How To Raise Your Fees
There comes a time when it is inevitable that you must raise your fees in order to maintain both your profit margin and income level. You will find that the greatest resistance to this comes from your oldest clients.
There appears to be a direct correlation between the length of time a client is with you and the amount of outrage they show to your rate increase. This article will discuss the types of clients and how they usually react.
Keep in mind, no matter how you raise fees, how you approach telling clients or amount of lead time you give them, you will lose some clients. This is a given. I have found over the years that a very high percentage of clients lost are those that Im not crazy about working with anyway. Its worked out, for me anyway, that these former clients who complained the most about your fee increase, were responsible for 85-90% of the aggravation I encountered.
Clients are attracted to you for a variety of reasons. We would all like to think that it is because of our brilliant promotional pieces, our award winning designs, outstanding service, etc. The reality is that many clients are using your services strictly because of price. I refer to these clients as price loyal. They are loyal to whomever has the lowest price. This type of client is not particularly sensitive to quality of work or level of service you provide. They go strictly with the lowest price and if you have the opportunity to examine how they run their business, your see it operates on this principle. For me anyway, this type of client is no loss.
There is a second type of price conscious client that is concerned with the quality and type of service being provided to them. You may lose this type of client with a price increase, but youll find that they will be very apologetic about it. These clients truly can not afford the higher rates. They are usually a dream to work with, and I hate to lose them. In this situation, I will try a number of ways to keep them.
Your newer clients usually react in a more neutral manner to a rate increase. They havent been with you long enough to get a true baseline on your fee structures. You stand a very good chance of keeping these clients if the reasons for the rate increase are explained to them and not just dropped on them.
I find that I lose about 5-6% of my clients when I raise my fees. Usually, I suffer no income loss because my higher rates absorb their loss. Remember, the bottom line is you are selling your time, you must make the most efficient and profitable use of it. If your rates stay around market level, you should have little or no trouble finding new clients.
Copyright 2003, DeFiore Enterprises

About The Author

Interested in having your own successful, home based creative real estate investing business Chuck and Sue have been helping folks start successful home based businesses for over 17 years, and we can help you too! To see how, visit http://www.homebusinesssolutions.com for the latest FREE tips and tricks, educational products and coaching in creative real estate investing and home based businesses. No time to visit the site Subscribe to our FREE "how to" Home Business Solutions Digest, its like having your own personal coach: mailto:subscribeHBS@homebusinesssolutions.com

coaches@homebusinesssolutions.com

The nature of cyberspace is changing fast with the rush now on to set up rss news feeds. Every gram of news and current affairs is gleaned from the four corners of the globe so that we may be informed as to what is happening in hundreds of different commercial fields of endeavour.
Everything from what new item is selling well on eBay, to what "Wired Magazine" is saying about the latest technology. More and more magazine and newspaper publishers are gaining a foothold on this new juggernaut which is going to change the way we gather news.
Advertisers too are not left out. Already some of the largest media companies in the world are now poised to find advertising space for their clients branding campaigns, on any available web page that regularly features in rss feeds.
The media companies with billions of ad dollars to spend, will they say, be spending less on newspaper and t.v. advertising in the coming years, and will concentrate instead on blogs and rss feeds.
Competition will be fierce for every available space on the most popular feeds, some run by newspapers!
Many freelance journalists will be running rss feeds in direct competition with the newspaper employers who now pay them to gather news for their publication. There will be no editor to censor their news items, they will be free to write whatever they want.
This new found freedom for anyone in the world to be able to express their opinions without it costing anything, will make for a new House Of Babel, with maybe up to several millions of rss feeds within the next five years run by private individuals all over the world. The only needed resource to set up a rss feed is free hosting on a server anywhere in the world, and these web hosts are plentiful.
Press releases submitted to the biggest and well known media release agencies are appearing rapidly on rss feeds, with the publishers of these feeds scambling to put content on their feed almost on an hourly basis.
Commercial enterprises have never had it so good to get their press release into circulation so quickly as more and more commercial news, via press releases, is needed to fill the ever available channels being run by rss feed publishers. Even badly written press releases that under normal circumstances would not find a publisher willing to print it, will be readily accepted by rss feed publishers looking avidly for more content. This content may only be on a rss feed for the space of one hour before it is replaced by something else, but it will have the potential to be seen by lillions of people world wide.
This is the potential that big media companies are now eyeing.
One rss feed publisher charges $6,000 for an item of news to be on one of his feeds for the space of one day. So the potential for earning substantial incomes from publishing your own rss feed can be huge.
Many web publishers will change tack and embrace rss feeds as being potentially more commercially viable than publishing a web site.
Many spammers will change to running as many rss feeds as possible to saturate the market, since spam filters are proving very effective for email.
How easy is it to put up a rss feed
If you have web hosting already, it can be set up in 5 minutes!
All it needs is a text file placed on the server, and the feed is live to the whole world. Instant rss feed publishing!

