As an entrepreneur, public speaking has to be one of the most effective ways of marketing yourself. There are countless opportunities out there for you to get yourself in front of your target market. There is no better way to have a captive audience full of prospects. It is the fastest way of establishing yourself as an expert.

You don’t have to be a professional speaker to speak in public. Just doing a reasonable job is better than not doing anything at all.

Prospects are much more likely to engage your services if they’ve seen you speak. Let’s look at the following example. Say you were looking for an accountant. Would you be more inclined to trust someone you had found in the Yellow Pages, or someone you had heard speak knowledgeably at the local Chamber of Commerce?

Look into opportunities in your local area where you can offer to speak for free. Professional associations, networking groups, Chambers of Commerce, educational bodies and Rotary Clubs are all potential public speaking venues. They often look out for speakers for their events, meetings and workshops.

Also research the audience that is going to be at your talk. For example, what industries are they likely to represent? Are they from large or small companies? What would interest them? What angle should your presentation take?

When it comes to finalizing your speech topic, be sure to make it sound enticing and interesting. People often decide whether to attend a talk based on just the title so put some serious thought into this.

Practice is key to coming across in a professional manner and reducing nerves. Write your speech out in full, but never read it verbatim. Have an outline prepared and available for you to refer to.

Check with the event organizer how long you have for your talk. Include timing in your practice runs. There is nothing worse than having a speaker run over time.

Get the most mileage out of your presentation by having some promotional material at the back of the room, for example some business cards, fliers, custom presentation folders or brochures that people can take with them if they wish.

You can be even more proactive and set up a newsletter before starting to give speeches. At the end of your presentation you can encourage your audience to sign up for your newsletter in exchange for a promotional gift or free e-book. That way you have also added valuable contacts to your database.

Many entrepreneurs swear by public speaking as a way of building and maintaining a steady stream of clients for their businesses.

A great recession is upon us and has sent many people into panic. The best way to ward off the effects of a recession is by creating other streams of income.

If your current employment has lost the security it once possessed, then prepare a backup plan that can provide another source of income which is sufficient enough to sustain you and your family. With the Internet developing into an extension of our everyday lives, legitimate work from home jobs have flourished; and each of them can serve as a fantastic income stream of its own.

Let’s take a look at a few of these legitimate work from home job opportunities:

1. Auctioning products. You can earn some profit as early as tonight with highly popular auction sites like eBay and Yahoo! Auctions. Just look for an item you can sell, prepare a sales page, and wait for any of the 12 million people who visit auction sites on a daily basis to view and purchase what you have to offer. Do this on a grander scale and you will be able to discover the full earning potential of auction sites.

2. Become an affiliate. As an affiliate, you will be tasked to sell a merchant’s products. There are no membership fees or upfront costs required. Online affiliate programs will allow you to sell – and earn – based on your own ability to market products and services. You then earn a commission based on the sale of the product that was sold through your referral link. There are many companies offering affiliate programs. Just do an Internet search to find out your options.

3. Freelancing. Got a special skill you can extend to other people through the Internet? For example, can you ghostwrite for another person? Can you create software programs in accordance with their specifications? Can you prepare web graphics that they are sure to love? Render your services for a fee. You can try out Websites such as Rentacoder.com, Elance.com and Scriptlance.com to find an abundance of potential clients ready to pay you for assisting them with their projects.

4. Create Websites and monetize them. You can develop niche-focused Websites and enroll them under pay per click (PPC) programs like Google AdSense. PPC programs will send contextually-relevant ads to your web pages and you will get paid every time a visitor clicks on the link. If your Website becomes popular, you can sell advertising space as well.

These are just a fraction of the many Internet earning opportunities you can pursue. There are definitely more, and such is testament to how viable the web has become in being an earning avenue for people who wish to find legitimate work from home jobs.  Good luck in you job search!

If you know anything about internet marketing, then you know a little about seo tools.  My favorite seo tool is my keyword research tool.  It helps me brainstorm good keywords and tells me the hot searches. It uses sources like wordtracker, ask.com, youtube and google.  The best part is it tells me which keywords are the most profitable and which ones not to waste my time on.  When I use this tool to my advantage, I have seen awesome results.

Many artists do not see the importance in giving sales receipts to a customer when they purchase an artwork. The reasons for this vary, but three of the more common reasons are:

1. Its time consuming — Many artists are pushed for time due to other work commitments, family responsibilities or simply procrastination.

2. Paperwork is boring — Come-on, lets face it, many artists prefer to paint, draw or sculpt rather than complete paperwork. Unless payment is being withheld in exchange for a sales receipt, many artists would prefer to do something else.

3. Its not important — Many artists are only concerned about the creative side to their art and don’t appreciate the business side. However, purchase receipts are an important part of the selling process for both the seller and the buyer.

