Working from home is awesome! The flexibility of setting your own schedule, saving time and money with no commute is incredible. My home office promotes efficiency in my non-traditional work environment. So what does that actually mean? Consider the following tips to help define a perfect home office for your new business.
Building relationships is nothing new to sales and business. Social media marketing is. To be able to build long-lasting virtual business relationships over the web is hard. Some would say impossible. I don’t agree.
I was in a retail toy store the other day and the owner randomly asked me what I thought he could do to improve his sales. He is leasing a nice store front in a small strip mall but off the beaten path. I told him that his location sucked. He looked shocked but ultimately agreed. I also told him that that’s OK. “I have successfully run plenty of retail store fronts in lousy locations.” I assumed he got a screaming deal on the lease and he had. Let’s save your business.
I started a business with a forty thousand dollar loan from a friend of mine. The business meteorically grew to over one million in sales per month within a year. I had nothing to complain about, right? Except… I was rotating my inventory 4-6 times a month. Cash flow issues were the order of the day. I went through three “bookkeepers” and as many accounting programs. Within a year and half I had over 50 employees and 4 locations. We tried to slow things down to only find that there is no “slow” with business. You’re either climbing or you’re declining. Within 4 years this same business failed due to bad accounting advice and practices, poorly designed loans, theft, and lack of a solid core business direction. We grew too fast. My business startup was a disaster. I should have planned to fail… let me explain.