Is your home office a tangled mess of cords? Are there wires all over your workspace? Cord Control, meet high style with the Cable Turtle, available at CableOrganizer.com. This sleek little Dutch import features a convenient “flip open, snap shut” design that lets you wind excess cable length around its hidden core to prevent tangled cords and unwanted clutter. It’s simple to use, highly functional, and is so aesthetically pleasing that it’s actually joined the ranks of the Museum of Modern Art’s Design collection.

To mix or match with your decor – or make a statement of self-expression - the Cable Turtle comes in a rainbow of colors.  To meet all of your cable organizing needs, they come in 3 sizes:

Mini: $4.99
Small: $5.99
Large: $8.99

Cute, decorative and functional.

One Degree Connected is a tool that helps leverage your business contacts through creating real-life connections, by referral only.

Safe and permission-based, One Degree Connected provides access through an on-line personal referral system. Connections are made through a search for people by name, company, title, and/or location. When a member is connected to the searched-for person, the searching member can request a connection (or personal referral) from the other member. The request is then approved or denied. This ensures that your connections remain private until you approve the connection.

For only $30.00 a month, One Degree Connected quickly pays for itself. No contract to sign. Stay as long as you like and you can quit anytime.

This on-line tool is great for all business owners and entrepreneurs, as you have access to the decision-makers through the referrals of your friends and business associates. No gate-keepers to prevent the connection!

Kill A Watt EZ P4460

Budgets often require business owners to complete a detailed analysis of expenses. But what about the unseen expenses such as utility bills that affect the bottom line of your home-based business? How do you know what your printers, computers, monitors and other office equipment is costing you?

The Kill A Watt EZ electricity usage monitor from CableOrganizer.com helps you determine the operating cost of each of your electronics and appliances. Just plug the Kill A Watt EZ monitor into any power outlet, then plug your device into the monitor – it’s that easy! You can even unplug the item and still see the readings. No calculations required. Just input your local KWH rates to learn the dollar amount – it does the math for you. The amazing accuracy is within 0.2%!

This information will help you know what it costs to run your equipment, and also how much you could save by unplugging your electronics and appliances when they aren’t in use. And when it’s time to purchase a new item, you can determine what it’ll cost you before you make your purchase. At a cost of only $49.95, it shouldn’t take long to recover the cost of this innovate budget-minder.

If you’d like a combined power strip and electricity monitor, check out CableOrganizer.com’s P3 Kill A Watt PS – P4320. Priced at only $99.95, the strip has 6 standard outlets and 2 over-sized outlets for those extra large plugs.

There are a variety of other power cost monitors available to fit everyone’s budget and specific needs.

Large companies have a marketing department, and some have even created a specialized social media group. But what about the home-based business owner? Where do you go for marketing and social media collaboration, especially when you’re a solo entrepreneur? You can grab Twitter Marketing for Dummies by Kyle Lacy.

You’ll feel like you’ve been invited into a casual conversation rather than reading a dry how-to instructional book. Whether you’re new to marketing, Twitter or both – or have been Tweeting for quite some time – you will find expert advice on topics such as:

• Strategies for marketing
• Promoting your brand
• Building a following
• Driving traffic to your web site
• Determining the value through Google analytics

The Staff Blogging Course was put together by an expert on the subject: Ali Hale pays all of her bills every month by writing posts for other people’s blogs. In the past two years, she’s written well over six hundred posts. She’s compiled all of her experiences into a course that shows you how to do the same. Even better, you can complete the course on your own time, letting you get up to speed without having to worry about catching up with classes or work.

The Staff Blogging Course is particularly useful in you want to work at home. Unlike other work at home businesses, the start up expense is minimal. The complete Staff Blogging Course is available for just $19 — and it immediately shows you how to sell your posts for at least $20 per post, letting you immediately make your money back.

The creators of an innovative password solution software state that KeePass is a “free, open source, light-weight and easy-to-use password manager.”

What’s that mean? There is now a better way to deal with passwords other than always using your birth date, telephone number or name-and-address and/or similar variations.