About The Author

Tony Dean is a published author and webmaster. Author of the bestselling ebook on setting up a rss feed "Really Simple RSS" available from Clickbank or his site:- http://www.ebook-sales.com/rss.html

We hear a lot these days about more books actually being sold outside the traditional bookstore. Think about it. When was the last time you actually took time to linger and explore the bookshelves When did you last impulsively grab a book, flip it over, read the blurbs, and finger through a few chapters Lets face it, most of us are too hurried.
So Whats The Point
If you dont take the time to browse, why expect your potential customer to do so
Try This:
Grab about five copies of your book, and head for the "Ma and Pa" stores in your hometown area. Pick a time when you know it wont be too busy. Talk to the owner or manager. Ask him if you may set up a small display on his counter. Offer him a percentage of each sale.
Get Impulsive!
Go for the impulse buyers! Havent you at one time, while waiting at a cash register, seen a small display of books on the counter Before it was your turn to get checked out, you grabbed it, became excited, and added it to your other purchases Maybe it was a novel set in your locale. People love reading tales taking place in their familiar surroundings.
They think, "Oh, Ive driven that road! I know where it is!
Wheres the next landmark Have to find out!" They feel they become a "part" of it.
Is your book set in your region Try your local gift shops, bed and breakfast inns, pharmacies, hair salon, even the little "quick stops." You get the picture.
Is the hero in your book of Italian descent Is there a lot of ethnicity Head for the specialty shops like that little corner deli. Pesto. Gnochi. Fresh-baked focaccia. Get your book on that counter!
Maybe kayaking through turbulent river rapids is a large part of your novel. Or sky diving, race car driving, hang gliding, deep sea diving. Head on out to the sporting goods stores.
Whatever, go for it. Take control.
Another Idea
Grab your books and get a booth at the local festivals taking place in and around your area. Maybe share one with an author friend. In my area, there are different festivals every weekend throughout the summer and early fall. In the winter, many craft fairs. Think "thousands of potential customers!"
What Are You Waiting For
I know youre thinking, "But I only want to write!" That may be so. Promoting is time consuming. But whats the alternative Your book just sets there and gathers dust. So ease on out of that chair, and head on out. Let people know about your book. Talk it up. Readers who love your book will add another dimension to your promotion - word-of-mouth advertising!
Start Small and Think Big
Some stores you approach may not work! Granted. But youll get the ball rolling and your mind spinning. "Where else can I sell my book" Youll find yourself eyeing every little store as a possibility, while driving your car or strolling the sidewalks of your hometown. Who knows, you may even become your hometowns next "celebrity!" Give it a try!

About The Author
Mary Holzrichter
Do you enjoy reading quality fast paced action novels Do you like to write them Either way, visit ActionTales.com . We offer some great titles for
readers and an unbeatable publishing deal for authors.

