the precious gadget flying across the room. Can you tell that it’s happened to be before?

Velcro Cable Ties

You can get this in many computer stores or even Walmart. I love, love, love these. So versatile and I’ve even found uses beyond tying up cables in neat bundles.

Lynette enjoys discovering new ways to use technology or new technologies to use in a business and in turn help her clients apply them. You can find also Lynette at her blog, Twitter and Facebook

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This week’s Spark an Idea Thursday is about Homepreneur Health. I invited our authors to share something they’ve learned either by lesson or observation from a favorite blogger.

• Susan likes yoga and swimming this summer.
• Leslie has advice for not gaining weight while working at home.
• Traci avoids a codependent relationship with her cat.
• Brandie says to take better care of yourself than your blog.
• Lynette thinks better and works faster when she has breakfast.

If you’d like to chime in on next week’s Spark an Idea topic – “Spark an Idea About Following Your Gut “ , we’d love to have you join in.

Share how you have learned to follow your own instincts and what you do to make sure they don’t lead you awry.

Grab our image and make your post by 9am EST on Thursday the 20th of August, then tweet me to let me know and I’ll include you in the round up post here on Sparkplug CEO.

If you liked this article, you might also enjoy:

1. Spark at Idea Thursday: Following Your Gut
2. Spark an Idea Thursday: Wanting it So Bad
3. Spark an Idea Thursday: Favorite Bloggers

If you ask a question on Facebook, you’ll only get responses from your own network of friends. That may not be a bad thing, yet, I believe in the wisdom of the crowd. I’ve received some really good answers to my questions I get from Twitter come from people who don’t know me, don’t follow me and vice versa.

This is not saying my peeps don’t have good answers. They do but throwing a question out on twitter is like polling the real public whereas asking your fans/friends is like – well, asking your friends which can skew your results depending on what you ask. Anyhow, I’m going down a different rabbit hole here so let’s get back to the point.

Besides asking questions myself, I like to search Twitter. Sometimes it is to find questions that I can answer or write a blog post about. Sometimes, to find people or experts whom I can feature. Other times, to find good stuff to share with others. These are just a few search phrases that can be used to achieve all that.

Find questions to answer or to blog about

• “Does anyone know”
• “Anyone know”
• “How do I”
• “How do you”

To find experts

• “Available for interview”
• “Expert available”

Finding holidays/events to blog about

• “Month is” e.g. “August is”

Looking to hire someone?

• “Hire me”
• “Available for hire”

More search options

If you think you will be searching some of these phrases over and over again, you can also save your search. After you complete your search, just click on the “Save this search” link on the top right corner of your search results list.

If you want to narrow down your search, filter out the noise, consider using these search operators.

Lynette enjoys discovering new ways to use technology or new technologies to use in a business and in turn help her clients apply them. You can find also Lynette at her blog, Twitter and Facebook

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Image by Melodi T

The good news is, most small business owners know the importance of backups and many of them do it religiously. For that I commend them. That is one of the basic must-dos on your list and it should never end. The not so good part is, a large number of small to micro business owners I speak to, keep only one copy of their backups. Usually on the external drive.

Maybe it is just me, having experienced one too many backup disasters. Maybe it’s the result of having this drummed into my head by my IT mentor, but one backup can quickly and easily die on you. Not long ago, a good friend and fellow online business owner learned that the hard way. Her computer went down – no problem. She whips out her backup but alas! The backup is corrupted. Cannot be restored – basically, useless. I’ve had my fair share of those too and the feeling is absolutely devastating.

Which is why, these days, I don’t keep just one copy of backups. But wait a minute! Before you go making multiple backups, you need to know that these too may not necessarily be helpful if you are going to store them all in the same place. In other words, if you have two backups on your external drive, the drive goes dead – all your backups are gone. Having one copy on Drive A and another copy on Drive B is better but still…

What happens if there is a natural disaster and you lose everything in your home and subsequently your home office?

