Most of us know the tales of “The Tortoise and the Hare” and “The Ant and The Grasshopper”. We may have even told them to our children, grandchildren or god children. But do we realize that the lessons on focus, priorities, planning, diligence and goals in these stories are the same principles we need to succeed in our home based businesses? Both the Tortoise and the Ant had Daily Methods of Operation (DMO). Whether you’re in direct sales or network marketing you need the same: a solid DMO.You may be wondering how many direct sales people or network marketers have even heard of DMO and if they have, how many use it. Who can be sure, but top earners in direct sales and MLM say that a Daily Method of Operation can be the difference between success and failure for home based businesses. It can prevent information overload, anxiety, guilt and even shut down. This article defines DMO, tells why it’s important and provides a simple framework for crafting one.DMO DEFINEDA Daily Method of Operation(DMO) is a time management tool that has you focus on regularly completing small, simple tasks or components of complex tasks that directly contribute to your mastery of skills and your attainment of overall direct sales or MLM goals. It is a checklist you complete on a schedule you create. You chip away at the tasks you must do and skills you must master to succeed in your business.DMO IMPORTANCEA Daily Method of Operation is meant to be habit-forming. We are creatures of habit: the better our habits, the easier and better our success in what we do. There is a lot to do to have a successful home based business. And the more there is to do, the more you need a plan of action that not only manages the chaos, but moves you closer to your goals. That is what a DMO does.DMO FRAMEWORKYou’ve joined the network marketing business of your choice and have visions of being a home based entrepreneur. Better yet, you imagine being a SUCCESSFUL home business tycoon. This is the time to craft your DMO. Consider the following when you do:* Set the goals for your business, reflect on them and get feedback. You can amend them as time goes on
* Decide what tasks will reach those goals
* Decide how many days or nights per week, and how many hours per day or night you will work on those tasks. Take your business seriously, but build in days off. You can burn out if you go 24/7 month after month
* Be realistic. If you have other obligations, allow time for them. But be ruthless and focused during the time you set aside for your business. Turn off the phone and email, close your door, etc.
* Once you decide your time commitment, divide it between learn, execute and follow-up tasks. You don’t have to do all three every work day, but devote half your time to execution tasks like generating leads, writing articles, doing presentations, etc. Sharpening pencils, organizing papers doesn’t count
* Prioritize your time. Eliminate some activities so you can add business tasks.
* WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN AND KEEP IT HANDYYour DMO is personal so the framework here is basic. However, emphasize process oriented tasks over outcome based ones. For example, your task may be to follow-up on ten leads daily. If you decide you must get seven recruits or customers out of the ten, you are focused on outcome. You can set yourself up for failure that way since your best efforts may not yield those results. If you decide to do follow-up day after day until you have seven new people, are you deviating from your DMO if you should be doing other tasks on those days that would move you forward? Consistency of your effort and process over time is what pays off…along with the right mental attitude.A simple spread sheet works fine for a monthly DMO. You can create it by hand, but a computer does it easier and faster. Plus you can create blank forms for later use. The chart should be large enough to post in a conspicuous place in your office or work area. Why posted? It’s helpful to pass or look at it regularly.List the tasks you plan to do that month across the top of the sheet. Some examples are: write five articles, do regular blog and forum posts, attend trainings, update your website and social media sites, follow-up leads daily, prospect, etc. Down one side, list the days of that month by weeks. This will give you a grid. Mark off tasks as you do them each work day. Give yourself gold stars on particularly productive days.That’s it. Your spread sheet visually represents what you accomplish. Use it to gauge progress and correct omissions. Keep it simple. You’ll be doing it for some time.Finally, realize there will be distractions and slow days. Forgive yourself and start fresh the next work day. Be the tortoise or the ant. And remember, you can work your business part-time with success but you can’t work it sometime and succeed. Following a DMO can stop the sometime.