So many people want to start a business today and be rich tomorrow. Sorry, people it doesnt happen that way. If it did, everyone would do it. There is no free lunch...it takes hard work, determination and realistic goal setting.
Think about the businesses you have worked at, look at the businesses in your community. I mean really look. When you go to the dry cleaners, how many other people are there also. Think about what it takes for that dry cleaner to open every day. How many people he needs to come in with their dry cleaning in order to make a profit. OK, dry cleaning doesnt excite you. How about that specialty shop you want to open! You want to open a retail store that caters to people that buy Hummels, knick knacs, bric-a-brac. Will you only handle certain types How many will you order of each type What are the best sellers How many will you have to sell to make money for yourself, and to also keep that shop open, or will you sell them by mail order only from your home
Want to do business on the web The same principles apply. How many visitors to your web site do you need to make a sale How do you get them to visit How do you get them to stay You get the idea. You need goals in order to measure any progress in your business.
Realistic goals come from a well thought out mission statement, which leads to a very good business plan, which leads to a well thought out marketing strategy. You should have short and long term goals. The short term goals will cover the upcoming 6 months to 2 years. Your long term goals will go further out, lets say over the next five years. Remember, you need to give a business at least two years in order to give it a real chance. Not all businesses make a gigantic profit immediately.
Lets say you want to start a house cleaning business. Your initial plan is to work it yourself, and add independent contractors as needed. You decide on your mission statement, you make up your business plan. You want to make $500 per week, working six days per week, 10 hour days. Your marketing will include advertising in your local paper, flyers, and mailers. You can clean 3 houses/apartments per day at $25-$50. You also have to decide your price points, what will you charge for a 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom, or a house with 3 bedrooms 2 bathrooms, etc. After all this is done you can better determine how many of each type you will need each week to meet you goal of $500 per week. These are your short term realistic goals. Your long term goals are to eventually hire independent contractors to do the work. Obviously, the more clients you market for, the more independent contractors you need, but also the more income you can generate. You will make up long term goals for the third, fourth, and fifth years of how many independent contractors you want to add and how many clients you want. Your marketing plan will reflect what you need to do to get the numbers you are projecting.
Realistic goals can and must be set, you just need a plan. For example, in Lease Purchasing, as in any other business, goal setting is of paramount importance. You need to follow a plan, a plan for success. Short term goals and long term goals are part of this plan. Like many franchise businesses that have an outline for their franchisees to follow for a successful business, the same should be done in lease purchasing.
To set these realistic goals and to obtain a good foundation, you need a program that provides you with support in the start up and running of your business. Using our own Lease Purchase Coaching Program as an example, we schedule consultations that cover all students need to know to get started. We role play with students and have specific assignments giving them certain things to do, and certain goals to meet. If they follow the program, and do their deals, they will be able to run their own successful business. We work with our students to accomplish the above and to help them set realistic goals.
An example of goals in Lease Purchasing is the number of deals you want to do, and how many calls or contacts you need to make to do that number of deals. How many consultations do you want to do, again, how many contacts you make will determine how many you get. Lease Purchasing like many other businesses is a numbers game. Make so many contacts, and/or calls and get so many deals. However, in order to do this, you have to make some goal making decisions and set realistic goals, not farfetched ones. Making a million dollars by the end of six months is not a realistic goal. Making so many calls per day, per week, per month is, and then from the number of calls/contacts you make, realize you are going to get so many responses, and from those responses make so many deals. A realistic income working full time the first year is $50,000 to $75,000.
Following a proven method is of the utmost importance. You dont hear of many Burger King or Taco Bell franchises failing. Why, because they follow the corporate plan. The company will tell them there are no short cuts. If they want to succeed, they need to follow the companys proven formula.
The people who fail in business are usually those who dont listen; dont want to follow a proven program; want to take short cuts; and who dont set realistic goals.
So remember, no matter what your business is, if you want to succeed you need to set goals for yourself ... and make them realistic.
Copyright DeFiore Enterprises 2002

About The Author

Interested in having your own successful, home based creative real estate investing business Chuck and Sue have been helping folks start successful home based businesses for over 17 years, and we can help you too! To see how, visit http://www.homebusinesssolutions.com for the latest FREE tips and tricks, educational products and coaching in creative real estate investing and home based businesses. No time to visit the site Subscribe to our FREE "how to" Home Business Solutions Digest, its like having your own personal coach: mailto:subscribeHBS@homebusinesssolutions.com
coaches@homebusinesssolutions.com

Today, women are starting businesses at twice the rate of men and becoming a major force both in the traditional and the new global e-business marketplace.
In November, The National Womens Councils Interagency Committee on Womens Business Enterprise prepared and presented to the 2000 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Conference a case study http://www.nwbc.gov/oecd.pdf on successful public and private initiatives for fostering entrepreneurship among women. It notes the significant role women have played in the recent economic prosperity and affirms the fact that "countries with high levels of economic activity and with the highest start-up business rates are the ones where women are well-engaged in entrepreneurial activity." More intriguing still, small businesses owned by women and minorities are focusing more intense efforts on exporting than those owned by non-minority men. The U.S. Small Business Administrations SBA Office of International Trade, in a statistical report released last year, indicated that "America

