Posts Tagged ‘Small Business’
Retail Site Selection For Small Business
Introduction
The mantra of real estate is location, location, location. However, location has vastly different meanings for a business that owns commercial property versus a small retail owner looking to lease a storefront. While the real estate owner is looking for property values and lease rates to increase, the retail store owner is looking for a location that is convenient for potential customers.
To find the best location, retail giants wield GIS systems with customized algorithms crunching census data with years of actual customer preference data combined with geo-demographic databases. The cost of these types of database programs are out of reach of small businesses, much less the teams of statisticians and programmers needed to run them. A quick scan of the Census Bureau web site can generate more data than an owner could ever review, but does that even help?
Making a retail site selection decision is just as important for a small retail owner as it is for major chains. In fact, a small retailer is significantly less able to sustain a bad site decision than is a major retail player. The small or first-time owner is typically undercapitalized and not able to sustain months or years of underutilized business until it can relocate or renegotiate a lease.
What’s a small business owner to do and what criteria should they consider? How does a small business owner make a good site selection decision with the limited resources available?
This decision can be broken down into a seven-step process that only requires internet access, a spreadsheet program, a street map and a pack of colored markers. The process is really about identifying the characteristics that are important to your business and gathering the data to find where those characteristics are present. The decision is ultimately a financial decision, but the characteristics that build the financial model are all about your customers’ needs and expectations.
The Retail Site Selection Process
Step 1 – Create a target customer profile
The most important question to be answered by the business owner has nothing to do with what location is ultimately chosen, but rather who is the customer. Creating a profile of your customers’ characteristics allows you to identify where they live, work, play and drive. Think of your customers in census data terms. What is their income range? Is the customer married? Does the customer have children, own a home or drive a car? Identify those characteristics that are present in your target customer. Knowing the characteristics of your customer allows you to more easily target their location.
Step 2 – Create a target site profile
Identify the ideal characteristics of your site, the absolute needs and the ‘cliff’ criteria. ‘Cliff’ criteria are characteristics or groups of characteristics that are most indicative of potential for failure in your business. Don’t be lured by cheap price or great visibility if your potential site has too many ‘cliff’ criteria present. These factors are usually too difficult to overcome, even by other ideal characteristics. Site characteristics include items such as available parking spaces, building square feet and layout, stand-alone or a strip, ingress and egress and similar characteristics. Identify which characteristics are important for your business. Each business is different and small business owners need to put their personal egos aside to identify site characteristics that are truly important for business success, not personal pride. Rank the importance of each characteristic by assigning a percentage weight. The total of all your percentages should equal 100%
Step 3 – Locate target customers and market keys
Once you know who your target customer is, find them in your area. Sort the demographic data by zip code for your area by using the basic search criteria at the U.S. Census Bureau website. Identify those zip codes or neighborhood areas where your target customer is most concentrated. You may have to get in your car and drive around a zip code area to identify which areas are neighborhoods. Take your map with you and mark where the high concentration of your target customer likely lives.
Also locate the market keys, those items such as major work centers, traffic arteries, recreations areas and retail centers. Once you’ve identified where you target customer lives, identify driving routes from home neighborhoods to work, shopping and recreational areas. Traffic count data is generally available from your local municipality. Use your markers to identify the high traffic count streets.
Next, identify and note on your map the primary retail centers and feeder businesses. A feeder business is a business where your target customer would also be expected to shop. Identify the location of your primary competition. Whether you want to be close to or far away from your competition depends on your business and marketing strategy. Your map should start to reveal primary trade areas in which the concentration of target customers and market keys start to overlap.
Talk to your city council or plan commission to identify which areas of the city are targeted for future growth and where pending development is planned. Analyze how this information might affect your choice for a location.
Step 4 – Identify potential sites within the primary trade area
Now it’s time to get some help. Contact a local Realtor with knowledge of the commercial property market to help you identify available sites within your primary trade areas. Visit those sites and generate a list of sites that seem to meet your basic criteria. The Realtor can assemble the financial information associated with each property. These items include lease costs, fees, insurance, common area maintenance charges, property taxes and so forth.
With your target site profile in hand, visit each site during different times of the day and determine a grade for each valued characteristic and ‘cliff’ criteria. I recommend a 1 – 5 scoring of each item where 5 means the site completely meets your needs. Visiting at different times of the day will help you understand the patterns of customer behavior and whether rush hour traffic renders the site completely unavailable.
