Once opportunity knocks on your door, you have to grab it right away and as long as the iron is hot, you have to strike it now. Such are adages that are quite applicable when you are planning to have a home based business. Homebased businesses offer lots of possibilities of earning money and the chance to become your own boss completes the deal. To some, this is the one time opportunity they have been waiting and the right thing to deal with it is to grab it immediately.Network communication is one opportunity that shouldn’t be missed if you are seriously considering a home business. People who have the intention to explore something new and something that can be learned easily perceive network communication as a very good home based business.For the record, network communication involves a lot of promotion activities. Promotion activities may include promoting a product or a service that requires data or content writing, article writing, filling out of forms, medical transcription, reading emails, joining subscriptions, and a lot of advertising strategies.However, it should be noted that such opportunities are a sea of opportunity and this is overwhelming. If you want to excel in doing and managing your home business, you have to carefully and professionally choose which among the many promotion activities will give you the huge income and the great convenience. By doing so you have to consider a number of things and some of which is your knowledge about the company you will help to promote and the time you can allot to do the marketing services.The economy has been recovering from the previous depression and recession and a lot of money making opportunities have risen to help entrepreneurs start anew. This opportunity is the exactly the representation of the adage, strike while the iron is hot because the bandwagon of starting a homebased business has been doing well so far. Talented and promising entrepreneurs see internet marketing as a powerful opportunity that should be explored.So, to start a new homebased business is one way of becoming successful in the future. Apparently it involves a lot of hard work, capital, and most of your time. But if you know how to cope with the pressure of starting a new internet home based business, then you are on your way to success.
Home Based Business – Use Your Time Wisely
Yes, it is true that operating a home based business can be challenging yet rewarding in the same instance. Even though it can at times be utter chaos running your own business, there are some tools which you can use to make your life easier. For instance, if you operate a home based business in which you need to constantly ship packages to your customers, it makes sense to set yourself up with a digital scale and a method to print off shipping labels from your computer. Such a step can save several hours over the course of a month.To understand what I am talking about, let us look at two different scenarios. The first scenario is one which requires that you pile your packages into the car, drive to the post office or wherever you ship out of, stand in line, have your packages weighed, purchase labels, get back into your car, and drive back home. The second scenario is one which requires that you turn on your digital scale, weigh the packages that you plan to ship, print off the shipping labels from your computer, and have these packages picked up at your house by your shipping company. Which scenario do you think is more time efficient? Of course, the second scenario. Saving this much time per week is the equivalent to hiring a part-time employee. Except, you do not have the expense.The key to running a successful home based business is efficiency. Having everything that you need within your grasp in an important aspect of efficiency and optimal time management. Thus, you should always take the time to keep an inventory of the supplies which you use on a daily basis so that you do not have to constantly interrupt your work when you run out. A good idea is to purchase your supplies in bulk. Not only does purchasing supplies in bulk minimize trips to the store, it also enables you to cut cost. Some supply companies will even deliver your products straight to your door, saving you even more time.You should also take steps to identify what adds value to your home based business, and what does not. For instance, if you find that you are taking a great deal of time and effort to send a weekly newsletter to your customers, and very few customers are subscribing to this newsletter, it might be a good time to re-evaluate. Perhaps your customers do not want such frequent contact. Maybe it is a good idea to go with a monthly newsletter, rather than weekly. No only will this afford you more time, it may lead to more subscribers.Above all, make sure that you are offering stellar customer service and solid products to the customers of your home based business. This will lead to their ultimate satisfaction with your company. Keep in mind that your customers are the only reason why you remain in business. By taking the time to make your home based business more efficient, you can spend more time catering to the needs of your customers.