Effect of Expenses
The last article examined how to calculate your realistic billable hours. If you remember, we arrived at approximately 1100 hours in a year. To earn our mythical $46,000 per year, you needed to bill at a rate of $42 per hour. Now we need to take into account the expenses of running a business and see where those put our hourly rate.
Most costs fall into three general categories: business and office expenses; salary and personal taxes; and, benefits and profit margin. In this article, we will concentrate on the first category, business and office expenses.
Everyday expenses are part of doing business, and these must be reflected in the prices you charge or you will not be in business for long. Expenses to consider are rent for office space. If you are home-based, you will still have an increase in utilities, such as gas and electric over your regular household bills. You will have telephone costs, postage, copying costs, stationery, office supplies, subscriptions and possibly, membership dues.
You will also need to make periodic upgrades to your office equipment and furniture. Items such as computer hardware and software; fax machine, copier, filing cabinets, telephone headsets, etc. All of these items add to the hourly rate you charge for your services. You must have a good estimate of what these costs total each year or you will end up cheating yourself. If you do cheat yourself, you are going to drastically increase your stress levels and lose much of the enjoyment of running your own business.
Lets plug some numbers into our costs and see how they affect our hourly rate.
Rent $600 per month x 12 = $7200
Utilities $100 per month x 12= 1200
Telephone $100 per month x 12 = 1200
Postage $100 per month x 12= 1200
Copying $50 per month x 12 = 600
Stationery $25 per month x 12 = 300
Supplies $50 per month x 12 = 600
Upgrades $150 per month x 12 = 1800
Furniture $50 per month x 12 = 600
Yearly Total = $15,300
The yearly total comes to $15,300, divide this by 1100 billable hours and you get approximately $14 per hour. Now add this to the original $42 per hour and you can see that you need to charge $56 per hour to cover your hoped for $46,000 per year income plus your expenses. If you are home-based, you can subtract the $7200 per year in rent or about $6.50 per hour from the $56 above.
I have made a number of assumptions in arriving at these figures, your costs may be more or less, but this will give you an idea of what to look for and how to calculate your expenses. If you have any questions, write to me or give me a call and I will go over your situation with you.
Remember, in order to be fair with yourself and your customers, your prices must reflect the true cost of doing business. Do not ever apologize for your prices. You need to charge enough for you to live on and enough to stay in business to service the clients that have come to depend upon you. If some of your customers cant understand this, change your customers, not your prices.
Copyright 2003, DeFiore Enterprises.

About The Author

Interested in having your own successful, home based creative real estate investing business Chuck and Sue have been helping folks start successful home based businesses for over 17 years, and we can help you too! To see how, visit http://www.homebusinesssolutions.com for the latest FREE tips and tricks, educational products and coaching in creative real estate investing and home based businesses. No time to visit the site Subscribe to our FREE "how to" Home Business Solutions Digest, its like having your own personal coach: mailto:subscribeHBS@homebusinesssolutions.com

