Home Based Business Trends Defy the Overall EconomyThe news over the course of the last year has been grim. Every day we hear more bad economic news. Industries once believed to be rock solid are begging for bailouts. Unemployment numbers are through the roof. Growth is nonexistent. It’s a sad situation for so many people.However, some home business people have been able to escape the economic downturn. The limiting rules that seem to govern others’ economic situations don’t seem to apply to this particular portion of the population. Who are we talking about? Who’s positioned outside of the economic crisis?”The fortunate group consists of those who are building Internet-based home businesses”.Home based business is escaping many of the ugly economic challenges dominating the headlines. That’s happening for a few reasons.First, unlike other sectors of the marketplace, the Internet is consistently growing by leaps and bounds. The user base continues to grow with each passing day. The technology improves significantly every few months.Connection speeds are accelerating. While other markets shrink, the Internet continues to explode. This gives home based business operators a great deal of reach and a series of opportunities others don’t have.Second, even though overall consumer spending may be down, the amount of online spending is up. It’s bucking the trend.That’s because resistant to the once exotic idea of buying online is disappearing and because so many people are realizing that they can secure better prices by buying from online vendors who have a much lower overhead than their brick and mortar counterparts.When you take a broad look at what’s happening with Internet business and contrast it with what’s been happening to the economy at large, it’s really quite startling.While so many people continue to struggle in the traditional workplace and with jobs in sectors that are feeling a severe pinch, home based businesses are taking advantage of new opportunities and are providing many of their owners with their best years on record.Just “hopping online” isn’t a guarantor of success, however. It’s just a crucial first step. In order to succeed with online business, you will need to develop the right skills and a certain base of knowledge. While no experience or special training is necessary to get started, you will want to secure and follow a proven blueprint for web-based business success.Starting with a detailed, expert plan will enable you to get the ball rolling right from the beginning, saving you a great deal of time and allowing you to avoid many common setbacks. If you’ve been looking for a way out of the economic downturn, look online. It’s the one part of the economy that’s consistently outperforming expectations.The forces making online home businesses so successful are powerful and they won’t be going into decline any time soon.This could be the perfect time to stop fighting with a weak economy and to move on to something bigger and better.

One of the keys to succeeding in information product creation is to break the process up into discrete steps. This frequently isn’t an instinctive reaction for the typical information marketer. Especially on the internet where small sized learning products are the norm.

However, it is extremely important to your ultimate success. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if you don’t do this you probably won’t succeed… even when you are starting out let alone as you move forward.

Your product creation system should do this for you if only to help you to understand the overall task.

But why?

In this article, I’m going to ignore chunking and focus on the practical aspects. That’s not to say that chunking isn’t important. It is. It’s important to understanding and to learning the process. But while you can use the same chunks as you move forward, long term your focus needs to be on the operation of the system not the understanding of it. Unless of course you are constantly training new people!

So why is chunking important to long term use of the product creation process? (Yes, I know systems design uses a different term for this process but I’m not teaching you systems design. So I’m going to use the word learning content designers use.)

The first reason that having individual discrete tasks is important is one of schedule estimation. Frequently it is very difficult to estimate how long the total task of creating a product will take. After all, the size and type of the products matters as does the number of products in your product funnel. And those are just the most obvious elements. However, estimating a discrete task is often much easier. The total can then be estimated as the total of the discrete tasks.

Secondly, scheduling a large task can be problematic. However, by segmenting the task into a number of discrete tasks, you gain a much greater flexibility in scheduling. Not only that but as your business begins to add people you are able to schedule multiple people to the product creation.

Finally, segmenting a large task into smaller discrete tasks allows you to have much better control over the product creation. This affects two different areas — status and quality.

By segmenting your process into discrete tasks you are able to schedule and record the progress at much more detailed level. As a result you are more in control of the status of the product creation. You know what everyone is doing. When they should complete it. And how much it should cost. You also know exactly what has been done.

You also improve your overall quality. Instead of waiting until everything is done you can check quality as you go. This allows you to immediate react to low quality products without absorbing their costs. This means that you have less rework and your rework costs less. And if the product is not going to meet its quality requirement you will know about it in time to stop the development, change the requirement or fix the product.

