Make Your Mark Blog

You only get one chance to create a first impression. To make sure it’s the right one, follow these 7 steps that will have people meeting you, liking you and, critically, wanting to do business with you.

1. Be confident – walk into a room with your head held high and confidence intact. This will come across clearly in your posture. Shake hands firmly and look the other person in the eye when introducing yourself. If someone is coming to collect you from a waiting room, remain standing whilst you wait – no matter how appealing the sofa looks!

In September Emelie and Louise Olsson of the Catapult Club won the Pioneer Category at the Girls! Make Your Mark Awards. Along with a £3000 bursary, the girls received money can’t buy mentoring from Emma Jones, founder of Enterprise Nation, author of ‘Spare Room Start Up – how to start a business from home’ and a very own Make Your Mark guest blogger!
Take a look on the Enterprise Nation website to read Emelie and Louise’s Q&A with Emma Jones.

There’s also another opportunity to see Louise Olsson and Emma Jones on working lunch tomorrow on BBC at 1:30pm so tune in then!

Adjust your clocks as the world of work is changing. People in their thousands are heading home from the day job to build a business at nights and weekends. It’s what we call the 5 to 9 economy and it’s a great way of starting a business as it means low cost and low risk. Are you interested in joining this growing group of part-time and spare-room entrepreneurs?

What would you do if you’ve been operating in a market without a competitor, and then one appears? Do you ignore it, suggest tie-ups, share expertise, or wage all out war?

Competition is healthy
First off, take the view that ‘competition is healthy’ …two companies can make more noise than one and having a competitor may even expand the size of your market, bringing in more business for you.

That’s a fine start but how do you respond to the new kid on the block?

I’ve always thought that the idea of starting a business from home was a pretty nifty way of keeping financially stable whilst riding the enterprise wave. Also, the possibility, however unlikely, of eating cake at 9am and watching Neighbours, Loose Women, and Perry Mason filled my little head with joy.

Now, clearly to be a successful home business, like Toniks, winners of the Enterprise Nations 2008 Home Business of the Year award, means less day time TV and more, like work. But a girl can dream no?

You’ve met with a potential client. They’ve expressed interest in what you have to offer. They’ve asked for a proposal so it can be given due consideration. You head back to the home office and think ‘what now?’ Here’s what. Follow these 6 steps to successful proposal-writing and turn those proposals into profit!

Ruth Drapper, who home schools her children, and is clearly an enterprise champion, tells us more about working from home and how to inspire your kids to make their mark! I hope other parents take note…This article also appears on Enterprise Nation

Never too young to start a home business!

I don’t know about you, but running a business from home is amazing. Let’s pass that on to our children and start training them in business skills and success principles that they will need to be able to do the same one day.

It’s been called ‘the socially acceptable way to stalk people’ but Twitter is so much more than that. So much, in fact, that it could become a powerful tool for your home business. Here’s how I’ve used it in my business and 5 reasons why I’ve come to love this little application.

According to Enterprise Nation, the home business website, you can be at least £30,000 in pocket by starting a business from home because of an increase in the value of your home and savings on fuel costs and motoring expenses.

It’s good to know that having an office in the house adds an average £28,000 to the value of your home, and avoiding the daily commute leads to travel savings of more than £2,000 each year. So in all the doom and gloom of rising costs anyone thinking about setting up a business should seriously consider working from home.

If you read my first MYM blog post, you’ll have made your first sale and now be up and running in business. Right?!

Once you’ve made that first sale, it’s time to shout about it! So let me offer you my ten steps to marketing success.

1. Define your story
What is your story? Imagine your life is being turned into a movie and plot the script; this should help define the message you convey to the media.

2. Make friends with the media
Research the journalists who are interested in your industry and trade. Approach them, get to know them and send them ‘exclusive’ stories.

This is my first guest post for the Make your Mark blog so I thought what better topic to start with than making your first sale?

There are some simple steps you can follow to secure that first customer cheque – a cheque that will look so good you’d rather hang it on the wall than put it in the bank.

1. Make a list
Make a list of the people you think will be interested in your product/service. Include friends, family, contacts, colleagues and other local businesses.