The report also shows that though about 332 names dropped from the list in 2009, the present list has additional 793 names making the 2010 list to be 1,011 millionaires around the globe. You can read more about this by clicking here.

So what do you think? When do you think your name will be appearing in that list?

Share your mind below!

Marketing online is something that appears to be a mystery to many offline businesses. In this second part of our series on internet marketing for home based offline businesses we want to consider the issue of planning and strategy as a necessity for your success.

One thing you must understand when moving your business online is that the internet marketing strategy that works for one business is not necessarily the right strategy for another. Each campaign depends on a unique ratio and blend of customer demographics, services or products offered, business objectives, capabilities and reputation.

Your Internet marketing plan should be developed, tested, implemented, analyzed and revisited each year or as the business needs change and the Internet grows.

Understanding Your Target Audience Is Important

Setting up a website for your business does not automatically translate to success. It is important that ever before thinking of setting up a website for your home business you should aim to truly understand your target audience. Remember that your success all depends on your ability to satisfy your customers. So your online store front should aim to giving your customers what they want. Of course it is understandable that you can not please all the people all the time. But you can implement policies and use techniques to please most of the people most of the time.

Working with the following questions you can have a better understanding of your target audience demographics. Once you understand these you can take small steps in reverse – from the customer to the sale – and develop the ideal path toward profits.

• What’s the current economic environment?
• What opportunities and obstacles does the business face?
• What business objectives are desired?
• What does the business sell?
• Who are the customers?
• How computer and Internet-suave are the customers now and in one year?
• Why should customers buy the product or service with the business instead of its competitors?
• How is product or service communication managed with customers?
• Who does what, when?
• How is progress and success measured (ROI, cost-per-lead, cost-per-acquisition)?
• What internal trends are forthcoming (sales volume monthly and annually, revenue, profits, traffic and conversion, usability)?
• Who competes?
• Who are current customers (segmentation, attitudes and behavior)? Who are customers a year from now?
• What are the distribution channels (direct and indirect)?
• What is each customer experience (scenarios help to envision each step and expectation)?

Of course these are broad questions. But you can adapt each of them to your business model. Work on them and see how you can better use them lay out your marketing plan.

Ten Success Factors in E-Business

Some time ago the Communications, Media & Technology Group (CMT) at Booz-Allen and Hamilton, a leading International management and technology consulting firm, conducted an industry survey evaluating successful e-business companies to determine the e-business impact on the global competitive landscape. The companies analyzed included Amazon, AOL, Yahoo, Dell and Hotmail. Having analyzed their marketing model, the study unveiled ten identifiable criteria for success along the customer life cycle in the new economy. The following chart arranges each critical success factor:

1. Vision and Top Management Commitment: a Prerequisite for Successful Strategy Development and Implementation

Successful e-business approaches are based on a clear vision, which is the starting point as well as the reference for development and implementation of strategic decisions. The vision requires full senior management support.

2. Strategic Alliances: Focus on Core Contributions

In the large number of alliances which are necessary to cover the whole value-chain in e-business, senior management must concentrate on those partners who already have a significant impact on their own business success and are thus of strategic importance.

3. Branding: Guide through the Data Jungle

In many highly competitive markets only the number 1 or number 2 brand can operate profitably in the long run. In such markets, the brand becomes a decisive competitive factor, due to its signaling function, its impact on the emotional purchasing experience, and its guarantee of quality and security in the virtual world. Yahoo! was one of the first companies to recognize the value of branding in the technology-driven e-world and is a prime example of the fact that not only established brands can move into the e-world, but that new brands can also be established successfully.

4. e-Pricing: Competitive Advantage through Differentiation

The increasing market transparency of the e-world can be countered by intelligent price management. e-business provides the chance to achieve extremely flexible and complex price determining systems as well as new approaches to price differentiation. This creates new possibilities for sustainable earnings; in the long run the only ones who can escape fierce price competition are those who have mastered the complex set of instruments.

