Build Your Success By Helping Others

Having a selfish spirit never helped anyone succeed....well at least not for long. Eventually selfishness will cause others to see that you have nothing but your own best interests at heart.

If you are building a business, you must recognize that your business is not just about you. It's about people and helping them. Think about it. For example, let's say you are a beauty products provider, when you sell a detoxifying dry skin cleanser you are not just selling a face product, you are offering help to obtain cleaner, more moisturized skin that ultimately becomes healthier skin.

Another example, let's say you sell pain relief products, you aren't just selling your clients pain management products, you are providing them with a solution so that they can have better days, more peace, a better night's rest etc. You get it right?

One of the ways I want to help others while building my own successful business is to offer free business features on this blog.

If you or someone you know is building a home business that offers: hair care, jewelry, flowers, clothing, paper products, electronics, household items, services or informational products, please feel free to post a reply. I will then request for you to send me a short personal bio , 4 images of some of your best products, and your website address. We'll take it from there.
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Michelle Howard Smith is referred to as an Infopreneur Extraordinaire. She runs a multi-faceted home based business researching information related to alternative health, skin care and more.

Know Your Target Market

Did you know that it doesn't matter if you have a home business or if you are a large corporation, you must know your market?

Many businesses fail, small and large due to not understanding this critical element.

I too have struggled with understanding my target market and how to market to them. I figured that since I sell natural skin care products, my target market was women who prefer natural products. That's a broad market view and had me earning zilch. I needed to go deeper.

After some research and examining my past customers, I realized that my target market, while it may be women, it's actually women of color. Now, that's not because I'm a woman of color. It's because of the types of products I sell along with their benefits.......dry, sensitive skin and who suffers with those skin conditions the most? Women of Color! Specifically women of color in a certain income range (of which I won't share :-)

It was as if a light bulb went off. Now, that's not to say that my products are not for women of the Caucasian persuasion because they can also have dry and sensitive skin. The key to understand here is that when marketing, you can't please everybody....unless of course you are a multi-billion dollar corporation.

Finding your niche and knowing your target market BEFORE starting your business will certainly save you a lot of time and disappointment. Regardless of the fact, even if you've started your business, you can always back track (like I did) and go after your target market.

In my next post, I will share some resources that I've come across that can help you with finding your target market. Stay tuned!

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Michelle Howard Smith is referred to as an Infopreneur Extraordinaire. She runs a multi-faceted home based business researching information related to alternative health, skin care, pain management and more. Michelle has helped a number of people to achieve natural pain relief, stress relief and healthier skin.

Subscribe to Michelle's The Skin Natural newsletter to receive information on black skin care and similar topics OR The Stress Less newsletter to receive tips and info on healthy living.

How to Get Prospects for Your Business

If you are looking for some help getting prospects then today's your day. I just discovered some marketing tools that you can download for free. I am still in the process of reviewing it myself but hey it's free so check it out.

Rob Toth is offering a free download of his “How Can I Get Visitors To My Website” audio course, which tells you how to generate traffic, leads, prospects, opt-ins. This download consists of 4 “CDs”, a booklet , and a cheat-sheet.

You can download the e-course here: http://www.howtogetprospects.com.

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Michelle Howard Smith is President of Reviyve LLC, a distributor of stress and alternative pain relief products. Subscribe to the Stress Less Newsletter to receive stress management tips, alternative health info and exclusive offers for subscribers only.

Featuring The Eclectic Mall

Home Business Feature of The Week:
The Eclectic Mall by Kathy Adams

1. Kathy, tell us a little about why you decided to start your own business?
   
   I worked in the insurance field for many years. In 2007 I became unable to work outside the home anymore due to chronic back problems. After several failed attempts at finding a legitimate work from home JOB, I decided to try my hand at a business.
   
   
2. What encouraged you to build what appears to be a full online shopping mall?
   
   I thought I would have more success if I offered a variety of products and several choices for each product. I have tried to offer something for everyone, which is why my site will always be a work in progress.
   
   
3. What challenges have you experienced as a result of starting your own business?
   
   I am fairly new to this, so trying to find ways to market my business has been a lot of work. Also, I don’t know a lot about SEO so that has been a real challenge.
   
   
4. How have you met or how do you plan to meet those challenges head on?
   
   I have been doing a lot of reading and asking advice from people who have done this and have been successful. I’ve joined several networking sites also.
   
   
5. How are you currently marketing your business?
   
   I market on the networking sites to which I belong. I also have begun to use Twitter. Finances are tight right now, so I look for ways to market for free.
   
   
6. What appears to be your most effective marketing challenge (bringing in the sales)?
   
   At this time, I would have to say contacting friends and family. They are also helping get the word out about my online mall.
   
   
7. What are your business goals?
   
   I would love for this to be a business that brings in enough money to help with our bills. I am not looking to get rich.
   
   
8. Hey nothing wrong with being rich but how often do you run specials and how do you determine what deals to offer?
   
   All of the stores on my site are affiliate stores, so I am unable to offer specials on my own. However, the majority of the stores do offer specials. I frequently get emails from them telling me of the deals they have going on and I add banners to the home page of my site advertising them.
   