Key Step to Start a Successful Home Based Business – Write Your Business Plan
As you already know, running a home based business has its share of requirements and challenges like any other business.Irrespective of the type of industry (travel, wellness, goods distribution…) you have decided to operate in, and whether you are already involved or you are thinking of becoming involved in a home based business, it is essential to know that there are entrepreneurial qualities you need to possess and develop, tools you need to use and master, and skills you need to acquire and strengthen in order to succeed in your home business.Today, we are going to talk about one of the key elements which will help you strengthen your commitment to the success of your home based business: the business plan.Write your business plan.Many people unfortunately fail to realize how having a business plan in a home based business is really important. They obviously fail to seize the real business dimension of the whole adventure of working from home.My purpose here is to remind you this: You are running a business, working from home. That’s why you call it home based business. In order to build a solid home business, you must have a central purpose and a goal. Do not neglect this. Having no direction and doing too many different things might take you in circles without the results you strive to achieve. It is common knowledge that most people who fail in businesses often had no clear objectives or defined purpose to start with.I am a firm believer in the need to have a plan so you know well where you are headed. You need to have a plan to check your efforts against your successes as you move forward in your home business.Remember: a plan doesn’t need to be rigid and can always change. But if you don’t have a clear starting place and a clear final goal, it is pretty hard to stay focused and on track. A business plan doesn’t need to be complicated. In first instance, just ask yourself the simple question “What do I want to achieve from my home based business?” Jot down the various reasons. This will help you to make your plan.In fact, it is good to go through this exercise even if you have been running a home based business for years. Perhaps what you wanted to achieve has changed. Time changes many things and your goals also may change with time. Perhaps when you began doing your home business, you wanted to be home with your children. Now that they are grown, your goals will be switched to something else. You might think about putting less emphasis on the family as before, but focus more on networking in your community and beyond! It is up to you to evaluate how your goals can be changed to fit your place in time.Through other articles, we will have the opportunity to go deeper into the process of designing a comprehensive business plan, but at this initial stage, I want to encourage you at least to write down what we define as our main goals and act on them as our minimum requirementYou might think that writing a business plan is not your thing but at least set a purpose and objective for your home based business and you’ll increase the chances of reaching the success you strive for.
10 Reasons to Have a Home Based Business
There are many great reasons for you to have a home based business and, as long as you’re ambitious, hard working and you stay focused on your goals, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t work out for you.1. Independence: Wouldn’t it be great to fire your boss and walk out of your 9-5 forever. A home based business could do that for you, however, don’t forget, it’ll be you who has to make the decisions and keep yourself disciplined to achieve the results.2. No Commuting – Imagine not having to sit in traffic or on overcrowded public transport every day just to get into work. That one hour commute could just be a 30 second walk in to your home office.3. Freedom – Wouldn’t you like the freedom to do what you want, when you want to do it?A home based business could offer you that very opportunity. Take the children to school, take time for the gym, do the shopping when it’s quietest – Make sure you do some work though!4. Overheads – Having a home based business is far less risky than starting up a traditional ‘bricks and mortar’ business. Most of the overheads are no different to what you’ve already got. Just make sure you check your insurance!5. Start-Up Costs – The start-up costs should also be pretty low, particularly with a business like network marketing. As long as you’ve got a good enough computer, some fixed and mobile communications equipment, that’s generally enough to get you underway.6. Flexibility – Fit your business around your other commitments, you might have a dependent family member to look after, or other responsibilities. With no boss breathing down your neck, you can move things about as you please.7. Work Away From Home – What if you go on holiday? With most home based businesses you can take it with you (if you really have to). A laptop computer, wireless internet access and a mobile phone and your off. Do try and have a break some time though!8. Residual Income – Some of the better network marketing businesses pay residual incomes. That means if you do want time off, but don’t fancy taking work with you, you still have some money coming in. Look out for the better network marketing businesses that have this opportunity.9. Reduced Risk – With much lower start up costs and far less overheads involved, having a home based business has far less risk attached to it. If you work hard and keep organised there shouldn’t be a problem, but if there ever was you shouldn’t have much of a headache to deal with.10. Sociable – Many network marketing businesses involve getting together at events and conferences. It’s here that you’ll probably meet other like-minded home business people that you share much in common with, this could end up being a whole new circle of friends.As you can see there are loads of really positive reasons for you to have a home based business. However, don’t forget that it is a business and without putting in some planning, organisation and work it might not be for long. Good Luck!
