1. When you think of a home-based business, do you have visions of yourself sitting at the breakfast table in your pajamas making money? If you do, then an internet home-based business may be for you. Working from home means no time-clock to punch, no boss over your shoulder, and the ability to control how much you earn. You can have all this and more if you choose to work from home.2. Do you want to have more time with your family? It’s hard to have enough time with your family if you are working 9 to 5. The majority of your waking time is spent away from home and vacations are hurried affairs that leave you more tired than before. If you work from home, you can be there for your family, spend more quality time with them, and plan leisurely vacations.3. Are you passionate about your work? When you awaken in the morning Are you excited about the challenges that your job offers? Or are you dreading the commute, your co-workers, and the overall work environment? Well, working from home, on your computer, will solve all of those problems. You can choose work that’s challenging to you and make your own schedule.4. Working from home can save you time and money. In today’s economy, commuting to work can be very costly. Gas prices are steadily rising and for many families the cost of gas is another bill to add to a growing stack. If you work a long distance from home, then your time with family, friends, and other activities that you enjoy is extremely limited. Everyone wants to be able to enjoy their lives, therefore, you need to strike a balance between your work and home-life. The time is now to consider the option of a home-based internet business.5. Do you have all the money that you need to enjoy life? Not just money to pay your bills and feed your families. I mean money to travel when desired and to engage in other leisure activities such as shopping, eating in fine restaurants, etc. How about if you want to be able to help others? Does your current income allow any of this? If not, then I suggest that you consider adding a home-based business to your sources of income. There are a variety of businesses to be found on the internet. You have to find a business that you can believe in and enjoy promoting. Its that simple. A home-based internet business is inexpensive to start. You can start at your own pace, and eventually be full -time with the business if that’s your heart’s desire. Don’t wait! The time for action is now!

The greatest expense you’re going to incur in conducting a successful business is advertising.

You have to advertise. Your business cannot grow and flourish unless you advertise. Advertising is the “life-blood” of any profitable business. And regardless of where or how your advertise, it’s going to cost you in some form or another. Every successful business is built upon, and continues to thrive, primarily, on good advertising. The top companies in the world allocate millions of dollars annually to their advertising budget. Of course, when starting from a garage, basement or kitchen table, you can’t quite match their advertising efforts—at least not in the beginning. But there is a way you can approximate their maneuvers without actually spending their kind of money. And that’s through “P.I” Advertising.

“P.I.” stands for per inquiry. These kinds of advertising most generally associated with broadcasting, where you pay only for the responses you get to your advertising message. It’s very popular–somewhat akin to bartering–and is used by many more advertisers than most people realize. The advantages of PI Advertising are all in favor of the advertiser because with this kind of an advertising arrangement, you can pay only for the results the advertising produces.

To get in on this “free” advertising, start with a loose leaf notebook, and about 100 sheets of filler paper. Next, either visits your public library and start poring through the Broadcast Yearbook on radio stations in the U.S., or Standard Rate and Data Services Directory on Spot Radio. Both these publications will give you just about all the information you could ever want about licensed stations.

An easier way might be to call or visit one of your local radio stations, and ask to borrow (and take home with you) their current copy of either of these volumes. To purchase them outright will cost $50 to $75.

Once you have a copy of either of these publications, select the state or states you want to work first. It’s generally best to begin in your own state and work outward from there. If you have a moneymaking manual, you might want to start first with those states reporting the most unemployment.

Use some old fashioned common sense. Who are the people most likely to be interested in your offer, and where are the largest concentrations of these people? You wouldn’t attempt to sell windshield de-ice canisters in Florida, or suntan lotion in Minnesota during the winter months, would you?

At any rate, once you’ve got your beginning “target” area decided upon, go through the radio listings for the cities and towns in that area, and jot down in your notebook the names of general mangers, the station call letters, and addresses. Be sure to list the telephone numbers as well.

On the first try, list only one radio station per city. Pick out the station people most interested in your product would be listening to. This can be determined by the programming description contained within the date block about the station in the Broadcasting Yearbook or the SRDS Directory.

