In Australia in 1860, two men, Burke and Wills, led an expedition as ambitious as the Lewis and Clark expedition in North America. But this one ended in tragedy.

After weeks of exploration, the main expedition arrived back at the base camp only to find that it was deserted. There was a sign carved on a tree that read “DIG 3FT NW”. The sign meant that they should dig three feet northwest from the tree to find the provisions that were buried there.

The provisions were there, the signs were there, but Burk and Wills did not understand what the signs meant and so they died a horrible death from thirst and starvation.

In business, entrepreneurs are like explorers. Lewis and Clark were successful. They survived. Burk and Wills were not. They died. Who do you want to be like?

This same tragedy gets repeated with businesses today. The way to survive it there, but business owners fail to read the signs. Those signs are called key performance indicators, or KPI’s. If you are not measuring you are not managing. Make sure that you are measuring right things the right way. For example, if a customer is worth $10,000 a year and average lifecycle is 5 years, then they are worth $50,000. So if it costs $1,000 to get a new customer and $200 per year to retain them it is a great deal. There are several KPI’s here. Cost of acquiring a customer, cost of keeping the customer, sales value of the customer per year, lifecycle of the customer. And notice that it costs 5 times to win a new customer verses keeping a customer.

What are the activities that must take place in the marketing and sales cycle that can be measured? Advertising cost, number of responses to advertising, appointments set, requests for quotation, number of sales, sales revenue. These are all opportunities to measure what is going on in your process. Develop meaningful targets at each stage in the process and compare them to your current performance. If your people are not meeting these KPI’s you need to find out why. These are signs that your business needs improvement.

You have an advantage that Burk and Wills never did. They did not have someone that they could ask to help them understand what the signs meant. You do. There are coaches that you can ask for help. The signs are there, and KPI’s can be set up so you can measure right things the right way, and avoid the equivalent fate of Burk and Wills.

You may not be interested in learning How to start an Errand Business right now but that is likely because you are not familiar with just how easy this business is to start up and operate. Simple things like grocery and gift shopping, waiting around for the cable guy, and even taking back movies are all things that we have to do anyway, so why not get paid for it? With more and more people busy with their careers and complaining about having more time than money, there is a growing market for people looking to learn how to start a errand business and real money to be made.

Estimated start up costs:
So long as you have reliable transportation, a cell phone, and some basic office supplies to fill out and create invoices for customers, you have all the essential supplies needed to own an errand business. There are starter kits available to you for less than $50 that can set you up with all the materials you will need to prepare professional looking invoices and keep track of your expenses. Other than that, learning how to start an errand business might involve some “seed money” in the beginning to cover miscellaneous expenses required to complete errands.

Pricing Guidelines:
Pricing guidelines are only limited by what your market can bear for the services you offer. Many professional errand services charge by the hour for their time while some prefer to set up monthly or even annual packages so that they get more money up front. On average and depending upon the service, someone learning how to start an errand business can expect anywhere from $15-35 per hour for their services for most residential customers. But, if you can break into the office support services market, then learning how to start an errand business can really turn into a profitable endeavor.

Recommended experience, skills, training:
Having the ability to prioritize tasks and organize your time are probably the most essential skills to this job. As with any business owner, however, you will need to market yourself and your company to people so any kind of sales or marketing background will be very useful. Some general business and accounting courses will prove handy when dealing with the financial and administrative tasks inherent to any business.

Marketing tips:
Success tends to breed more success and that is precisely the way your errand service will grow. As you network and build your reputation, so too will your ability to charge more. In the beginning, word-of-mouth advertising will be what makes or breaks your business. But, you may find it useful to advertise your services and company in the classified ads and be sure to print and distribute business cards every place you go.

Financing sources:
With relatively no start up costs to really speak of, securing financing is not really necessary when learning how to start an errand business. However, you may want to try starting out on a part-time basis as the going will be slow in the beginning and you may still need the income from another job to pay the bills until you get things rolling.

