Hello Moms!

Happy New Year! I'm so excited to begin 2005 together sharing our entreprenuerial goals and the common concerns that we all share in raising our children.

Because so many women have some level of administrative skills - one of the first home business ideas I reccomend is to start your own Virtual Assistant business. Virtual Assistants (VA's) are similar to Administrative Assistants, except that you work from your home office and you work for yourself - accepting work from clients but handling your own taxes, etc.

The Virtual Assistant field is terrific because it is so broad. We have a very useful article by one of our forum members that addresses prospecting for work through your local real estate offices. Reading this article should spark a lot of ideas on the different opportunities just locally that you can drum up business from.

One of my favorite websites, Entrepreneur.com, published a good article on Starting a Virtual Assistant Business. This article has some excellent links referenced that should really help you.

Another really popular and viable business idea is to start an errands business. This is an easy business to start from home and has the potential to grow rapidly and be a lot of fun. Running errands is a huge part of every Mom's life and let's face it, we are pretty skilled at it. There are a lot of ways to make that talent profitable.

Errands businesses can cover a broad range of tasks, so it's wise to really sit down and think about what you want to specialize in. It could be grocery shopping for elderly customers or other busy parent's, doing lunch runs for local companies, shuttling children to and from school - or back and forth from their after school activities. Really, you just need to look at your own life and the lives of other people that you know to figure out what people could use a helping hand with. I sure could have used a hand with my Christmas wrapping this year! I am personally acquaintened with the owner of one Errand's service who has been very successful. She has some really helpful information available on her website.

Other members of FreelanceMom have had great success offering bookkeeping services to small businesses. Website design and search engine optimization are excellent fields to pursue if you are web savvy. And many members of FreelanceMom sell Tupperware, Melalucea, Avon and the like. One of our forum moderators, Shelly Hill actually does so well selling Tupperware that the company gave her a car!

The main principal is to decide what really appeals to you, what you know you can do well and come up with a good business plan. Remember, there are hundreds of thousands of successful home businesses. If they can do it... why can't you?!

I wish you all terrific success and personal fulfillment in the New Year!

HOME BUSINESS TIP A professional website makes all the difference. If you offer a service to clients, you must have a good looking website. It doesn't have to cost a lot of money to have a website. Here are some alternatives to paying for a custom design: ReadyWebsites Allows you to build your own site in just 5 minutes. No programming required.. iPage.com Web site builder and hosting. EbayStores Open a storefront on eBay.com

The "Wall of Defensiveness": 7 Ways to Tear It Down
By Ari Galper

Have you ever gotten frustrated when you realize that your prospects keep stereotyping you as a "salesperson"? And because of that, they don't give you the trust and openness that you deserve, and that are essential if you're going to help them solve their problems?

That's what's been happening to Michael, who calls companies to set appointments with decisionmakers. "I have a great product that I'm passionate about," he told me, "but when I call prospects, they immediately start treating me as just another salesperson who's trying to sell them the same type of product that others have tried to sell to them in the past...Is there any way to stop them from pigeonholing me?"

Michael is hitting what I call the "wall of defensiveness" that almost all decisionmakers these days use to protect themselves against sales calls. It tears me apart that he, like so many other salespeople, have to endure this type of personal rejection as he tries to make a living.

And none of the sales training or motivational programs he's been through had helped him to solve this frustrating and debilitating situation.

In our one-on-one sessions, Michael and I discussed 7 key strategies that can break down that wall, and he's been finding that they work for him...maybe they'll work for you, too...here they are...

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Network Marketing Is Definitely A Relationship Business
By Kirk Bannerman

Increase your chances of becoming a successful network marketer by always keeping a clear focus on "the three P's" of Promotion, Persistence, and Patience.

Heavily branded websites like amazon.com are household names and carry an implied trust with visitors. However, the vast majority of websites are not well known and are found and visited as a result of search engine searches. In these instances, the visitor is probably arriving at the website for the first time and human nature often dictates fear or suspicion of the unknown.

If someone is shopping around for the best price for a particular item, say a Cuisinart food processor, they would probably go to a site such as Ask Jeeves (at ask.com using the Smart Search for Products feature) and quickly obtain a list of sources and prices for the desired item. The "yes/no" purchase decision has already been made and it is simply a question of who to buy it from.

In the case of network marketing, it is of critical importance to build a sense of trust with your team members. Network marketing is very definitely a relationship business and each relationship typically starts out with two complete strangers sitting at their respective keyboards.

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