The first contact should be in the way of introducing yourself, and inquiring if they would consider a PI Advertising campaign. You tell the station manger that you have a product you feel will sell very well in his market, and would like to test it before going ahead with a paid advertising program. You must quickly point out that your product sells for, say $5, and that during this test, you would allow him 50% of that for each response his station pulls for you. Explain that you handle everything for him: the writing of the commercials, all accounting and bookkeeping, plus any refunds or complaints that come in. In other words all he has to do is schedule your commercials on his log, and give them his “best shot.” When the responses come in, he counts them, and forwards them on to you for fulfillment. You make out a check for payment to him, and everybody is happy.

If you’ve contacted him by phone, and he agrees to look over your material, tell him thank you and promise to get a complete “package” in the mail to him immediately. Then do just that. Write a short cover letter, place it on top of your “ready-to-go” PI Advertising Package, and get it in the mail to him without delay.

If you’re turned down, and he is not interested in “taking on” any PI Advertising, just tell him thanks, make a notation in your notebook by his name, and go to your next call. Contacting these people by phone is by far the quickest, least expensive and most productive method of “exploring” for those stations willing to consider your PI proposal. In some cases though, circumstances will deem it to be less expensive to make this initial contact by letter or postcard.

In that case, simply address you card or letter to the person you are trying to contact. Your letter should be positive in tone, straight forward and complete. Present all the details in logical order on one page, perfectly typed on letterhead paper, and sent in a letterhead envelope. (Rubber-stamped letterheads just won’t get past a first glance.) Ideally, you should include a self-addressed and stamped postcard with spaces for positive or negative check marks in answer to your questions: Will you or won’t you over my material and consider a mutually profitable “Per Inquiry” advertising campaign on your station?

Once you have an agreement from your contact at the radio station that they will look over your materials and give serious consideration for a PI program, move quickly, getting your cover letter and package off by First Class mail, perhaps even Special Delivery.

What this means is at the same time you organize your “radio station notebook,” you’ll also want to organize your advertising package. Have it all put together and ready to mail just as soon as you have a positive response. Don’t allow time for that interest in your program to cool down.

You’ll need a follow-up letter. Write one to fit all situations; have 250 copies printed, and then when you’re ready to send out a package, all you’ll Have to do is fill in the business salutation and sign it. If you spoke of different arrangements or a specific matter was discussed in your initial contact, however, type a different letter incorporating comments or answers to the points discussed. This personal touch won’t take long, and could pay dividends!

You’ll also need at least to thirty-second commercials and two sixty-second commercials. You could write these up, and have 250 copies printed and organized as a part of your PI Advertising Package.

You should also have some sort of advertising contract written up, detailing everything about your program, and how everything is to be handled; how and when payment to the radio station is to be made, plus special paragraphs relative to refunds, complaints, and liabilities. All this can be very quickly written up and printed in lots of 250 or more on carbonless multi-part snap-out business forms.

Finally, you should include a self-addressed and stamped postcard the radio station can use to let you know that they are going to use your PI Advertising program, when they will start running your commercials on the air, and how often, during which time periods. Again, you simply type out the wording in the form you want to use on these “reply postcards, and have copies printed for your use in these mailings.

To review this program: Your first step is the initial contact after searching through the SRDS or Broadcasting Yearbook. Actual contact with the stations is by phone or mail. When turned down, simply say thanks, and go to the nest station on the list. For those who want to know more about your proposal, you immediately get a PI Advertising Package off to them via the fastest way possible. Don’t let the interest wane.

Your Advertising Package should contain the following: 1. Cover letter 2. Sample brochure, product literature 3. Thirty-second and sixty-second commercials 4. PI Advertising Contract 5. Self-addressed, stamped postcard for station acknowledgment and acceptance of your program.