Step 5 – Rank the potential sites
Utilize a site ranking matrix or other method, rank the potential sites. The site ranking matrix is a simple model that allows you rank the sites using a weighted average based on the important site criteria and your value of their importance.
Select the top two to five sites for a pro forma analysis. You should select the number of sites based on the outcome of your ranking. If two sites score well above the others, use only two. If several are all ranked closely, use that group for the next step.
Step 6 – Analyze the financial data
Utilizing the top sites from the site ranking matrix, create a pro forma income statement and cash flow for each target site. Each site will have different costs associated with the lease, taxes, insurance and other occupancy expenses. You will also have costs associated with moving expenses and site preparation and build-out. Identify these expenses and quantify the amount for each different site. In addition, each potential site will generate different customer numbers and types that have different impacts on profitability and cash flows. Factoring the differences between the potential sites, create pro forma income statements and cash flows.
If start-up costs for lease build-outs and other items are especially high, consider a net present value analysis of the potential cash flows for each property. Using a three to five year cash flow projection, develop discount rates based on the level of risk involved in your decision, including current interest rates, economic stability and local market growth potential. Using a one-year analysis period places too much emphasis on start-up costs, but utilizing a three- to five-year net present value methodology keeps those big lump sum items in the proper balance.
If your start-up costs are relatively low, you can skip the net present value calculations. While a net present value of cash flows almost always gives you a better analysis of the financials, it’s fairly complicated math for non-financial people. And frankly, at this point in the evaluation, it should either be clear which property is best or there probably isn’t much difference between the top choices.
It’s often difficult to compare cost differences between categories and how they will impact financial performance. Different sites have differing potential to generate sales revenue. By combining all factors in a standard business model, the owner can see how the differences in cost and potentials impact the financial performance of the location. A final ranking based on profitability and cash flow will give the business owner a good idea how the different locations will impact the ultimate success of the business venture.
Step 7 – Select the best site
A final ranking of the sites based on profitability and cash flow should give the entrepreneur a good basis for selecting a site that will give the business the best chance for success.
For any small business success, the owner must understand how what happens in the business world translates into profitability and cash flow. Creating pro forma models helps to quantify the differences in costs and potentials for the various sites. This process will allow any business owner to define what’s important to their business success, find those locations that will most likely contribute to their success and compare how the small differences in site and market potential between sites relates to profitability and cash flow.
Summary
Selecting a retail site is more than just scanning the MLS for a good location for your business enterprise. It all starts with understanding your business and your potential customer. A business owner really can’t go forward without this information firmly in mind, especially in these times of economic turmoil and financial system distress. If you don’t know your business and your customer, you can’t develop a proper business or marketing plan and advertising dollars will be wasted promoting your business to customers who will never shop in your store. Don’t let your business’s ‘cliff’ be you.
Retail site selection is a complicated and time consuming process. A new business owner can quickly become overwhelmed by the many decisions that have to be made when opening a business. By having an experienced advocate working on the infrastructure and logistical functions of opening a business, you can focus on the long-term business and marketing decisions that will mean success for your business.
Blue Point Strategies will work with you to ensure that the business plan is complete, the lease issues are settled and the proper site has been selected to maximize your success and give your business a solid foundation for long-term financial stability.
How To Increase Online Business
Traffic is the key factor for each & every online business. You should constantly care to generate the traffic weight to your dealing website to develop the business. If you are capable to create excellence traffic to a website, you will be capable to convert several of them to encouraging customers and receive the business eventually. For this reason, traffic creation is a chief feature in online business, which requires a strong and quality link building campaign to reach the success level in this area.
Excellence visitors are strong back bones of the website marketing and if you are able to organizing the traffic, you will definitely win an incredible business. The online existence is very important and if you are proficient to enjoy such excellence traffic, you may be expecting to have gainful online business. The majority of successful websites have the strong and professional link building campaign to look after the traffic construction activity and enjoy the attendance of quality visitors and healthier business.
You need to choose a proper link creation service agency for your type of business to obtain appropriate link popularity and upper search engine positions. If you are located in the top points of the search consequences, you will automatically enjoy extra visitors to your website. Added visitors to the website indicate a lot of buyers who will potentially be search for services or products that you trade. In fact, many of them will be automatically converted into fixed buyers. The business will naturally get better and you will earn better profits from such actions.
