Is Your Home Business or Freelance Work Bringing in Enough Income?

My mission is to help work at home business owners and freelancers like yourself find the work that makes your heart sing – whether you're a home based business mom with kids, a downsizee wanting more control over your life, a semi-retired person who wants to earn more money, or an entrepreneur who never wants to go back to a full-time J.O.B.

When your heart sings, you're in a position to attract all kinds of good things to yourself, including clients... and wealth. 

Home based businesses represent a huge, growing segment of the marketplace. And a wonderful opportunity for you and me to gain recognition and a good income through our own creative efforts.

You can make a name for yourself in the freelance arena, too. After you secure the niche that can make you "slightly famous," contract work will come to you more easily and consistently. Even though you're a freelancer and do "jobs" for other companies, you're still the owner of your own freelance business.

And if you want to truly grow your income, there are a few aspects about your business we need to look at... especially if the income you were expecting hasn't materialized yet.

Critical Question #1:

Do you love what you're doing? If not, why are you "beating a dead horse?" Let's find a business you can put your heart and soul behind, with the resources you have at hand.

Take a look at the list of possibilities on my Part-Time Home Business Ideas page, the Freelance Work page, the Network Marketing page, or the Niche Marketing page. Explore what line of work suits your soul with a free sample Career Path Reading.

Better yet, find out what your soul's purpose is, with my do-it-yourself mission quest: Living Your Real Life - Guided By Your Soul's Purpose. 

Critical Question #2:

Have you done the homework for marketing your business effectively? As a business owner, you wear many hats, including "self promotion and marketing expert." Do you know how to write ads and press releases, conduct a direct mail campaign, get free publicity, draft an engaging "elevator speech?" Here's a short list of quality resources for do-it-yourself marketing and publicity.

You gotta know this stuff:

Getting Business to Come to You by Paul & Sarah Edwards (the best book there is for marketing your home business, by the home business experts)

Action Plan Marketing with Robert Middleton (courses, ebooks, teleclasses, a standout ezine. Get on his mailing list.)

Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound (books, special reports, ezine - all excellent. She's highly regarded in her field.)

Get Slightly Famous by Steven Van Yoder (a great book!)

Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples (a classic, should be required reading for all home based business owners)

This is not something you can leave up to chance. As a home based business owner, you'll want a clear idea of the marketing methods that work best for you, because you're the one who'll be passionately promoting your offerings, whether in person, in writing or on the internet.

Critical Question #3:

Do you have your OWN business website? This is in addition to any generic website offered through your business opportunity or network marketing organization.

It's all well and good to point people to your online ordering site, but how do you get them there in the first place? People search for specific solutions to problems on the internet. What problem are you helping them solve? THAT'S what your own business website should be about. It convinces visitors that you have what they want and need and points them to the place they can get it.

Even freelancers need their own website... or a blog at least, to post their resume, publicity kit, examples of their work, and articles.

Again, it helps if you do your homework. I recommend that you read (take notes, highlight and underline) Make Your Site Sell, if you're serious about building an online business presence. This remarkable ebook is now FREE and it's the single most useful internet marketing book I've come across.

For making do-it-yourself websites, here are the options I'm familiar with:

Site Build It
Site Build It by Ken Evoy is a great program, if you can swing it... lots of bells and whistles, plus they're always adding things.

See why work at home moms love SBI!

Website Wizard
Click here to see my client Carna's website.

Critical Question #4:

What's the plan? You've fashioned a cool elevator speech, so you can tell prospective clients what you do in a way that makes them want to know more.

You've learned how to write mouth-watering ads and you've read Joan Stewart's "Kick Butt" publicity book. How do you put it all together in a consistent marketing plan that makes you a "household name" amongst your target audience? You know, the "Queen of ...."

This is where you clarify your "Extreme Niche." Are you ready to stand out from the crowd? Do you love it when clients are referred to you by previous clients because your name comes to their mind first? Carving out your territory in the marketplace makes marketing MUCH EASIER, because now you know who your prospective clients are... and, therefore, you know where to find them.

When your business is clearly defined in your own mind, it'll be that much easier for prospective clients to understand it, too.

So, the plan is:

1. Determine your niche (love what you do)

2. Identify your audience (know for whom you do it)

3. Create a mouth-watering message (in a passionate voice)

4. Make your presence known (online and offline)

5. Market consistently and repeatedly to the right people (who want, need, and can pay for your products and services)

Like I did, you can learn to do all this yourself, using the resources I have referenced, for starters.