A few of the best home business ideas that might be beneficial to you are online auctions, freelance writing and affiliate marketing. These jobs all provide you with an excellent opportunity to make a steady income, work from home and be your own boss. “A home based business will give you the opportunity to make a steady income, be your own boss and work whatever hours you please. Starting a home business will give you a chance to experience a new, income earning life.”If you are crafty and love spending your spare time painting, sewing or knitting, online auctions may be one of the best home based business ideas for you. Online auctions allow sellers to post their items up for sale, where a large number of individuals will bid on it, in hopes to make a purchase. Once the deadline you have posted ends, the highest bidder will win and be able to purchase your item. Some people are able to maintain this type of business using their smart phone or iPad.Expressing yourself with writing will open your creative side, and expand your imagination to the fullest. One of the best home based business ideas for a creative mind is freelance writing. There is a variety of websites online that purchase writing content for their clients and pay you in return for the article. With any business, you must provide a resume or a sample of your writing. Your sample will provide them information on your potential to work with them and how unique your writing style is.Affiliate marketing is among the best home based business ideas to ever become available. There are two ways to work in affiliate marketing, one being you as the affiliate. As an affiliate, you will link your client’s site to your website or web content. This will bring their business site more traffic, leading more customers to them. If you are looking as a client to promote your business, you yourself can hire affiliates to bring traffic to your site and write web content for your business.The best home based business ideas including freelancing, affiliate marketing, and online auctioning are all revolved around independence and determination. Working at home gives you the chance to promote your business, start a business or work for an online company. All these tactics give you the opportunity to make a steady income and a new way of living. Anyone with the right amount of motivation can work from home and live a comfortable, supportive life.

There are rules in everything that we do. We are structured beings, and we thrive off of organization and protocols. In your home business, it’s all the same. There are home based business rules that every networker should embrace, and here we are going to detail four major rules for success.These are the 4 home based business rules:1) Don’t just get feedback; use itThis is similar to a previous post that I discussed about the importance of customer testimonials. Feedback is something that can be a great asset to your business no matter if it is negative or positive. What people don’t realize is that when it comes to home based business rules, the idea of feedback expands more than just testimonials.As far as home based business rules are concerned with feedback, a common complaint that most people voice is that they are always asked the question if their business is a pyramid or they get associated with “one of those things.” They are looking for the golden answer, but there really is none. You just need to ask more questions and dig deeper to solve that riddle.But the point is that if every prospect you are talking to is asking you that question, then it’s something you are saying or purporting. Feedback is not always voiced; sometimes you need to self-evaluate and find the non-verbal cues. Once you understand how to pick up the non-verbal and verbal feedback, you need to learn from it and adjust your approach.2) Not every part of your business is sacredThis is important amongst home based business rules. Some people get too hung up on thinking that their products are superior to everyone else, and that nothing can touch them. Or their business has so many products that they think that every one of them is amazing. There are two flaws in that thought process.One is that if your product is so unique and wonderful, someone is going to make something that is less expensive or better. The second is that if you have a vast range of products, chances are that not every single one is going to be top tier. What’s worse is that some people get the notion that they have to excel at everything, and thus become lifelong students trying to be experts in every facet.You are in this business to make money, so the key is to simplify. Not every facet of your business is sacred, which means that you need to focus on one skill, one or two products, and one specialty. Focus, hone, and craft that skill in to money. Then, when you are making money, you can decide to add-on another skill or specialty to diversify.3) Technology + Marketing = Unstoppable DuoThis is the rule of all home based business rules. If you cannot embrace all 4 of the rules I’m discussing, then at least learn to become a professional at this one. Why? Because this is the formula for instant and prolonged success.I’ve always found it funny how offline marketers chastise internet marketers because they say that they are wasting their time online doing nothing. But what they don’t realize is that the ones that get it, and understand the power of internet leverage, learn to build their businesses faster. What’s easier: talking to 50 people a day or sending out a targeted solo ad to collect 50 opt-ins with just a few minutes time? The odds of success are about the same; the difference is time spent.Marketing offline and online should be utilized hand-in-hand, and coupled with the leverage of technology so that your lists get built faster, with less manual labor, and you get your message across more channels. 4) Don’t forget home based business rules 1-3It’s cliche, but it’s true. The downfall of most network marketers is the inability to duplicate, or create a repetition of successive action to create a sustained momentum. Most people are able to fly high off one big decisive action that produces massive results, but cannot re-create that same result. The outcome is that they fizzle out, like 90-95% of the network marketing populace.Thus, rule #4 is simple: figure out what worked in #1-3, and make it happen again. And when you have found the systemized protocol, hold on to it and spread it throughout your organization.While these home based business rules seem overly simple to the trained eye, they are specific representations of the pillars that require discipline in our craft of network marketing to be successful. Most people fail in this business because they are unable to heed one or all of the rules mentioned above. But that’s not you, because you’re here and reading this article. Therefore, you’re going to go out and ensure that the past failures don’t affect you.Arm yourself with this knowledge and proceed on in to the fight for your future.Was this article insightful? Is your business adhering to these 4 simple home based business rules? Do you have another rule that you would like to share? Comment below!