coaches@homebusinesssolutions.com

Effect Of Bad Debts
So far, we have covered the major factors involved in setting your fee structure. We have set a realistic number of billable hours, calculated the effect of expenses and taken into account the cost of a benefit package.
This has brought us to an hourly rate of $77. By charging $77 per hour, you will have an income of $46,000 per year, plus benefits.
What happens when you have a client that does not pay you for your services What happens if a customer goes out of business before your invoice is paid How will these events affect your own planning Do you want to take a bad debt write off on your taxes Do you want to try to include for these contingencies in your fee structure Your answers to these questions will have a direct impact on how you operate your business.
Thankfully, unless you provide very poor service, most clients will eventually pay you. However, it may take you awhile to collect your money and you may have to settle for less than the originally billed amount. You have the option of adding late fees to your invoices, but keep in mind, the more time you spend trying to collect a past due invoice, the less time you have to devote to paying customers. Also, if you need to engage an attorney or collection agency, you will in all likelihood, not see the full amount of your invoice because of their fees.
One way in which you can protect yourself is to build into your fees an allowance for bad or uncollectable debts. If you estimate that 5% of your invoices will be either unpaid or underpaid, then add 5% to your hourly rate. For example, your hypothetical fee is now $77 per hour, 5% of that is $3.50, added together gives you a rate of $80.50 per hour. If we round this off to $80, you would have approximately $3300 per year cushion.
Allowing 5% for bad debts may seem high, however, keep in mind the present state of the economy and remember this figure can be adjusted as the economic conditions change. Today, it is not unusual for businesses to take longer to pay invoices then they did a couple of years ago. Most businesses expect to pay late fees for overdue invoices, however determining how much to charge and whether or not you are meeting the various legalities involved can be time consuming. It may be easier to add a percentage to your overall fees to offset bad debt. In a sense, you are spreading the economic risk over all your clients. For a small business this may be the safest and less time consuming course of action.
If your client base is large enough, a certain percentage of your customers will go out of business, leaving you with unpaid and uncollectable invoices. There is little chance you will collect any money in a bankruptcy hearing. To protect yourself, you can charge partial fees as your work progresses. This way you are assured of having received at least some of your money. Not all businesses are set up to take advantage of this option.
Remember, you are not in business to give away your services. Your goal is to provide yourself and/or your family with a reasonable income. Uncollected invoices are part of doing business, you owe it to yourself to consider this before you get stuck.
Copyright 2003, DeFiore Enterprises

About The Author

Interested in having your own successful, home based creative real estate investing business Chuck and Sue have been helping folks start successful home based businesses for over 17 years, and we can help you too! To see how, visit http://www.homebusinesssolutions.com for the latest FREE tips and tricks, educational products and coaching in creative real estate investing and home based businesses. No time to visit the site Subscribe to our FREE "how to" Home Business Solutions Digest, its like having your own personal coach: mailto:subscribeHBS@homebusinesssolutions.com

coaches@homebusinesssolutions.com

OK, you say, Ive decided to start my business. I have my idea, my identity package, my licensing and zoning done. Now I need to set up my office.
Your first step is to decide whether to convert a room into an office or a space/area in your home to office space.
If your space is limited you might want to get the type of desk that looks like an armoire so you can close it up at the end of the day. Or use a folding table that can be put away at the end of the business day. Or you can set up a mini-office in the corner of a room and put up a screen to hide this area at the end of the work day.
In addition, depending on the type of business you are running, you need to think of files you will need and how you will house those files. For some businesses a small letter file will suffice, which you can cover with a table cloth at the end of the day or you could use an end table with space for files, or you can purchase crates for files and stack those in a corner or closet.
Most businesses today need a computer, along with a printer, fax, and/or scanner. Again, if you use the armoire type of desk they use have space for most of this equipment, and you can close it at the end of the day.
For those of you that devote a separate room to your office, you have a lot more latitude in the design of your office. However, size of your office will come into play. To utilize the space to the best advantage, choose your desk and the placing of equipment based on your office size. This means measure items before purchasing them. Do a mock set up. While this might take a little more time initially, it will pay off in the long run.
The basics for most offices are phone, fax, computer and printer, and file cabinets. The file cabinet can also be used for miscellaneous supplies if you are tight on space.
We all have a picture in our minds of the ideal office. Unfortunately, we have to work within certain parameters. It can be done. You just need a little ingenuity sometimes.
Since there are so many differences between individuals and what they have to work with it is very difficult to be very specific in what to purchase. We would suggest being sure to get the basics: phone, fax, computer, printer and file cabinet, and work from there. Obviously, if you can devote a whole room to an office it will be a lot easier than if your space is limited.
The aforementioned should get you started on the set up of your home office. If you need help, contact us.
Copyright DeFiore Enterprises 2001

About The Author

Interested in having your own successful, home based creative real estate investing business Chuck and Sue have been helping folks start successful home based businesses for over 19 years, and we can help you too! To see how, visit http://www.homebusinesssolutions.com for the latest FREE tips and tricks, educational products and coaching in creative real estate investing and home based businesses. No time to visit the site Subscribe to our "how to" Home Business Solutions Digest, its like having your own personal coach: mailto:subscribeHBS@homebusinesssolutions.com
coaches@homebusinesssolutions.com

