What is the one thing every business wants more of? Money! Are you struggling with how to take your business to the next level? Do you feel like you’re stuck in a stagnant place and are unsure of what actions to take to grow? You are not alone! As a business owner, you are busy constantly. There is not enough time in the day for everything. Making mistakes with your marketing efforts can only magnify some of your struggles. Read this to figure out if you are you making these 5 costly marketing mistakes.Mistake #1: Winging itEver hear the expression: Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance? This ties right into your marketing strategy. If you want results, you have to put in the proper planning and formulate a strategy, then execute accordingly. This is why it is called a marketing strategy. It takes time, effort, and research to develop the necessary marketing plan. This is crucial to the success of your marketing efforts. Too many businesses “wing it” whether it be for lack of knowing how else to attack it or pure laziness. You worked too hard to get your business up and running. Put some effort and time into developing a formalized Marketing Plan. Figure out who your target customer is and the best way to market directly to that target audience. You may already be wasting effort and money on marketing to the wrong audience! Do your homework. We promise… you will save time AND headaches in the long run.Mistake #2: Giving Up Too EasilyWhat would we do without instant gratification today? Searching for answers literally takes seconds on our computers or cell phones. We have access to more knowledge at our fingertips than we could have imagined 10 years ago. Technology has embedded this need for instant gratification in our minds. It has created a society of people that give up way too easily. Like most success in life and business, marketing takes time and persistence. In fact most prospects need to be exposed to your company, its services, the benefits received or problems solved, 7-13 times BEFORE they will decide to purchase. Don’t think that one attempt at reaching out to a prospect will magically make them open their wallet. Don’t think that even 3 times of reaching out will do so. It make take 3, 6, or 9 exposures to get your prospects comfortable with you and your company. Marketing is a marathon and you have to be in it for the long haul.Mistake #3: Not Adapting to Current TimesRemember when newspaper or radio ads were the most effective way for a company to advertise? Well along came the 21st century full of technology. Embrace it. If you don’t have an attractive, user-friendly website, you’re making a mistake that could turn new customers away and inhibit your growth. If consumers find it difficult to navigate or looking outdated, they may leave with a negative impression of your company and never return. Don’t allow this to happen.Are you refusing to get your company on social media or advertise using video? This is also costly. The internet, social media, and video marketing are here to stay. If you want to have your business thrive for many years and generations to come, it’s best to get on board… now!Mistake #4: Lack of ConsistencyIn order for marketing to be effective it has to be creative and consistent. Think “Out of sight, out of mind.” This is true with any prospect. You don’t know what situational changes are going to occur in their life that may cause it to be… The Right Time. You don’t want to miss the opportunity when it arises. If you haven’t been planting those seeds and nurturing them all along, you won’t be there when they are ready to harvest. The goal of marketing is to be the company in the forefront of the consumer’s mind when they raise their hand and need help. Many businesses make the mistake of sporadic marketing or marketing only when business is slow. Marketing needs to be continual to smooth out the seasonality of business cycles. Don’t let your business fall into this trap!Mistake #5: Backing Off When Goals are AchievedFinally, the 5th marketing mistake you may be making is backing off when goals are achieved. This mistake may be the worst one. It’s too easy to breathe a sigh of relief and relish in the success you have achieved. Successful businesses get comfortable when things are running efficiently. However, the issue comes with being too comfortable. As stated earlier, marketing efforts can take 3, or even 6 months to start showing results. This lag time is why discontinuing your marketing efforts, then desperately trying to ramp them back up can be extremely dangerous. It is much wiser to consistently maintain your marketing efforts, then amplify and enhance them as needed. After all, customers may come and go for a variety of reasons. Focus on keeping lifelong customers, and a marketing plan that will help generate new ones during good times and bad.Marketing is not always fun to do or think about when there is so much else going on. At the end of the day though, marketing is important to the success of your business. Treat it as such and avoid these 5 marketing mistakes. Taking the time to plan and actually prepare with the necessary research will make it so much easier to perform the steps outlined. Don’t forget, persistence is needed for successful execution of your marketing plan. You believe in your business. Make sure your marketing efforts reflect that!

