The Ultimate Home Business Resource List

I've been getting quite a few phone calls and emails from friends who are thinking of starting new year with a business of their own. Although I might not have all of the answers, I try my best to be a valuable resource to them. Thats why I was quite excited when I came across "The Ultimate Home Business Resource List" in a recent Start-up Nation article.

I found these resources to be extremely beneficial. I hope you will too.

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When it comes to the US economy, there’s one vital sector that hits very close to home: home businesses. According to the Small Business Administration, 53 percent of businesses in the United States are based from home, and this number is expected to increase.

In recognition of their importance, we set out to create a Home Business Resource List that would serve the needs of entrepreneurs setting up shop from home. We asked experts, talked to home business owners and scoured the Internet, and this is what we found.

1. Government Resources
2. Marketing Solutions
3. Outsourcing
4. Technology
5. Accounting/Finance Software
6. Legal Assistance
7. Inventions
8. Setting up Your Home Office

Explore all the details here.

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Identifying Your Target Market

Identifying your target market is the most important thing you can do for your business. You have to understand who your customers are and where to find them in order to be successful.

The first step in identifying your target market is to understand what your products/services have to offer to a group of people or businesses. To do this, identify your product or service's features and benefits. A feature is a characteristic of a product/service that automatically comes with it.

Here’s an example, if toothpaste has a stain-removing formula - that's a feature. The benefit to the customer, however, is whiter teeth.

While features are valuable and can certainly enhance your product, benefits motivate people to buy.

An example is anti-lock brakes; they are features on a car, but the benefit to the consumer is safety.

By knowing what your product/service has to offer and what will make customers buy, you can begin to identify common characteristics of your potential market.

For example, there are many different consumers who desire safety as a benefit when purchasing a car. Rather than targeting everyone in their promotional strategy, a car manufacturer may opt to target a specific group of consumers with similar characteristics, such as families with young children.

Now is the time to renew your customer database and determine who your target audience is. The next step is segmentation or breaking down that market so that you can very specific as to whom the solution is provided.

Parts taken from an article by the Edward Lowe Foundation.

5 Must Have Business Books

(from Entrepreneur Magazine)

No single business book contains everything you need to know--and some even offer advice nobody ought to hear. But these five have withstood the test of time to become books no one should start or run a business without reading first.

1. Will It Fly? How to Know if Your New Business Idea Has Wings... Before You Take the Leap, by Thomas K. McKnight
   (FT Press, $27.95)
   The heart of this book is its 44-item checklist for evaluating business ideas by a hugely experienced veteran of business launches. By the time you've evaluated everything from your personal attitudes to exit strategies, you'll know as well as possible your chances for success.
2. The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It, by Michael E. Gerber
   (HarperCollins, $16.95)
   This revisit of the 1995 classic on general small-business management famously shows entrepreneurs why and how to stop working in their businesses and start working on their businesses.
   
3. Guerrilla Marketing: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits From Your Small Businesses, by Jay Conrad Levinson (Mariner Books, $14.95)
   Now in its fourth edition, the original guide to small-business marketing packs the same high-impact, low-cost punch that made it a standard when it first came out in 1983. Now, however, it's updated with tips on websites, blogs, podcasting and other up-to-the minute techniques.
   
4. The Business Planning Guide, by David H. Bangs Jr.
   (Kaplan Business, $24.95)
   This book's jargon-free writing and inside tips from a former banker and entrepreneur have made it the first and only choice for countless entrepreneurs getting started.
   
5. Start Run & Grow a Successful Small Business, by Toolkit Media Group editors
   (Toolkit Media Group, $24.95)
   If anyone ever publishes the perfect all-in-one small-business reference, it will look a lot like the sixth edition of this 720-pager. It touches on everything, from accounting to staffing, with checklists and forms.