Your business website should be accurately promoted by a personality with the main intention to catch high search positions and for that you will need a strong and capable back link campaign. Getting a maximum publicity and receiving high amount of visitor to the website is the crucial need of a business website. The content building campaign that you appoint should be able to provide appropriate linking support with incoming links form authority web pages and sites. The professional deliberation of the provider should be taken into description and they are well communicated with the search engine knowledge.
You should create a justified preference on the technical advantage of the service provider. The supplier should be able to offer the inbound links in crystal clear manner which are accepted by Google suggestions and do not use any further illegitimate strategy.
You should be extremely particular about the technique used by the link building company so that nothing unprincipled is done to support the site. It is a chancy affair the choice of a perfect back link builder and consequently you should be knowledgeable about the procedure of the provider to keep the reputation of your business website.
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Laser Thermometers: Temperature Measuring Tool
Know About Laser Thermometers
These days thermometer technology has undergone a massive change. Recent in thermometer is Laser thermometer which is becoming the heart throbbing accessory of the temperature measuring industry. As we go by the name, Laser thermometer, it works on the principle of laser technology which measures the precise temperature of an object or subject in few seconds. Thermomètre
Let us discuss about these Laser thermometers in detail.
Laser Thermometers measure temperature using the principle of laser. When the object is hot it gives out heat from all the parts that results in the vibration of the molecules with greater speed. This increased velocity is then measured by the laser technology and converted into a temperature reading. Later on this reading is them displayed over the LCD screen of the thermometer.
These thermometers are more or like a pistol in shape with a trigger that needs to be pulled when recording the temperature. The laser ray is emitted from the tip of the gun or pistol on the object needs to be measured. However, the emission path of the laser ray cannot be seen clearly but the point at which the ray touches becomes dot bright red. This dot point is measured for temperature reading.
It has been believed that every hot body gives out the equal amount of heat radiation from all its parts. Therefore, laser based thermometers can be pointed on any part of the body to measure temperature. The temperature recording of the specific part will come out to be same as the other parts of the body. Hence we do not need to record temperature of each and every part of the body. This is the major positive point of laser thermometers over the other thermometers.
Benefits of Laser Based Thermometers:
• It is known as non-contact device that does not need to be brought in contact with the temperature measuring object. It can measure any object from the remote location. Only thing need to be taken into consideration is that the path of the laser should not be restricted.
• It provides instantaneous results without wasting a single second. Hence is found to be a desirable clinical thermometer meant for infants or pets. Its laser technology measures the patient’s temperature without being in touch with him.
• It measures the temperature of the object with accuracy, instantly and digitally which makes it easy to read.
It’s Applications:
The laser thermometers have found to be an innumerable uses, which are as follows:
• These are used for measuring human body temperatures, especially in the form of ear thermometers to get accurate reading.
• These are used for industrial purposes to find out the heat leakages in the room. It scans the whole area and provides us with right spot facing excessive heat leakage.
• These are also used for diagnosing cooling system such as checking overheating problems, scanning radiators for core limitations, measuring thermostat temperature, coolant temperature sensors and various air temperature sensors
• It helps in detecting the inside temperature of exterior walls to find the improper insulation. Simultaneously, it also detects the insulating capability of window or door glass in various climatic conditions.
On the whole Laser thermometers can be used for gauging temperature of every small and big thing which lies in the private, professional, commercial and industrial sectors.
Tax Debt Help Tips – How to Settle Your IRS Tax Debt for Less
You are probably reading this because you are in need of tax debt help. Sometimes it feels like there is no way out from under an overwhelming IRS tax debt. However, for taxpayers that simply can’t afford to pay, there is a solution. You can actually settle your IRS tax debt for less than you owe! This is known as an “Offer in Compromise” and if you qualify for it, it is one of the most beneficial forms of IRS tax debt help available. But before you try it, you need to prime yourself with a little research and some basic knowledge. Roll up your sleeves, this won’t be easy.
The IRS tax settlement program, or Offer in Compromise, reduces the amount owed for taxpayers that cannot afford to pay before the statute of limitations (time to collect on the debt) runs out. It is an agreement between the taxpayer and the IRS that settles the tax liability for less than the full amount owed. Anyone can apply for an Offer in Compromise for tax debt help. However, not everyone is going to be approved. You need to know the steps and the paperwork required for a tax settlement to increase your chances of actually securing this form of tax debt relief.
