Work From Home

Corporate gift baskets can give a big boost to any gift basket business. They are often ordered in large quantities by companies, corporations and businesses, large and small, to give as gifts, to employees, clients and colleagues as a way to say thank you.

And just a few tips, ideas and help here will give you the information you need to help make corporate gift baskets affordable for you and your corporate clients.

By making unique, good quality demos cheaply, and buying products and supplies at wholesale prices, without buying up a lot of inventory, you can save a lot of money in the process. And if you can work from home you’ll save more money on overhead.

Although usually filled with more expensive, gourmet items, corporate gift baskets can be a good money maker for your gift basket business, a sideline or a new business. If you already have a gift-related, craft-related or home based business of any kind, or if you just want to start up a gift basket business, making corporate gift baskets is a good idea.

You can easily add corporate (or sometimes called business) gift baskets to your existing line of gift baskets. You may have some of the baskets, items or products right now. You’ll need to know: what are the most popular types of corporate gift baskets, what products or items usually go in them and what the competition is doing in terms of items, products and pricing.

Three of the most popular types of corporate gift baskets are gourmet - fancy foods, fancy fruits with cheese collections, and fancy coffees with chocolate collections.

Products or items you might usually find in corporate or business gift baskets are: seasonal mixed fresh fruits, freshly baked cookies, fancy crackers, deluxe wrapped chocolates and candies, truffles, biscotti, muffins, scones, sausage, pistachios and other nuts, gourmet cheese, cheddar cheese, gourmet jams and preserves, gourmet hot chocolate mix packets, fancy flavored coffees, chocolate covered raspberries or blueberries, and other gourmet goodies. You may have some or many of these items or products already.

It’s not advisable to include any controversial items like alcoholic beverages. Although beer, champagne and wine gift baskets are popular, I wouldn’t include any beer, wine or champagne in your demo gift baskets. You can make these available, if you choose, if they customize an order, but be aware you may need a license to sell beer, wines or other liquors.

Besides possible health issues - by giving alcohol gifts unknowingly to recovering addicts or closet addicts, you and the business or corporation may have legal or liability issues from the consequences of providing the alcohol to the employees, colleagues or clients.

Containers can be traditional, finely crafted wicker baskets or fancy, small to large hampers. In any case they need to be of excellent or high quality.

Next you’ll want to check out the competition. Check out several websites carrying corporate gift baskets to get an idea what they’re offering, what items or products they include in their gift baskets and the price range.

The online gift basket websites carrying corporate gift baskets are competitive. So concentrate first on selling your business or corporate gift baskets locally to large companies and corporations. You may have no competition. You can always put up a website after you get your business going.

You’ll need at least two gift basket demos in more than one price range. Three or four demo baskets would be better. They may be giving a gift basket in one price range to clients and to colleagues or employees in another price range. Be prepared also to offer custom gift baskets. They can choose the gourmet items they want to go into the baskets, hampers or other containers. They may also want to choose the containers.

After your demo gift baskets are assembled, call around to the larger companies and find out who is in charge of purchasing or public relations. It may take two or three calls to find out whom to talk to, to set up an appointment. Just ask who you can make a short presentation to.

Make sure your prices are competitive and offer quantity discounts. Offer free shipping if they need to be shipped out of town or if they have regional offices they need them shipped to. Make sure to adjust your pricing in advance if you’re going to offer free shipping. Know what it’ll cost to package and ship your gift baskets and whether you’re going to use the postal service or another shipping service like UPS, Fed Ex or Airborne Express.

Good times to make your phone calls are at least two months in advance of a major holiday, at the year’s end or at the beginning of the year. But make your calls every month all through the year. They may give gifts to clients throughout the year. And they may give gifts to employees at any time of the year.

If your presentation doesn’t result in any orders, ask for feedback. Perhaps it’s the type of items or products you’re presenting. Perhaps the gift baskets are overpriced.