5. Individualized Service Offerings: Value Added for the Customer

e-business enables companies not only to offer a large variety of products in mass markets, but, in addition, to personalize the sales environment and processes in such a way that they offer the customer decisive value added compared to the traditional buying process.

6. Process Design in e-business: Centered Around the Customer

Customer-orientation is the key to success in e-business. The implementation of customer-orientation requires end-to-end processes, which differ markedly from those in the real world. The process design must ensure a smooth interaction of software interfaces (Website) and of processes arranged upstream and downstream.

7. 1-to-1 Marketing: Personal Touch in Mass Marketing

e-business allows you to systematically attract customers in a mass market with the help of a product/ service suite tailored to individual needs. 1-to-1 marketing utilizes personal customer information for the benefit of both sides.

8. Community Building: Customer Retention through Networking

e-business provides the means for customers to network among themselves. Establishing a community which is functioning around one’s own brand generates enormous value-added. Moreover, the market position is very difficult to attack. So far, few established players have successfully encouraged a strong community.

9. HR-Strategy: Management of the No. 1 Bottleneck

For established companies, recruiting and retaining capable staff becomes bottleneck factor number 1 in the expansion of their e-business activities. Innovative people strategies are therefore a key to success. Looking at the example of Intel, it becomes clear how flat hierarchies, high team orientation, genuine delegation of responsibility and attractive incentive schemes can be integrated into a future-orientated corporate culture.

10. Strategic Use of IT: Core Capabilities in e-Business

The complexity of the essential IT infrastructure as well as the investment which will be necessary are driven by three dimensions: the integration of the existing systems, the degree of coverage of the process chain, and the existing standardization throughout the company. In any case the IT architecture must be of a modular structure and scalable to allow rapid growth. The corporate IT organization must be flexible and aligned to the radical requirements of e-business. Hotmail who boldly claimed “to change the way people communicate” is today—supported by strategic use of IT—by far the biggest provider of free-of-charge e-mail on the World Wide Web.

This study though focused mostly on big corporations can be of great help if you know what to focus on and adapt to your peculiar need. As always, the particular industry and environment dictates the optimal blend of each strategy. While all ten steps should be addressed, how we weigh importance on each may vary.

Note that the study concludes as follows: “A successful e-business model requires an integrated approach to build the capabilities needed to put the key success factors into practice.”

It is clear that three phases have to be addressed in parallel:

• Strategy profiling

• Business modeling and experimentation

• Implementation and innovation

In each of the phases, four major streams of activities have to be carried forward:

• Strategy/organization/alliances

• Operations/e-customer lifecycle engineering

• Talent game plan

• Technology game plan

The first phase, strategy profiling, comprises (for example) the identification of opportunities and threats, the development of product/service strategies and business models, and the definition of alliance requirements. The latter includes the development of a long list of potential partner candidates, to be followed by individual screening and evaluation. At the same time, customer lifecycle capabilities and gaps are being base-lined, and a talent game plan and a technology game plan are being developed.

During the second phase, strategy and people/processes are fine-tuned, an organizational blueprint is defined and alliance talks are set up. Concurrently, operational activities are being prototyped, staffing requirements are defined, and a prototype application is built under the technology game plan.

The third phase consists of implementing the business model and repeatedly evaluating the organization and product/service offering, monitoring operational performance targets, and updating the operational blueprints.”

It is worth repeating that to achieve real success online requires more that just setting up a website or blog for your business on the net. It means identifying a plan and working towards it with the best tools and effort you can get. It means being dynamic in your approach, identifying and responding to changes and trends and most important of all being able to identify and relate to and with your customers.

All the efforts in the world to get repeat business from a customer will be useless if the approach and interaction we attempt fails to work on that customer or if we appear to the customer to be coming across in a negative or blustery manner.

Planning and strategizing for your online success is important and you should take the time to do it well.

