What is key in any business success story is an adequate networking plan–a plan that can help launch your small business from the ground up.

Generally, it is hard for a new business to become noticed, and even harder to gain your first few clients without any success stories to back up your claims. Your formal marketing plan should therefore project the right networking mix. The right networking mix is about being proactive-in a sense that you leverage your business and personal connections to bring you regular supply of new customers. The whole idea about business networking involves relationship building-and it must be strategic and focused on networking for business growth.

Professional Network Services

With business networking, you step up to the challenge to find avenues of opportunity that you may have otherwise never discovered. You really do not want to start your business to fail due to the decisions that you the owner makes. In other words, for your enterprise to grow, you have to be prepared to work hard, make decisions, and spend money where it matters. For instance, you may consider using a few prominent networking organizations who have successfully created models of business networking activity. A few notable examples of professional network services include LinkedIn, Viadeo, XING, and WiseStep. Using these professional network services can, in fact, be most effective in terms of generating business opportunities than advertising or public relations efforts.

Online business networking can also be a cost effective method of launching your small business. Businesses are today increasingly using social networks as a means of growing their circle of contacts and promoting themselves and their business online. And with the global expansion of businesses, social networks make it easier to keep in touch with other business contacts around the world.

Small Business Awards

Further, face-to-face networking through referral business clubs also have the potential for higher quality business relationships. There are also a vast majority of awards given to businesses locally, countrywide, and globally. The different type of these awards, such as, but not limited to, small business awards, innovation awards, new business awards, local and entrepreneurial awards, are a great way to project your business accomplishments to a wide range of community of prospects. For instance, for more than 50 years, National Small Business Week has recognized the outstanding achievements of America’s small businesses for their contribution in their local communities and to the nation’s economy. The range of National Small Business Week award categories include:

· Small Business Person of the Year Award

· Small Business Exports of the Year Award

· Small Business Development Centre Excellence and Innovation Award

· Veterans Business Outreach Center Excellence in Service Award

· Women’s Business Center of Excellence Award

The US Chamber of Commerce also hosts the Dream Big Small Business of the Year Awards Program sponsored by Sam’s Club. The other National Small Business Awards you can win cash for, gain national recognition and valuable networking opportunities include:

· The SCORE Awards

· The American Business Awards

· Inc. 500/5000 Awards

· Ernst & Young Entrepreneurial Women Awards

· Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award

· The Better Business Bureau Torch Awards for Marketplace Trust

· The SVN Innovation Awards

Applying for some of these awards is crucial when it comes to recognition. Research is vital when trying to find awards you fit into. Researching far ahead of time and making a list is probably the best way to enter into as many awards as possible. Even though some awards have fees, enter any way, because the reward for your business would be huge. And when you get any awards, you get to put the award on your website and social sites as show of early accomplishments.

When you are running a home based business, you will have just you, your computer and your home. You will not have a boss and there is no one to watch out what you are doing. It is not that home based business is easy. Just like your boss, you have to be committed to your work and develop your own business. Working from home gives you the advantage of utilizing your skills to the fullest because you know what you are good at. Even at your home, you will have problems to face. However, the greatest advantage with home based business is that you can take a break whenever you want if you have to find solutions to your problems. This freedom must be exploited in a proper manner for running a home based business.If you have found a niche, target market and business goals, it is easy to setup your home based business. Getting profits from your business is the main reason behind starting your own business and to achieve this goal, you have to know how to run your business successfully. The following tips will help you to run your business in a well organized manner.1.    Be prepared to spend a lot of hours working for your business. Many home business owners fail because they assume that they can work less if they have their own business. You may have to spend about 60-70 hours every week to run your business smoothly.2.    Schedule your day properly. You have to come up with a to-do list for the tasks to be completed for your day. You have to schedule all the business tasks on your own depending on the priority of the task. There is no one to dictate you what should be done and hence, only with proper planning, you can run the business successfully.3.    Try to develop all the skills required by your business. To be your own boss, you have to play the roles of all employees in your home based business. Sales, marketing, financing, and other business departments require different types of skills. You have to become the jack of all trades to execute your business tasks even though you have hired persons to complete those tasks.4.    Network with your peers and try to develop your business network. You have to get clients, service providers and leads for your business. This is possible only when you interconnect with others. You should find other home based business owners through online and offline means to stay connected.5.    Stay motivated. The most important thing about running your own business is to keep your energy levels up all the time. You will have some bad days and you may have spoiled moods. Your family members may sneak in and disturb you during your work time. Despite all the distractions and business issues, you have to keep yourself motivated. You can definitely feel proud about yourself because you are a business owner. Reward yourself from time to time and celebrate small successes which will keep your spirits high.

With home businesses becoming the way of the future, it seems like a new home based business opportunity is popping up every day. When looking to start a home based business, going with the newest opportunity out there might not always be the best choice. In this article I will discuss why this may not be the best option when starting a home business.Is A New Home Based Business Opportunity The Right Way To Go?If you simply did some searching around on the Internet, you would literately find hundreds, even thousands of new home based business opportunities offering stagering income opportunities, for very low start up cost. Now, not all of these opportunities are bad, but the majority of them are.In this industry, home business opportunities come and go faster than anything else. The average life span of a home based business is not very long at all. This is the main reason why it’s not always the best idea to jump into the newest opportunity out there. If an opportunity has been around for over a year or more, then chances are it’s legitimate and it’s working well for others.There really is no way to tel whether or not a new opportunity is going to work for you because it has no track record.Another thing I want to point out is the extremely low start up costs these new home based business opportunities have. I understand that in this economy not everyone who wants to start a home business can afford to spend a lot of money, but at the same time is it really possible to make over $10,000 per month with a home business that only costs $25 to start?There are a lot of people out there who want the lifestyle of working from home, but there not willing to put forth the work. This is the person who jumps from new opportunity to new opportunity trying to find something that requires no work. My point here is that if someone is not willing to make an investment and commitment in their home business, then in my opinion they’re not serious about changing their life.These are they type of people that are jumping around and always joining the newest, cheapest home business opportunity. These are not the kind of people you want to work with if you want to build a successful home business.