Starting up a business to specialize in corporate gift baskets is easy to do. If you can, work from home - make it a home-based business. Make sure not to order in a lot of inventory. To keep your costs down, only buy enough products in the beginning to put your demo corporate gift baskets together.

After your presentation and resulting orders, you’ll know what items, products and supplies to order for the gift baskets. This is a good way to start on a shoestring budget.

Adding business or corporate gift baskets to your current line of gift baskets can help boost your bottom line. A few of the tips here should get you going in the right direction. If making gift baskets is new to you, you’ll find plenty of ideas to make a few demo corporate gift baskets and give it a try. This is an inexpensive or cheap way to add to your gift basket business, start up a gift basket business, or add on to another home based or work at home business.

If you’re like me, you didn’t have a pampered life. Well, let’s say it another way: What should you do when daddy and mommy don’t have loads of cash to give you? Or your family isn’t so prestigious they can’t get you a job that pays well enough for you to take vacations, have several kids, buy a large home and trade-in the BMW every three years?

So what should you do? You have some schooling. You worked in several industries like the insurance business, the mortgage business and dabbled in other various businesses. You started some of your own ventures but they fizzled out for various reasons. Now you need to make money. And most job prospects are paying, what they think is so much money for you, $34,000 a year. After you take out expenses: taxes, gas, lunch, clothes, car payments and car repairs you barely have enough money for rent and food. You definitely don’t have enough for going out or other forms of casual low-end entertainment. Forget dating.

What if you like your job and it pays well enough but don’t have the time to pursue any other passions? I live in Los Angeles, many people here pursue their acting careers. But plenty more, want to do so many other endeavors. The number one thing: their job pays the bills (most report barely) but it takes about fifty-five hours a week. Consider the commute and any other errands for work during the week.

Ok. Let’s recap. Little schooling. Little money. Decent past business experiences. And very little time.

Well, this is what I did. I bought a turnkey system. A turnkey system is supposed to give you all you need to know on the business to get it up and running. I literally bought a Real Estate Turnkey system for less than $80 and promised to do everything the book told me. Which I did. You know what? I didn’t make any money. What a rip off, right? Nope, because it opened up my mind to a new market hurdle. But now, I had clarity of mind for a new business: real estate. So I went on the internet and found someone who had the same problem I did. And he encouraged me to buy another turnkey marketing system that just came out but this time it was $300. I did. You know what? I made $45,000. After that, I turned to another turnkey system for $5,000 then made $425,000.

Then I thought I could stop because “I definitely know everything. I’m the real deal.” “I must be a millionaire mind genius.” Maybe Einstein or Stephen Hawking (a modern day equivalent) want to start taking advice from me. I’m a genius, right? Well, guess what? I lost it all. That’s right back to where I started. So what did I learn?

Turnkey systems are good. Turnkey systems are great. Turnkey systems shouldn’t be abandoned. Remember, if use a turnkey system, you didn’t have the knowledge in the first place. After you apply their principles and tasks keep educating yourself. It’s a continual thing. Every six months, or year buy the newest system out there. Find out what has evolved since you started. Find out how the millionaires during the past twelve months did it. There could be vital trade secrets that help you along the way. These were most likely discovered after you purchased a turnkey system. Putting you at a disadvantage. Don’t fret, the person who used the new cutting edge technique will probably share it with you for a very nominal price.

Do you want to earn money at home? Are you working a full/part-time job, but would like to earn extra money without leaving your house? Are you currently unemployed? Are you a domesticated house wife or husband who would like to have an income? Do you need money just to catch up with the bills? Or do you just like having money to spend? If you answered, “yes” to just one of these questions then you’ve found the right place where you can make money from your house!

It doesn’t matter whether your young or old, male or female, college grad or high school education. Anybody can make money on line while at home. It only takes finding the right program that works and I found it! I only feel compelled to spread the word so you can experience what I have been doing, and that is, making money at home on line.