Affordable Home Based Business Opportunities With Prospects
Take a look on the Internet and you will find plenty of affordable home based business opportunities. Many of us dream of working from home. After all those who run an online business can be their own boss and work when they choose to.So running a business from the comfort of your own home sounds pretty idyllic. But anyone who works from home in order to earn their living will tell you that home based business owners probably work twice as hard as anyone else. If you are trying to locate a legitimate way of making money online then begin by starting a small home based business.Small OpportunitiesMighty Oaks from little acorns grow. There is no point in investing huge amounts of money in an online business if the return is minimal. When we talk about starting up an affordable online business we should consider ideas that require little or no investment.Take an overall look at the area that you live in and consider supply and demand. Do residents in your locality need cleaners or gardeners? If you are an accomplished gardener or a cleaner then you could set up a website and advertise your services. You may not be physically working from home but your operating costs will be low so you should be able to maximise your profits.Businesses that Allow You to work within Your Own HomeEvery entrepreneur had to start somewhere and all of us have hidden talents that we never bring to the forefront. Maybe you make wonderful gift cards, handmade jewellery or cute hand-crafted goods.If that is the case then use your skills to make an income. Accomplished cooks could try their hand at baking and selling celebration cakes, hence you make money from working at home doing a job you enjoy.The Home Party Business Industry is BoomingIf you are a great host and you have the gift of the gab then you should try earning a living from home party plan systems. This is one of the many affordable home based business opportunities that can be profitable.A high percentage of firms that claim to have the ideal way of earning an income from home ask for a substantial start-up fee. Run a home party business and you may well have to purchase a party plan starter kit but that is usually relatively affordable.Are There Any Internet Business opportunities?Anyone who has access to the Internet and a few hours to spare has the potential to earn cash from home. Look online and you will see that many companies are advertising for customer service handlers, article writers and data entry workers.Listed above are a few ways of earning money from home and all of these ideas are affordable. The majority of people seek online work to boost their income and it is up to you to find a business opportunity that matches your skills and interests. There are many affordable home based business opportunities in this world and some of them will bring great personal and financial rewards.
Real Estate Call Capture – Shifting Your Focus Back to Your Clients
The real estate business was designed to assist potential home buyers in purchasing their home. Whether they are first-time buyers or seasoned home owners, real estate agents are still the best option to help people find the property they need – but the business of real estate has changed dramatically over the years.
In the real estate industry’s infancy and beyond there was always a lot of leg work involved. Agents worked from offices but rarely spent much time there. A majority of the day was spent showing homes to buyers; often late in the evening or on weekends. Clients were obtained by walk in traffic, by the use of flyers and newspaper advertising, by cold calling and door knocking. While some things have remained the same, there is much that has changed.
These days, the introduction of technology has advanced the industry and improved the marketing methods used by real estate agents. Real estate call capture technology is rapidly becoming the leading method of marketing and sales for real estate. Like most significant advances in business, call capture is a simple but highly effective technology that allows the agent to shift their focus to the most important things in their business – their clients.
A real estate call capture system gives the agent a unique toll free number which includes unlimited extensions that can be put on advertisements, signs, websites, and newspapers listings. Call capture technology is completely virtual and requires no installation of hardware or software. The concept is simple, yet the benefits are staggering.
The impact that real estate call capture technology has had on the industry is quickly becoming apparent. With its use, agents have increased their revenue and number of leads. Every lead is automatically tracked and followed up on, so potential buyers and sellers are never overlooked, no matter how busy the agent may be. Every time someone calls, the information is passed on to the agent regardless if the caller is calling from a land line, mobile or blocked number. This definitely benefits the agent as they don’t have to worry about people not leaving messages or leaving inadequate contact information. Hits on websites can easily be transferred into leads by directing them to the call capture system which then can be converted into sales.