Password security is extremely important as the hackers get more sophisticated. The issue of people breaking into accounts is becoming more and more frequent, so having a hard-to-guess password helps protect you. We know that you shouldn’t use the same password for all accounts, but how do you remember them all? How many times have you guessed and were wrong? Even blocked out of your own account because of failed sign-in attempts?

KeePass helps you create, store and remember passwords with their software, downloaded onto your computer, that provides you with a secure database.

If you forget a password, it’s not a problem. If you change a password, it’s not a problem. You can search for the password by name, user name, URL and more.  

Is storing passwords all KeePass can do? No – you can let KeePass create the passwords for you, using random letters, Capital letters, numbers and symbols from parameters you establish. 

If you use multiple computers (your desktop and a laptop, for instance), you can even save the program on a USB or other mobile device so you can keep this information with you. However, a word of caution - this must be protected or anyone who has access to this device will have access to all of your passwords!

Dragos Roua is a successful blogger and has been running businesses online for more than a decade. He recently transformed his expertise in to an ebook, “The 7 Ages of an Online Business.” Where many resources describing how to successfully run a business online focus on getting started as fast as you can, Dragos focuses on the entire life cycle of a business. He explores the emotional mindset you’re likely to have at each step along the way, as well as common pitfalls. He provides a resource to allow you to keep growing your business, no matter what your business background might be.

You can download a free preview of “The 7 Ages of an Online Business” (as well as Dragos’ other ebooks) on his site. Within the preview, there’s a link to purchase the ebook. You can also purchase it directly. The ebook is 65 pages and packed with information.

Many people who are in the work-at-home category are choosing to eliminate their land line telephone. Often, it’s a cost-savings issue. Other times it’s just that cell phones replace a “permanent” phone…until someone asks for a fax number (yes, many people still do use faxes).

The alternative to keeping your land line just to have faxing ability, is a fax service. MyFaxCentral.com offers the following features:

• 30-day free trial
• Login anytime, anywhere
• Free 800 number
• Send, receive, view and store online
• Update account and billing information
• Monitor how many you send and receive
• Pricing packages to fit your needs.

How it works: email the pages through your MyFax account and they are faxed to your recipients’ fax machine. If someone wants to fax you a document, you provide your 800 number, MyFaxCentral converts it to email and emails you your “fax”.

Secure, confidential, and no need for a land line!

Jen Hofmann and Charlie Gilkey both know what it takes to grow a business for your home — including the difficulties in keeping your home an environment that will encourage you to work. They’ve come together to offer Jen and Charlie’s Work Party once every three months or so. The teleprogram lasts for two and a half hours and will help you to get clarity about your home business, create peace in your physical workspace and and motivation to do the work you know you need to manage.

The next opportunity to get in on Jen and Charlie’s Work Party is on February 15th. The class is $77 and is limited to just twelve participants. It can fill up very quickly, so if you need help building a system that works for your home business, it’s important to move fast.

Source: Google Images

Are you seeking ways to find new customers? Are you searching for ideas to keep your current customer base? In today’s economy, many have seen a drop in new customers, especially in the service industries. Often services are considered “nice to have” instead of necessities. Think of all the services that are home-based. Residential and commercial cleaning, graphic design, consultants, business and life coaches, contractors, virtual assistants, contractors, home repair and massage therapists, to name a few. There are also many lawyers and accountants who are work-at-home business owners. 

In this economy, when people have chosen to either cut back or do without, what can you do?

The first thing that comes to mind for most business owners is, of course, a discount. Though we all know that price is not always the best distinguisher, a slow economy can justify this tactic as long as it’s for a very limited time. 

Most service-related businesses are cash-based, but this might be the time to offer a payment plan. Depending on the cost of your service, consider 50% down and 50% in 30 days.  You’re less likely to lose the business, you can receive full price for your service and your customer will appreciate your willingness to work with them.

Offer something free. Do you have low-cost add-ons that you normally charge for? If you’re service-based, offering a few free hours of your time will cost you nothing (except your time). Do you charge a trip fee? Waive that for any new customers. These options might encourage them to ‘buy now’. 

Be creative to help your customers continue to use your service and to attract new clients.  The economy is picking up. People will start spending again. What will you do to make sure you’re still around for them?