Income Potential:
The income potential for those owning an errand service really goes up if you can manage to break into the office support services market. There are people looking for workers with office skills to just come in and help them once a week or even once a month and they are willing to pay top dollar for this limited time. For people just looking to help others with their groceries and errands around the house, it is nothing for someone learning how to start an errand business to make $35-40,000 a year doing the things that they would normally do for free anyway!

I am simply amazed at the problems some of my colleagues are experiencing regarding writing job proposals for customers. So often I hear that there has been some sort of disagreement between client and service provider, something that can and should be avoided before a project is started. Here are four tips to help you write an effective job proposal letter.

Assume Nothing My junior high English teacher gave his students the real meaning of assume: if you assume something it makes an ass out of you and me: ass-u-me. Leave nothing to chance. When you speak with a client do not assume they understand much of what you have to offer. For instance, I sell website packages. I have learned to spell out everything that I will offer to my customers for a very specific price. If there are any “gray areas” I protect myself by telling customers that certain other expenses will be billed separately. Do not box yourself into a corner and do not pull surprises on your customers as they may think you are trying to cheat them. Keep the lines of communication wide open.

Get It In Writing Save all of your email correspondence with clients including emails you send and emails you receive. Sometimes what is not said verbally is articulated in writing. For example, I write much better than I speak, therefore I am more likely to put my ideas forth via “ink” or “type” than I am to verbalize them. In either case follow up your contact by placing everything in writing. You will need that paper trail in case something goes wrong e.g., a refusal to pay for services rendered.

Make Changes, If Necessary Sometimes projects change as the work goes forward. If it is a minor change, such as cropping a few extra photographs, you can probably “eat” the additional labor. However, if your project increases in size, let’s say your clients now want a 12 page website instead of an 8 page site, they need to know that you need to be compensated for the extra work. Specify in your proposal letter that any changes to the project will incur additional charges; remind them of this “clause” should any major change be proposed. Your customer may decide not to go with the larger project after counting the additional costs.

Write a Contract I have done fairly well without contracts. Many of my customers know me quite well, therefore the proposal letter serves as a contract of sorts. I also require my customers to pay me 50% as an advancement; if they walk away from the contract upon completion of my work their website does not get uploaded to the internet. At the very least I have partial compensation for my hard work. Your experience or risk factors may be much different than mine; certainly use contracts if your customers are not well known to you or you do not have a previous business relationship.

In summation, every satisfied customer is a potential referral for new business. Keep those communication lines open and understood and you will garner additional projects because of your sound business practices.

(c)2005; Matthew C Keegan, LLC

We are in the business of relationship building. How can you develop a relationship with anyone if you don’t send, speak, write or communicate with them frequently? The easiest way to start to do that is to collect e-mails addresses, physical mailing addresses and or phone numbers. Today everyone is afraid of spam, and to be blasted by offers in their e-mail or at their home or office. They are already conditioned to dismiss an uninvited person as a pest or nuisance.

You have to get past their guard. One of the ways to do that is to make it feel harmless. Would you like to receive a copy of my Free newsletter or catalogue of the many unique products we offer? No obligation to buy. They may give you the mailing address or the PO Box address. Send them what you told them you would.

If you see them on a daily or weekly basis, you could have a sign up sheet, where you get their phone numbers and or e-mails addresses in case of an emergency. Again use their information for just that. If you need to cancel a class or session, call or e-mail them. That is building a trusting relationship with them.

When you e-mail them make sure in the subject line it says your name and re: schedule change or cancellation of meeting. They would be sure to open it. Same if you call. Hi so and so this is “Michelle, I’m calling to tell you about a cancellation. Sorry about that can you make it at this new time?”

Another way to get the clients e-mail or physical address is to ask. Would you like to receive updates from me from time to time? I’m planning a newsletter would you like to be updated when that occurs? Then you have permission to send them updates of what you are doing. A new product comes out, or you wrote a book. Let your clients know about it. That is a legitimate reason to contact them.

Another reason that they would like to give out the e-mail address or physical address is a contest or raffle of some sort. We are giving away an hour coaching session please fill out your contact information.

