Business Building Advice and Ideas

Question

I just got laid off from my job as a Secretary and I need to start making money right away. What would you suggest?

Answer

For starters I would suggest that you begin putting your great office skills to use immediately as a freelancer and work from home.

Your office skills are in high demand on guru.com andelance.com.

Go to each site and look at all the work that is posted. Review each site and create your own profile detailing your skills and availability. Please do not underestimate your skills.

Each site will show you how to quote on projects on their site.

You could probably have yourself setup by the end of the weekend and start quoting on projects on Monday morning. Get to work and best of luck!

Question

I run my own carpentry business and it is growing like crazy.

There are never enough hours in a day to get everything done. I have several guys working on projects with me during the day, but when I get home at night I still have all this office work to do.

My business is based out of my home. I need help with the administrative work, but I do not have space to accommodate an onsite Admin Assistant. What can I do?

Answer

Have you considered hiring a Virtual Assistant? A virtual assistant is an excellent idea for many reasons.

First off, they work from their office or home office, not yours.

The second great advantage is that they work on a contract basis, meaning that you only pay them for the exact number of hours that they work on your business as opposed to paying them for sitting in your office all day whether they are busy or not.

A virtual assistant can help you maintain and even grow your business further by looking after your email, following up on outstanding invoices, booking travel arrangements, maintaining client relationships, creating and executing new marketing plans, and simply organizing your weekly appointments and schedule so that you can stay on top of things.

Make a list of the things you would like your virtual assistant to do and start interviewing a few immediately. You will love the benefits and you will actually be able to relax in the evenings.

Question

A friend and I have been kicking around some great business ideas. One of our ideas is that we would love to start our own website about how to make jewellery, but we do not know anything about designing or creating a website. I am able to use Word and Excel quite well.

I have read so many websites that say "you can build a website in an afternoon". Is that true? Should I sign up for that or do I need to take some courses in website design first?

Answer

Funny you should ask that question. I use to think that I could create a website on a Saturday afternoon, no problem.

And I didn't even see the websites you are talking about. I just thought, how hard can it be? Well my husband smiled and walked away because he knew I couldn't get it done in one afternoon.

Guess what? He was right.

Building a website is an excellent business idea, but if you are going to do it, you want to do it right the first time.

This means that you want to learn how to research your ideas, check out your competition to see how they handle things, think about what direction you want your site to go and think about how you will make money with your website business.

You have many options when it comes to buying a domain name and finding a company to host your website.

The Internet is full of selections.

However, if you are just starting out and want to create your first website business then you may want to select a hosting company that also offers a full education program.

If you choose a hosting company that offers a full education program on how to plan and build a website business, plus provides you with hosting space, domain name and online support, you will be ten steps ahead of your competition.

Creating a website business can be a lot of fun, especially if you are going to work on it with someone else. You can divide up the work and get more done in a shorter period of time.

If you would like to learn about a company that offers a full education program on how to build an online business, then click here for more information.

Good luck with your new business!

Question

I love to travel and go on cruises, and I have often thought about becoming a travel agent. I have looked at the travel agent programs at our local community college. I could afford them but it would mean being away from my young children quite a bit. And working as a travel agent in an agency would also mean that I couldn't be home with them.

So I started looking on the Internet and I found a few travel businesses that I thought were intriguing. They said that they were home based businesses, which would be a good thing for me.

Each of them talked about buying into their business and then recruiting other people to buy in as well. That is not the type of business I am looking for.

I want to help people make their travel plans and book their trips for them, not sell a travel business to other people. What can I do to become a home based travel agent?

Answer

I did some research and found two great companies that are simply travel businesses.

The first advantage is that both of them offer the option of either setting up a retail location or a home based business.

Nine Ways To Create More Time For Yourself

The ideas below on how to create more time for yourself are great for people who work from home as well as people who work away from their home.

1. Hire A Virtual Assistant — A Virtual Assistant is a person or a team of people that can assist you with quite a few tasks. Typically they are hired as contractors by small business owners. Their contract fee is based on the services and time required.

