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Successful home business owners don't hide the fact they work from home. They have learned how to counter negative perceptions generated by larger competitors.
But for those new to home business, and even old hands in some industries, dealing with potential clients and customers who won't take you seriously because you operate from home can be a daunting challenge.

Do you have a home business inferiority complex?
Do you pretend your business is bigger than it is, or even hide the fact you are home based? What can you say when a customer indicates they think you may not be big enough to handle

their work?

You are competent and highly-experienced. But larger rivals paint you unfairly as "the cottage industry" and make it plain they don't regard you as serious competition. In some cases, there may have been no customer comment - nothing to indicate negative perceptions - yet you're still missing out on business.

Make no mistake, in most sectors there are negative perceptions about people who work from home. And they are likely to impact on the number of business inquiries you receive, the ratio at which they convert to sales, and the price you can charge for your products or services.

It's enough to give you an inferiority complex. In fact, that's the other half of the problem.

It's bad enough when the perceptions of potential clients and customers impact on your business. But it's worse when your own thoughts start to create doubts about your direction and how (or even if) you will achieve your goals.

Free National Home Business Week Tele-Seminar
I believe this issue is a key one for home business people to discuss together so each home business can develop pro-active strategies to deal with the problem.
To discuss this and other relates issues, I have set up a free National Home Business Week tele-seminar (details below).

We will define the problem and discuss how you can deal with it in your marketing - how you position your business in the market place, how you actively market it, and how you deal with the fact you operate from home.

There will be numerous opportunities for you to ask questions and contribute comments which may be useful for other home business people. We will look at the competitive advantages home businesses have ahead of larger competitors - and how you can exploit these.

If you have worked from home for several years and have faced this issue before, I invite you to contribute your experience and wisdom.

The tele-seminar will be from 7.30 pm to 8.30 pm Thursday, 21 October. The seminar itself is free, but access call charges ($6 for Telecom customers, $5.75 if you have a Telstra account) will be charged to the phone from which you call. Because of bridge line restrictions, places are limited. Registrations will be taken strictly on a first-come, first-served basis, only at www.shattock.net.nz/homebiz.html (no phone registrations).