Tag: home-based businesses

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Stupid mistakes home-based business owners make

Chow Chow, Mi?dzynarodowa Wystawa Psów Rasowyc...
Chow Chow, Mi?dzynarodowa Wystawa Psów Rasowych, Szczecin 2007 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Don’t you get just a bit uneasy when you hear statements like “do what you love, the money will follow”? It’s the kind of statement that can get you into a lot of trouble if you don’t know what you’re doing.

One of the biggest mistakes is thinking that your hobby or passion automatically leads to money. But the so-called gurus leave out the crucial step – the time that it will take to acquire and develop skills that enable you to sell your products or service at a commercially viable level.

Continue reading “Stupid mistakes home-based business owners make”

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Old home-based business ideas that now seem quaint and some home businesses that never die

Kitten Office
Kitten Office (Photo credits: Giphy)

I was looking through lists of home-based business ideas from some years back and found some that with the passing of time seem quaint. These businesses may once have had an appeal but are now definitely out of fashion.

One such business was a disco operator. The idea was to provide music at weddings and holiday resorts by renting turntables, flashing lights and amplifiers with a large variety of old and new records, transporting them in a van or Combi to venues. Though the disco operator has become extinct, the DJ became the modern replacement and is popular at venues throughout the country.

Continue reading “Old home-based business ideas that now seem quaint and some home businesses that never die”

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Ways of escape – how to kill the loneliness of your home-based business lifestyle

Coffee shop, interior
Coffee shop, interior (Photo credit: La Citta Vita)

If you run a home-based business, you might be one of many who feel the isolation of working at home gets you down.

Some people prefer being on their own because they can work without distractions and get more done. But for those who are not comfortable with being alone, you know what it’s like: having no one to talk to at the water cooler, working hard to keep yourself focused on your work and managing the lack of physical boundaries between work and home and family.

The reality is that a lot of home-based business owners work from home because of a personal need to achieve better work-life balance, for physical reasons, no alternatives in the job market or simply because they have seen an opportunity and are turning their idea for a product or service into a viable business. Continue reading “Ways of escape – how to kill the loneliness of your home-based business lifestyle”

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A marketing platform in the dark that lights sales for small businesses

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Photo credit: Wiki Commons

A wine farm in the Noordhoek Valley in Cape Town was not well known for its wine brands. Breaking into a market with wine labels boasting heritages of up to 250 years in the Cape is not a walk in the vineyard for new, up and coming wine makers.

So over the past few months the wine farm has been holding a night market from 16:30 to 20:30 on Thursdays. Now wine sales have climbed as more and more people get exposed to the farmer’s wines.

I’m not a wine connoisseur by any stretch of the imagination but the Cabernet I chose had a distinct oak barrel and fruity berry test that was superb compared to any of the varieties from Stellenbosch, Constantia and Franshoek.

But this story is not just about the wine. Continue reading “A marketing platform in the dark that lights sales for small businesses”

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From the road

Simon's Town (Photo: Chesney Bradshaw)
Simon’s Town (Photo: Chesney Bradshaw)

A young man hitch-hiked from Cape Town to the Eastern Free State to attend a funeral in a rural area. He can’t afford the taxi bus fare because the price has gone up. The rising fuel price is bringing the return of the hitch hiker.

A craft shop in Hanover, a pass-through town in the Karoo, displays crafted furniture, paintings and ornaments – all made with care and quality you’d previously only find in city stores. Even back water crafters have upped their game. Continue reading “From the road”