You set your time, you set your income level, you set your goals. The sky’s the limit! Make as little as you want or make as much as you want. You can work at your own pace, with your own hours without leaving your home. Making money from home can be the perfect thing that you were looking for!

“Sounds too good to be true,” you’re probably thinking, but that is exactly what I am doing. I’m making money at home. I started out small since I was new and unsure of what I was doing. I felt making $150. a week was something that I could handle, but three weeks into the program I was well on my way to increasing my earnings to $300.-$500. a week. Now I’m enjoying the extra cash and have set my goals even higher!

I’ve always been an optimistic person throughout my life. I made myself find the good in something bad. I turned negative energy into positive energy. I always walked away from a closed door as a sign for a new one to open. However, you have to be willing to try new things, take on new challenges, and to take risks that you feel comfortable with. I once remembered driving with a friend who happened to get lost and she became visibly upset not knowing where she was going. I on the other hand was looking out the window at the new path we had discovered. I was excited that I had found a different way to get to our destination.

People are making money from home on line everyday. You can be one of them! Making money at home on line offers a lot of different opportunities for you to choose from. All you need to do is to choose the right one for you and you‘ll be well on your way! If I can do it, I know you can too! Open a new door in your life that brings in money!

Everyone who knows ‘what’ and ‘why’ they are doing gets success in MLM. The first trait every MLM entrepreneur should develop is to have confidence in this Business Model. Unless you know what you are doing and where it will lead you to, you can not successfully present your ideas to your prospects. Today, some of the MLM entrepreneurs are among the richest Americans. If you want to reach or cross their level you have to sincerely work for it. Here are a few tips that will help you to speed up your process of building downlines.

Do not Sell Let Them Buy

Don’t waste your time and energy in convincing prospects to be an MLM Associate. Let that decision be voluntary. But that doesn’t mean sit in home and wait for your prospects to come to you. Talk to as many people as you can. Tell them what MLM is all about. Why companies prefer this business model and what will he/she gain by being associated with your MLM Company. People are more interested in knowing about their personal gains rather than knowing about you or your company. That part should come after your prospects start showing interest in your proposal.

Read Minds

Whenever you are talking to your prospects try to read what’s going on their mind. This art can be easily developed, just figure out what type of questions they are asking. Their questions are reflection of their mind. Capitalize on them and try to find what they want. Once you know their desire and needs bang on the target.

Be Selective

Their can be people who will say absolute no to you, some may reluctantly listen to you and some might agree to your proposal because they have a tendency to agree to everything. Don’t waste your time in talking to everyone as MLM needs commitment. People with positive mind frame and high enthusiasm level can be your best partner. Talk to people who are ambitious and want to grow at fast pace in their life. Bottom-line here is, seek like minded people.

Adopt Complete Professionalism

When you are delivering a presentation make sure it looks professional in all aspects. From your personal dressing to the content you have to speak all needs to have that corporate and serious feel in it. You will be role model for your associates, so leave an everlasting and strong impression. Give your 100%; half hearted approach will yield no or little result.

Always Leave your Contact Number/ Address

Make sure you have your business cards with you wherever you are going. You can find your prospect anywhere. Whether you are in a departmental store or in train or even at the sea beach, you may get chance to interact with lots of people. Think this whole world is your prospect. The only thing you have to decide whom to give time and whom to not. This can be decided in just a few minutes of interaction. After conclusion, do not forget to give him/her your contact address, even if the prospect has not shown much interest in your business proposal. Opinion does changes with time so make sure when it happens with your prospect, he/she is having your contact information.

My address book is full of names of people who worked hard, “paid their dues,” persevered . . . and then JUST when they became big money earners and had arrived at the top of the leadership ranks — THEY came (the company management), they saw (the big bucks), and they conquered (changed the comp plan, changed the rules).

I call this one the “What Have You Done for Me Lately, Baby?” syndrome. Why is it that some limited-thinking micromanaging company executives believe that they alone are responsible for the MLM company’s success? That mentality baffles me.