Those are three common reasons why many artists choose not to provide a sales receipt when selling artwork. So what are three reasons why they should give them to their customers?

1. It records the sale — Most artists sell artwork with the intention of making a profit. If this is the case you are liable to declare your income to the tax department. During an audit they will want to see evidence of your income which is easily done by showing your receipt book.

2. It records the customers purchase — A receipt will provide proof of ownership for the customer, give them details of the transaction, and confirm the value of the artwork at the time of purchase. It is often used for archival and/or insurance purposes.

3. It shows professionalism — This concept is very simple. If you conduct your art sales in a business like manner by providing adequate paperwork to support the sale, the customer will see you as a professional. There is no down-side to this. The more professional you are, the more integrity you will have as a successful artist.

We have covered three reasons why many artists don’t like to give sales receipts, and three reasons why they should. Here are three ways how to provide a sales receipt, along with some pros and cons for each method:

1. Use an accounting software package — If you have multiple sales and expenses you may want to consider purchasing some accounting software such as MYOB etc. Pros: It will calculate the tax and totals automatically. It will provide you with an accurate, easy way of tracking your income with unique receipt numbers and multiple reporting options. It looks professional and clean. Cons: It can be costly to set up. It takes initial training and some basic accounting knowledge to use the software adequately. It can be time consuming. Change any PC into a cash register with store manager point-of-sale for Windows and purchase an Epson receipt printer.

2. Print out a receipt on your computer — It is relatively easy to create a basic receipt in a word processing programme. Pros: They look clean and professional. You can save each receipt individually onto your hard-drive or onto disc. You can custom-make your receipt to suit your needs. Cons: You will need to give each receipt a unique number each time. If you want paper copies you need to print duplicate receipts and file them away. It takes longer to complete printed receipts than hand-written receipts.

3. Buy a receipt book — You can either buy a regular receipt book or one specially designed for artists. Pros: Each invoice is uniquely numbered. You will automatically get a duplicate copy which is retained inside the receipt book. They are pre-bounding making filing easy. They are extremely quick to complete. Buyers of original art value handwritten documents from the artists. Cons: Handwritten receipts cannot be stored electronically unless individually scanned into a computer. To complete accounting reports you need to manually key in the sales figures.

We have briefly discussed three reasons why artists choose not to provide sales receipts, provided three reasons why they should, and then gave three alternative ways of producing a receipt. As you can see, completing paperwork is an important part of the artistic process and with some careful choices you can make this relatively pain free. This allows you to get on with more exciting things - like creating artwork!

Starting a craft business can be a great way to make extra income. But, to turn your hobby into a business, you need to be professional.

These five tips will help you be more professional at your first craft show.

Tip One: Be Prepared

Practice setting up your booth before you actually go to the show. Where will everything go? Keep a list of everything you use, so you know you won’t forget anything. Also, take a picture so you won’t forget the layout.

Pretend you are buying something from your booth. What do you need? Be sure you have enough pens, order forms, bags, wrapping, change, etc. Go through the process - actually write the sale and bag your item. You’d be surprised what you might miss or forget.

Be prepared for the unexpected as well. Bring extra tape, display stands, tablecloths, and any duplicate items you may need more of. Sometimes, the layout may be different that you expected, or you may need thumbtacks instead of tape. Bring extras of everything you can.

Tip Two: Promote Your Business

Even if this is your first craft show, you need to look like a professional business. At the very least, you need business cards. If you have a website, include that on your cards.

Even better would be a coupon for a discount on a future purchase. This works particularly well if you have an online store. You may pick up sales after the show.

Give people a way to be notified about your future shows. This could be as simple as a sign up sheet for notifications, or a free newsletter subscription offer. You could also have a customer drawing where you collect their information.

Tip Three: Use Professional Materials

There is a big difference in quality between “professional” crafters, and beginners. Be sure your quality is in the professional category.

That means no glue guns, use professional adhesive for whatever medium you work in. Use quality canvas, quality thread, and professional adhesives. Use stitching whenever possible, instead of glue. Finish edges and seams, cut loose threads, do everything you can to make your craft look as good as possible.

Tip Four: Plan Your Display

Have you ever been to a craft show where there are hand-lettered signs, and stuff is just piled haphazardly? To be professional, you must look professional.

If you have signs, at the very least print them out on a printer. Better yet, have some of your signs made professionally. These signs can include product information, sales policies; sign up sheets and so on.

For your actual display, use tablecloths, pop displays, and other professional looking items to organize and display your space. You can group things according to item type, or price, or some artistic display pattern. The key is to plan.

Tip Five: Practice Professional Customer Service

There is nothing worse than going to a craft fair and being ignored. When someone comes into your booth, greet him or her warmly. Let them know you are there to help them decide what they want to buy. Don’t be an artisan snob, you’re working. Make the most of every customer contact.

And, if you can manage it, take credit cards. Even if you use Paypal, you at least have that option.