The thought of starting a business occurs to almost everyone at some point. It may be a passing notion or it may be an idea that takes hold and almost possesses you. An amazing number of people actually take some action in pursuing their dream of building their own business but, unfortunately, a very high percentage of these people fail. For many of those failures, the lack of a business system is an important part of their lack of success.It takes patience and planning to take an idea to successful execution and, for many people, it takes a level of knowledge that they just do not possess. Most entrepreneurs mistakenly believe that if they have a good product they have almost guaranteed themselves success. This is just not true. The product can actually be one of the least important parts of the puzzle in assembling a home based business that will produce an income. There are many other parts of a business that need to be considered before you want to risk any of your hard earned money in starting a business. A true system is almost a necessity in any successful home based venture. A good system will cover lead generation, marketing and follow up as well as the product itself. Explaining what your product is needs to be a part of any successful system and any successful system will work automatically to take any lead generated into an explanation of the benefits of the product and ultimately lead to closing the sale.Most home based business entrepreneurs do not think it is necessary to have all of these things in place before venturing out into the competitive world of business but nothing could be further from the truth. Most home based business owners are working full time at a place of employment while building a part time business on the side. This part time business needs to be automated or the chances are very good that you will fail miserably. You do not have the time to follow up and try to close the sale on every person who you come in contact with. You need a system to do that for you.The good news is that it is fairly easy to find a way to do this. The Internet has made automated selling a reality. It is changing the way people get into business. It is allowing a single individual to make quality presentations for their product 24 hours a day. Even better, it will capture every lead and follow up with those leads until they no longer show an interest or until the sale is made. The Internet has automated the home based business arena. The tools are there so that everyone can be an Internet Entrepreneur and it can be very affordable.This is all good news for the person who is interested in working from home and starting his or her own business. The only bad news is that you have to make sure that you become involved in a venture that is a true system and is easy to do. Understand all of the associated costs and make sure that there is opportunity for ongoing or residual income. That allows you to bring someone else into the system and to continue to earn an income from that person through subsequent sales.A true business system for the home based entrepreneur will be one that is affordable, easy to understand and will allow anyone to duplicate it to build an attractive income. The best advice is to start looking today and find one that is perfectly suited to you. Keep a log of each opportunity that you come across and take notes on each one. How much does it take to get started? What are the ongoing costs? Is there a system in place to build your business? You will quickly learn what attracts you most to an opportunity and will then be in a good position to make a wise decision.

A few months back when my wife had to quit her full time job to take care of our baby, I felt very bad for her. She wanted to work and earn independently and at the same time also wanted to take care of the baby. I figured out that it had to be an online business if there was anything that could get her a full time income.A majority of Home based business owners consist of work at home moms. Just like my wife, the main attraction to most of these work at home moms, is the fact that they can earn some money and at the same time spend some quality time with their children. Home based business opportunities today have given work at home moms the freedom to earn while they take care of their families.Following is a list of such home based business opportunities, specifically for home based moms -
Blogging – Blogging is today a full time income source to a lot of people. You will find a lot of mommy blogs if you search the internet. You can start a blog of your own or, choose to pick one of the many blogging jobs advertised at various websites. It gives you freedom of schedules and you can earn a good amount of money as well.
Child care – Child care is an area which suits work at home moms. Home based crèche and child care centers are a lot in demand primarily because of the nuclear family culture with both the parents earning.
Freelance writing jobs – There are thousands of opportunities for freelance writers and these could be both online and offline jobs. Since there is no time restrictions or, schedules for such jobs, it suits work at home moms. You can find a lot of such jobs on websites like elance.com and writersmarket.com.
eBay Business – An eBay business together with the option of drop shipping is one of the easiest forms of starting an online business. An eBay business does not require too much of running around or, storing inventory. It also does not require constant supervision.
Tutoring – Tutoring at home with a few students coming to your home for schoolwork or, other arts sessions like music etc. is an excellent form of a home based business. These days there are a lot of opportunities for online tutoring as well. This does not require too much of schedule adherence. If you have a computer and an internet connection, you are good to go.
Selling Information products – Information products are the most in demand, thanks to the advent of the internet. All that you will need is a basic website and you can sell your own products or, products created by others for a commission.
Web designing – web designing is an easy home based business. All that is required is that you respond to your emails. You can get a lot of designing work and almost all of these can be done from home.
There could thousands of other opportunities available on the internet. All that is required is a little bit of effort to search online.