   
   
9. Any advice for others looking to start/build an online store?
   
   Do your research and have a lot of patience!!!
   
   
10. How can my readers get in touch with you and where can they view your selection of products?
    
    I can be reached at kathykandlesko (at) aol (dot) com. My products can be viewed at http://www.the-eclectic-mall.webnode.com
    
    

About Kathy Adams: Kathy is a wife, mother of two young adults and a lover of animals. Until two years ago, she was employed at Blue Cross/Blue Shield as an Operations Analyst. Chronic back problems forced her into early retirement. She applied for social security disability, but knowing there would be a very long wait, she decided to find some way to make money from home. After several failed attempts, Kathy decided to start her own home based business. The Eclectic Mall began as a small online mall, but grew very quickly as family and friends requested certain items be added. Kathy thought it would be best to offer several different stores in each category to ensure a great variety of products and prices.

Vote for Trip to NY

Please a cast a vote for Kathleen from Gabbriella's Closet to Win a Well Needed Trip to New York. She's a wonderful business associate and friend and offers the most delightful sample boxes.

Kiss and Tell Your Huge Lips Skinny Hips I.D. Sponsored by Purple Lab

She's Batty Designs Business Feature

Home Business Feature: ~*She's Batty Designs*~ by

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(¸.·´ (¸.·`¤... Jamie...

1- Tell me a little about yourself and what inspired She's Batty Designs
I'm Jamie Sabot and I'm the owner and artist behind She's Batty Designs. I'm also a university student finishing up her bachelors degree in psychology with a minor in fine/visual arts. I started off doing a double major in psychology and fine/visual arts but quickly realized that a major in fine/visual arts was not where I wanted to head (more on this below).

I'm highly passionate about animal welfare and worked for a number of years with the Ontario SPCA. Animal welfare is by far the cause I advocate the most for. I find a lot of my strengths and skills complement a career in animal welfare, and perhaps I'll end up working in that field again some day. Right now my efforts are focus on my 3 rescue dogs and my turtle. Each one of them has a unique story. I would love to share these stories but I think I'm already going to have too much to say for this blog feature! Contact me if you want to hear more or check out my brief (and a bit out of date) profile at the ASPCA ning community site.

My favorite time of year is autumn. It's when my all time favorite holiday takes place (Halloween), and I love all the sights, smells and weather that comes along with autumn. I decorate for Christmas with a lot of the same decorations I put up at Halloween because a lot of them are inspired by the Nightmare Before Christmas. I've started growing pumpkins this year and can't wait to harvest and carve my very own - home grown - pumpkins.

My love of arts and crafts was what inspired She's Batty Designs. After attending Fine Art school and not feeling totally satisfied with the direction my art was headed, I threw out all the "rules" and "norms" that has been drilled into my head. I gather up a bunch of art supplies that inspired me, a few pictures, and a lot of glitter. I crafted like I was a kid again and made art that made me happy. It was very refreshing to make art that didn't have to have a purpose other than my own enjoyment. It was inspiring, and enlightening to drop all the Fine Art baggage and make art without a struggle. Friend and family members embraced my works so I decided to start offering them publicly via She's Batty Designs.

2- What types of products do you sell?
Most paper products - greeting cards, tags, die cuts, and scrapbooking supplies. I'm getting more into candle making and currently offer a few different kinds of candles and melts.

I also offer my services as a photographer - one of the only things I didn't throw out the window after Fine Art school.

Featured Products:

Graveyard cupcake candle
I love Halloween so much that I just had to make a spooky inspired cupcake candle to celebrate! I hadn't seen any candles like this before so when the idea popping into my head I wrote it down in my idea book, did a sketch and then sadly didn't come back to it for about 6 months. I was flipping through my idea book (6 months after the sketch was done), the pages immediately fell to the page with the sketch of this candle! I got super excited about my long lost idea and jumped into action! Now I'm super excited to release this candle under She's Batty Designs so everyone can share in the spooky fun :)

House on a haunted hill card
This is one of my fav recent creations. I love the colour scheme in this card. The golds and browns are so deep and give it a really "rich" look. I also got to use a lot of different techniques in this card including spray painting, crystal effects, stamping, and embossing. One of my most favorite things is glitter so this card is extra special to me because of the amount of glitter I was able to use in it without "over doing it".

3- How long have you been selling online?
I started selling online in April of 2008 at Etsy.

4- Do you sell your products offline at any events?
If so, what types of events are most profitable for individuals who make their own products
I have done a few events but they aren't something I participate in regularly because I haven't found any in my area that are worth while.

5- When deciding on a new design, what factors influence that design?
Mostly the supplies I have on hand and what I'm currently trying to create. Half of the time I walk into my studio without a pre-determined project in mind. Other times I walk in with a vague concept like "Halloween Tags". What is created from there depends on the supplies I have on hand. I focus on one holiday at a time so for a few months the tables in my studio are covered with Halloween supplies or Christmas supplies, etc.