In order to apply for an Offer in Compromise you need to complete IRS Form 656, Offer in Compromise and IRS Form 655-V, the Offer in Compromise payment voucher. The IRS will not accept an offer that is less than your earning potential in the years before they can no longer collect on your debt. This means you need lots of documents to prove you simply cannot pay your tax debt before your statute runs out. Now your mission is to begin finding and assembling those documents that “will prove to the IRS” that you can’t pay your tax debt in full. Some common examples are past due notices, bills, unemployment checks, and anything and everything that serves to substantiate your financial hardship claim. Submit all of this documentation with IRS Form 656, Offer in Compromise
Before you begin on your quest for tax settlement as your preferred form of tax debt relief, it is important to know the success rate. While it is true that you can actually settle your IRS tax debt for less, the IRS does not “give up easily” on full collection of past tax debt. In fact, fewer than 20% annually of all Offer in Compromise applications submitted to the IRS are approved. For this reason, it is incredibly important to double check IRS Form 656, Offer in Compromise before you submit it. Incomplete or inaccurate applications are rejected. The IRS also rejects applications where the tax settlement “offer amount” is deemed to be too low.
It is true that some taxpayers have submitted their own Offer in Compromise successfully. However, when it comes to submitting an offer, you have a better success rate when you work with a qualified tax professional. IRS tax settlement specialists know the “ins and outs” of IRS rules and guidelines, and are experienced in assembling the necessary documentation to maximize your chances for approval. Remember that this form of tax debt relief is the most beneficial, so it may be prudent to give yourself every possible chance at success. That often means using qualified IRS tax debt help advisors. Keep in mind that if it appears you will not qualify for IRS tax settlement, a professional tax advisor is aware of all programs that may give you the tax debt relief you need.
Liv Worthington has worked in the debt management field for many years. She also advises clients who need tax debt help and are seeking information about tax settlement as their preferred form of tax debt relief.
IRS Tax Settlement: This Tax Relief Solution Can Save Big Money!
The IRS used to be the terror in most peoples nightmares. Specifically, people who got behind on their taxes lived in dread of having the IRS catch up with them and freeze their bank accounts, lien their homes or garnish their wages. To promote voluntary resolutions, the IRS instituted a program known as Offer in Compromise. This IRS tax relief program is more commonly known as IRS tax settlement or tax settlement. You have undoubtedly seen the marketing promotions on TV and heard them on the radio touting that you can “settle your IRS tax debt” for less or “settle your IRS tax debt for pennies on the dollar”.
The offer in compromise program was designed to let taxpayers with back tax problems resolve their problems voluntarily. Instead of waiting for the IRS to catch up to them, taxpayers could come forward and essentially admit their sins and request tax debt help. In exchange for this voluntary action, the IRS would consider a reduction of the tax debt amount that was past due including penalties and interest. This IRS tax relief program was a big success.
What is IRS tax settlement?
The Offer in Compromise program is essentially a “compromise” or “settling” of the past due IRS tax debt liability. This means that the IRS is willing to accept a smaller portion of what is owed as payment in full on the delinquent tax debt. The IRS does this because they realize it is unlikely that the full amount will ever be collected from the taxpayer. Not surprisingly, the IRS does not take accepting a tax settlement offer lightly, and the taxpayer must demonstrate that it is in their best interest to settle rather than attempt to collect in full on the tax debt. A complete financial disclosure is required from the taxpayer, including all assets held. It is critical that the proposed offer be accurate and complete, and for that reason, many taxpayers use a professional IRS tax settlement service to handle the filing of the application. A professional tax settlement firm has industry knowledge and the requisite tax expertise which can only improve the chances the offer will be accepted.
What is the “20 percent rule”?
Also important to keep in mind is that a 20% of the offer amount must be submitted by the taxpayer with their offer in compromise application. This is called the “20 percent rule”. This amount is not refundable nor will any offer in compromise be acknowledged by the IRS if the funds are not submitted. Clearly, this makes the accurate and proper filing of the offer application even more critical. This leads delinquent taxpayers to seek the services of a professional IRS tax relief firm. If you face overwhelming tax debt, then you certainly cannot run the risk of losing this 20% application fee.
Why use a professional tax resolution firm?