Here’s how it goes: a top distributor like you attracts, enrolls, trains, and develops dozens of leaders and perhaps thousands of distributors who basically are “smart consumer” types.

At first, if you’re like some of my industry friends, corporate management really caters to you. After all, they couldn’t get their company off the ground without your help. They have already discovered that. I have yet to see the first product that totally sells itself.

So, there you are — being wined, dined and catered to. The management and you become one — they have searched their whole corporate life for you (they say), and they are absolutely pleased beyond words that you chose to work with them.

They and you are The Dream Team . . . at first. One (nameless) friend took such a sleepy little company from Nowheresville to Millions a Month. They appreciated it so much that they changed the compensation plan to punish him and a few of his leaders, changed the company policies to further financially punish him, and then, eventually, terminated him without due cause.

They developed close relationships with the people he brought to the table. As my husband, Taylor Hegan is fond of saying: “People don’t drop down from the sky.” It was only because of the leader’s hard work that the company had those relationships. Yet, they decided he and his leaders were expensive and expendable.

I am appalled when I hear people say that a leader is not worth $20,000 a month or even $200,000 a month. Some professional athletes get over $10 million for just a signing bonus . . . and there is a very real possibility that they could sustain a career-ending injury before they make a single contribution to the franchise. Anyone in MLM who has ever made $20,000 or more a month deserves respect and whatever dollars they are entitled to.

It was this kind of issue that inspired me to join the MLMIA and DSWA boards. Distributors may be independent contractors, but they certainly can join companies who are bound to answer to a court of law if they disregard the law.

You should always know your rights instead of just accepting whatever companies tell you. I am well aware of several cases of distributor abuse where wealthy companies with payroll attorneys “took the law in their own hands” to get rid of powerful and highly paid leaders. And the distributors can prevail, and have prevailed, when they haven’t given up.

Let me clarify that I personally know quite a few corporate MLM management teams, and most have integrity and should not be lumped in with the type I’m targeting here. But if you’ve had the misfortune of connecting with the wrong team, you can always let your feet do the walking. Don’t forget that your grievance could be worth a lot, since you have already invested all that time in pursuit of residual income. You can cash monthly checks for several years from grievance compensation just like you can cash commission checks.

Join me in helping to police OUT of our industry those few black sheep in management who are here for themselves and will “legally” rob distributors. You, like my friend, should be able to confidently build it and not fear that they will come.

  If you’re interested in making some extra money to pay off creditors or earn enough income to replace your current job or career then the Internet is the place where aspiring entrepreneurs are turning.  Unlike traditional businesses, a business on the Internet can be started with virtually no capitol, with the exception of your website expense.  You have to have a website if you want to do business on the Internet…PERIOD.   If you don’t have your own product to advertise on your website, there are literally millions of affiliate programs on the Internet who do have products and will pay you commissions to sell their products from your website.  You can choose to sell cell phones, or internet services, candles, furniture, or maybe insurance, the field is wide open.  The affiliate program you choose will also handle all the money, shipping and correspondence with your customers.  All you need to do is to generate the traffic to your new website in order to make the sale.   Often times the affiliate program you join will offer you free websites and that is great, but you will never generate enough free traffic to these affiliate sites to succeed without having your own website.  Why you ask?  For one, the search engines don’t list affiliate sites and you definitely want to get listed in the search engines, this will be your biggest free traffic source.   One of the best ways to generate free traffic is to get involved in link exchanges.  You will basically place a link to another site on your website and they will in turn place a link on their site to yours.  Once you have exchanged several hundred links a portion of your link partners traffic will come to your site.  The free websites you have been given via your affiliate program will not be able to be edited in anyway, thus link exchanges are not an option.   Link exchanges produce a double bonus also.  Not only will you get traffic from your link partners, the search engines will place you higher in their listings when they see lots of links pointing to your site.   The Internet was created to provide information, so if you want to succeed on the Internet and generate lots of free traffic, you are going to have to provide information on your website.  Often times we do this by providing free information or articles on our website.   Offering free and useful information will keep your visitors coming back to your website, and the double bonus here is that the search engines love content.  The more content your website has will produce better listings in the search engines.   Once you have perfected this process of building a website, getting listed in the search engines and have developed a huge traffic stream to your website, your going to be making sales.  It will start out slow and as you build links and content, the traffic will grow and so will your sales.   Affiliate programs can be a great stepping stone to get your foot in the door towards cashing in on the riches that the Internet provides. As time goes by you will find that you have learned so much and have evolved into an Internet Guru and now it’s time to take it one step farther, and start selling YOURSELF.    Using the knowledge that you have gained, you may want to venture into selling your services to other entrepreneurs just getting started.  You could start a consulting business, or you may offer to build websites, or to help your clients get listed in the search engines.  You may want to start writing E-Books and selling them.  The possibilities are endless.   The Internet is a huge marketplace that is still virtually untapped.  Don’t waste another day worrying about how you’re going to pay your creditors or provide for your family in the future.  Start an Internet business today and see how your life can be changed for the better.  