The small home based entrepreneur can truly benefit from this as they are more open to the dynamism of the internet. Since our primary aim is to provide free information, tips, advice, motivation, and support for small home based internet marketing businesses, I’ve decided to start a series that will cover almost every aspect of marketing online for small businesses.

I’ve been thinking of starting this series for a long time now. Other projects have not made this possible. I do hope however that having taking the decision to begin this journey I’ll be able to finish it well.

One thing that is sure is that your responses to this series will go a long way in helping me to joyfully proceed and finish up with the series. I encourage you therefore to follow me on this series. Post your comments, questions and responses to issues raised below. We all can learn together here.

I must say at this point that though this series is specifically aimed at small home based service businesses who wants to take advantage of the internet revolution to expand their business reach, what we will be discussing will be of help to the many online based businesses as we will touch areas like building your own website, driving targeted traffic to your website, keywords and meta tag strategies, banner advertising, reciprocal links, online promotions, content positioning, online image development, email strategies, social media and much more.

Why Are Consumers Migrating To Online Commerce?

To really understand why you should take the internet marketing for home based offline business series seriously I first want to point out some reasons why consumers are finding the internet more appealing. Because these reasons are so weighty you mustn’t take for granted this migration of consumers online. It is true that very soon there will be only two groups of businesses – those who have an internet presence and those who are out of business. Understand this and make the right choice now.

So, here are few reasons why consumers are migrating to online commerce:

1. Today people are much busier. Trying to juggle the dynamic demands of career, home and family is taking a toll on our time and resources. Corporations are under intense pressures to improve profits and employees are made to work harder than ever. Online commerce provides some palliative as it is convenient, user-controlled and open 24/7 year-round. Consumers aren’t limited by geography, making product and service purchases from merchants anywhere in the world. With this broader reach comes improved selection and pricing – all with one click.

2. Internet marketing reduces customer service and relationship management cost. Many businesses today have discovered the internet to be a cost-saving tool for business promotions. Businesses, using the internet, are able to create the ideal strategy to reach a refined target audience, expand marketing reach and visibility all with minimal cost.

3. Websites improve business image, add value to customer services, offer a new venue for shopping and become a continual and ever-growing brochure or information source. When a website offers frequently updated content, articles or activities, it encourages prospects to come back again and again to learn and discover new things. Each visit becomes another opportunity to solidify brand loyalty and encourage a purchase.

4. Attracting the walk-in customer is much easier and cost effective. Using the internet to attract customer attention is definitely not the same online as we’ve learned to treat it offline. There are no fuzzy hamburger costumes, strobe lights or blimps that span thousands of miles in reach to bring someone in. Similarly, though attempts have been made to combine service and product providers into a mall or industrial complex styled medium, websites largely stand-alone out there. To draw attention into a website, you simply have to learn online marketing strategies that have proved really effective over the years.

These and many other reasons should make every small home business to consider using the internet as an effective tool for maximizing profits. In the course of this internet marketing for home based offline businesses series we aim to touch on most of the tactics and strategies for making the internet a profitable marketing tool indeed.

So if you want to benefit with this series why not register for free updates now using your favourite RSS feed or through email. One sure thing though, Keep a date with me.

Internet Marketing: Strategies and techniques applied on the Internet to support an organization’s overall online marketing objectives. Goals may include driving targeted traffic to a Website and features on the Website to create a desired call to action. Internet marketing may include keyword and meta tag strategies, newsgroup and mailing list postings, banner advertising, reciprocal links, online promotions, content positioning, online image development, email strategies and other interactive features

Having monitored things for just a few days, I’ve just come up with the idea of raising the stakes a little!

I just realized that setting the top commentators plugin to reset every week will not be of much good to our dear readers. Besides, the fact that I’m not always updating the blog that much often (I do mostly 1-2 posts every week), setting it to reset every week is not the best option.

This being so the top commentators will now be resetting every month.