Before you ask why you need an acknowledgment postcard when you have already given them a contact, remember that everything about business changes from day to day—conditions change, people get busy, and other things come up. The station manager may sign a contract with your advertising to begin the 1st of March. The contract is signed on the 1st of January, but when March 1 rolls around, he may have forgotten, been replaced, or even decided against running your program. A lot of paper seemingly “covering all the minute details” can be very impressive to many radio station managers, and convince them that your company is a good one to do business with.

Let’s say that right now you’re impatient to get started with your own PI Advertising campaign. Before you “jump off the deep end,” remember this: Radio station people are just as professional and dedicated as anyone else in business—even more so in some instances–so be sure you have a product or service that lends itself well to selling via radio inquiry system.

Anything can be sold, and sold easily with any method you decide upon, providing you present it from the right angle. “Hello out there! Who wants to buy a mailing list for 10 cents a thousand names?” Wouldn’t even be allowed on the air. However, if you have the addresses of the top 100 movie stars, and you put together an idea enabling the people to write to them direct, you might have a winner, and sell a lot of mailing lists of the stars.

At the bottom line, a lot is riding on the content of your commercial—the benefits you suggest to the listener, and how easy it is for him to enjoy those benefits. For instance, if you have a new book on how to find jobs when there aren’t any jobs: You want to talk to people who are desperately searching for employment. You have to appeal to them in words that not only “perk up” their ears, but cause them to feel that whatever it is that you’re offering will solve their problems. It’s the product, and in writing of the advertising message about that product is going to bring in those responses.

Radio station managers are sales people, and sales people the world over will be sold on your idea if you put your selling package together properly. And if the responses come in your first offer, you have set yourself up for an entire series of successes. Success has a “ripple effect,” but you have to start on that first one. We wish you success!

All businesses require a bookkeeping system. If you have a small business, you will need a consistent, chronological and accurate small business bookkeeping system so that information is always available and reliable whenever it is needed. Your bookkeeping system will be the key to your company’s success. Any mistakes and miscalculations will tremendously cost you and your small business.Outsourcing small business bookkeeping needs can help you avoid the mistakes of bookkeeping. By allowing an experienced bookkeeper to handle your small business bookkeeping needs, all the information you need will be available at your fingertips the moment you ask for it. Many companies today are making a move to outsource jobs to offshore destinations because it provides a more reliable and accurate way of handling small business bookkeeping.There are many advantages of outsourcing your small business bookkeeping system. Outsourcing assures you that special attention is given to your background operations and you can concentrate more on your core business. Listed below are just a few of the advantages of outsourcing your small business bookkeeping system:1. Experience: Many small business owners still insist on handling the books themselves instead of hiring a competent and experienced bookkeeper. This eventually results in significant errors because there is no way for them to double check whether they have done things correctly. Outsourcing your small business bookkeeping system assures you that you have an experienced bookkeeper who is able to handle your books in the most efficient and productive way. They can easily find errors and suggest corrective actions right away.2. Books are reconciled: If you decide to outsource your small business bookkeeping system, you are assured that your books are always reconciled monthly with the bank statement. There are still businesses that fail to do this either because they forget to do it or they just do not have the time to do it monthly.3. Backup books: Many small business owners think that small business bookkeeping is a simple process that does not need a backup only to find out that once technical and computer problems arise, they have no backup books to trace the paper trail. Outsourcing small business bookkeeping can do the backups for you. And because they are offshore, you are assured that your data is easily recoverable in the event of a disaster in your area.4. Wrong entries: There is a set of standard bookkeeping categories for expenses. Hiring an experienced bookkeeper through outsourcing assures you that your expenses are filed under the right categories and that there are no redundant categories created. Small business bookkeeping by inexperienced people can result in mis-categorization of entries resulting in erroneous data.Responsible small business owners understand that outsourcing their small business bookkeeping system will help keep their business on top of its competition and they can easily monitor how the business is progressing. By maintaining and outsourcing your small business bookkeeping needs offshore, you are assured that your data is always available and accurate come tax reports and returns time.In the end, outsourcing small business bookkeeping requirements will be worth your investment.