So I decided recently I wanted to write an article on the best rated home base businesses out there. You see, recently I started one myself, and I have to be honest with you, it took a tremendous amount of research and due diligence in order to find something that suited me and fitted into what I was looking for. The internet is a big scary place for your average Joe, and if you want to find a list of the best rated home base businesses online I guarantee you will find not one, but a whole mountain of lists. The only problem with this mountain of list is that they are all different.What use is that? One article says “X is the best business to start” and in the very next best rated home base businesses article, business “X” doesn’t even feature. I started to realise that I needed to take the information I was getting with a pinch of salt and look at it with a skeptical yet open mind. You see what I wanted was for someone to tell me exactly what I should do, or at least give me a list of the best rated home base businesses. That way I could choose between the top three and I couldn’t fail.Unfortunately it didn’t and still doesn’t work this way. Firstly most best rated home base businesses lists don’t concur with each other, they are all different. Secondly you need to remember that the biggest asset in your business is you. If you can’t swim there is no way you can run a swimming school. finding the right business is a very personal thing and the process of choosing one which best suits you can be a lengthy process. Choosing based on someone else’s ranking or list is not a wise thing to do.People that want to work from home all have a few things in common. They want to work for themselves, giving them time to do what they want, when they want. They want to create financial freedom, they want to be at home to spend time with their family, and they want to create passive income for a more secure future. The problem is that when we come across a list of best rated home base businesses they all offer these exact things. What they don’t tell you is what you have to do in order to achieve these goals. People then get stars in their eyes and before they know it they have dived head first into something that just isn’t right for them.I did exactly that, my first attempt at a home based business was a complete disaster. I was completely star struck. The promise of all that money I would make, the time I would have to spend with my family or doing the things I love, left me giddy. Then reality set in. I needed to sell. What, me, sell? I hated direct selling. Worst of all I had to sell to my family and friends. On top of all that I had no interest whatsoever in the products I was selling. All that my best rated home base businesses list had done was put me in a position I didn’t want to be in and I ended up feeling like a failure. Don’t fall into the same trap as me. In your search for the best rated home base businesses remember that one lid doesn’t fit all pots. Find what is right for you and then commit. I took the time and now have a very successful business.

In this article, we will explain how anyone can travel at a fraction of the regular price, enjoy perks, benefits and upgrades like you’ve never experienced before, travel tax-deductible anywhere in the world, and even get paid when you travel.

What does it mean to travel as an “insider?” Well, for decades, the travel industry has depended on travel agents to book all travel. Then, in the mid-1990s, two things happened that forever changed the way people book travel. Number one, the airlines stopped paying commissions to agencies. This impacted them greatly since airline commissions were very important to their income stream. At about the same time, the first Internet booking engines like Travelocity came into existence. Over the years as the Internet sites got more user-friendly and offered better prices, less people went to the full service agency, instead booking their own travel online. In a way, the online booking websites trained millions of people to be their own travel agent. Of course, you don’t make a commission, but you do get a great Internet rate.

It’s important to keep in mind that for decades, the travel vendors (cruises, hotels, resorts, etc.) have depended upon the word-of-mouth advertising of travel industry professionals. It’s called free advertising. The travel properties routinely invite travel agents at a deeply reduced rate in exchange for the agents going home to promote their hotel or cruise line. The properties are not going to kick someone out of a hotel room so you can stay there cheaper, but if the room is going to go unused anyway in an off-season or shoulder season, then they will still benefit by having you stay there at a reduced rate and then help to promote their facility. It’s a win-win situation. If the hotel doesn’t rent that room tonight, it’s loss revenue forever.

Tax Benefits

It’s very important to understand the difference between traveling with after-tax dollars as opposed to traveling with pre-tax dollars as a business owner. Let’s look at taxes for a minute: if you are not a business owner, you are missing out on one of the advantages of tax-deductibility. Let’s take a simple example of the difference between an employee and a business owner. Let’s say the average American spends about $3,000 per year on travel and vacations. You may spend more. If you are an employee, you will have to earn about $4,500 down at the job and then net out $3,000 after taxes. You then spend the $3,000 on the vacations. At the end of the vacation, you have great memories, but no money in your pocket.

Contrast this with the travel business owner who also makes $4,500 (maybe even at the same job), but then buys the travel as a business expense. As a business owner, you don’t pay taxes until all business expenses are deducted. In addition, because you are a travel professional, you will probably get the same vacation at a reduced rate, say $1,500. Subtract this from $4,500 and you are left with $3,000. Now you must pay the same rate of taxes (let’s say about 33% or $1,000). You are left with $2,000 in your pocket and the good memories. Which way would you rather travel, as an employee or a travel business owner?

In addition to the travel being tax deductible (consult with your tax advisor), you may have other business expenses such as cell phones, internet connection, car expenses, cameras, etc. As long as you treat your travel business as a real business by documenting your business activities and expenses, you may have additional tax benefits (check with your tax advisor).