In this climate of employment uncertainty and redundancy, there’s no end of reasons to stress about job security. Even people who thought they had a job for life are finding that their services have become dispensable. It is for these reasons that more and more people are opting for the flexibility offered by a home based business. Although leaving what you had always thought of as a secure job and setting up office at home may seem frivolous, there are numerous advantages of this way of working. Here’s just a handful of great reasons to start up your home based business:1. You’ve had enough of the daily commute.If you’re fed up of trains, trams and tubes and traffic jams, just think about the luxury of simply walking down (or up) the stairs to work. Working from home will relieve you not only of the hassle of travelling to your workplace but could save you up to an amazing 3 hours per day, 5 days a week. That equates to an astounding 86 days a year! Not to mention a whole load of cash. With travel costs hitting all time highs, it really is time to think again. Setting up a home based business will save you travelling time, travelling costs and travelling stress. It really is that simple.2. You want more flexibility in your life.Although 24-hour, 7 days a week super-market opening has allowed the weekly shop to fit into even the busiest lifestyle, not all aspects of real life are open all hours. One of the biggest reasons people choose to work from home is the flexibility it brings. We are only too aware that children get ill, elderly parents need taking to appointments, central heating systems need servicing. These are all aspects of life that don’t necessarily fit with the 9 to 5 work pattern most of us are forced into adopting. Working from home means that you set your own work pattern. You can arrange your work around the school run, around your commitments to your elderly parents, to really fit with your life. You can be at home when things need doing without losing a day’s holiday ever again.3. You want a low risk alternative.In comparison to most other business start-ups, a home based business is relatively low risk. There is no commitment to property leases, to property purchases or to monthly rents which need to be paid; you simply use the space you already have more wisely. Converting your attic, adding an extension or taking over your spare room is the most that’ll be required (apart from a computer and a great business idea of course!).4. You want to lower your stress levels.Working from home allows you to control the stresses you allow into your working environment. You become the master (or mistress) of your own destiny and you no longer need to allow yourself to become stressed by office politics, colleagues or bosses. What’s more if your children need you, you can be there for them and compensate by working later in the evenings; you no longer need to find yourself in the push:pull situation of work and home life balance.5. You’re seeking personal fulfilment.So many people who set up home based businesses find themselves saying “I wish I’d done this years ago!”, Many people who take the plunge have always believed in their potential to run a successful business, but were held back by fear or by pressure from envious friends and relations. If you’re one of those people who put your heart and soul into your work and never seem to get anything back, setting up a home based business might just be the solution for you.And this is only the tip of the iceberg; we haven’t even touched upon the potential to make a really good living; to use working from home as a starting point for bigger and better things or as a way to really get your life back in balance! These are just some of the many reasons that more and more people are choosing the home based business option. It certainly is food for thought.

Some of the most prestigious law firms/lawyers in India are working for clients/law firms located in the US. A whole new group of legal services/ paralegal work that is being offshored to Indian locations has opened up very ambitious prospects for some of the high profile Indian law firms / lawyers who are now duly trained in all aspects of American law. The Indian lawyers do not find it very difficult orienting themselves to American law because in both India and the US, law has originated from the English common law.

After BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) it is now LPO (Legal Process Outsourcing and KPO (Knowledge Process Outsourcing) that is wooing the Indian lawyer. It is natural for the Indian lawyer to opt for foreign projects as they get paid much better. It puts them and the US law firms in a win-win situation. Lawyers have to be paid 300 dollars per hour in the US, and it is now possible to save over 60% of this money by outsourcing the work which also helps the US client as it reduces the cost of litigation. And of course Indian lawyers are happy to get a share of the Forrester predicted 4 Billion dollars LPO pie.

What are the different types of services that are actually sent to India by the law firms and communities? Well here is a list of the different legal outsourcing services that have been sent to various legal/paralegal entities located mostly in India.

Legal transcription
Legal Coding
Patent/ Intellectual property
Legal Research
Document review
Legal document/letter drafting services
Legal discovery analysis / review
Contract drafting
Finance / data processing
Networking operations
Legal secretarial work
Law firm web design
Paralegal services
Due Diligence work
Insurance claims /processing
Legal animation (Pre-trial preparation)
Besides the savings in terms of lower wages there are also other benefits of legal outsourcing. Smaller companies now don’t have to employ back office staff or invest on infrastructure for such works. Further they can keep themselves away from the hassles of tedious time consuming work and give themselves more time to focus on the core issues of the case and litigation. However before any legal work is outsourced a thorough research has to be done with regards to the background of the offshore company. All security issues should be handled professionally as it involves sensitive client information that must never be misused.