The IRS scrutinizes each offer in compromise case, so if your proposal is incomplete or improperly worded you may end up paying much more than you actually should. Even worse, the IRS could reject your proposal altogether because the submitted offer is deemed to be too low. Typically, the success rate of offers written by a professional tax firm is higher than those submitted by individual taxpayers. IRS tax specialists know the formulas and intricacies of IRS policy necessary for proper resolution. Most people find that working with a firm that specializes in IRS tax settlement actually saves them not only time and stress but also a significant amount of money. Just be certain to “do your homework” before retaining the services of an IRS tax relief firm. You want to maximize your chances of success to settle your IRS tax debt for as little as possible. The health of your financial future may hang in the balance.
Liv Worthington has worked in the debt management field for many years. She also advises clients who have past due tax debt and are seeking IRS tax relief through the tax settlement program.
How to Stop an IRS Levy – Tips for Urgent IRS Tax Relief!
IRS levies have a way of striking without warning. In a flash your bank accounts, wages, or assets vanish without a trace. You might think you are safe from an IRS tax levy if you’ve avoided an IRS notice so far. But truthfully, you can not escape the dangers of an IRS bank levy, IRS wage levy, or any other IRS levy as long as you owe back taxes. When an IRS levy strikes, one of your best options is to work with qualified IRS tax specialists.
The first type of IRS levy is the IRS bank levy. You will know an IRS bank levy is imminent when you receive an IRS Notice via certified mail that reads, “Final Notice of Intent to Levy.” After you receive this notice in the mail, the IRS bank levy can strike at any time. It will not happen immediately because the IRS wants to catch you unprepared (before you get a chance to remove funds from your bank account). Before your funds are seized for good, your bank account will be frozen. Your funds will be held, and you will have 21 days to negotiate with the IRS and come up with a solution before the IRS keeps the funds for good. You might want to hire qualified IRS tax relief advisors that can work quickly within the limited time frame
The second, and perhaps most painful type of IRS tax levy, is the IRS wage levy. Nothing stings quite like the IRS seizing wages directly from your paycheck. Many taxpayers do not even receive notice from the IRS. They simply receive notice from the payroll department at their job/employer. The IRS can seize a huge percentage of your earnings, leaving you with only enough to cover your basic necessities. The only way to stop an IRS wage levy from starting is to contact the IRS before your payroll cut-off date immediately after receiving the notice. You have to discuss a solution for paying off your back tax debt directly with the Internal Revenue Service. Due to its crucial nature, the time urgency, and the severe financial damage that can be caused by an IRS wage levy, contacting experienced IRS tax specialists is suggested.
Finally, it is important to note that the cash from your wages or bank account are not the only assets the IRS seeks. The IRS can not levy your clothes, primary residence, or primary vehicle. But they can seize practically everything else like a second car, second house, valuable antique furniture or jewelry, or anything they can sell for cash. All those types of assets are at risk.
The IRS threatens a levy to get your attention and force you to face up to your obligations. What the IRS really wants is negotiation; they want to talk to you so they can figure out the best way you can pay the tax debt in full. You can do a little research on your particular situation and call the IRS yourself to resolve the issue. Since you are not an expert in this area, you may not have the best chance of securing the IRS tax relief you desperately need. You can also hire experienced IRS tax specialists to work on your behalf.
An IRS tax professional will work quickly to stop the IRS bank levy or the IRS wage levy and return your funds. If you have not filed returns in a few years, using an IRS tax relief professional is particularly important. They can quickly stamp in your back tax years and negotiate for the best payment arrangement on your behalf. If left alone, the IRS will garnish your wages and continuously enact the IRS levy until the back tax debt is paid in full. Act fast, when it comes to any IRS levy, there is always a strict deadline.
Liv Worthington has worked in the debt management field for many years. She also advises clients who face IRS levy problems like an IRS wage levy and need urgent IRS tax relief assistance.
Businesses to business marketplace offers free business directory and local yellow pages.
Through the arrival of the Internet, the old models of conducting business have changed. In fact, business itself has undergone a great change. We are no longer restricted by geographic limitations in buying or selling products or services. Interestingly, the Internet has opened up new opportunity for trading and has successfully converted the world into a marketplace that you can visit from the comfort of your home or office.
