Make Your Mark Blog

What would you do if you’ve been operating in a market without a competitor, and then one appears? Do you ignore it, suggest tie-ups, share expertise, or wage all out war?

Competition is healthy
First off, take the view that ‘competition is healthy’ …two companies can make more noise than one and having a competitor may even expand the size of your market, bringing in more business for you.

That’s a fine start but how do you respond to the new kid on the block?  

Make love, not war
Think if there’s a way you can embrace each other. Is there stuff you can do together? This doesn’t have to be a full scale marriage between your two businesses - maybe just a case of swapping content, sharing contacts, or cross-promotion. 

Define yourself
There is nothing more real to focus the mind than competition. Having someone else appear in your market will cause you to clearly define what you offer. Once you’ve identified the thing that makes you ‘unique’, then communicate this well.

Be smart
Keep your wits about you. Put yourself in the shoes of your competitor. If you were them, what would you do? Think about it and then out-smart them. Do something better. Not necessarily bigger. Just better.

Enjoy it …but keep your eye on the customer
If you’ve been operating without competition, then a healthy dose of it could be a welcome wake-up call! It will have you springing out of bed in the morning, excited by the thought of how you can improve on yesterday.

Enjoy the experience of planning your strategy and sharing this with close and trusted friends and co-workers. 

But don’t get so caught up in the competition that you forget about the customer. Remember, they now have somewhere else they can go!

Emma Jones is Founder of Enterprise Nation [www.enterprisenation.com], the home business website, and author of ‘Spare Room Start Up – how to start a business from home’

I’ve always thought that the idea of starting a business from home was a pretty nifty way of keeping financially stable whilst riding the enterprise wave. Also, the possibility, however unlikely, of eating cake at 9am and watching Neighbours, Loose Women, and Perry Mason filled my little head with joy.

Now, clearly to be a successful home business, like Toniks, winners of the Enterprise Nations 2008 Home Business of the Year award, means less day time TV and more, like work. But a girl can dream no?

Obviously watching a bit less TV and working a bit more would help me create a home business which could win cool awards, the way Toniks did. Toniks big idea was to create an online language school, and Tracy Vegro, Director of Enterprise Strategy at BERR said ‘This is clearly a business with even greater potential then its current strong progress has already demonstrated. It’s a great example of a home-based business playing on a global stage’ which was really, a very nice thing to say.
Have a look here and here to find out a bit more about home business working and if you have a home business idea come back to the blog and share your ideas.

Diana x

Ruth Drapper, who home schools her children, and is clearly an enterprise champion, tells us more about working from home and how to inspire your kids to make their mark! I hope other parents take note…This article also appears on Enterprise Nation

Never too young to start a home business!

I don’t know about you, but running a business from home is amazing. Let’s pass that on to our children and start training them in business skills and success principles that they will need to be able to do the same one day.

I am a mother of 11 children and as each one grows and matures I have encouraged them to think about how they can run their own business from home.

Here’s what I do:-

1. Find something they love to do, are good at, or a gap in the market.

2. Sit together around the kitchen table and brainstorm ideas.

3. Dream and plan together to begin to form a firmer idea of the business.

4. Set a long term goal for a years time of how they want to see their business running.

5. Work backwards and plan the months, weeks, days etc until you get back to today.

6. Find out what things you need to get started and GET STARTED!!

My 9 year old loves gardening. He wanted to grow plants and sell them at the top of the lane. He had £10 to invest and so bought some compost, plastic cups and seeds. He planted tomatoes, antirrihnums, and coriander, and took cuttings of our raspberry canes. Then he put them on his windowsill until they were big enough to sell.

He covered a table with plastic and made a sign for donations and in his first 2 days made over £20. With the £20 he has reinvested his money and bought some plug plants that he has potted on and will sell in a few weeks time. In the meantime someone gave him an old 8ft by 8ft greenhouse for free and he’s excited about his the future.

My 13 year old is selling a children’s TV idea to the BBC. She’s been to London (paid for by the BBC) to present her idea and awaits their come back. In the meantime BBC3 are making an hour long documentary about her!! She’s excited about her future.

My 15 year old had £25 to invest. He bought himself a URL and started his own website and logo design business. He has had several customers and made over £700 in his first 3 months, part-time, while sitting in his bedroom doing the thing he loves doing. (Beats working as a paper boy!) He is excited about his future.

My 21 year old runs her own life coaching business from home. She’s now married with a little baby and loves the fact that she can be at home with her baby and work. Her and her husband have big plans and are both very excited about their future.