The purpose of this article is to help make up your mind and let you know what is involved in starting a home based business. It is not getting rich over night as some would have you to believe. There is information available, how to advertise, write newsletters, articles, ezine and ebooks.

Approximately 70% of all businesses fail within the first three years. Lack of understanding of what to expect and the lack of detailed plans are usually the cause. To decrease the chances of being a part of this statistic, consider the following questions before starting your business. Has a business plan been written? Have the long and short term goals been placed on paper? How will the business be financed? If these questions have not yet been addressed, don’t worry. Subscribers will be given a road map on how to start a business. This is a unique and solid subscription.

Subscribers can not make an announcement once or twice informing everyone that he has a business. This is not enough. The subscriber must be diligent in marketing and advertise. Place your business name on your out going emails, and your out going business mail. Subscribers must market and promote the business daily. There are subscriptions available that can assist in the conquest to success. There are many marketing techniques that are free. You will be shown how to utilize every available advertising possibility.

There is a subscription that will allow the subscriber to test drive the website, for as long as the subscriber desires, completely for free. The subscriber will have a free website, marketing tools, bonuses, marketing strategies, and extensive training.

Choose a subscription that is one of the internet’s success stories. A subscription that will help you become a success in building your business. There are marketing tools included within the subscription and different types of training are available on how to market your business.

A website compacted with techniques, tools, tips and resources. An amazing subscription for the novice; everything is in one location. If you want to be successful there isn’t a better subscription and you will not have a better opportunity for building a successful home business.

There are many strong subscriptions because of the knowledge and tools that are placed into the subscriber’s hands. There is subscription specifically designed to allow financial and personal freedom. With the knowledge and resources available you can start your own business and be financially independent.

Six years ago my wife Robyn and I decided to sell our crafts in the online market place. It seemed simple enough, after all we knew we had quality products to sell. We would open our site and start shipping products. It all seemed so easy. I remember when we launched our first website. How exciting! Eventually, how disappointing! The orders never came. The traffic never came and of course the money never came. Well we have learned a lot over the years and we are still learning. We have gotten a lot better in our business and we always look to learn from others so feel free to respond to our Newsletters if you feel like doing so.Hopefully you can gain some insight and tips if you are just starting or are thinking of starting your own web based business selling your own craft. First let us say that we think selling your own creations is one of the most gratifying ways to start a home based business. After all you have total control over the product. The web is filled with opportunities for home based businesses but oh man can you get scammed. Before Robyn agreed to join my team (she brings the artistic talent), I tried my hand at an online business selling products that we did not produce. I had fun with the venture but it never felt right selling products for wholesale companies. It was not my product and I had no real intimate knowledge of the products like I do now. It is nice to know that there is no one in the world that knows our products like we do. We are the authority. The same is true for everyone who makes their own craft by hand. What a great feeling.Another problem with selling for wholesale companies is drop shipping. Man I hated that. I would sell a product collect the mine, pay my wholesaler, keep my profit and NEVER see the product. I know a lot of people do that and I am not saying it is wrong but it did not feel right for me. Today when we sell a product from http://www.paintedtimber.com or http://www.gigglesart.com we take it to UPS or Fed Ex to ship ourselves because we own it. I never have to worry that someone else shipping products for MY customer. Of course we will talk about this detail as we update our newsletter.Thanks for reading our first entry. We will tell you a little about ourselves and get into some helpful tips and topics next time.Until Next Time,Greg and Robyn