And there is more!

I’ve also decided to reward the top most commentator every month with a link back. That is, every month I will make a post specifically about the top commentators with a live link to the home page of the top commentator for the month.

I’m sure you all will love this. I believe this is another way of saying we truly appreciate your commenting on this blog.

I’m sure you’ll love to grap this prized linkback every month. Right? Ok, let me suggest a way you can take advantage of this. Yes, if you want to grap that top position every month then simply subscrbe for free updates either through your favourite RSS feed or by email. This will give you the privilege of always receiving updates about new posts so that you can easily post your comments! Frankly it’s that simple.

So there is it. We’re giving more for your comments. I hope you take it up!

For over a period of five months now I’ve not checked my site rankings on Alexa.com. I did install the tool bar some months ago and the last time I checked the home business marketing blog (this blog) was having an Alexa rank of 675,825 or there about. But some time ago the site experienced a crash and was down for some time. I also had some problems with my internet connection but after resolving all these problems I never really cared to check the site rankings.

Maybe why I’ve not checked all this while is because I switched over to using Explorer instead of Firefox which had the Alexa tool installed.

Now on checking on the rankings today I just discovered that this blog has gone from about 675,825 to a ranking of 2,424,479!

Wow, how my heart fell when I saw those figures

Now I truly seek for your advice on what to do to improve the rankings. Let me hear from you.

As an online marketer you definitely must be aware of the importance of Search Engine Optimization or SEO. Personally I concentrate most of my blog marketing on optimizing my blog articles for the search engines. And PPC Web Spy has helped me to do this so effectively that my traffic from the search engines has continued to rise by the day.

Now I must say that PPC Web Spy was not actually created for what I’m using it for right now. Basically, it was created by Brad for AdWords advertisers. The goal is to reveal to you, as an adwords advertiser, which keywords your top competitors are using to have their ads displayed on page one of Google’s organic search results.

The assumption is that if these advertisers are topping the search results then they are probably doing the right thing with their keywords selection. Now if you’re a webmaster, blogger or a home business entrepreneur marketing on the internet, you definitely know the hassles and time involved in thinking about and finding the right keywords for both your SEO and PPC based traffic strategies. That was what attracted me to the carrot being dangled by Brad Callen with his FREE PPC Web Spy tool. For the fact that I have always used free seo tactics rather than paying for traffic in my promotions, I reasoned that using the FREE PPC Web Spy tool could truly help me a great deal since the tool lets me peer into the campaigns of AdWords advertisers so that I can figure out which keywords and ad copy they are using to reap their profits.

Just think about it. If you can peer into your competitors’ adwords campaigns and figure out the same keywords and ad copy they are using, it means you can ethically steal their ideas and jumpstart your ppc campaigns, right? Well for me because I’m not running ppc campaigns I just reasoned that if they are getting the top positions with their ads then uncovering the keywords they are using and adapting those keyword to my blog posts will push my blog articles to the top of the search engines thereby pulling in the traffic.

And did it work? You bet!

Of course if you’re running ppc campaigns and you’re not using PPC Web Spy then you better do because from the results I’m getting with my seo tactics using it and the results Adwords advertisers, who uses it, are reporting, PPC Web Spy is definitely a must have for every one marketing on the internet. What more, you can even download it for free.

The application is actually a Firefox plugin which you download to your PC. Once you install it, a clickable toggle appears in the lower right of your browser. This toggle activates the application so that whenever you do a keyword search at Google, the search results will present you with some extra information on the page. In particular, for each sponsored advertisement that appears, a green button with the label “View Keywords” appears under the ad. When you click on that, a screen with a selection of the keywords being used by the AdWords advertiser pops up.

It is indeed a cool keyword tool that you need to add to your online marketing kit. Click here now to download a free copy of the PPC Web Spy today!

Wondering how we hope to do this?