Part One: Marketing, an overview of the basics
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Marketing: What is it?

So, marketing- what is it? Basically put, it is the process of meeting a customer’s need for gain or trade, usually profit in the context of most business organisations. Of course, this is a basic definition, as it involved many steps and can vary from organisation to organisation, consumer to consumer, market to market, and so on.

The Marketing Cycle

The process of marketing revolves around a few different aspects that act as a continuous cycle: Firstly, there is a need, want or demand by consumers which, in turn, create a market. This market is evaluated for its potential, and an organisation creates a solution to it, in the form of a product. This product is designed with specific features that satisfy the market’s requirements to a certain extent, creating a value. An exchange takes place, and then the process repeats.

Consumer Choice and Value

Marketing directly affects the way a consumer judges the value of a product and the level of customer satisfaction they receive.

Value

Just because an organisation creates a product to meet a market’s need, doesn’t mean it’s the only one, nor is it the best or worst. All consumers judge the value of a product, both before and after the purchase. As stated above, marketing is based on an exchange or trade: this means that a consumer parts with something for the product in question. This ‘parting’ gives the consumer the ability to judge the value and the level of satisfaction they experience.

It’s important to remember that the trade doesn’t always solely involve money. Of course, the majority of products are paid for with money, however there are other costs, such as time, that also go into the transaction.

Customer value can be calculated, conceptually, by dividing total benefits by total costs.

Total benefits include all of the tangible, physical gains of a product (known as the functional benefits), as well as the emotional benefits that go with the purchase. For example, a new pair of jeans provide the functional benefit of clothing and comfort, and the emotional benefit of being fashionable and making the wearer feel good.

Total costs include the obvious monetary cost, but also costs of the consumer’s time, energy and even emotion. If a consumer is stressed about a purchase, this would be considered an emotional or mental cost.

Therefore, the benefits divided by the costs gives a consumer’s value of the entire product purchasing experience. Of course, not all of these turn out positive. The consumer may want the product, but if they believe the monetary or time cost was too high, outweighing the benefits gained, they will value the product very low. Consumers often experience what is known as the ‘turmoil of the purchase’ which is the cost they experience in acquiring the product, whether that be frustration with queues in a store, or not having the correct size, and so on. ‘Buyer’s remorse’ is the emotional conflict that a customer experiences after the purchase where they start to analyse whether there was enough value to justify their purchase- a good marketing strategy is to always reassure the consumer and create enough value for them to never associate this feeling with your product.

A good example is the Harley Davidson motorcycle. There are many different alternatives of motorbikes on the market more powerful and cheaper, however the brand Harley Davidson still presents a lot of value to a certain group of avid motorcyclists, simply because the brand carries more weight than the simply functional benefit. The customer gains more value from the prestige and image that the brand represents.

Customer Satisfaction

How expectations are met dictate the level of customer satisfaction in relation to a product. If a product over-delivers in comparison to what a consumer expected, satisfaction will be very high. The opposite is true from a low level of satisfaction. Marketing aims to ensure that customer satisfaction is high to ensure that their product has a positive reputation in the market place, as the resulting repeat purchase of a happy customer as well as the positive word-of-mouth is very profitable.

The market place is forever increasing their expectations with the rapid evolution of technology, competitors and social media. Modern marketing is not just the creation and delivery of the right product: it’s also about managing expectations. A product will never please everyone, and it’s important to ensure the greatest satisfaction within reasonable confines.

