Our New Official Website : Women on a Shoestring

http://www.woas.org

 

 

Here are some ideas to help you enhance  your home business:

 

1. Connect with your clientele

If you are in need of new ideas for your business, check in with your clients and get their input for services or products that they would like to see included.  They may share thoughts on improvements for your products or your website, or ideas  for user friendly designs of your products or services that you offer.

 

2. Network with other entrepreneurs

You may find others who are willing to work together on projects or partner with you on business enterprises.  It is sometimes a good idea to gather feedback from others on your products.  You can check online forums or discussion boards to network with other home based business women also.

 

3. Check out your competitors

Other home based business can share with you new perspectives on the market trends.  They can offer new ways of marketing or ways your business can be improved.  Establishing good relationships with others is a good way to network and enhance your clientele.

 

4. Research

Read articles from newspapers, magazines, books and the internet. Try to read every day, there are always new knowledge and ideas you could use in your business.

 

5. Evaluate

Take time regularly to evaluate your services and products.  Gather feedback from your customers.  Take time to explore what others are doing and how it relates to your business.  Keep a pen and paper handy to make lists when ideas strike you.  That way you won’t forget your inspirations.

 

 

These ideas have helped me when I feel stuck in a rut or need inspirations on how to improve my business.

 

Kimberley

I love to drink tea!  When I was a little girl, I used to love having tea parties with my grandmother.  We would sit down with our fancy tea cups and tea sandiwches and have ourselves an afternoon tea.  I miss those times with my grandmother.  I often now will stop around 3:00 in the afternoon for a cup of tea, and have a snack...it brings back fond memories.

When the holidays come around, I enjoy creating a holiday tea party, with colored streamers, fancy tea cups and linen table cloths.  Baking fancy cookies and cutting out shaped sandwiches are alot of fun...and of course it is fun to get dressed up with your friends and sit down to an afternoon tea gathering.

Of course the topic got around to "What about creating a tea party business" and having portable tea baskets to take to places for afternoon tea.  It would be a great home business.  It is a growing market that delights all ages.

To get started, there are many baskets that you could purchase inexpensively and gather round the flea markets and garage sales for tea cups and teapots. You could also purchase loose tea and create your own tea blends.  Bake some special family traditional cookies or make some fancy sandwiches...add a small candle or holiday decoration, napkins, and special tongs or tea spoons and start a delivery business for portable tea parties.  There are so many themes that you could create and specialize in.

There are many ways to have income from your tea business...you could cater tea parties, sell your own blend of teas, create a tea newsletter, facilitate workshops, give seminars on the history of tea, host an international tea seminar, host a mother - daughter tea weekend, also you could add accessories to your tea business, tea pots, hand-made teapot covers, place mats, themed tea wallhangings etc.

You could also design hand made  tea inviations, stationary, note cards, name place cards etc.

There are many methods to creating an income from your tea businss which would bring you much success.

Kimberley

Definitions of ENTREPRENEUR on the Web:

 

Ø      Innovator. One who recognizes opportunities and organizes resources to take advantage of the opportunity

 

Ø      One who assumes the financial risk of the initiation, operation, and management of a given business or undertaking.

 

Ø      Individual who starts a new business. Venture capital is often used to finance the startup costs in return for an equity share. Once the business is established, an entrepreneur may choose to raise additional capital by selling equity shares to the public through an initial public offering.

Ø      A person who takes the risk of organizing and operating a new business venture. (This is an attitude that can be of value in more traditional employment as well.)

Ø      a person who organizes and manages a business, but usually only applied to people who have shown exceptional ability and imagination in launching and succeeding with new business ventures.

 

Ø      An innovator of business enterprise who recognizes opportunities to introduce a new product, a new process or an improved organization, and who raises the necessary money, assembles the factors for production and organizes an operation to exploit the opportunity

 

 

 

As of November 2006, Women on a Shoestring is a registered business and continues in the philosophy of creating a collective for women entrepreneurs.

Kimberly, one of the founding members of WOAS has now become the Program Facilitator for Women on a Shoestring.  She has worked with Louise Crane on several community development projects over the past six years. Louise has started her own consulting business and felt that it was time for a member of the collective to move into the leadership role and create a sustainable community development organization.