Getting Creative with Your Home Based Business

Creative Ways to Market Your Home-Based Business

Marketing your home-based business can be challenging, but it doesn’t have to be. It doesn’t have to be boring or dull, either. There are many creative and fun ways to market your home-based business that ensure you stand out and attract new clients or customers. Getting creative with your home based business is a joyous and profitable journey!

Here are five fun and creative marketing tips to get you started:

Create Videos
Video content is one of the most popular and effective ways to market your home-based business. Tutorials, how-to guides, product demos, or behind-the-scenes videos are all great ways to engage your audience and build trust. Make sure your content is engaging and relevant to your target audience, and share it on social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram.

Hold a Contest or Giveaway
This is a highly effective way to build interest in your business, increase engagement with your followers, and boost brand awareness. Make sure that the prizes you offer are enticing enough to attract new customers while being within reach of your existing clientele. You will also want to ensure your giveaway or content is secure and safe for everyone involved. Make sure the signup process is clear and easy to understand and that the contest or giveaway is clearly stated in terms of rules and regulations.

Go Live
Live video content is a great way to get your followers excited and engaged with your business. However, it is important to note that live content is only great for those who already have somewhat of a following. Therefore, make sure to consider your target audience and how they would interact with your content when planning a live-streaming event. Some great ideas include Q&A sessions, panel discussions, or product demos.

Create and Share Accessories
Another great way to market your home-based business is by creating and sharing accessories that complement your products. This can include custom logo stickers, bookmarks, wine charms, or other branded items. Not only will this help you build brand recognition, but it can also be a fun way to get your customers involved in the process and excited about your business. Just make sure that any accessories you create are well-designed, branded, and professional-looking. For example, if you sell handmade jewelry, consider creating custom packaging or business cards that showcase your work and brand.

Host Events or Classes
This could include online webinars or in-person workshops on topics related to your niche. By doing this, you will showcase your products and services to potential customers and broaden your reach by inviting other businesses or speakers to join in on the event. Be sure that any events or classes you host are well-promoted and easy to access for all of your followers. You may also want to include a signup or RSVP form on your website to better track who is interested in your content.

If you want to market your home based business profitably, but in a creative and fun way, there are many different approaches that you can take. From creating videos to hosting events and classes, the key is to find marketing activities that are engaging and relevant to your target audience. Be creative, think outside the box, and have fun with your marketing efforts. Getting creative with your home based business means having fun while making money!

How to Launch a Successful Etsy Store

Launching a successful Etsy store is a great way to start your own home-based business. With the right steps and mindset, you can create a thriving business that provides you with income and fulfillment on your own terms. To start, it’s important to have the right mindset for launching your Etsy store. This involves being passionate about your products and being determined to make your business a success. You’ll also need to be organized and willing to put in the time and effort needed to get your store up and running.

The following are six steps to take to launch a successful Etsy store:

Step One: Pick the Right Product
Pick a product that you’re passionate about, and that has the potential to do well on Etsy. This could be anything from handcrafted jewelry, clothing, or other accessories to home decor items, art prints, or other unique products.

Step Two: Build a Strong Brand
Having a consistent brand is important for standing out on Etsy and building customer loyalty. This involves choosing a name and logo for your store, along with developing other branding elements such as color schemes, fonts, and marketing materials. As soon as someone sees your logo or hears your name, you want them to think of your products and brand.

Step Three: Create High-Quality Photos
Etsy is a visual platform, so it’s important to have high-quality product photos that show off your items in the best light. This could mean using natural light for shoots, taking multiple photos from different angles, or using props to showcase your products.

Step Four: Develop an Engaging Product Description
Along with photos, your product description should be engaging and informative. Tell buyers a little bit about your products, including the materials they’re made from and what makes them unique or special. Add any relevant details, such as sizing information or customizations you offer, and consider including customer reviews or other user-generated content to help build trust and credibility with buyers.

Step Five: Build Your Audience
While it’s important to have quality products in order to launch a successful Etsy store, you also need an audience of potential buyers. You can find your audience using social media, your website, and other marketing channels to promote your store and products. Consider starting an email list so you can market to customers directly and offer exclusive deals and discounts to subscribers.

Step Six: Analyze Your Success
Finally, it’s important to track your success and make adjustments as needed. This involves analyzing which products are selling well and which aren’t, what marketing strategies are working best, or other metrics that help you understand how your Etsy store is performing. Then, you can continue tweaking and improving your business based on your learning.

With the right mindset, passion, and determination, launching a successful Etsy store is an amazing way to start your own home-based business. Whether you’re selling handcrafted jewelry, unique home decor items, or digital downloads, having a strong brand, quality products, and a dedicated audience is essential for success. Along with these steps, it’s also important to be patient and persistent as you launch your Etsy store. Building a business takes time and requires an ongoing commitment; be prepared to put in the work to make your store a success.

Managing Your Time With A Home-Based Business

One of the biggest struggles when it comes to working from home is time management. It’s easy to get distracted by the dishes stacked in the sink, the laundry piling up, and people reaching out to you throughout the day because you are home. This often compiles when you are a parent working from home who also takes care of young children. Let’s look at a few things that will help you…

Routines Are Your Friend

Setting up routines around your workday is key to getting things done efficiently and setting healthy boundaries. Think about it, when you work outside of your home, you stick to a routine that includes getting ready and driving to work at the same time each day for example. Set up a similar routine as you start and end your work day. It will signal to your brain that it’s time to work, or time to stop and switch into a family mindset. Getting creative with your home based business can still be structured.