Okay, frankly we are rewarding you on two fronts. One, for every of your comments we are rewarding you with a link back to your site. For this we have just enabled Comment Luv. All you need do is simply post your comments and Comment Luv will take care that your last blog post is linked.

Secondly, we have also enabled the top comments plugin. This means the more comments you post here the chances of you having another free linkback from us. For this the first 5 top comments will be specially displayed on the sidebar with a link back to their blogs. We believe your comments are valuable that is why we are doing this. So keep the comment coming!

There are various ways of going about this. However, it is advisable to use some common sense and applied knowledge before spending any money on advertising. Generally speaking, you will pick up some customers regardless of the problem area you specialize in, by advertising in your own area’s most popular newspaper.

However, we wouldn’t recommend much more than a small ad in the Sunday editions, unless you’re in direct mail, MLM or a garage sale consultant.

Check with your Chamber of Commerce for a list of trade and specialized business publisher in your area. Either pick up a sample copy of the business journal at the local newsstand or write to the publisher and ask for a sample.

Look through those catering to the type of business you want to serve. Check the editorial styles and types of advertising they carry, and then select the one that corresponds with your needs.

Basically, unless a publication reaches the people you are trying to sell to; don’t advertise in it regardless of the style, quality, or advertising rates.

Radio or television advertising would probably be a complete waste of advertising dollars, unless you’re offering help with direct mail, multi-level marketing or garage sales.

The best time for any broadcast advertising in order to reach your best prospects seems to be in the evening hours after the late-night news, when these people are either still laboring over their special projects or relaxing before going to bed.

If you do use broadcast advertising, the commercial is very important. Really concentrate on this, and use lot of common sense in writing the message.

Even if you engage the services of an experienced broadcast copywriter – make sure the message speaks to your potential customers, and convince them that you can help solve their problems or improve the profit picture of their business.

Where to Advertise-

Go with a quarter-page ad in the yellow pages of your telephone directory. The space salesman will help you with the ad, but remember, you want it to catch the eye of your particular client, and offer a promise of an end to her problems.

Always talk to your kind of people, emphasizing the benefits of your services. It’s not good practice to quote or even discuss prices in either you advertising or on the phone when people respond.

Always get name, address and telephone number, then explain your services in general. Set up an appointment to look over their operation, analyze their needs, and make a written proposal to solve their problems.

There may be a number of factors involved in establishing you fees, but starting out with beginning and small businesses, and until you line up 50 regular clients, your best bet would be $50 per hour.

Count on two to three hours per client per day, and devoting 10 days per month to work on their needs, you’re talking about $1,000 to $1,500 per month from each client.

Multiply that times 50 clients, and you’ll be grossing $5,000 to $7,500 per month. As a one-man operation, you’ll be plenty busy.

Insiders in this business say a person can leave his regular job on Friday, start a consulting business on Monday and within six months, have an income of more than $100,000 per year.

Suffice it to say that a beginning business consultant should earn from $30,000 to $60,000, before taxes and office expenses, in the first year of business.

There’s still another very important method of finding new clients, and that is via Direct Mail solicitation. This is done either by postcard or sales letter mailings.

Your postcard solicitation should basically be an elaboration of
your printed advertising. In other words, an ad for a Direct Mail Consultant might be transferred to a post card along these lines:

ARE YOU HAVING TROUBLE GETTING RESULTS
WITH YOUR DIRECT MAIL BUSINESS???

I can help you double to triple even triple
the response from your mailings, expand your
market and increase your profitability! Call
now, and discover what I can do for you!

After the message on the postcard, add your telephone number and
your name, followed by your identification as Direct Mail Consultant.

A direct mail solicitation sales letter simply uses more words
than the postcard, reads smoother, and forces the reader to respond as you direct him.

Your Sales Letter-

Your sales letter can be any length needed to tell your story and achieve the objective. To be successful, though, it must embody and follow the “AIDA” form:

>>> Attention

>>> Interest

>>> Desire

>>> Action on the part of the reader.