6- Have you ever experienced creator's blocK? If yes, what advice can you give to others to come out of it who may be experiencing it as well?
If I have a creator's block it's usually not due to being out of ideas or supplies, it usually because of fatigue. I only get short bursts of energy due to having Ankylosing Spondylitis, so when I have the energy I do a lot of creating! When I don't, I spend a lot of time online listing my items, surfing around for inspiration, and talking with other artists on plurk and the AF forums. Although this cycle is not ideal from a health stand point, it really works well to keep away creator's block! When I'm creating I'm solely focus on that, and when I'm drained of energy, I'm solely focused getting passive inspiration and doing the less creative tasks of online selling. I used to get depressed about not having the energy to create more but I've realized over the last few years, that taking a different perspective about my whole situation has really helped me to be super productive when I DO have the chance to create.

7- Jamie, in your opinion what's best way for someone with a home based business to get more exposure?
The need to look at what venue they are using to sell. If they are selling online then that is where the majority of their marketing efforts (and money) should be spent. If they are working from home but selling at a market on the weekends, then they need to focus on creating enough stock for each weekend and encourage people to come and to their booth at the market - so they would need to market locally.

Online sellers have a really vast market to try to reach so they need to narrow down their reach. First they should figure out how their target audience is and focus their marketing efforts there. Once they've reached that target audience they can start to expand their online marketing efforts. Project wonderful ads have worked rather well for me as well as keeping a blog and sending out a month email update.

Online sellers should also try to list often and at targeted times. I find that if I list a few new items on a Saturday or Sunday, I do better than if I listed those same items on a Monday or Tuesday. Listing is free advertising if you're listing on ArtFire so it's a win-win combo! I would also suggest listing a couple items a couple days a week rather than listing them all on one day. You'll get more exposure throughout the week if you stretch out your listings. It will also give you a chance to really market each listing without overwhelming your contacts and social networks. Those are just a few of the basics that I have found worked for me. There's lots more info on Handmade News. I'm the editor of the marketing department so as you can imagine, marketing is something I'm highly passionate about.

8- Do you take custom orders?
Yes, I do! I really love custom orders because it give my creative muscle a workout! Custom orders help keep things fresh and innovative in my studio. I also love helping people so if I can help fill a need they have with my art then all the better! A lot of my "local" business comes from custom orders, particularly for custom photo invitations and cards. I really love creating these because not only do I get to work with a personal photograph but I also get a chance to use my graphic design skills :)


Add'l Featured Products:

Gocco Halloween party invitations:
Besides photography, the medium I loved the most to work with in Fine Art school was printmaking. I adore my gocco printer - it is my most loved "tool" in my studio. These invitations hold a special place in my artsy heart for a few reasons. One of those reasons is obvious - they are for Halloween! But the other reasons are so obvious. I designed these invitations my self on the computer using my graphic arts skills (which are self taught :)), I then transferred my designs to gocco master screens and printed them on card stock. I used two different screens - one for the black and one for the green pearl link. I really love the use of the green pearl because it's so shimmery and really holds its own next to the black. I really love making pieces that I can incorporate computer skills and traditional arts skills.

We've Moved:
These postcards are super simple in their design but they are very special to me. These are made using my gocco screen printer again (like the Gocco Halloween party invitations), and were another design that I made on the computer. They are special to me because these were the exact postcards we sent out when we moved last year. I made twice as many as we needed. For the ones we sent out, I made a second screen to print our "moved" info on the back of the postcards and kept with a "batty" theme. I'm so happy to be able to offer the ones I left blank on the back to the public because perhaps there is someone out there as batty as me for this kind of simple, halloween-ish design.

9- Finally, where can people find your products online and how can they reach you?
They can find my products at:

ArtFire http://shesbattydesigns.artfire.com

I can also be reached via email: shesbattydesigns (at) hotmail (dot) com

Create Hub Pages and Make Money

I recently discovered something really neat I'd like to share. It may be new for some and not so new to others...It's certainly new to me. They are Hub Pages.

If you've ever heard of Squidoo then you will understand the way the site works. On Squidoo, you create what are called Lenses. On Hub pages, you create hubs. Essentially what you are doing is creating an article about whatever topic of interest you want to write about. You can include, videos, photos, links, RSS feeds, you name it. The beauty about it is, you can also monetize your Hub pages. Join an affiliate program or Google Adsense and you can have ads posted on your hubs. Lots of people are making a decent residual income with Hub pages.

Creating a Hub page also helps you to spread the word about your product or service. Of course you can't be overly promotional but you can get your links out there and start creating Hub pages to show your authority in your area of business.

I wrote my first two hubs last week (I needed something to do while I was being pissed off for having people steal my articles online):

http://hubpages.com/hub/Why-Natural-Products-Are-Better-For-You
http://hubpages.com/hub/aromatherapy_massage

I encourage anyone with a business to start creating Hub pages. Two reasons:

• When business is slow, get to writing and earn some $$
• Get exposure for your business