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[S617]Small Service Business Software

by Mila Sidman, Mil

It can be anything from doing transcription work to starting a cleaning service to offering virtual assistant services – any business where you provide a necessary service.

The service business is easy to start. You can usually start it with one person (you) and build it up as you go along. If you're really smart you'll think BIG and do what many other great entrepreneurs have done and build a mega-service business where you simply manage and delegate.

Here's how it works:

Say you offer transcription services to online marketers – You can start by doing the transcribing yourself while you build trust with your clients and start getting repeat business. Once you see there's more work coming in than you can handle or you simply decide it's time you stopped typing and started marketing, then you can hire other transcriptionists to work you.

And it's easy! You hire them as subcontractors which means they're responsible for their own taxes and all you do is outsource work to them at a lower rate than you make. You are ultimately responsible for the work, which is why you'll take a cut of the service fee.

You can start by outsourcing to one transcriptionist, then two, three and eventually you can end up with a huge team of trained quality transcriptionists. You can then hire a few editors (also as subcontractors) to edit the work and help relieve your work load even further.

You then can concentrate on marketing, training, and keeping the team morale high.

Let's take another example:

You decided to start a ghost writing service. You start with a few clients you write for and find it fairly easy… but eventually those clients start recommending your fantastic services to all their colleagues! Well at this point you can politely decline and say you're booked OR you can do the smart thing and hire other writers to help you out.

You pay them a reduced fee so that you still make a profit. Hey after all it is your name on the line and ultimately you are responsible.

By thinking big you can take what was originally a one-woman (or man) service and turn it into a huge success. The trick is to thing BIG and realize that a service business doesn't necessarily mean you're “trading your time for money”. By putting a few smart systems into place you can have your cake AND eat it too.

HOME BASED ANSWERING SERVICE Business Part 1
Business needs for an answering service can vary considerably. A company may need a phone to be answered
all day, part of the day, after hours only, or 24 hours a day. You can enter this profession at any level you
choose. The amount of equipment you’ll need to get going will also fluctuate depending on how much time
you want to devote to your home–based answering business.
Most often, businesses need their phones covered during an "extended" work day, say 8:00 A.M.– 8:00 P.M.,
with an answering machine taking over the other, less likely, 12 hour call period. Twelve hours can be a long
day if you’re going it alone, so you may wish to solicit businesses that generally are looking for the phones to
be answered from 9 AM to 5 or 6 PM. This makes it more likely for you to do the job yourself and work it
easily into your family’s schedule, too.
Once you identify your work hours, you can begin the task of soliciting businesses to contract with you.
Before embarking on this important effort, you should establish a goal of how many companies you want to
represent. You can certainly take on more than one company if all you’re doing is answering the phone.
How many businesses you take on will dictate how you set up your service. The easiest and most inexpensive
way to begin is to have a separate phone line and phone for each business you contract with. You would then
mark each individual phone with the company name as an identifier for you when the phones begin to ring.
This is the best route if you’re going to work with ten or fewer businesses. If you intend to take on more than
ten firms, then it would be more cost and space effective to lease a switchboard from your local telephone
company. A switchboard can accommodate a substantial amount of business activity for you.
Installing separate phone lines should run less than $100 each (possibly higher in some parts of the country).
You will also pay basic monthly charges for each phone. This should average about $20–25 per month (again,
possibly higher in some parts of the country). If you are buying actual telephones, these can be acquired
inexpensively at local stores.
Before buying all these phones and contracting with businesses, check with the phone company to see how
many extra lines you can obtain. There may be a limit in your residential neighborhood. How many clients
you can take on will depend on the number of lines you can install You might consider opening up an office
in a nearby commercial area, where the number of lines you need can be accommodated. However, this is
beyond the scope of your home–based answering service.
The amount and type of equipment you obtain will be dictated by your ambition and your budget. It can be as
simple as individual phone lines or as complex as computer screens that flash messages or record instructions
for you to convey.

Article Source : Other Business Articles

About Author

Both Mila Sidman & Jtm Marketing are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Mila Sidman has sinced written about articles on various topics from Marketing, The Internet and self improvement and motivation. . Mila Sidman's top article generates over 18100 views. to your Favourites.

Jtm Marketing has sinced written about articles on various topics from Bariatric, Chocolate and Health and Acne Treatment. Article has been provided by . Jtm Marketing's top article generates over 14800 views. to your Favourites.