Are You Covering Your Home Based Business With Homeowners Insurance? Many home based business owners rely upon their normal home insurance policy to cover their business assets. Sometimes, this will be ok, but very often, this is a big mistake. To understand why it could be a mistake, please take a moment to learn about typical homeowners policies.Personal Property vs. Business PropertyThe first problem that usually crops up is that the typical home policy does not have enough personal property coverage. A home based business may add supplies, equipment, computers, inventory, and records to the normal personal property in the home. Combine this with the furniture, TV sets, and appliances in that same home. Whatever coverage you and your agent thought was enough before you ran you home based business may be woefully inadequate now!Also be sure that your personal property is covered at the replacement costs, and not the real value. If your property is covered at real value, you will have to accept garage sale prices if your precious items are damaged. You laptop may cost $1,200 to replace, but would be unlikely to fetch more than a couple of hundred dollars if you sold it on eBay. You do not want to have to replace your business items that way.Do you even know how much personal property coverage you have in your own policy? Lots of homeowners have no idea. It is time to dig out your policy or call your agent or insurance company to find out.Home vs. Business Liability Insurance Typically, a home policy covers the home owner in case a visitor makes a claim for damages while they are visiting. This may not cover damages that happen in the course of business. Your normal policy will not contain professional or business liability coverage at all.Personal vs. Commercial Car InsuranceAnother coverage issue that many small business owners forget about is coverage for their cars. Personal auto insurance policies may not be adequate if you use your own car for business quite a bit. This can be especially true if you let employees drive it, carry inventory, or drive a lot more than you originally stated when you bought your policy.How Can You Find Adequate Home Based Business Insurance? It is no time to fret but just to take some action! It may be very simple to fix the problem with your homeowners and home based business insurance. Here are some of the solutions you may find.
If your business if fairly small, your insurer may be able to adjust your policy to cover business items by adding a rider. This is probably a simple and fairly affordable solution.
Business Owners Policies (BOP) are insurance packages that many small businesses purchase. They contain a package of coverage that are typically adequate. If your business is a bit larger, this may be the solution you need.
You may also be able to adjust your car insurance policy to cover some business use. If not, you may need to purchase a commercial vehicle policy.
Your auto and home insurance policies may be very simple and affordable to adjust. But if you ignore the issue you run the risk of having big financial problems if some essential business supplies are damaged or a customer claims damages.

Product creation in Internet marketing is getting stiffer and stiffer nowadays owing to tough competition between Internet-based businesses. Putting up a new product requires plenty of brainpower and finances along with an ability to take risk. With that, even if you have the product well-set already, you have to position it strategically in the Internet landscape for others to notice. You should get the interest of Web users and turn them to actual customers. Aside from the usual physical products, many different products that thrive well on Internet marketing include E-books, membership sites, and video lectures.

The long and difficult process of product creation begins with ideas. They are easy to get – compared to the effort that comes with analyzing the market for that idea. Before the idea turns to a product, businesses often spend money, even amounting to millions of dollars, to ensure the success of the new product that emerges from an idea. Businesses undertake many types of market research and surveys before releasing their products to the public. Now, you may think that because your business is small, you can’t afford research or you don’t have to do research; you can and you should. The Internet allows you to disseminate materials needed for your market study to many people at once without your having to spend a cent.

It is a common maxim in business: Look at your destination first before mapping out your journey. So what are the goals you intend to accomplish with your product creation ventures? The everyday travails of your business may make you forget the end in sight. On the other hand, prepare to entertain new developments that come to your mind in your product creation. Your conception of a product may have started this way, but a few tweaks here and there along with some market research results and it ends up another way. Take it as the result of a creative process, not as a failure to reach your goal. After all, your product creation activities are intertwined with a long-term goal that you should strive to sustain at your utmost: profit generation. So if your less profitable initial idea evolves to a more profitable product, be thankful!

With your product made up already, start doing some aggressive Internet marketing. A product purchase typically comes after more than five times a customer is exposed to an informative call-to-buy message. Thus it is important to get the contact details, like the e-mail address, of potential customers who are on the brink of a sale. Use the results of your market research to determine the demographics to which you should concentrate your marketing efforts.

With consistent product creation, you can make an inventory of your products that you can market in due time. Just keep making products – the moment you succeed in making and marketing a product, customers are surely wanting more from you, so give it to them. Keep them on your side through constant product creation.