Give Time-Blocking A Try

Another great technique to ensure you stay productive is to use time blocking. To keep it simple, let’s say your work involves three different types of tasks. Answering emails, writing articles, and creating social media content. Set a chunk of time out of your workday for each of those tasks, giving it your best guess on how long it should take you. Then dedicate that time to the task and nothing else, unless you’re done early. Adjust your time blocks as needed until you get a good feel for how long things actually take and get to work. This technique is incredibly powerful.

Set Boundaries And Enforce Them

This is easier said than done and all of us have seasons where this isn’t an option. You can’t tell an infant that you need her to sleep through the night so you can get up early to get your work done. You also can’t tell the elderly person you’re caring for that you can’t help them with mobility issues because it’s time for you to sit down and write.

That said, there are a lot of things you can do, no matter what your situation. Work with your family, your spouse, and your support system to carve out some time for you to work. Then protect that time with your life, using time-blocking in conjunction with it to make the most of every minute you have.

You’ll be surprised how much you can get done in these focused spurts of productivity. Then respect the boundaries you set when it comes to your family as well. Spend the time with them until you can carve out another block of work time (after the kids go to sleep for example). This is the path to being able to double your productivity.

Be Realistic With What You Can And Can’t Do (… and adjust as needed)

Last but not least, let’s talk about what you should do when you can’t do it all. There will be days when home and family obligations take over. There will be days when work needs to take all your time and energy. That’s okay. Strive for balance, but realize that you won’t reach it every single day.

More importantly, realize that you can’t always do everything you set out to do. That doesn’t mean you’ve failed. It simply means you reached for the stars and “only” made it to the moon. That’s an accomplishment. Be kind to yourself and never be afraid to adjust and adapt as things change, or you simply realize you need more time to rest and recharge. It’s an important part of the job too. Getting creative with your home based business makes sense on many levels, and the positive stories we tell ourselves are part of the journey to great success.

Your Home-Based Business Through Outsourcing

When you are working in a home-based business, you will eventually get to a point where you hit a ceiling. No matter what you do, you can’t grow, because you are the bottleneck. If you’re the person who does all the work and services all the clients, there’s only so many productive hours in the day that work will get done. This is of course particularly true in a service-based business. There’s a maximum number of clients you can take on without driving yourself insane.

It also holds true if you’re building a more passive stream of income. You can only grow so fast, because all the work is on your shoulders. There’s only so much content you can create in a day, or so many people you can reach out to about interviews etc. It doesn’t matter what your business looks like, as long as you are the only one working on stuff, you are limiting your growth potential.

What’s the solution to this problem? Sure, you could hire employees, get an office etc, but that’s not the point of running a home-based business, is it? Instead, you may want to look into outsourcing certain tasks to independent contractors.

Set aside a little money for outsourcing once you start to become profitable. This can be as little as five or ten percent of what you make. It may seem like not much of anything at first, but it will make a difference.

There are several different types of tasks you may consider outsourcing. Here are the most common reasons for going that route:

Outsource Because You Don’t Know How To Do Something

Sure, most tasks around an online business are things you can teach yourself. Need a fresh design for your website? You could spend months teaching yourself how to tweak a WordPress theme. Or you could hire someone to do it for you, giving yourself months of extra time to work on money making tasks.

Outsource Because You Don’t Do Something or Don’t Want To Do Something

We all have tasks we don’t enjoy doing. Things that get put off until the last possible moment. Or they get swept under the rug completely, even though you know better. For example, maybe you keep putting off updating your bookkeeping because it’s tedious. Or you don’t do the regular social media posts you know you should be creating to build engagement with your target audience. These are great things to outsource.

Outsource Because This Isn’t The Most Valuable Use Of Your Time

Take a moment right now to make a list of at least five things you do regularly that isn’t a good use of your time. Maybe it’s answering the same type of email every day. Maybe it’s approving comments. Maybe it’s making cute graphics for your posts. Think about tasks that are relatively easy, but take up a good chunk of your time. Time that you could use doing something much more valuable.

Things that only you can do, like creating that new coaching course for example. Then start to outsource one of those tasks and make sure you use the time you’re saving on something more valuable. As you grow your income, outsource more and more of those lower-level tasks until you mostly work on the things you’re really good at. The stuff only you can do.

Think about what you want to start to outsource. It doesn’t have to be anything big or expensive. Dip your toes in, look for someone to give you a hand, and see for yourself how much time and mental energy outsourcing can free up for you. And then watch your business grow faster than you thought possible. Getting creative with your home based business is worth the effort!

I’m Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author, independent publisher, and serial entrepreneur Connie Ragen Green and would love to connect with you. If you’re new to the world of online entrepreneurship please check out my training on how to make your first income online at 3 Day eBiz (Use Code: MAKEITHAPPEN to Save) and learn how to gain an unfair advantage when it comes to building a lucrative online business.