Page 128 - 597 Business Ideas You can Start from Home - doing what you LOVE! (Beginner Internet Marketing Series)

1 20 Your Idea, Inc.

Voice Mail

Voice mail is an absolute necessity and if you have another full­
time job at the moment, you'll need to check it once or twice during
the day and do your best to return phone calls within a day. Special
answering services can be very helpful; they make it look as if you
have a receptionist and all sorts of extensions and departments (for
example, "press 1 for placing orders; press 2 for our billing depart­
ment," and so on: you can set these up so all options go to the same
phone).

A cardinal rule for home office CEOs is to never say the word
while on your business calls. Whenever possible,

a live person answer the business line from 9 to 5 in

your time zone. This may mean call forwa rding if you are on

the road a lot or working in other locations. If a buyer gets

voice mail during regular busines. hours, it's not a great sign,
but there are worse faux pas. If you cannot be by the phone
physically, be sure to check your voice mail frequently so you
can return missed calls promptly.

A Business Website

You will need a website sooner rather than later in today's high­
tech commercial marketplace. Everyone wants to visit a website
when they hear about a new product. Websites run the spectrum
from basic versions that simply give contact information such as
company name, company story, mailing address, e-mail address or
e-mail hnk, and fax number to elaborate e-commerce si.tes such as

Neiman Marcus or Target that sell a lot of goods online.
Start small and build your website as your company grows. At

first, it is very important to secure the domain name (www.domain
name.com) as soon as possible.

You want to be sure you can get your new company name as
the domain name or something very close to it. For example if you