Another point to remember when writing sales letters:

Always appeal to the needs and wants of the person who’s going to be reading the letter. She will start reading to see if your service can benefit her.

She is looking for answers to her most pressing problems. Keep these elements in mind when you write a sales solicitation letter, whether for yourself or for a client.

People receiving sales letter are somewhat more responsive to a
letter that is typed as opposed to one that is typeset. But the
typed letter must be “letter perfect,” and not of a different or unusual style of type.

As a consultant your letterhead should be simple while still conveying to the reader a sense of class. Your paper should be the best quality you can afford- not flamboyant, but sending a subtle message of success.

Direct mail surveys show that slightly better numbers of responses are received when a light beige or off-yellow paper is used.

Basically, your letter should do what the postcard does for you- move the recipient to call you and allow you to set up an appointment to discuss her needs as your client.

Don’t forget also that these days when people readily turns to the internet for their information needs setting up a website for your freelance consultancy business is necessity. If you don’t know to design your own website you will need to get someone do it for you. There are few things you need to know about website marketing so that you can get the best from your consulting business website. Search the net for info on this.

Whether you’re writing an advertisement or a sales letter, it’s important that you have the objective clearly in mind- what you want the reader to do.

With this in mind, you needn’t use the “hard sell” approach quite as forcefully as someone asking for money on the first contact.

All that’s left is meeting with the prospect, listening to her problems, and hearing what he wants, then write out a proposal to solve her problems and satisfy her wants.

This means selling yourself to the prospect- assuring her you know what you’re talking about, and that you can make her more successful.

I hope this two part series on freelance consultancy business was of help to you. If you desire to research more on this lucrative business idea that is taking the internet world in storm right now why don’t you consider checking out the Freelancer Course.

Wishing you success!

Until a few years ago, the title “consultant” was more or less limited to retired diplomats and top corporate officers. Those were the days when the consultant’s position was honorary than actual.

But not any more. That has all changed dramatically in the past few years. The number of consultants for almost any problem in life has increased by tenfold or more during the past ten years! Besides, the field of consultants has continued to grow. In fact, independent or freelance consulting is one of the fastest growing businesses in the world today!

The Business Consultant’s Scope of Work

A consultant works with the management of a business to improve the profitability of the business. As an expert a consultant is expected to be able to recognize problems and proffer solutions to those problems. Working with the top management gives you an indication of you could earning as a freelance consultant if you’ll take up this lucrative business model up today.

Some consultants charge $100 per hour. Others charge $1,500 per day for their services, and still others work on an annual retainer fee of $12,000 to over $30,000 per year from any number of large corporations.

The need for problem solvers for business problems- among large and small businesses worldwide- has never been greater. The ever changing moods of the buyer plus the myriad of crisis situations faced by businessmen almost daily, have created this “seller’s market” for the alert consultant.

Another side of this need for consultants is in the case of the over-enthusiastic entrepreneur who rushes headlong into a business in which he has little or no experience.

Many such dreamers invest their life savings in questionable projects without even considering the idea of bringing in a competent business consultant to analyze and evaluate their plans. Even experienced people are prone to over-rate their own ideas.

The image of the end result, and dedicated enthusiasm toward the attainment of one’s goal are the prime prerequisites for success. However unmerited enthusiasm and dedication can also be very dangerous as well.

Unless it is based upon solid research, it may cause people to chase headlong after nonexistent rainbows. And that’s where you can fit in as a business consultant.

How to Sell Yourself as a Freelance Consultant

One fundamental truth you must understand is that it is not necessary for you to have owned or operated a successful business to become a successful business consultant. Nor is it imperative that you have been in management or have held a titled position.

What you will however need is the ability to sell yourself, and an up-to-date understanding of the area in which you intend to assist others. This being so, the first step is to make an honest evaluation of your own training and experience(s). You might be an ambitious tax consultant who was never recognized for your abilities.