You’ve seen the late-night infomercials with self-anointed gurus promising you millions in real estate profits with no money down. The truth is that many of these charlatans never made a dime in real estate, but instead built their fortunes through selling over-priced or useless information to unsophisticated investors suffering from insomnia.

Most of us are smart enough to realize that no real estate “system” is foolproof, and if anything seems too be good to be true, it probably is. However, that doesn’t mean that you need excellent credit and a surplus of cash to get started in real estate. Here are some strategies for financially-constrained aspiring investors to begin generating real estate cash flow.

You Don’t Have to Own a Property to Make Money From It – Be a Dealer

There are two types of quick-sale real estate investors – retailers and dealers. Retailers buy properties outright and sell them for a quick profit. Their risk is highest, but so is their potential reward. Contrary to the late-night realty televangelists, retailers typically need substantial cash for a down payment, and at least decent credit.

Dealers, by contrast, buy and sell contracts, not properties. They find bargain properties and sign purchase contracts with their sellers. Dealers then sell these purchase contracts to retailers, making a solid profit in the process. This is known as “assignment of contract.” Usually, the only cash required is the earnest money to secure the deal. A good dealer can then flip the contract for a quick $1,000 to $3,000 without ever taking possession of the deed.

Use a Double Closing for Greater Profit Potential

A double closing allows a dealer to earn a higher profit margin than an assignment of contract. With an assignment of contract, there is always potential that the deal will ultimately fall through. The dealer is protected in this case because she has already received her proceeds from the sale of the contract, but the retailer who buys the contract from her is wary of the deal falling through, and thus, will factor it into the price he is willing to pay. With a double closing, the dealer assumes more risk, because if the deal falls through, she receives nothing. However, with this greater risk comes a greater reward.

A double closing begins with the dealer signing a purchase contract with the property owner. Then the dealer signs a contract with the retailer, in which the retailer agrees to buy the property from the dealer at a higher price, and deposits that amount in escrow. The property owner signs the deed to the dealer, who then signs it to the retailer. The retailer then signs the loan documents, and the process is complete – the property owner is paid his asking price, and the dealer is paid the difference. Note that the dealer came to the table with no money, and her credit was never an issue.

Be a Scout – No Cash or Credit Required

In addition to dealers and retailers, scouts are a third type of real estate “flipper.” Instead of flipping actual properties or contracts, scouts flip information.

Scouts face even less risk than dealers, and have almost no cash or credit concerns. They simply gather information about distressed properties and sell it to interested dealers and retailers. In effect, scouts do the dirty work for real estate investors, and investors are willing to pay them handsomely for doing it. Typically a scout will gather the following data on a potential deal: The owner’s name and contact information, the asking price, information about the mortgage and whether payments are current, outstanding liens on the property, a photograph of the house, and pertinent information about the owner’s motivation to sell – i.e. is he in the middle of a divorce, foreclosure, job transfer, etc.

Investors typically pay scouts between $500 and $1,000 for good information, but what happens if an investor doesn’t pay? Simple – don’t take any more deals to them. Successful investors realize the value of good information, and they are more than willing to pay for it.

Take Over the Seller’s Mortgage Payments

Prior to 1989, almost all home loans were freely assumable. This meant that anyone could take over the payment of the loans without objection from the lender. However, due to a climate of rising interest rates that began in the late eighties, virtually all home loans issued since then contain a “due-on-sale” clause. This means that when ownership of a property is transferred, the lender can demand payment, in-full, of the outstanding loan.

However, “due-on-sale” is merely a clause – not a law. It is the lender’s prerogative as to whether or not this clause is exercised. If you buy a property and take over the loan payments, there is a distinct possibility that the lender won’t even notice. There’s an even greater chance that the lender will choose not to exercise the due-on-sale clause, so long as you make timely payments. After all, the cost of enforcing the clause is significant, and as long as the lender is being paid, it is unlikely to care who signs the monthly checks. Armed with this knowledge, you can potentially buy properties without a credit check.

Real Estate Success Always Requires an Investment

There are ways to profit from real estate without significant financial investment, however, that is not to say that success comes free and easy. At the very least, you will need to make a substantial investment in yourself. In order to succeed, you must be willing to work hard. Even with a million dollar real estate portfolio, your brain will always be your #1 asset. Be sure to invest in your education on a daily basis, and learn as much as possible about your local market, real estate law, and investment strategies.