Relationship Marketing

Managing value and customer satisfaction has created what is known as customer relationship marketing, sometimes shortened to CRM. This basically means that organisations view the consumer as the ultimate judge of their product, and therefore, creating a good relationship whilst satisfying their needs leads to customer loyalty: a goal, all good marketers strive for.

Retaining customers in a market is a key driver in organisational success. Losing customers results in less demand for a product, and significant financial loss. Often, an organisation will encourage feedback, especially complaints, as this means that they can evaluate the weaknesses in their offering and attempt to employ a recovery strategy to retain the customer. It has been shown that making a mistake and then correcting it, be that via an apology, a refund or sending free stock, etc., can greatly increase customer loyalty.

With the rise of social media, bad feedback can reach further than ever before. Employing a customer recovery strategy can result is avoiding significant losses associated.

The Evolution of Marketing

Basically, the modern practices and concepts of marketing and promotion began roughly in the 1960s to 1970s. From that time to now, the view on marketing has shifted and evolved.

The first philosophy was called the production concept which focused on mass production of products and selling them to a market as is. However, organisations started to discover that just one product didn’t always fit the demands of a versatile group of consumers. This is how the product concept developed, and it saw focus on differentiating a product’s features. Following this came the selling concept, which revolved around utilising promotion and a sales force to drive sales through communication with the market.

The next step diversified marketing further, which, funnily enough, was called the marketing concept. This involved conducting business through connecting far better with consumers, segmenting the marketing, investigating their individual needs and maximising consumer value and customer satisfaction by tailoring the product to match, setting an appropriate price, communicating effectively and ensuring delivery was convenient. Basically, it put the consumer first, and answered them with production, selling and product concepts, rather than the other way around. This was a very internally focused concept and was extremely effective, employed by most organisations even today.

There is one last stage. Whilst not all organisations do this, the benefits of an organisation that focuses on what’s known as the societal concept are quite high. This is basically taking the above marketing concept and adding a socially responsible aspect to it. The societal concept looks externally and not just internally within an organisation. For example, products can be environmentally friendly, contribute to charities, sponsor events and so on that benefit the larger community. It revolves around making profit by simultaneously satisfying consumers and acting in a way that benefits society. The positive repercussions of this can be very beneficial for an organisation as consumers seek more from them than just a good product.

The Marketing Mix

Here it comes- the obligatory 4 Ps of marketing. Considered by some to be slightly out dated, the four Ps are the real pillars of all marketing practices: Price, Product, Promotion and Place. Often, a fifth P, Positioning, is added to this marketing mix.

Price refers simply to the cost of the product. As already mentioned, this is monetary cost, as well as other costs such as time.

Product revolves around all attributes of the offering that are created by an organisation to satisfy their needs.

Promotion is about the communication techniques that educate and persuade customers to be interested in the product.

Place, also known as distribution, are the logistical practices employed in bringing the product to the consumer.

Positioning refers to the marketing technique of where your product sits in the market and how it is viewed by consumers. It’s basically a product’s reputation: is the product a low cost alternative, or an expensive luxury item with lots of prestige and so on.

When the product is an intangible service, there are three additional Marketing Ps that are added to the marketing mix: People, Process and Physical Evidence.

People refers to the human element of the service being carried out, such as relationships, personability, experience and expertise.

Process is exactly what it sounds like: the steps involved in carrying out the service to produce a gain for the customer.

Physical Evidence are the associated tangibles that the consumer will experience during the service that have an impact on how a consumer rates the service. For example, the way a lawyer dresses or the quality of the tools a builder uses.

The Wholistic Marketing Approach

Also spelled ‘holistic’, this approach suggests that a perfect marketing organisation unites the four key elements in one united operation: The marketing mix (the Marketing Ps, above), Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM), Internal employee satisfaction and the external Societal marketing concept, all discussed above.

By conducting organisational operations with these four elements, a business ensures that its main priorities ensure the greatest potential for success and profit.

How Does Marketing Do This?

The marketing function of an organisation lends itself heavily to how successful an organisation is. This is because the marketing function investigates the current position, and develops strategies, formulates tactics and executes actions that all produce the benefits an organisation strives for.

