Relationship Marketing | Build Your Online Business

People chose to work from home for different reasons.  Many persons who work from home do not have an online business even though they use their computer extensively.  In order to be efficient and productive and thereby contribute to your success, it's important to have systems in place. Systems are defined as a set of detailed methods, procedures, and routines established or formulated to carry out a specific activity.

Here are three systems in your home office that could be great time savers, but at the same time can rob you of your time if not used wisely.

1.Your Computer As a Time Saver: I cannot imagine running a business from home without a computer.  Your computer allows you to store huge amounts of information and retrieve them with a few clicks of your mouse.  The volume of software on the market allows you to be creative, and of course, access to the internet allows you to communicate quickly and effectively, as well as do research quickly.

If you're in Direct Sales, for example, you can use your computer to send your customers an e-card.  I like to send an actual greeting card through the US mail and my customers invariably call to thank me.  Just for reading my post, go ahead and click the greeting card link and send a card to yourself or someone you care about.  I'll pay for your card and your postage. (more…)

Your mindset is your mental attitude or disposition which affects the way you handle  situations that arise in your business.  Whether you market online on a full-time or part-time basis, you must have the correct mental attitude in order to experience success.  And the key to the correct
attitude is to treat what you’re doing as a  business rather than a hobby.  A hobby is something that you indulge in from time to time when the whim takes you, and you cannot afford to approach your internet marketing business in that way.

It's important for us as entrepreneurs to recognize that if we provide products or services, there are thousands more entrepreneurs providing the same types of products or services, so our mental attitude or disposition is what will determine how we handle a customer inquiry, a customer concern, any type of customer service issue.  Think about this for a moment:  by having an online business your market will be global.  Therefore, it means you could be dealing with persons in different time zones.  Would you be prepared to take a customer call at 2:00 a.m. your time zone?  Have you mentally prepared yourself for such an eventuality?  It would be interesting to hear how other online marketers have handled this situation when they had to take a customer service call at an ‘odd' time.

Keeping a positive mindset or mental attitude will allow you to deal with ‘inconveniences' when you are just getting started, knowing that how you handle these so-called inconveniences is the foundation that could lead to exponential growth in your business.  It seems to take a long time to build a good reputation online, one that allows people to know, like and trust you.  On the other hand that reputation could be lost in a flash if we fail to display a position mental attitude that supports growth in our online business.

I was recently asked what methods  I used to keep myself motivated in my business.  It should have been an easy answer because even while working in the corporate world, I had a successful skin care business while working with a number of women to build their own business.  Later I had a Customer Service home-based business for two years where I had to schedule my own hours, and have now been working in my online business for over one year.  The answer did not come very easy though, because there were times I did not feel motivated and there were times when I wanted to give in and give up.

After thinking about it a while I realized that there has been a common thread through all my experiences: support from like-minded people.  When I did not feel like making those three customer calls per day, or leaving my home to do a Beauty Show or call my team members, all of which were important aspects of my direct sales business, I would call a peer who was managing her business successfully or my Sales Director, or even listen to a motivational tape or CD.  Those conversations served to energize me and help me get my thinking back on track.

Moving forward to my online business, there were times when it felt like I was moving further away from my goals rather than moving towards them especially since no one in my direct circle was involved in an online business.  However, relationships that were built during online classes allowed me to stay in contact with some Mentors and classmates as we have communicated with each other through Skype, e-mail and the telephone.

Interestingly, over the past month through the first 30-day challenge I've met and am coming to know some incredibly supportive  people, and this has continued through to the current 30-day June challenge and is expanding.

My recommendation as one way to keep yourself motivated is to find and connect with like-minded people.  These will sometimes be networking groups in your community, or if yours is an online business, in online groups as well.  People want to be able to relate to others and have a natural sense of wanting to be part of ‘something.'  When you find people that you share common interests and goals with, this can go a far way to help you keep yourself motivated in whatever you do.

How do you keep yourself motivated in your online business?