Business Blog | Lilamitre-arte.com

Copyright 2006 Stephen Ashton

Work at home moms make up a significant portion of home-based business owners and work at home freelance professionals. While there are a lot of perks that come with working at home, the appeal for mothers is often that they’ll be able to spend more time with their children. Keeping that in mind, here is a list of ten home-based business or freelance job ideas that will allow for a flexible schedule that can be worked around family time.

Freelance Writing – Work at home moms can find numerous opportunities for freelance writers, both online and off. Because writing can generally be done at any time, it would be ideal for work at home moms who might only have time to work during occasions where their children are in school or napping. A good resource for moms interested in finding freelance writing clients is www.WritersMarket.com.

Blogging – Similar to other writing fields, blogging can be done at almost any time of day. Most blog networks that hire freelancers have posting requirements on a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule, but the time of day that you post is completely adaptable to your own schedule.

eBay – Starting an eBay business is a great option for work at home moms, because most products will sell on a 24-hour basis online without too much supervision. To make an eBay business even more ideal, drop shipping would remove the necessity of storing and managing inventory and making regular post office runs when you would rather spend time with your family.

Child Care – Work at home moms would be ideal for the child care field. If there’s a need in your community, some options would be setting up a home-based day care center or even an after school program for older kids. Depending on where you live, you might need special certifications or licenses, but you would have the added perk of having other children around for your own to play with and socialize with.

Graphic or Web Design – Most design work can be run as an online-only business, meaning you wouldn’t always have to run out to a client’s location for meetings. As long as you regularly answer your email throughout the day, you can concentrate your actual design work during quiet times when the kids are otherwise occupied, or even handle the design work during the evenings.

Tutoring or Lessons – Having students come to your home for tutoring sessions with their schoolwork, or even music lessons, can be easily adapted to fit your family’s typical schedule, such as your child’s nap time, or on weekends when someone else might be around to look after your kids.
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With hundreds of new franchise concepts being started every year, it is nearly impossible to keep track of the freshest ideas. Here is an update of two new franchises and how they have fared in their first several months of franchising.

The Counter – No, this isn’t just another fast food hamburger joint. Besides serving hamburgers, The Counter has as much in common with your local McDonalds or Wendy’s as the World Cup has to do with your child’s weekend soccer game. First opened in Santa Monica in 2003, this trendy update to the classic burger joint serves its burgers with any combination of 10 cheeses, 26 toppings, and 17 sauces. So, go ahead and order that Danish Bleu Cheese Burger topped with dried cranberries and a ginger soy glaze you always wanted.

Since 2003, The Counter has received the type of press that most companies can only dream about. After being listed as one of the top 20 burgers in the country by GQ, the holy grail of endorsers, The Oprah Winfrey Show, named it the “Best Burger in the USA.” (An aside on the power of the O-nod, sales jumped from $44,000/mo to $245,000/mo after the endorsement)

With all of this success, The Counter did the only logical next step and began selling franchises in early 2006 with a $40,000 franchise fee and 6% royalty.

So how is it going? The company has already inked agreements for 60 restaurants in California alone. Next up is expansion into Florida, New York, Arizona and Nevada followed by the rest of the country. With long range projections of only 400 to 600 units, The Counter is well on its way to franchising stardom.

EQUIPRO – If Santa Monica and The Counter just seem too trendy and hip, this light equipment repair franchise from Wisconsin surely won’t. EQUIPRO, a subsidiary of Wacker Corporation began providing repair service to the light construction equipment industry in 2003. At the same time that the light equipment market is growing at nearly ten percent per year, many large equipment dealers have been cutting back on service support. In response to these trends, EQUIPRO began to build out its network of service centers.
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Talk to many business people about how they approach customer service and the majority of them will say that they are aiming to have ‘satisfied’ customers. No! What we all should be seeking is to have loyal customers.

Research has shown that 65% of customers say they are loyal. You may be happy with this but you shouldn’t! Satisfied customers are in a state of nothing – they are neither issatisfied or happy; they are in between. They will tolerate you while you are of use to them but if a better deal comes along, they’re off.

On the other hand, loyal customers are your friends. They will be with you through thick and thin; they will be the first to try out you new product; they willing give you honest feedback; they will regularly refer business to you. This is what you want! But how can you turn a satisfied customer into a loyal one?

Let Them Decide How to Do Business With You

Today customers are a lot more sophisticated in how they want to do business. If your product or service lends itself to be offered via a number of different means, then give your customer the option.

Can you deliver face-to-face? What about telephone services? Could you make use of SMS texts for quick notes and reminders? Do you have a web site through which customers can contact you or even make orders on-line? If you provide a variety of delivery channels which are available to suit the customer’s needs then they are more likely to stay with you.

Build a Relationship

Loyalty can only be achieved if you have a true relationship with your customer. Aim to build rapport. Understand who are dealing with you and understand what they are looking for. Keep in regular contact with them; you don’t necessarily have to be selling something. Always use their names, especially their first name if you can.
All of this will help in building a long term relationship. Once you have this, they are less likely to walk away.

Generate Staff Loyalty

How can you cultivate a loyal customer if your staff are not loyal to the business? You must have staff who care for the job and will do anything to protect and move the business forward. Customers will be more loyal if they see familiar faces. A business with a high staff turnover will find it difficult to build a relationship with their customers.
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With almost 2.6M registered nurses (RN) in the United States, nursing is now the largest health care profession in the country. If you think that hospitals are the only place a nurse could be found, you are certainly misled. Public health agencies, communities, ambulatory care centers and other places where health care services are rendered also commonly have nurses employed.

1. The Nursing Practice

Nursing covers a wide area of practice. It includes

- Childcare
- Elderly care
- Services for pregnant women
- Services for newborn infants
- Specialty area – injury nursing
- Specialty area – cancer nursing
- Specialty area – forensic nursing

2. Choose Your Nursing Program

The first step to be a nurse is to graduate from a nursing program. This would enable you to take a state licensure examination. In the US, more than 1500 nursing programs are offered. Three of these programs prepare you in assuming different tasks once you graduate.

A. A Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN)
This is a four-year curriculum offered in colleges and universities. A graduate of this course has the advantage of learning health care settings that includes leadership and management. A degree in BSN is preferred and often required in many fields of nursing.
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