Streaming Media Business

When different people are using the phrase ‘small business’, do they refer to a common set of definitions? Like, how many employees are listed in the payroll? Or, the number of years it’s operative? A literature review of 23 papers, which have been published from 1958 to 2002, tries to shed light on this issue. The review revealed an inconsistency regarding both characterization and definition of small business. The variety of definition used in these papers unable to set an agreeable format for small business definition. Mayer and Goldstein (1961) define small business as an employer of less then 200 employees. Potts (1977) set the barrier on 20 employees in addition to a minimum eight years that the business is operative. Robinson (1982) define firm as small if the number of employees is less then 50, the annual sales is under three million dollars and it’s operate as sole ownership. Covin and Slevin (1989) define small business according to number of employees – more then five or less then 500, as well as a minimum of five years that the business is operative. Rue and Ibrahim (1998) define small firm as an employer of more then 15 employees. Perry (2001) set an upper limit of 500 employees as a sole identifier for business to be regard as small. The review clarify that the ambiguity is stable over time. The lack of uniform definition in the sixtieth continued throughout the decades into the millennium. The industries targeted by the different scholars do have one common base; the focus was on industries with low to average economic growth such as manufacturing, trade (retail, wholesale) and service.

Scholars have addressed the problematicalness regarding the inconsistency of small business definition for quite time, Golde (1964) which examine small manufacturing employers with less then 500 employees, argue that it’s an arbitrarily definition which can adequately feet non manufacturing firms. Welsh and White (1981) claims that small business tend to group in certain industries, such as – wholesalers, retailers, service and manufacturing. Peterson et al., (1986) note that the most common definition is the one that used by the Small Business Administration (SBA), in part, that definition state that small business can be define as one if both its ownership and operation conducted independently, and it’s not dominant at the industry which is operate in. D’amboise and Muldowney (1988) write about the complexity of small business definition, which can be a result of the variety and different types of firms this phrase try to encompass. Pickle and Abrahamson (1990) address the question, what is a small business? There answer is that some will regard small business as such if it’s employ certain number of employees, others will claim that small business is one that limits his operation to local market, and part will classify business as small according to it’s nature (e.g., local pharmacy, clothing store, jewelry store).

Acquiring new customers using your product Acquiring new representatives to promote your product Now the only way to get these two things done is to talk to as many people as you can about what it is you have. There are a few ways to do this with the first being everyone’s favorite “Friends & Family” approach.

It should be no surprise that the lifeblood of ANY MLM or home based business is having plenty of leads to talk to. It’s also no secret that you make money in Network Marketing by doing two things.

Acquiring new customers using your product Acquiring new representatives to promote your product Now the only way to get these two things done is to talk to as many people as you can about what it is you have. There are a few ways to do this with the first being everyone’s favorite “Friends & Family” approach.

But what happens when you work through that list of everyone you know and you’re not a millionaire yet? What happens if you’ve been down that road in the past and it didn’t work out so well? Some of you might even be at the point where your friends and family avoid you like the plague so they don’t get pitched on yet ANOTHER opportunity!

Whatever the situation, the only logical answer short of closing up shop is that you need to find a way to expose your home business or MLM to more people, otherwise known as acquiring leads.

There are two ways to get leads, you can buy generic home based business leads or you can generate your own.

Before we start talking about how to generate your own targeted leads, let’s go ahead and talk about the first option which is buying generic home business leads. This seems to be where most network marketers focus their time, money and energy.

The first thing that you must know about ANY home business lead that you purchase is that no matter how many buzzwords are used in describing that lead. No matter how fresh it is or how good that lead sounds it’s still someone that you don’t know, that doesn’t know you, doesn’t know anything about your business there is no guarantee that they are going to pick up the phone or give you a second of their time to discuss joining your home business.

90% of purchased leads are produced by people filling out generic online forms about making more money from home and you don’t know the circumstances about why they filled out these online forms.

Were they looking for a Job instead of a home business opportunity? Were they trying to win a free Xbox? Where they drunk behind the computer at 3:00 am?

You just don’t know!