You might be especially good in such areas as:

>>> System Design;

>>> Marketing;

>>> Scheduling;

>>> Expediting;

>>> Productivity…

There are hundreds of entrepreneurs out there doing freelance consulting who specialize in areas like Direct Mail and Mail Order operations. Most of these people enjoyed some measure of success in those fields, and then discovered the easier way- advising others on how to operate successfully.

The important thing is to choose an area in which you’ve had some experience; an area that you have spent sometime learning about; and of course, an area of work that you enjoy.

What you will need to do is:

>>> Look over your educational strengths;

>>> Combine these with any special training or on-the-job experience;

>>> Offer your expertise to help others with their problems along the lines you know best.

Starting Your Freelance Consultancy Business

One thing that is sure is that you don’t need a big, fancy executive type office in order to get started as a freelance consultant. The economical way is to start your consulting business on a part-time basis.

A spare bedroom, a section of the basement, or even a corner of the dining room, will do very nicely.

If you handle your own bookkeeping/filing, you will need a ledger of some kind, and a file cabinet or two. You will need a good printer if you plan to do your own correspondence.

An alternative is to do all letters, etc. in longhand and hire someone to put them in final form for you. Check the local high school or college. They may be happy to post your ad for a young lady looking for part-time work.

Instead of going to the expense of paying for a business phone, use your residence phone and train all members of the family to answer it in a business-like manner during normal working hours.

Save copies of all the sales letters you send out, and of course, all job proposals you submit.

Set up your file system with your final plan in mind, and you’ll save a lot of time as well as frustration.

Get the kind of file folders that hang from the sides of the file cabinet’s drawers, allowing you to position the file folder title anywhere across the top of the folder.

Then as you add clients to your file, you can keep them in order without a jumbled-looking file drawer in which you have to search for each title.

It’s also a good idea to keep your active accounts in one drawer, your “hoped-for” accounts in another. And master copies of all letters, proposals, business contact information and records in still another drawer.

You’ll also need business cards.

Your nearest quick print shop can usually order these and help you in selecting wording and design.

Whether to rent, lease or buy a copy machine is up to you, but virtually no business can get by without file copies.

Carbon paper means a loss of efficiency, and running over the corner shop to get copies is going to cost you time and money, so be sure to fit some sort of copier into your business start-up costs.

If impossible at the very first, use the old carbon paper- you must have a copy for your file.

If you type at all- there will always be at least a few letters that you should type personally- we suggest again that you go for the long haul probabilities and rent, lease or buy the best and most modern [laser] printer you can afford.

Later on, when you do move into that “dream” office; that will be one less piece of equipment you will have to be concerned with.

Remember that you don’t have to be necessary some successful business icon before you can work as a freelance business consultant. Neither is it necessary that you have been in management or have held a titled position. In our next post I will take a look a some ways you can get the word about your consulting business. It’s all about selling yourself. Make it a date!

Freelance as a word was first coined by Sir Walter Scott, a renowned Scottish historical novelist and poet, in 1819 when he wrote his novel Ivanhoe, to refer to a medieval mercenary warrior. However, over the years the term has shifted into more figurative meanings. In the 1860s, freelance became a figurative noun, and in 1903, it was officially recognized as a verb by etymologists like the Oxford English Dictionary.

This shift has continued and today Working as a freelancer has become a career and lifestyle choice. It has given more people a variety of benefits and these people feel that there is no better option than the ones they have due to the flexibility of work.

According to recent studies, freelance jobs account for 20 percent of contracted graphic designs, web designs and software development in the world. To go freelance is a career choice and freelance jobs offer freelancers with plenty of opportunities and benefits.

Why Will You Want To Go Freelance?