It is extremely important to find a good property manager. Even then you should keep track of everything that is being done with your property. Remember this is a business…your business. If you aren’t careful, you’ll see your investment become a liability.

Although what a property manager charges is important, even more important is what you get. On average we pay 8% a month on collected rents. You may find someone that will charge you only 5%, saving you money, and in return they may destroy your business. To date, we have not found a good property manager that only charges 5%. Saving money isn’t as important as hiring the right property manager that will properly take care of your investment.

Your goal is to:
• Decrease expenses – utilities, repairs, etc.
• Avoid tenant turnover.
• Raise rents to keep up with current market rent rates.

Property managers are not your business partners. They work for you! They can make recommendations but that’s it. Consult them as a resource but you must make the final decisions.

It’s very important that you explain to them how you want things done. Then you must pay close attention to be sure they are doing what you’ve asked.

Every time a property manager says you need to repair something you should ask why. We were told once that the kitchen light was broken. Before sending the handyman to repair it, I asked them to first ask the tenant to check the light bulb. Believe it or not, simply changing the light bulb fixed the problem. You want your property managers to only send repair personal when absolutely necessary.

Anytime a repair is made on your property, be sure to get a copy of the invoice from the property manager. Look at the invoice to verify that your properties address is on it. If you have any questions about the repair, the contact information will be on the invoice allowing you to call the repairman. Unfortunately there are dishonest property managers. They will charge you for things don’t exist so that they can make some extra money. Keep track of everything and verify it all.

The repair people can be your eyes. Be sure the property manager has them pay attention to how the property looks and report back.

You want tenants, but only good tenants. Be sure the management company is only bringing in qualified tenants that will pay the rent and take care of the property. Always approve the tenant yourself. Don’t trust it to someone else. Have the property manager discuss the potential tenant with you. Talk about their credit score, if employment was verified, how much money the tenant makes, the back ground check, etc.

You will get bad tenants, it’s part of the business, but you will lower the number of bad tenants that you get by doing proper due diligence on them before allowing them in your property.

Be Sure That Your Property Manager Is Strict! No excuses should be accepted as to why the tenant hasn’t paid rent. The bottom line is they should pay rent or move out. Otherwise the property manger must evict them immediately.

We own a 4-plex in Arkansas. One tenant was late one month. Then two tenants were late. I was busy at the time so I let it go. Then three tenants were late. At this point, busy or not, I needed to call my property manager to see what was going on. She said, “well they’re all having trouble paying the rent….but they called me to say they’d be late!” I told her I don’t care if they call to say they’re going to be late. If they are late you must start the eviction process. That sounds harsh but over the years we’ve learned we have to be. Tenants will take advantage of you if you let them. I told the property manager to send all four units a letter stating that if they were ever late they would be evicted. No excuses. The next month every unit paid on time and they have ever since.

Most tenants understand that the most important thing is to keep a roof over their heads. However, if you let them make another expense the priority, they will. They’ll pay that expense first and hopefully pay you when they can if there is money left.

The other thing we’ve learned over the years is that by allowing the tenant’s to pay the rent late each month you are actually hurting them. If you let them get behind and pay late one month, then usually it will be harder for them to pay on time the next month. What happens many times is they’ll pay later and later each month and eventually get so far behind that they can’t catch up. At that point you have no choice but to evict them, and in my opinion it’s your fault because you set them up to fail. The rule of thumb is they must pay the rent on time, or at least by the 3-5 day grace period. If not, then your property manager needs to understand that they must start the eviction process. When tenants see that you are serious, they’ll usually pay on time.

Be sure that your property managers understand that they are not ever to give the tenant your name or contact information. Make this very clear!

We like to always add fire extinguishers in each home or unit we own. Just be sure that you know how long the extinguishers should last and replace them as needed. There may be legal ramifications in your state when adding fire extinguishers so be sure to discuss this with an attorney that practices real estate law in the state the property is located. You should also run this buy your insurance carrier.

Most tenants will forget about changing the smoke detector batteries and replacing heating and AC filters so it’s a good idea for you and the property manager to keep track and have them regularly changed. Whoever replaces everything should also inspect the property while they are there to verify that the tenants are taking good care of your property.

It can be very helpful for you to use a property manager to manage your properties, however, you must oversee them. Don’t make the mistake of not paying attention to what is happening to your investment.