Awww come on Lynette! That’s a lot of speculation. You can’t live on assumptions. Maybe not, but I’ve witnessed the realization of these fears too often. One of the best and most unfortunate example is what happened during hurricane Katrina or the Tsunami that wrecked South East Asia and beyond.

No one could have anticipated the extent of damage and it can all happen in a blink of an eye. Which is why I do keep a copy of my backups at home, but there’s also a copy on third party servers. To be exact, I use Mozy. How will this help?

Well, if anything happened to my home – touch wood and says a little prayer – I won’t be dead in the water. I could purchase a new computer, order the backup or restore it directly from Mozy servers and be back in business in a day or two. That’s how and that’s what keeps me a loyal Mozy user. You don’t have to use Mozy though they are great. There are other services like Carbonite. The point is to have an off-location backup on hand. It can really save you from complete loss.

Lynette enjoys discovering new ways to use technology or new technologies to use in a business and in turn help her clients apply them. You can find also Lynette at her blog, Twitter and Facebook

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This week’s Spark an Idea Thursday is about Sparking an Idea from a Favorite Blogger. I invited our authors to share something they’ve learned either by lesson or observation from a favorite blogger.

• Susan shares some of her favorite bloggers.
• Laurie has learned about making a name for herself from Scott Ginsberg.
• Traci learned to be herself from Scott Stratten.
• Jenn is sharing some of her favorite ebay bloggers.
• Brandie shares her fave bloggers for different topics.
• Lynette broke the mold and wrote about how to be someone else’s favorite blogger.

If you’d like to chime in on next week’s Spark an Idea topic – “Spark an Idea About Homepreneur Health “ , we’d love to have you join in.

Share something you’re doing to stay in shape and pursue health that fits in with your home office lifestyle.

Grab our image and make your post by 9am EST on Thursday the 13th of August, then tweet me to let me know and I’ll include you in the round up post here on Sparkplug CEO.

If you liked this article, you might also enjoy:

1. Spark an Idea Thursday: Motivating Others
2. Spark at Idea Thursday: Following Your Gut
3. Spark an Idea about Homepreneur Health

When the economy is down and your target market seems to be holding their dollars tighter than usual, what can solopreneurs do to keep business flowing?

Status Check Your Marketing Funnel.

Make sure that you’re doing all that you can to reach as much of your target market as possible.  I’ve actually seen some entreprenuers pulling back from their usual marketing activities becuase they perceive that their market is cash poor and unlikely to respond.   That’s a mistake.

Yes, your market may be cash poor today – but that can change in a heart beat and who will they spend their dollars with but the person who has remained on their radar most consistently?

When there are fewer fish, the answer is not to cast a smaller net.

Widen the top of your marketing funnel.  Seek more ways to share your knowledge and expertise.  Step up your blogging activities, do more guest blogging, seek out podcast interviews and let folks know that you are open to creative joint ventures.

Do You Have To Lower Prices?

My experience with pricing over the last year has been interesting.  I tripled my rates for blog design and continued to book new clients on a regular basis even as other talented designers complained that they have had to drop prices to keep busy.

If I could ask marketing experts I bet I would get a wide range of answers to price question.  Lower prices can motivate someone on a tight budget but you’ll work harder for every dollar.  (And that just might be the way it is for awhile…)  Before you decide to lower prices, you could invest some time into sharpening your sales message to better convince your customer of their need for your products and services in the first place.

And Wait, There’s More!

One great idea is to add something to your package rather than reduce the price of your package.   Think about all of those great ‘free gift with purchase’ offers that have grabbed your attention in the past.   You could create a special time limited ‘bundle pack’ or offer a ‘buy one, get one’ deal.

I’ve been influenced by dozens of special deals over the years.  I’ve bought products so0ner than planned and hired service providers without a lot of advance planning – all because they presented me with a no brainer situation.

I know there are lots of other great strategies… what tips do you have for overcoming tough times?

If you liked this article, you might also enjoy:

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3. Uncle Sam can help you Find Opportunity in Today’s Economy