A marketing plan is a living document that outlines marketing’s analysis and proposed efforts over a particular time frame in achieving organisational success. It involves the following elements.

Overview and Executive Summary
As the title suggests, the first section is a quick snap-shot of the entire marketing plan that will follow this section.

Current Position
This section outlines everything to do with the organisations position as it stands currently, both internally and externally. It analyses the current market and its trends, current competitors, all external related environments as well the organisation’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Introduction

Ethics have always been an important aspect of every business activity, although the term has meant different things at different times in different lands to different people. Nonetheless, as ethical concerns are an inseparable element of business, advertising can not ignore them. Sadly, the advertising industry has rarely cared to look beyond immediate marketing objectives. The argument in the industry is that it is the government’s job to judge what is right and what is wrong. Shirking its own responsibility for regulation, the industry has belittled business values and agencies have harmed their balance sheets.

For any business, customer is very important, and businessman attempt to communicate to all their target customers using means of communication like advertising and sales promotion. Advertising is a very powerful and most commonly used tool.

Benefits of advertising

o Communication

The organization has to attract the customer and create a market for its products. For this purpose, advertising is the most powerful and widely used tool for communicating message regarding products/services to a large target audience.

o To raise the standard of living

In our developing economy, adverting with its micro and macro level influences, exerts vast and varied influences that have played key role in raising the standards of physical and material well being of the Indian society.

o To make market competitive

In India, one finds many innovations being introduced which has changed the market structure from seller’s market, and thus the result is more competitive market conditions.

o Product differentiation

It is a fact that advertising brings about products variety through real and psychological product differentiation.

Critical evaluation of advertising

Though many benefits are achieved through advertisements, the ad message is becoming more and more exaggerated. To achieve competitive advantage, advertising magnifies unimportant differences, resorts to clever, tricky product promises, and claims more and more unbelievable benefits. The customer finds many advertisements as false, deceptive, or misleading. Consumers are uncertain regarding whether or not the performance of a product purchased will in fact meet their needs. If they find that the product lacks in quality, advantage, durability etc., as advertised they might not buy it again, and develop an aversion to every other product of that company.

Unethical advertising

Advertisement is considered unethical in the following situations;

o When it has degraded or underestimated the substitute or rival’s product.

o When it gives false or misleading information on the value of the product.

o When it fails to give useful information on the possible reaction or side effects of the product. And

o When it is immoral.

Ways of misleading the consumers

o Many a time, traders entice the customers into their stores by advertising goods at a very low price, but they stock only a handful of such sale items in the store. When the advertised goods are sold out, consumers are steered towards the higher-priced stock or lower quality goods.

Retailers must ensure that reasonable supply of products is available during the sales, and retailers should not purposely avoid it. Retailers should make it clear in the advertisement that how many items on sale are available or when the sale ends.

o Sale offer should be for a limited period. Advertisement should declare that sale offer is for a limited time period. The period of the offer should be made clear in the advertisement only when the advertised goods are available for a limited period or stocks are limited.

o Traders often offer insignificant price reduction. To illustrate, a trader may advertise that the price of product is reduced to Rs.99.95, when the normal selling price is Rs.100.. The trader must include the normal selling price and discounted price in his offer .The trader sale offer is misleading if the trader claims the product is below cost , when the price is not below cost after discounts, rebates and other allowances it is misleading if the trader simply shows a fictitious higher price as normal selling price in the advertisement.

o Advertisement must clearly indicate the total price of goods or services. All price comparison must be truthful and must not intentionally or unintentionally mislead the consumers. Under the Fair Trade Practices Act, retailers have an obligation to ensure that they do not mislead or make false representations to customers with respect to price of the goods. The consumers who shop around and compare the prices of various products are less likely to be deceived by misleading claims consumers should also be aware of what is a reasonable price of goods and not take any advertised discounts at face value.

o While many sales are legitimate or genuine, the consumers should not get attracted to such sales offers i.e., “Hurry…very few days remain for sale”. The consumers should be aware of what to expect when retailers place items on sale and how to avoid being misled by discount advertisements. A marketer should take care to ensure that when goods or services are advertised to be available at a discount or as being on sale, it is a genuine discount or sale.