There are various reasons why many people today choose to leave the security of their day jobs and engage in freelance work. Some of these reasons are:

1. Variety Of Jobs – More people are drawn to go freelance for this reason alone. Freelance work offers a greater variety of assignments compared to regular employment. And with the internet offering more opportunities, freelancing becomes a mine for those who seek good opportunities and better projects, not to mention higher paying jobs. A freelancer can also take on different jobs at one time. He/She can write feature articles while designing a website.

2. Fast Turnaround Of Projects – Most freelance jobs are time bound. These jobs are usually done fast and allows freelancers to move on to new projects as soon as they finish the job.

3. More Freedom, More Flexibility - Going freelance can give a person the freedom to choose the place, date and manner in which to do work. Though some freelancing schemes require contracts, freelance still spells a no employer-no employee relationship. Freelance work offers more freedom for someone who does not want to be confined in an 8 to 5 or 9 to 6 work scheme. The freelancer is free to choose his working hours and be his/her own boss. Because of the freedom in work schedule, freelancing gives a person more time to pursue other interests or take on more jobs. Other freelancers also consider the fact that they can even take care of their family better as soon as they start working freelance.

4. Improved Income And Savings – Freelance workers can usually command higher income rates for their projects because they are hired for their specific talents and skills. This is a big plus because they are paid high but do not have to work full time. Though income rates for freelancers vary, most of them still benefit from the setup. They charge either by the hour, by the day, or on per-project. Others use value-based pricing methods instead of imposing a flat rate. Payments are arranged based on the agreement, and could be done upfront, percentage upfront or paid whenever the project is completed. For others, a staggered payment scheme may be agreed upon.

Before You Decide On Becoming a Freelance Worker

With the promise of becoming their own boss and working from the comfort of home many people rush into becoming freelance workers. However, it is a good thing, before taking a plunge into this work at home business idea, to ask yourself if you do have what it takes to go freelance.

Here are a few tricks and considerations:
1. Determine the amount of money that you’ll need to earn to sustain your expenses. If you have a day job now, you will be saving a great deal of money once you make your shift to freelance employment. If you begin to work at home, you will save a lot of money from commuting, food, taxes, and more.

2. Take a self-assessment test and list all your skills and experiences. Include your hobbies and interests too, as doing this will determine what types of freelance jobs you can take on. Do you keep a personal website? Then perhaps you can take on freelance web design. Do you keep a personal blog? Then you can take on writing jobs. If you know how to do searches in the internet then you can write about any topic that may be given to you.

3. Visit internet web sites offering freelance jobs to see what jobs are currently offered. Take notes and keep a list of these jobs. You should also be on the lookout for companies and organizations that use freelancers for their projects. Look at how much they pay freelancers and take note of the different rates they offer for different projects. Keep a list of these important details as they will surely help you later in estimating how much you should charge for any given project.

4. From the notes you have gathered; try to create an estimate costing of the projects you have identified should the projects be given to you. Keep in mind the number of days given to the projects you have identified. When you have done this, you will be able to see how much you could potentially earn.

5. After doing all of the above, you can now start applying for the freelance jobs that you have identified. These jobs will help you earn some amount that you can later use after quitting you day job.

6. Once you have confirmed that the projects have been awarded to you, use a table to plot specific data about them. Write down all the information about these projects such as contact persons and their contact details and number of days to complete the projects.

7. As you begin freelance work, you will start to feel the flow of freelance employment. Bear in mind that you will not get all the projects that you want so you should apply for different jobs. However, be careful when taking on several jobs. Remember that you should not take on more jobs than you could handle.

8. You are now ready to quit your day job when you have developed an effective system of doing freelance work. But since you are doing freelance work, you should be able to track your jobs and their payment schedules.

Indeed today, freelancers can easily find work through the internet. The internet has been a good facilitator of freelancers and employers around the world. These jobs can range from writing short articles to language tutors to architectural designs. The demand to complete projects through freelancing is still very high, as shown by the thousands of projects posted in the Internet. If you have always thought of working from home then this is the time to do it.