Still another way to ensure that they may want to give their e-mail address is to give something away for free. No strings attached. You gave your e-mail address, and I’m going to reward you with a free downloadable report. Yours to keep.

Once you have the e-mails or physical addresses don’t abuse it. Let them know that you will be sending them information of importance to them. Don’t send them all sorts of offers. If they want to leave your list take them off immediately. Make it easy for them to get off. Send something to them at least once per month. But whenever possible keep collecting those addresses. Your list is vital to building your business.

When we are first starting out we have a tendency to overspend and we quickly begin to run through our limited funds in record time and create an enormous amount of debt and even more so if it’s not our money. What would you spend your money on if you knew it was your last one hundred dollars? That you were not going to get more money for a long time? You would focus only your most pressing needs. You would be forced to assess each area to find out if you are getting the results that would justify spending your last bit of funds.

You would try to find or create ways to promote your business that didn’t require a lot of expense. Labor intensive rather than spending any more money. What could you do?

You could barter for ad space; you could carry the flyers yourself instead of paying a kid to do it. You could cold call rather than spend it on advertising, you could place cheap ads in e-zines or on-line newsletters, you could collect e-mail and send out a free newsletter every month, you could target your advertising to your local area, you could team up with other local businesses for referral business, you could cross promote, you could make presentations for the chamber of commerce for free and see if they will pick up the cost of the event, you could call the local library and see if you can make a presentation or speak on a topic that could be noteworthy or of interest to the general public, you could write articles or a column in your local paper with consumer tips, or post articles on-line about your specialty.

Of course we live in the real world of everyday expenses and you have to spend money when you are in business on delivery charges, utilities, phone services, monthly services, classes or seminars, emergencies that unexpectedly happen, business trips, and car service to the airport sometimes.

But by budgeting those things into your calculations and keeping money on hand in case of an emergency it will conserve your funds and force you to think more creatively. Now when you are thinking of taking a risk with that last $100 you will have a pretty good idea if it will fly. What you have to do is picture where you want to go and what you want to achieve. With the last of your dollars will you achieve a big windfall or pull in an expanded income?

Even if you have thousands of dollars coming in per month it is a good idea to assess each area of your business to see if you can improve the processes to make it more efficient, that you can save money by implementing a new feature, or that you are making the kind of money you envisioned, with the new improvements.

In the end when you are making money remember to replace your emergency funds, pay down your debt and continue to improve your services and also keeping your costs budgeted, and keeping a check on your credit card spending. Paying high credit cards is not where you want to spend your last one hundred dollars.

When we are making a little more money is also the time that we are tempted to overspend. We justify this by saying I have a lot of money coming in now. Be warned that everything can be fleeting if you don’t set up a budget, manage your expenses, and keep a good eye on your results.

Do any of the online schemes for earning income online really work? Can an ordinary person who would like to make some extra income really succeed?

There is no doubt about it that some people do earn good income online. But what percentage of those who join up with online affiliate schemes actually succeed in earning anything?

The short answer would seem to be that those with good mailing lists make money and those without mailing lists don’t.

The mailing list and the way it is used are the real secret. Without a list it would appear to be almost impossible to succeed. This point is borne out by the fact that those with good lists are lothe to share them, Neither will they tell anyone else how they managed to build them.

The other great secret is the ability to write good, selling copy. If you can write good selling copy you can entice people to give you their name to add to your mailing list.

Then, of course, your only challenge is to attract people to your web site. Not as easy as you might think, but there are ways to do this if you have the time and dedication to make them work for you.

The alternative is to spend money on Google ads or pay-per-click visitors.

It would seem that there is a lot of preparation work necessary before you can start to earn the extra income.

So, why do people with good products bother to offer partnerships and affiliate programs? The answer is to attract people who have good mailing lists. If they can do that then they can convert those visitors to join their own mailing list.

So there is probably a whole host of web “junkies” out there who have their names on a lot of different mailing lists.

Can you become one of those who earns extra income on the Internet. Certainly you can but you have to go about it in the right way. It is much harder work than many would have you believe.