There is nothing more satisfying for a parent than seeing your children excited about their future. When your children have a goal and see a purpose beyond their SATs and GCSEs they work hard and succeed in life. Working from home gives us more time with our family. So let’s use that time to dream, plan, work and play together, and when they’re happy the whole family is happy. Let me encourage you to help your children to get excited about their future too!!

It’s been called ‘the socially acceptable way to stalk people’ but Twitter is so much more than that. So much, in fact, that it could become a powerful tool for your home business. Here’s how I’ve used it in my business and 5 reasons why I’ve come to love this little application.

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According to Enterprise Nation, the home business website, you can be at least £30,000 in pocket by starting a business from home because of an increase in the value of your home and savings on fuel costs and motoring expenses.

It’s good to know that having an office in the house adds an average £28,000 to the value of your home, and avoiding the daily commute leads to travel savings of more than £2,000 each year. So in all the doom and gloom of  rising costs anyone thinking about setting up a business should seriously consider working from home.

Take inspiration from Sarah from Pai, who started making skincare products in her garage and Fraser of SuperJam fame who started making jam in his kitchen and is now selling to the UKs biggest supermarkets. As if that wasn’t enough take a look at Joel Drapper who is only 15 and already running a web business from his bedroom.

The internet has made it much more possible to work flexibly, and wifi means you can choose to work at home, in the garden, on the train or even the beach although the sand may prove a challenge.

For more information, visit www.enterprisenation.com

If you read my first MYM blog post, you’ll have made your first sale and now be up and running in business. Right?!

Once you’ve made that first sale, it’s time to shout about it! So let me offer you my ten steps to marketing success.

1. Define your story
What is your story? Imagine your life is being turned into a movie and plot the script; this should help define the message you convey to the media.

2. Make friends with the media
Research the journalists who are interested in your industry and trade. Approach them, get to know them and send them ‘exclusive’ stories.

3. Become an expert
The media will be beating a path to your home office door if you set yourself up as an expert in your chosen field. You can do this by developing a blog, writing a report, making predictions or writing a book.

4. Communicate often
This applies both online and off. Develop and distribute a regular e-newsletter for online visitors and, in the offline world, agree to attend and speak at events to get yourself known.

5. Enter Awards and competitions
This offers an opportunity to get your name and face in the press and a nice night out too! There are Awards for people just like you such as Enterprising Young Brits and our own Home Business Awards.

6. Use good imagery
This applies on your website, business cards and any other printed material.

7. Create a virtual window to the world
Develop a website or blog, keep it updated and watch it rise up the search engine ranks.

8. Paint your car with the company name and logo
Well, why not?!

9. Do things that make you stand out
But do keep it legal!

10. Tell us your story
So we can pass it on to journalists who write in asking us for case studies of successful home business owners.

And there’s something you can do right now. We launched a brand new category in our Home Business Awards this year… the Young Home Business Owner of the Year. It’s open to anyone who’s trading from home and is under the age of 25. It’s free to enter and the lucky winner will receive lots of profile and £100 in clothes vouchers from fashion website www.osoyou.com Entries are open until 15th August so get writing!

Find out more at www.enterprisenation.com

Emma Jones is founder of the home business website, www.enterprisenation.com and author of ‘Spare Room Start Up – how to start a business from home’ published by Harriman House.

This is my first guest post for the Make your Mark blog so I thought what better topic to start with than making your first sale?

There are some simple steps you can follow to secure that first customer cheque – a cheque that will look so good you’d rather hang it on the wall than put it in the bank.

1. Make a list
Make a list of the people you think will be interested in your product/service. Include friends, family, contacts, colleagues and other local businesses.

2. Make your pitch
Contact the people on your list with a personal message (no one likes group email!.) Set out the benefits of what you have to offer. Include details of the cost and your contact information but don’t expect to receive dozens of immediate calls. There’s a bit of follow-up for you to do.

3. Follow up
Call your contacts, ask if they received the information and whether they’d be interested in learning more at a meeting.

4. Show up
Arrive at the meeting on time! Be friendly and professional, ask plenty about the prospective customer and respond by showing how your service/product can help them. If they agree to a deal, bring the meeting to a speedy end as it’s now time for you to head back home and deliver on what you’ve promised.

5. Tell the world
With a first sale sealed, you’re well and truly in business so be sure to tell everyone! A sale gives you a customer, credibility and a track record. And that will bring even more customers to your door.

Emma Jones is founder of the home business website, www.enterprisenation.com and author of ‘Spare Room Start Up – how to start a business from home’ published by Harriman House.