There are really no way cut corners on prospecting the leads that you purchase. Oftentimes you are competing with several other people who are contacting the same leads and the only way to make these types of leads pan out for you is to buy large quantities and sort through them to see who has an interest. So here is my suggestion for network marketers using these types of leads:

#1 – Keep your costs down when you buy “cold” leads. I don’t suggest spending more than 30 cents a lead! Most MLM lead companies online sell leads for $1 to $5 apiece… Stay away from these high priced leads and use a service like BigTimemlmLeads.com where you can get surveyed leads for as little as 14 cents apiece.

#2 – Start to put together a strategy to generate you own home business leads and phase out the cold contact leads over time.

Okay, now for the really fun stuff and the best strategy for building your home business. How do you as a home business owner go out and start generating your own targeted mlm / home business leads?

The first thing you must understand about the process of generating your own home business leads is that it takes time and it’s not something that happens overnight. You have many hoops that you have to jump through in order to get yourself set up with everything you’re going to need.

The goal of generating your own leads is to leverage your time and efforts by being able to cut corners on the “sorting” process as well as position yourself highly with your leads. This means that when you do actually talk to them on the phone they already have an understanding of who you are and what your opportunity and/or product is all about.

This makes your job promoting your home business much easier and leaves your prospects much more responsive to what you want them to do.

So know that we know WHY we want to generate our own positioned leads… It’s now time to look into the step by step process of doing so.

a thousand ways to advertise your home business for free and many will be staring you right in the face and you will never have realized! Have you ever seen someone leave a tip with a business cared? What about that interesting basket of chocolate goodies you may see from time to time sitting on the counter at a diner, dry-cleaners or hotel with an invitation to leave your information in exchange for participating in a competition to win it?

Simple truth is we could go on and on so here are the top five tips for getting free advertising for your home based business.

At number 1, we have the free ad portals available on the internet and there are hundreds of different sites you can use. One of the most popular and completely free, is Craigslist (www.craigslist.com) where you can register easily and quickly with just an email address. You’re then free to advertise your business 24-7 across the country and around the globe. Once you master Craigslist, move on and try www.usfreeads.com and use a search engine to find similar free advertising sites for you to put yourself up on.

Second top tip; shout about yourself and what you do. There is no sense in hiding yourself and your business and if you think someone else is going to go wild over what you do and the services you provide, think again. Developing a referral network and networking itself are skills that if you don’t have you need to practice and learn. Word-of-mouth is free advertising and produces excellent business results so make sure everyone you know is made fully aware of what you do and that you are looking for business and customers. Not only will you generate sales from your own circle, but you will generate referrals from people you do not even know and this is the key to building a prosperous business.

Tip #3; with free internet advertising sites that operate as classified ad forums, you do not get the opportunity to network with others. Try www.directmatches.com and you will find this and many other sites exist for business to business and customer networking as these sites link buyers and suppliers directly together and also provide forums for helping potential customers and business owners seek each other out. More involved than simply placing a few classified ads and needs an investment of your time, but well worth the effort.

Now if you are feeling really adventurous, why not try setting up your own blog. Blogging is a simple and easy way to get your business noticed on the web and is completely free and simple to set up though you will need to invest some time and effort to come to grips with the tools that make blogging so successful. In addition to blogging on sites such as Wordpress and Blogger (simply google them to find them) you can also use social media sites such as MySpace, Facebook and many others to get yourself noticed and once you have mastered one you are pretty much set for using all of these sites.

Finally at number 5, we have issuing a press release for your local newspapers. You may think that issuing a press release is only for the very important or big companies to do; not at all! Newspapers have a never ending demand for stories and information to fill up their paper with and launching your home based business or offering a new service or joining a trade association are all worthy of a press release to your local paper. There are rules you should follow, but you can find these quickly and easily by using a search engine; at the very least you will learn some valuable experience in summarizing what you do and at best, get yourself a free spot in the press.

The best tip of all with free advertising is simply to try anything and everything. We’ve given you five tips but there are many, many more and if one thing doesn’t work, move and try something else but always try as you aren’t parting with a dime!