With the call capture system generating, capturing and updating the agent on all leads that are coming in, they can spend more time nurturing the those leads and their clients that they are already working with.
There are many extras included with most real estate call capture systems as well. They provide the agent with access to a wide variety of sales and marketing tools, such as newsletter systems, marketing campaigns, and advertising systems. The various extensions that can be added can also be assigned to certain ad types. Agents know if the person is calling in regards to an ad they read in a newspaper, online advertising, a magazine, or on a sign rider. This assists in determining what type of advertising is working best, making it possible to allocate money and resources to the most effective ads. By using the advertising tracking abilities of a call capture system, an agent can free up valuable time and resources that can be better spent on only the best advertising and on taking care of their clients and their needs.
There are benefits to the home buyer as well. Because of the fact that most real estate agents spend a majority of their time away from their office, it can be difficult to contact them. Messages can be left and calls missed. A hopeful buyer may miss out on the opportunity of purchasing a home because they couldn’t reach their agent, and the agent may miss out on a sale and commission. The call capture system can forward a client’s call to the office, home, cell phone, or any other phone number of the agent’s choosing. This ensures that the agent can be reached at any time. The result is that the clients feel as if they are receiving personal service and a client is more inclined to work with an agent who can offer them personal, quick, and efficient service.
Being able to service clients more efficiently is the key to obtaining more sales, establishing good customer relations and excellent word-of-mouth advertising. Agents can now spend more time listening to what their clients need rather than having to spend so much time trying to find ways to generate more leads and manage their advertising. Having to focus energy on creating flyers and ads is time consuming and can also be counter-productive to what the agent is trying to achieve.
This call capture technology is drawing more and more interest towards the real estate business. There is definitely huge potential to make money in the real estate industry, and by using up to date programs such as call capture, money can be made more quickly and with less initial cost. Real estate agents who use the call capture system report that it has changed their way of doing business significantly and that it makes them feel more comfortable and confident in their jobs. It is expected that, like web sites and cell phones, call capture will soon be a standard tool of the real estate industry.
Successful Investing – Helping Investors Avoid Common Investment Mistakes
The Top Mistakes made by Investors
In my dozen plus years of advising individuals and businesses I have found a number of common mistakes that have derailed even the best laid financial plans. I thought by sharing them I might be able to help others sidestep the pitfalls and the negative impact they can have on your portfolio and long-term financial plans.
1. Failing to establish a time horizon and investing accordingly -
If you have expenses that need to be funded in 3 years or less, you should not be investing the cash for them in the stock market or other risky investments. These monies should be carved out of your investment portfolio (the money earmarked for long-term investing) and invested appropriately in liquid assets such as money market funds or term-certain fixed income offerings. If the money is not going to be needed for 3 years or more, an investment plan should be established based upon specific a time horizon and risk tolerance for these funds.
2. Failing to thoroughly diversify your portfolio -
Many investors know about the concept of diversification and think that by owning different investments, they are diversified. Diversification of an investment portfolio makes good sense on an intuitive level. However, it wasn’t until Harry Markowitz published his model of portfolio selection that this concept became a formalized part of sound investment practice and formed the basis of today’s Modern Portfolio Theory. Beyond this basic concept of diversification, the key to Markowitz’s premise is the revelation that the risk of any investment can be reduced and/or performance increased by forming a portfolio of diverse and non-correlated assets. That is, it is important not just to seek a diversity of asset types, but also to seek assets that have low or near-zero correlations to one another. It’s not about owning different investments; it’s about owning different, non-correlated investments.