What exactly does “Quality” mean for small businesses? Has the economic downturn over the past 6 years changed the definition of quality relative to small business’s delivery of products and services? Is quality, the major driver in delivering and selling to businesses? Are consumers now willing to compromise on quality, to save money? How much will small businesses and individuals tolerate in diminished services or product quality and decide less quality is more important if they can save money?

I recently met with an acquaintance that operates a small commercial oriented service business. He was lamenting that 10 years ago he launched into a program whereby he structured his company to deliver the highest quality service to his industrial customers. His quality goals were defined based upon what the customers told him were their highest priorities for good product and service qualities. Those attributes were (in order of preferences): timely responses to their requests, error free production/finished product, on-time delivery of the product/service, and fair pricing for their quality demands. It is important to note that fair pricing was not defined as being the cheapest.

Today, he is finding those customers that said, ” we buy only quality products and services” are now doing business with vendors offering rock bottom pricing. To get rock bottom pricing quality has suffered; flaws are tolerated. Some small companies are now working with vendors that are moonlighting to pick up a little extra cash and may lack experience working with the latest software technology, equipment, and materials. So, what has happened in the small business sector, relative to the pride a vendor once took in high quality personalized service with a commensurate return? They seem to have vanished; at least for the time being.

Conversely, some large manufacturers found a component of quality to mean, components delivered on-time/just-in-time saves them money and equates into sales. Does this example also apply to small businesses across the board, well, maybe not? But there are disconnects; just look at the GM issue of late, where quality was not worth the expense (at the time). This aside, it does seem quality is no longer the coin of the realm with small commercial service businesses. They may look at quality as a product component that is hard to justify on a revenue basis. Some managers might think they can fine tune the service or product quality in house and not pay the vendor for a high level of quality.

Businesses catering to the end user of products and services still demand quality. But, most of them offer product and services that are focused on high touch and personal attention to details industries. This quality is not inexpensive to deliver.

Could all the changes in small business methods, with pressure on costs, be forcing a new definition of how small business develops their pricing for various levels of quality? I guess if the service or product isn’t life threatening it could slip on the” need for quality” scale. Offer quality but at a premium; let the customer decide what price quality is worth.

I think discussions about quality from a small business perspective need to be targeted; defining exactly what elements of quality are worthwhile? As standalone considerations, such things as-glitz, glamour, individualized services, and attention to detail may not add anything to perceived quality. For example, the precision delivered in a service product maybe isn’t appreciated or needed. Therefore, maybe this is just one example where companies are trading with vendors based on cost and less on quality. Some companies are picking apart the elements of quality being offered to them and settling for a lot less of quality.

It is hard to really understand all the issues involved in small businesses purchasing services and products with the primary consideration being quality. Now the question is: Why does there seem to be a shift in small businesses buying services that are primarily price driven? Quantitative data seems to indicate there is a shift from the holy grail of quality. And, we do recognize, there are still a plethora of companies offering services and product purely based on quality. For example, there are some hotels and car companies having a nice customer niche based on quality; those markets being consumer and extremely large. Everyone could probably agree that any service and product could have such quality if their market would be broad enough to support such quality.

Gucci had a corporate mantra that said: Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten. Of course that was their market and it is still large. Maybe the 1% is enough to support that kind of quality.

For small businesses today, owners must balance costs, revenue demands, marketplace, competition and sophistication of the marketplace. If adding elements of quality to the product line do not generate enough revenue to cover incremental cost, then redefine quality. Quality is in the eye of the beholder. I would imagine a farrier (installer of horseshoes) isn’t concerned about the packaging, website, product guarantees, or hand polished horseshoes. He just wants horseshoes at a competitive (lowest) price and from a supplier that keeps them on hand.

Some thoughts on quality:

Quality has a myriad of definitions and quality definitions are industry specific and customer dependent. Maybe quality in an industry is simply having a human answer the phone… thinking of the DMV.
The customer will always dictate quality levels.
Don’t expect the quality to be free; there are no free lunches. Quality does impact margins.
I can remember in the early dot com boom, as a vendor and customer, quality was measured by such things as how expensive were the give-a-ways, how costly were entertainment bills, running online ads no matter the end results and justifying expensive tracking programs and site designs for no substantiate reason. So glitz, glamour, service, and value of the end results were components of what we thought was quality. Is that your definition of quality today? Quality in today’s business environment is being re-evaluated relative to costs and revenue impact.