Marketing

Marketing is what I love most about business, and it is equally important to finance in all free enterprises. With an online business, marketing side is an ever moving area of expertise. Offline, marketing has long since stabilised. Online, it has not stabilised at all; it is still developing and evolving. You need to be aware of what’s happening in world of internet marketing, what has happened, and what is likely to happen. Always remember, though, there will always be a financial impact of your marketing decisions. You are obviously prepared to take risks, as you have started or are starting an online business at home. As manager of your business you will need to balance financial and marketing conflicts as they arise. You have to strike right balance. If finance director in you is too risk averse, you may stifle growth of your business. If marketing director in you is too cavalier, and unrealistic about sales prospects, you may ruin your business in one or two rash decisions. More on this in part 4.

Computing

If you are working online full time, or even part time, you will always need to be looking out for developments in arenas of software and internet itself, and maybe at times hardware. You may come across software that either improves your efficiency, makes life much easier or takes you into a new and better way of working. This is another area where knowledge is power. You need to be competitive, and sometimes you will come across new software that will make you more competitive. Try to keep abreast of things in software marketplace, as it affects your business.

Time Management

While not a function like finance or marketing, when you work at home alone you will find that time management becomes key to your success and enjoyment of working from home. It is a subject you should always be aware of and make conscious decisions about. I will write more on this topic in part 5.

The above are just key areas where you need to view your business from a management viewpoint, and list of course is not exhaustive. However, pay attention to these from a manager’s perspective, and you should benefit in long run. You will take leap from being “employee” to “boss”, even if you are only one you can be “boss” to.

3. Organization. Are you organized? Punctual? Reliable? When you show up to work with your clients, have you done work and are you prepared to make them feel comfortable and taken care of? Even though you’ve done it hundreds, maybe thousands of times before, do you take time to organize and prepare to make it best client experience possible?

4. Committing to Little Things. Don’t ever dismiss power of all little things. Together they can make all difference and really separate you from competition. Returning calls and emails in a timely manner. Providing useful information to folks on a regular basis. Showing appreciation for your clients through things like thank you notes, exclusive client-only briefings, and open house, etc.

Clearly these are not only relevant areas for creating great customer service. I’m sure you can think of more. But, pick just one of these areas and create an action plan to improve it in your business today. Make a commitment to continuously improve level of service you’re providing and see how it pays off. When you’ve done it, pick another area and work on it.

(c) - Kevin Dervin, KPD Marketing