   A Virtual Assistant can complete a large variety of tasks including word processing, spreadsheet preparation, business proposals, marketing campaigns, email and schedule management, newsletters, travel arrangements, etc.

   One advantage of hiring a Virtual Assistant is that they work remotely in their own office anywhere in the world. This eliminates the need to have staff in your office.

   The second advantage is that you hire them for the exact time you need their services and you only pay for that time.

   This is extremely beneficial for business owners with limited office space and a limited budget. Check out this link to learn more about .

2. Hire A Housekeeper — You could hire a full time housekeeper or a part time housekeeper depending on your schedule and your own work requirements. Many people find that having a housekeeper clean their house 2 or 3 times a month allows them to focus their time on their business.

   This can be even more important when you work from your home. Some people can remain focused on their work no matter where they are located. Others find it distracting to run a business from their home when they are thinking about the other work that they need to do around the house. They may find themselves multi-tasking and then wonder where the day went.

   Knowing that a housekeeper is coming to clean up at the end of the week may help you remain focused on your business and making more money.

3. Prepare Your Meals In Advance


Earlier this year I came across two excellent ideas for organizing and preparing dinners in advance.

The first one is called the  Big Cook is that you and your friends get together once a month to do what they call bulk cooking. You prepare large recipes of meals and then package them in portions for the freezer.

Everyone in your group can take home a variety of meals based on the recipes that you choose and the number of meals you make for the month.

Then each day your have a variety of meals in your freezer ready to make dinner for you and your family. The Big Cook cookbook explains everything you need to know.

The second way to organize and prepare dinners in advance is to participate in a meal assembly session.

This is a session that is hosted by a meal assembly business such as They create the recipes, purchase and prepare the ingredients and schedule the assembly sessions.

You schedule the date that you can attend and select the recipes that you would like to make.

At the session you follow the recipes to create the meals that you selected. They are packaged for your freezer. Each day you put one of the meals in your fridge so that it is thawed out for dinner for the next day. Cook it and dinner is ready.

4. Have Your Groceries Delivered — If preparing your own meals is something that you really enjoy you can still save time by having your groceries delivered (depending on where you live). 

Look for a grocery store in your area.

5. Hire A Personal Concierge Service — You do not need to be rich and famous to hire a personal assistant. You can hire a personal assistant on an “as required” basis to complete a variety of tasks for you. Most concierge services provide a large selection of services such as gift buying, house sitting, moving services, errands, travel arrangements, etc.

   Not only will this save you time but it will also save you money because you will not need to drive around to complete all your tasks.

6. Hire A Gardener — In the summer I love to mow the lawn, plant flowers and look after all the trees. While that can be great some days, other days it can take me away from focusing on my business.

   Several of my neighbours own small businesses and I noticed this summer that they have hired a Gardener to look after their lawn and plants. Each week they arrive and spend a few hours cleaning everything up.

   Depending on where you live, this may be a great service for you to consider too.

7. Hire A Bookkeeper — If you are operating a small business and numbers are your thing, then you probably do your own bookkeeping.

   If you find that bookkeeping is not your strong point then you may want to consider hiring a bookkeeper. If you do not need a full time bookkeeper you can hire a contractor on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis, depending on the size of your business.

   This will definitely free up your time so that you can focus on the tasks that you do best.

8. Hire A Nanny — Whether you work in your home or away from home there may be days when you need to come and go on an irregular basis.

   If you have children then you need to have a caregiver. A part time babysitter may work well. However if your daily schedule is irregular, then a Nanny may be more appropriate.

   A Nanny can be hired on a daily or weekly basis to help you with your children when you are home and when you are out.

9. Use A Dry Cleaning Service — While this may sound like a luxury it is in fact a real time saver. If you or someone in your family wears dress clothes on a regular basis and your clothes need ironing you will find that dropping the clothes off at the dry cleaners on a weekly basis will save you many hours.

   These are hours that you can spend on your business or relaxing and having fun with friends.