As a solo entrepreneur you can get overwhelmed trying to wear all the hats. If you are just starting out you are the CEO, the sales person, the book-keeper and the dish washer. You know that I mean? You might have heard the phrase create leverage and if so great. However, once you make that discovery you are now simply exposed to so many options it’s hard to know what to choose.

As a work at home business one of the goals is to create an experience for the customer that is as easy as if they were buying from a Fortune 500. So how do you make it happen?

One of the best things you can do is look for good products that can demonstrate value to the customer but involves little to no work on your part.

Here are 10 tools that are easy for the non techs but add great value to the customer.

1. www.Efax.com: EFax is an online fax service that eliminates the need for a traditional fax machine, another line and all the associated expenses such as paper and ink cartridges. You get a real fax number that’s tied to your email.

2. www.Aweber.com: If you want to keep in touch with your customers automatically and personalize the communication an auto responder can be an important tool. For a small monthly fee you are able to create email campaigns or a single message and broadcast it to your customer list. There are a variety of ways to increase the personalization and as a result will help you develop a better relationship with the customer.

3. www.VoiceShot.com: How would you like to instantly send a voice mail broadcast message to one or thousands of customers at a time? Imagine the power of being able to send reminders, alerts, product announcements or even so interactive polls or surveys right from the web. There are no set up fees or monthly minimums. You simply pay for the calls that are delivered. You truly can call more than one person at a time.

4. www.SendOutCards.com: Have you ever wanted to send a thoughtful card to someone but forgot or it simply did not happen because you ran out of time? Well Kody Bateman CEO of send out cards has not only revolutionized the greeting card industry he has made it his mission to change peoples lives one card at a time. With over a couple of cards in the inventory you can send cards to anyone.

I love this product because in less than one minute you can choose a card, personalize it, even add a picture, write it with your own handwriting, put a stamp on it and hit send. This is no e-card that may never get opened. You can set yourself apart from the competition and touch the heart of people you care about with this revolutionary product.

5. www.AudioAcrobat.com: Audio Acrobat is easiest way to add audio to your website or email. Would you to create your own online radio show? Audio Acrobat helps you record conference calls, podcast, interviews, and more. You can also learn to create products such as marketable CD’s.

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In Napoleon Hill’s classic Think and Grow Rich, he tells a true story of a man named R. U. Darby and his uncle who were hit by the “gold fever” during the gold rush.

After having their first car of ore shipped to a smelter, they discovered they had hit one of the richest bodies of gold in Colorado. Excitedly, they continued digging, but the ore vein disappeared.

They kept digging in the hopes of finding the vein again, but when they didn’t get the results they were hoping for, they packed it in and sold off their machinery.

The man who bought the machinery realized random digging was not the best way to find the vein. He called in a mining engineer and had him make some calculations.

What contributed to the failure of Darby and his uncle was their lack of knowledge about “fault lines” and their neglect to consider alternatives. With his expert knowledge, the engineer was able to predict that the vein of gold could be found three feet from where the Darby’s quit digging, and that’s exactly where it was.

Millions of dollars worth of gold were pulled from the mine by the man who decided to not accept easy defeat, and to bring in someone else who had specialized knowledge he didn’t.

The lesson here is that success is often just beyond what seems to be your greatest obstacle. Welcome failure and use it as a measuring stick. When you’re defeated, look for the lesson. What do you need to change in your approach, your mindset, your environment?
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Setting up a home based business doesn’t have to be intimidating, expensive or time consuming. When you decide to make your living working from home, you simply need to go through a basic set up process to ensure you are ready.

Here are the steps for setting up your home business for success:

1. Attitude

- The key to your business success is your attitude.
- Treat your business like a business.

This is critical whether you are working part-time or full-time. For example, the mom who works from home around her family. She always puts her family first, at the same time developing her business. She says, “I may work part-time, but I have a full-time attitude.” To put another way, “Have a hobby attitude, get a hobby income, have a business attitude get a business income.”

You can be successful working part-time and you can be successful working full-time but it is unlikely that you will be successful just working in your “spare time”.

2. Describe Your Business

Be able to describe your business concisely; a powerful one or two sentence description that someone can repeat in describing your business to others.

A unique and memorable tag line can also be invaluable for promoting your business. This is often referred to as your “elevator pitch” or “audio logo”. Think about it, if you ask someone about their business and they describe it as “a errr, well, I kind of take care of, you know, well in as much as…” would you be impressed? Would you think that you should really hire that person? It’s much better to be able to speak briefly, confidently and memorably about your business and what makes it unique.

3. Know Your Product or Service

Once you have chosen the product or service to sell you need to know your product intimately. If you are selling e-books for example, then know the content and its value. If you are selling software then use it and know it “inside out”.

You will develop a reputation of providing quality information and because of your product knowledge, you can become the preferred supplier.

If it is not practical to use certain products (for example a woman may choose to sell man’s shoes or vice versa) then you won’t be using the product, however you can still know the benefits and features of the product intimately.

4. Get a Domain Name

Welcome to the twenty first century, you need a domain name for your business! You’ll need an account with a reputable hosting company who will provide a “space” on the web for your domain name and site. The fees can be as low as $4.95 per month and go up from there. If you do not have any knowledge of HTML there are hosting companies that provide “site builder” software via the web. This can be a great option but be sure you like the application before you plunk down your money as you will probably be using it a lot!

5. Email

Once you have your own domain you will have one or more email accounts for that domain. This can assist in the promotion of your business and promotes a more professional business image.

Using email smartly can help you in the task of organizing your business communications. For example, sales can arrive via sales@your-company.com, support and help requests via support@your-company.com and so on.

By setting up some basic rules in Outlook or other email program you can have the mail conveniently sorted into folders for you as soon as it arrives.

6. Payment Processing

You will probably need a way to process credit cards. You could use services such as:

- PayPal https://www.paypal.com
- StormPay http://www.stormpay.com
- 2 Checkout http://www.2checkout.com
- Clickbank http://www.clickbank.com

Paypal now has a Pro level of service that includes a virtual terminal, helping to keep the costs low. Once your business picks up you may need to look into your own merchant account for credit card transactions but any of the sites listed will certainly get you started and may be all you need for the life of your business.

7. Computer Protection

Your computer is the lifeline to your business dealings and must be protected including the data that is stored. You will need a virus scanner, personal firewall, anti-spyware and anti-adware and preferably an email scanner with the ability to delete suspect of spam email from the server before it is downloaded to your computer.
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Just like any other home based business, data entry jobs can be very lucrative and profitable if the work is done with persistence, determination and motivation. Online data entry jobs have been on the rise since the year 2001 due to the huge amount of information handled every day creating a need for data entry people. If the data entry process is not resorted to by companies or corporate houses there will be loads and loads of paperwork, which is considered to be non productive. It may also lead to loss of information, data and in turn revenue in the process. When data entry of the information is done, it preserves all the necessary information of the businesses and can help in the smooth flow of business processes towards profit.

There is a great potential for data entry jobs and the chances of making data entry jobs profitable is also very high. Many companies worldwide outsource data entry jobs. Some people even earn $1000 – $3000 as an additional income. To attain this level of earning, it is good to know what is required to become a good data entry personnel and the knowledge to source profitable data entry jobs. Data entry jobs provide a win-win situation for both the data entry person and the company which is outsourcing the job. The person can work as a freelancer and earn good money while working at the leisure of the home and the company can concentrate on more strategic issues than doing data entry jobs in-house. They also save a lot of time, money and energy due to outsourcing of the data entry to people working from home.
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