So is it worthwhile investing the time and energy in trying to earn extra income on the Internet? Yes, I you are prepared to invest in learning and buying the tools you need to make a success of it. This is not a game where many become wealthy by accident.

In today’s increasingly Internet-driven global marketplace, it is essential that you have a Web site that not only helps to sell your products and services, but that is also highly visible online. Studies indicate that your Web site ranking on search engines such as Yahoo! and Google can literally make or break your business and can make a million dollar difference in your profits. Therefore, in order to be a success online, you must be diligent in your online marketing efforts.

Online marketing relies largely upon the use of keyword rich SEO (search engine optimized) articles to inform search engines as to the content and purpose of your Web site. SEO articles are generally about 500-words in length and include specific keywords at least once in every paragraph of the article. By including as many SEO articles on your Web site as possible, each with targeted keywords relating to your business, you increase your chances of driving traffic to your site.

How SEO Works

SEO relies upon proprietary algorithms that each search engine (such as Google and Yahoo!) designs and implements. The search engines employ “robots,” which constantly browse Web sites to record data, similar to the way a satellite rotates Earth. As the robots browse Web sites, they record which sites have which keywords, links, and other pertinent information. The robot then reports that information back to the search engines, which use the information to rank the Web sites. The better your search engine ranking, the higher you will be on the search engine results page.

For example, if you sell apples online, then it is important for you to mention apples on your Web site as often as possible, including related terms, such as “fruit” and “Gala apples.” (Listing the related terms will help to differentiate your site from a site relating to Apple computers.) The abundance of keywords will help to indicate that your site is very serious about apples.

When someone types the word “apple” into the search engines, your Web site may come up on the first page, if you have successfully optimized your site using SEO articles and other keyword online marketing strategies.

A Word of Caution

Keep in mind that many search engines are aware of the misuse of SEO articles and keyword marketing techniques. For example, some Internet businesses will publish articles on their sites that have very little relevant information. Instead, the articles will simply repeat a series of keywords so as to draw the attention of the search engines to the site. However, if a search engine comes across such an article, the site owner will be “blacklisted”, which means that the search engine will remove the site from the database. Therefore, it is important that the SEO articles that you use to draw website traffic are not only keyword rich articles, but that they are also actually useful to visitors.

Why is building home internet business getting so popular? Other than the primary desire to spend more time with the family, it is also because of living in a tight budget, wanting to earn residual income.

Home internet businesses are still unknown to many. A key to promote it to the public is through advertising. Does it mean a hole in the pocket then? Not really. Let me tell you why.

Marketing involves advertising. But advertising need not be costly if you have planned well. Do not expect that advertising will do the trick simply by loading in huge amount of money in one shot. You will end up having nothing left.

Next, where do you market your business? As there are different media to market the business, such as the newspaper, radio and television ads, therefore, you need to stretch and take the extra mile, to determine which media provides the most effective results.

With these in mind, now let’s get started. Firstly, arrange for an advertising plan. Once your business is on the groove, it is advisable to step up on advertising. Spending a little bit more is acceptable but always bear in mind that the supplementary publicity will just double the sales! You need to balance your cost and expected sales returns. With this, you will then make the most from the ad money.

We mentioned earlier about the various media available. Remember, the best is not necessarily the most expensive. Get people to talk about what they have to offer, and you may discover a low cost promotion media that can do wonders for your business.

Some ways to go marketing your home business are: 1) Word of mouth. This method does not cost a single penny at all… If your customers are satisfied with the services your business offers, they will be glad to pass word around.

2) Referrals. Use networking to build your relationships, with the reason that they can refer you to other people, with a referral fee that should not be too costly, depending on the budget.

3) Press releases on newspapers announcing any special event or new openings are useful for your home business too. Bear in mind to include all the important details right in the beginning and leave the extra information towards the end.

4) Look out for bargains offered by some local radio and television stations during the off-peak hours. Never underestimate the results you can get by placing an advertisement at these hours, although these are not the popular hours.

Building your Home Internet Business may be simple, but you must learn the basic facts of advertising if you want to keep it on track and be successful.