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101 Home Office Success Secrets

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101 Home Office Success Secrets

Career Press,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Text available

What's inside?

Tip 103: Read this book to find out what happened to Tip 102.

Editorial Rating

6

Qualities

  • Applicable
  • Well Structured
  • Inspiring

Recommendation

Often, books that offer "101 tips" or "201 strategies" end up being a hodge-podge of interesting, yet unconnected ideas. In most cases, you are lucky to find even a handful of ideas you can actually use. This is not one of those books. Author Lisa Kanarek does a fabulous job of organizing her ideas into useful categories. It reads as if the author and her editors decided that if the majority of home office workers could not use a secret, it would not make the book. The book’s only glaring problem is minor: two tips are identical (numbers 29 and 72: create a Web site). Fortunately, Kanarek followed her own advice (Tip #102 "Always give more than expected"), so readers expecting 101 secrets will not feel shortchanged. And secret 103 comes from getAbstract - this book is required reading for anyone working from home.

Summary

Customer Service

A home business puts you in charge. Include these tips in your management philosophy.

Tip #1: Do business with a personal touch - When you first started your business, you offered your first clients top-notch service. As your client base grows, keep your level of customer service high. Always look for opportunities to give your clients special treatment.

Tip #5: Pay attention to what your customers want - You may be receiving phone calls day after day from clients asking about a service that you don’t currently offer. Far from being a nuisance, these calls could be pointing out a golden opportunity. If you listen carefully to what your customers want, your marginally successful business could take off.

Tip #7: Only make promises you can deliver and don’t deliver late - Small businesses can make the mistake of making promises they cannot keep in an effort to do business with a large corporation. Examine your schedule carefully to make sure you have the time needed to complete the job. While you want to try to accommodate new clients, unless you have the time to do a good job, you won’t keep your new clients for the long-term.

Tip #...

About the Author

Lisa Kanarek is the author of Organizing Your Home Office for Success and Everything’s Organized. She is the founder of HomeOfficeLife, a firm that offers advice on all aspects of working from home.

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