3. Letting potential tax implications rule your investment decisions -
Many investors delay selling an investment that has done well regardless of how good or bad the future looks for the holding. Their response is, “I will have to pay taxes if I sell.” By not selling, they set themselves up for not having to pay taxes at all – usually because the investment starts on a decline and their concern switches from “having to pay taxes” to one of “hoping for a turnaround.” Don’t be afraid to take some profits off the table. While taxes are an unpleasant result of investing, I prefer to look at them as a positive sign as it indicates you are making money and your investment plan is working.
4. Buying a stock based upon a “hot tip” -
Too many investors listen to a friend’s advice because he or she always seems to have the next “great” money making idea. They don’t take the time to assess the idea personally and jump in because it’s only a few thousand dollars they are investing. Unfortunately this is not investing – it’s gambling. If you want to gamble, go to Vegas and at least get free drinks, dinner, a show and a room for the risks you are taking. Any investment that is being considered for your portfolio should be thoroughly researched and have passed a comprehensive financial screening scrutiny.
5. Attempting to time the market -
Waiting an extra day, week, or month to try and buy in at the “right price” just doesn’t work. No one can predict the future. If they could they most likely wouldn’t be sharing this knowledge with you for free. Successful investors use time, patience and a disciplined approach to increase the likelihood of maximizing their investment returns – not trying to time the market. If you have done the research and the investment is sound and meets your criteria then buy it, regardless of timing.
6. Failing to regularly reevaluate your investments -
Over time all investment styles, strategies and types fall out of favor. So, like timing the market, it becomes virtually impossible to know what is going to be “hot” in the next bull market and what isn’t. For this reason it is always prudent to stay up-to-date on your investments to insure they are still the same investment that you originally purchased (segment drift and manager changes can be one reason they may have changed). If your investments consist solely of mutual funds then an annual review is a good place to start.
7. Basing investment decisions on emotion -
Maybe the stock market is going through a bad time because of a short-term geo-political or economic event. Stay calm and make an educated, well thought out decisions about what, if anything, to do. Assess whether the event will affect the economy long-term or if it’s just a short-term blip. The best move is often no move at all. If it is a short term incident, many times the smart, prudent investor will make additional investments because the current decline provides them with an excellent buying opportunity. The key to successful investing is to have a disciplined strategy and to stick with it.
8. Cashing out gains and dividends rather than reinvesting -
Once you’ve realized gains or had distributions and dividends paid out, insure they are reinvested back into your portfolio. If you pull out your capital gains, dividends and interest, your money won’t compound as quickly, thereby leaving you with a smaller chunk of change down the line. Letting your investments compound is one of the major tenets of successful investing.
9. Owning too much employer stock -
Many people get over-weighted in employer stock because of options and stock purchase plans made available in today’s competitive compensation packages. While these are great supplements to their annual salary they can put an employee in a position of having too much money invested in their employer’s stock. Additionally, it is quite common for people to invest in “what they know” and what do you know better than the company you work for? To compound the problem many people will add more employer stock to their 401k holdings and individual brokerage accounts. Not only does this create a diversification problem in their portfolio but it also subjects them to excessive single stock risk. A good rule of thumb to follow is to insure that no more than 5-10% of your entire investment portfolio is in any one single stock. If you find yourself in this situation the importance of creating a well thought out reduction strategy cannot be overstated.
10. Following the herd -
The most successful of all investors are moving in the opposite direction of what everyone else is doing. They buy when most are selling and sell when everyone else is buying. By following this simple plan you can preserve your capital and potentially sidestep the next bubble (can anyone remember real estate, internet stocks, and technology growth funds?).
11. Not investing at all -
Somehow in today’s society that Mocha Cappuccino Latte seems to take precedence over saving for the long-term. We are a society who wishes to satisfy the “here and now” rather than the securing our future. The important fact here is that those two are not mutually exclusive. In fact, BALANCE is the key in any long-term endeavor, but by always keeping an eye on the end goal you can make sure it is not out of mind while satiating the here and now.
