5 Tips for Budding Mumpreneurs

mumpreneurIn today’s world, it is becoming increasingly common for women to raise a family and run a business at the same time. The ability to run a business from home via the Internet has made this much easier than in the past. Let’s take a look at some tips that can help women who want to become successful mumpreneurs:

1. Be realistic about your time

People who run their own business always have many plans and every intention of seeing them through. However, you will need to consider exactly how many hours per day that you will realistically be able to devote to your business. If you are required to pick your children up from school every day, then usher them to soccer or football practice, these things can seriously eat into your day. It is impossible to effectively run a full-time business when you are only working on it part-time. It is important to figure out your limitations before you start your business.

2. Be realistic about your idea

Necessity is truly the mother of invention. Many great ideas have originated from a need. However, if you have an idea that you think might be the next hot product or service, there are some things you need to think about. You will need to consider the cost of bringing your product to market. Do some research into the marketing and production costs of your item. How much will you have to charge for your invention in order for you to make a profit? You will need to decide if your product or service is valuable enough for people to pay the price that you will need to charge for it. Also you need to consider the scope of your operation and whether running the business from home is realistic. There are a number of options to rent office space in Melbourne that may work out more beneficial if your business idea isn’t suitable to a home headquarters.

3. What is unique about your service or product?

In order for your business to succeed, you will need to find a way to make your service or product stand out from other products on the market. Your service or product does not necessarily have to be new or innovative. However, you need to offer it in a way that is different than anybody else. This will help you to create some buzz around your business. This is called finding your unique selling point. It is critical to any business that is just beginning.

4. Research your service or product

You need to determine if the public has a current need for the service or product that you are going to offer. Will there be a demand for it? Family and friends may not always give you an honest answer, so talk to complete strangers on online business forums. Get their input on your idea. Use the constructive criticism they give you to help you decide if you should move forward, do some revisions or completely scrap your idea.

5. Manufacturing

Contact as many suppliers as you can. Doing some price comparisons can eventually save you a lot if you go into production. You should also get referrals from people who are already in business. The online business forums are a great place to network and find out this information.

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Ambro – FreeDigitalPhotos.Net

3 Ways to Save Money on your Online Business

If you’ve been thinking about starting up a home business but are afraid that you don’t have enough start-up cash, you’re not alone. Fear of sinking money into a new business is one of the number one reasons why more people don’t go through with their ideas. The amount of money that you’ll need to spend will vary depending on the type of business you’re interested in. Factors that could influence the cost could include the type of products you sell, the type of shipping that you use, and the type of marketing campaign you follow. However, there are definitely ways to save money on all of these facets. If you’re just starting up a business from home, you can shave costs and hold on to more of your profits.

online business tips

Invest in the Right Areas

You may have a great idea for a money-making website. The costs of designing this website and getting it up and running can really add up, if you use separate services or pay professionals to take care of all aspects of your web design. Instead of paying a separate web hosting service, graphic designer, and SEO executive, you could combine all of these services in one by paying for a simple shopping cart software program. These provide professional templates that allow you to give your website a slick, eye-catching look without paying a web designer to do it for you. By simply using an all-in-one ecommerce platform, you can save thousands right off the bat.

Choose Popular Payment Options

You’ll need to make sure that your customers can pay you through a simple and secure process on your website. Some business owners will sign up with third party payment gateways, which take the customer to a separate site to make their final purchase. Paypal works this way. Another option is to use free point of sale software, which integrates with your website and helps enable secure payments on the same screen. This can help boost profits because you’ll be less likely to lose customers in a multi-step payment process.

Consider Drop Shipping

Shipping costs are another major expense for small online businesses. You have several options to choose from when it comes to shipping. You can use a specialist who works specifically with small businesses to send your own products out to customers. Another option is to work with a drop shipping company. They hold on to your inventory, so that you don’t have to worry about the initial cost of purchasing and housing all of your products. Drop shipping also saves you money because they can provide bulk rates. In terms of convenience, using a drop shipper means you don’t have to ship anything yourself. They will take care of it for you; saving you time, space, and money.

With website templates, the best payment gateways, and drop shipping, you can run a new business at very little cost. You can further promote your business by marketing it for free using social media and a business blog, without spending a cent on advertising. This means you have to spend less out of your own pocket before you start seeing real returns.

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Stock Images – Free Digital Photos.Net