Are you a look-and-lose dieter Have you studied every diet ever created, read a zillion diet books, and yet are still unhappy with your weight
Has your quest for the holy grail of dieting become a substitute for actually making changes required to take the ill health out of your current diet
If so, you may not realise your thoughts are key to your happiness and success.
Do you look at yourself and say, "Im fat", or "My hips are too big" Many of us look in the mirror and immediately compare ourselves to those perfect human specimens we see every single day on TV, in magazines and in the newspapers.
Often we talk to ourself and make excuses, "Its my genes", "Im much too busy to get fit", "I like myself this", as a way of protecting yourself from the way we see ourselves now and the way we want to be.
If we were to be truly honest with ourselves most people actually want to lose a few pounds - if we only knew how.
The good news is you CAN achieve your desired body shape with the right thinking about yourself, an understanding of how to get optimal nutrition, healthy eating habits and how to incorporate activity into your lifestyle to keep your muscles toned.
But most important of all, you need a regular mental workout to keep your self-image in shape.
Self-image is closely connected to the success or failure of any goal you choose to seek after, but none more so that the goal to get yourself fit and healthy.
So how do you go about strengthening your self-image Well fortunately your self-image, just like your muscles, will respond well to a regular work out. You can actually strengthen your self-image with a few daily exercises.
Exercise One - Self Examination
Start by compiling a list of all those negative thoughts your have about yourself

Effect of Benefits
We have previously examined realistic billable hours and the effect of business expenses on your hourly rate. Now well look at the effect of benefits.
Once upon at time, when we were employed, we received a benefits package from our employer. This usually included health, life and disability insurance. Many firms also had available pension programs, profit sharing, dental and vision coverage. In addition, one-half of your social security was paid by your employer.
As self-employed individuals, we have to provide these benefits for ourselves. This means an additional boast to the hourly rate weve calculated so far. For the sake of argument, lets figure a standard benefits package consisting of health, life, disability, pension and profit sharing. Lets figure health insurance costs at $300 per month; life at $50 per month; disability at $150 per month; pension a SEP-IRA at $500 per month and about 10% for a profit margin.
If we total these up we get a yearly figure of $12,000. Now keep in mind, that most of these will be paid for in after tax dollars. So, we need to add approximately an additional 30% to this number, for a true total of about $15,600 per year. The 30% represents the amount of taxes you need to pay to end up with the net amount of money needed to pay for your benefits package. Keep in mind that I chose 30% as a completely arbitrary number. Your own tax situation may be higher or lower.
How does this effect our hourly rate, lets see. Last article we left off at $56 per hour. This represented a yearly salary of $42,000 plus annual business expenses of $15,000. If we take the $15,600 in benefit costs and divide by our billable hours of 1100 per year, we get approximately $14 per hour. This brings our total hourly rate to $70 per hour.
Now, we need to factor in our profit sharing percentage. Once again, I choose 10% as a representative number. Your targeted profit could be higher or lower. If you take your $70 per hour rate, multiply by 10%, you end up with $7 per hour. Your total hourly rate comes to $77 per hour.
This is the amount you need to charge to cover all we discussed so far.
Compare this to the approximately $20 per hour you would need to get paid by an employer to earn our hypothetical $42,000 per year. And yes, I know today many employers require a co-payment on their benefits package. I stated it this way for simplicity sake.
So, you need to charge almost 4 times what you would earn in salary to end up at the same place. Dont be discouraged, there are many people out there that are charging a lot more than this and getting all the business they can handle. Remember, these numbers are hypothetical, your situation may be much different.
Copyright 2003, DeFiore Enterprises

About The Author

Interested in having your own successful, home based creative real estate investing business Chuck and Sue have been helping folks start successful home based businesses for over 17 years, and we can help you too! To see how, visit http://www.homebusinesssolutions.com for the latest FREE tips and tricks, educational products and coaching in creative real estate investing and home based businesses. No time to visit the site Subscribe to our FREE "how to" Home Business Solutions Digest, its like having your own personal coach: mailto:subscribeHBS@homebusinesssolutions.com

coaches@homebusinesssolutions.com