12. Investing without a plan -
Investing without a plan and lacking the discipline to follow it is a sure way to lower your chances of success. The chances of obtaining any long term goal can be greatly enhanced by creating a strategy, following it and regularly reviewing it frequently enough so it reflects any changes that have taken place since implementation. Many investors start off with a small amount of money and start putting it to work without a plan. As time progresses they find they have a mish-mash of investments in their portfolio with no clear strategy or direction. It’s never too early to invest but it’s even better to invest early with a plan.
13. Taking too little risk -
Some people don’t want to take any risk and cannot stand the volatility involved with risky investments. While it may seem like you are keeping your money safe and secure by not taking risk, it is more than likely you are not because of inflation. If your time horizon is greater than 5 years it is recommended that you have no less than 25-30% in growth investments (i.e. stocks) in your portfolio to ward off the effects of inflation. The actual percentage to own is dependent upon many factors including but not limited to age, time horizon before money is needed, current financial situation, etc. A good general rule of thumb to use as a starting point for the percentage of equity you may include in your portfolio is “120 – your age.”
How To Succeed At Online Product Creation The Easy Way
Product creation could be a frightening subject for a lot of Internet marketers to face. Some folks who get in the game with the intention of making a full time income are completely ignorant as to how an online business operates. One of the most profitable ways to create online cash is by creating a product that others are happy to pay for.
Product creation is legitimate method of generating money through internet marketing but many entrepreneurs get it wrong. They start by imitating their Internet marketing gurus by creating information products on Internet marketing in hopes of getting rich the way their heroes did. The problem is that they usually don’t know what they are doing and enter a highly competitive niche with very little marketing experience or connections.
Here are a few tips for effective product creation that may help you get on the right track:
Start by finding a profitable niche with low to moderate competition. If you conduct some rudimentary market research and keyword research, you’ll find many opportunities in areas that will surprise you. Amazon and eBay are two great places to brainstorm for product ideas.
Developing Your Product does not have to be a difficult project. You can find experts in the right field for your niche and pay them to write the material while an artist designs the packaging and website or blog. You can outsource the entire product creation part of the project after you conduct the research and testing to ensure profitability.
Sales and marketing strategies should be created while developing the product and learning about the market. Some experienced marketers use pay per click to drive traffic to their offer page; some folks outsource the entire marketing campaign to affiliates through ClickBank or other affiliate programs.
Product creation does not need to be hard, particularly when the merchandise is electronic. E-books, videos, audio and multi-media products sell very well. They are distributed immediately to customers electronically. Once you have a good feel for a niche market, try to service your customers with associated products and upgrades. If you want to earn money online through product creation, you must understand supply and demand. The majority of new online marketers fail miserably because they go after highly competitive markets or forget to research their chosen niche properly. You have to create your products according to the needs, wants and desires of the prospective customers.
Information Product Creation: Never Compete on Price Because There Is Only One You
Information product creation requires extensive preparation, no matter which niche you work within and you want to make sure that your information product has a successful launch. That probably sounds scary and intimidating but here’s the thing: this is a one time effort and it will pay off in a foundation that is strong enough to get your ideal clients to invest in your high-end programs and services without the perils of a traditional funnel. This article will teach you a few of the things that you need to remember if you’d like to invest in yourself and start on the information product creation path using your unique talents and abilities. Remember that you never have to worry about anyone ripping off your ideas because if you understand how to properly position yourself around your story.
Understand Both Strengths and Weaknesses: It is good to have an impartial view of your own strengths and weaknesses when lay the foundation of selling yourself within the information product creation process. It helps you figure out where you are, what you lack and how to move forward so that you get as much growth as possible. It is more than important, it is urgent if you want to create fast success for yourself to have personal positive reinforcement and deep belief to provide yourself the support you need so that you can get over your own limitations to ensure that your information product is as valuable as it can be.
You also need to know exactly who your competition is so you can study them and use their methods to help you improve your own standings. Down recreate the wheel, but understand the wheel and position yourself going uphill from the competition. Check out which kinds of opportunities you’ve already got and try to figure out how best to use them while taking care to remember your strengths and weaknesses. This is a great way to figure out where you stand against your competition which helps you figure out how best to grow.