Strategies You Can Apply to Your Business:

Pursue multiple streams of income:

Have a main site, but have many others on the go. This diversity allows you to take advantage of several profit streams:

Sell your own products

Sell your own service

Drop ships products (software, other products)

Plan to start an affiliate program

There are actually 7 ways to earn income online, the other three are:

Recommend affiliate products

Sell ad space

Joint venture with like-minded businesses

Not all of these profit streams will work for every site, but several profit streams can easily be combined to create a steady, solid income.

Drive traffic to your site:

Take proactive steps to drive traffic to your site and you’ll see an immediate (and significant!) increase in sales. There are lots of ways you can quickly and easily start driving traffic to your site, including:

exchanging links with other relevant sites

providing free “expert” articles to other sites or newsletters

using viral marketing

participating newsgroups

issuing press releases

Mastering even one of these techniques will have you on your way to creating a steady stream of targeted traffic.

Sell your expertise:

Turn knowledge you already have into an original product line. eBooks cost virtually nothing to produce, so you would have a really high profit margin. Plus, by selling information products, you are able to reach more people than you ever could as a one-person service business.

Increase sales and opt-ins with pop-ups:

When you ad pop-unders to your web site, sales and opt-ins will skyrocket. While there’s much debate these days about whether pop-ups and pop-unders are still effective (because of pop-up blockers), there is new technology available that might be an even better solution for you. These are called hover ads.

Automate, automate, automate:

Use tools to automate almost all of your day-to-day business routine, so you only spend 30-60 minutes a day working on your site.

You’ve seen it happen. You want to be part of the explosion. You want part of the rock. But how do you get there from – well, here? Two words.

Referral Marketing.

With every contact, if they’re interested, ask for referrals. If they are not interested, ask for referrals. Ask for referrals from family and friends, family, enemies, and neighbors.

Put your referral contacts on paper, list who referred them and something about the person. Announce your referral as you introduce yourself, your business, and your purpose to them.

“Hi, I’m Jan with Referral Marketing, our friend Julie gave me your name, Peter. She said you might be interested in talking with me about referral marketing. She was extremely impressed with your dog Bozo, tell me about him.” You’ve just made a friend because you knew his name, a friend introduced you, and you asked about his dog (or whatever interest Julie told you about him).

Your secret weapon with referral marketing is the introduction. The breakthrough is in your follow through of continuing to be interested in what you can do for them.

“Peter, Bozo sounds like an amazing Animal, Julie mentioned you like to show him at Dog shows, and I’ve got a product that might help you accomplish that. With Referral Marketing our purpose is networking and building business contacts. What would you think about meeting so I could show you how to get contacts within your area of interest who would be helpful in getting Bozo into the State Supreme Dog Show?” You do, by the way, have to do your homework and know how “Referral Marketing” (your business) can help him with his “area of interest” and have a plan for making the sale.

Never make promises or imply something that you can’t do, but if you know your product, and you have an open mind about what it can accomplish, you should be able to find something that you can do for this client, once you begin to know more about them.

Whatever your product is, you need enough variety and open doors to get you to the point of sale. Sell one product to this customer, make him happy with that product and bring him back for more. Don’t forget to ask for Referrals.

“Peter, do you have any friends who might be interested in Referral Marketing? I’d sure like to help them out too.” And start writing your list of referrals.

Send Peter a Thank you note for the referrals he’s given you and the business you’ve gained from his sale.