Business to business marketplace refers to B2B marketing. Essentially, a Business to business marketplace has made it astonishingly easy and affordable for sellers to reach buyers anywhere on the planet. That’s because a Business to business marketplace is an access point on the web which acts as a base for employees, suppliers, customers, manufacturers and other companies to access information and a variety of services related to business. Such a marketplace has software designed to conduct business electronically, manage several aspects of the business while providing each member with all the tools they need to do business.
A good Business to business marketplace has to integrate rich resources with a reliable taskforce that has all the technical know-how to enable members to conduct business, properly and without error. To facilitate this, there must be a lot of business friendly tools like lead posting, catalog posting, lead search, business and product search, inquiry, picture loading facility and virtual transaction management.
The Free business directory should give their customers all the required tools to promote their products and services effectively. Customers should be able to browse through trade leads, sell offers, put in their bids for partnerships and franchises, view company profiles, post buy and sell offers, view and promote products and services. Members are also allowed to select any market, thus giving them the highest probability to maximize profit. The main advantage of B2B marketplace is a simple and easy to use system that is 24 hours available.
Free business directory that are successful are generally run by experienced business professionals who understand what businesses require and have the expertise to provide intuitive software solutions. With such a wide range of business services available, you should be able to expand your business or implement your new projects easily and smoothly. Your business portal should make every attempt to fulfill your changing needs, providing you with new features.
As a business owner that is always looking to reach new customers your database is a very important part of making yourself available to meet your customers’ needs. But if nobody knows about your website then it isn’t being effective in bringing in new customers. Because they want to have a useful website to keep visitors coming back and want to know all about your business.
In the meantime your business name, website address and maybe even phone number are accessible to potential customers looking for your type of service or product at no extra cost. The best part is that there are free business directory which build up the largest segment of online traffic and they all offer free listings for your small business website.
Affiliate marketing is an Internet-based marketing tool in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer who comes by the affiliate’s marketing efforts. Affiliate marketing mainly consists of online & offline affiliates. Online Affiliates are ones having their own website to promote products & services and offline affiliates are ones who are not having any website currently.
Free business directory is a way of doing business for small and medium enterprises. These portals facilitate establishing new trading relationships between companies and they also supports the existing relationships. It can be called as an e-market place. A B2B portal primarily serves as a platform for wholesalers, retailers, distributors and manufacturers to carry out their business activities online.
Business to business marketplace is an essential part for buyers as well as sellers. For buyers it facilitates searching new suppliers, post buying requests, and search for used or new goods. For a seller point of view, it makes easy to find out buyers for their products, they could sell online new as well as used products.
Choosing The Right Niche For A Successful Home Business
Don’t let the word ‘recession’ deter you from following your home business dreams. Contrary to what most people think, there are such things as ‘recession proof’ jobs. The trick is figuring out what they are. Because, they are going to differ from state to state, city to city.
The best way to determine the niche that needs to be filled in your local community is to get yourself out there. Peruse around your neighborhood, get to know your neighbors. Involve yourself on social networking sites with local groups. Don’t be afraid to ask question, to put yourself out there. Remember, any positive contacts you make before you launch your business have the potential to be loyal customers after things have gotten off the ground.
Once you have determined in which area your local community is lacking, you have a starting point. Then you have to ask yourself if you are capable of meeting the need. In order to attain success with your home business, it is imperative that you are meeting people’s needs in a way that no one else can. That gives them incentive to become repeat customers, and also to provide additional business through referrals. Never underestimate the power of word of mouth advertising.
In my area, while it is clear that the recession has taken its toll in some industries, others are thriving. And the majority of those are new, small, home businesses that are able to more easily evolve as needed and pick up the slack where others are leaving off. For example, employment agencies, job matching services, and resume builders are some of the most successful businesses going right now. And industries that rely on data rather than physical inventory have very low overhead, can be done almost anywhere, and have real ease of operation if you know what you are doing.
People in our society have become accustomed to a certain standard of living, a certain ability to spend money on what they want when they want to. And although we all know what the word ‘recession’ means intellectually, it is an abstract concept. Until it affects our day to day life in some way, it doesn’t really hit home. Your successful home business can easily play into that. Help your customers forget that they are in a recession, find a good or service that makes them feel as though the recession does not really apply to them, because they still have the means to live the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed. If you can do this, do it well, and do it often, you are well on your way to running a successful home business. Even in these trying economic times.