Launch on Time: No matter what, even if you haven’t officially announced your “launch date” you should launch the site when you’ve said you would. This will force you to stick to your goal and actually work on it. Thinking that “I’ll launch it when I think it’s ready to launch” will only hinder your efforts. You’ve got a responsibility that you need to live up to with your launch, and you can’t move back on that one. If you get close to your launch date and you are getting hung up on your self limiting beliefs in your information product creation, don’t worry this about getting it out there and not perfection. As long as it is usable you should launch it. Launching on time is the professional thing to do and it is more important than creating a “wow” effect in your site visitors. You can always update/upgrade your website when you have to, so there shouldn’t be any issue with that.
Analyze Your Own Concept: If you want to make your information product creation successful you need to understand how good your concept is: is it really going to work for your chosen audience or would something else be better? You already know about your competition; how does your concept measure up? If you haven’t come up with your own idea and are trying to work with someone else’s concept, do some more work on your own before your launch. People want original ideas because they’ve seen too many other me-too websites already.
Test Your Concept Before You Commit To The Information Product Creation Process: One of the biggest failures people have with information product creation is not testing an idea before putting a lot of effort into producing an information product. PPC to a small 5 page site with a landing page is a great way to test an offer before you even produce it. If people will sign up to get it, you can be sure that you can create an information product that will target eliminating the pain of your target market. The small amount of money will be invaluable in using crowd sourcing to direct the final outline of the information product creation process.
You’ll have lots of hurdles to clear after the launch of your information product and the only way to truly take care of them is to follow the advice in this article to work smarter. Plenty of people work hard, but it is the ones who work smarter who make real money online with the information product creation business model.
Plan To Succeed With Information Product Creation: Why You Need To Split Your Process Up
One of the keys to succeeding in information product creation is to break the process up into discrete steps. This frequently isn’t an instinctive reaction for the typical information marketer. Especially on the internet where small sized learning products are the norm.
However, it is extremely important to your ultimate success. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if you don’t do this you probably won’t succeed… even when you are starting out let alone as you move forward.
Your product creation system should do this for you if only to help you to understand the overall task.
But why?
In this article, I’m going to ignore chunking and focus on the practical aspects. That’s not to say that chunking isn’t important. It is. It’s important to understanding and to learning the process. But while you can use the same chunks as you move forward, long term your focus needs to be on the operation of the system not the understanding of it. Unless of course you are constantly training new people!
So why is chunking important to long term use of the product creation process? (Yes, I know systems design uses a different term for this process but I’m not teaching you systems design. So I’m going to use the word learning content designers use.)
The first reason that having individual discrete tasks is important is one of schedule estimation. Frequently it is very difficult to estimate how long the total task of creating a product will take. After all, the size and type of the products matters as does the number of products in your product funnel. And those are just the most obvious elements. However, estimating a discrete task is often much easier. The total can then be estimated as the total of the discrete tasks.
Secondly, scheduling a large task can be problematic. However, by segmenting the task into a number of discrete tasks, you gain a much greater flexibility in scheduling. Not only that but as your business begins to add people you are able to schedule multiple people to the product creation.
Finally, segmenting a large task into smaller discrete tasks allows you to have much better control over the product creation. This affects two different areas — status and quality.
By segmenting your process into discrete tasks you are able to schedule and record the progress at much more detailed level. As a result you are more in control of the status of the product creation. You know what everyone is doing. When they should complete it. And how much it should cost. You also know exactly what has been done.
You also improve your overall quality. Instead of waiting until everything is done you can check quality as you go. This allows you to immediate react to low quality products without absorbing their costs. This means that you have less rework and your rework costs less. And if the product is not going to meet its quality requirement you will know about it in time to stop the development, change the requirement or fix the product.