Do you have the personality to begin your own profitable home based business? It takes commitment and dedication to your efforts, especially at the beginning of your start up home based business. Once you have signed up with a reputable program and have followed all the steps given to you, you can begin generating a predictable, steady income within a few months. Imagine completely replacing your current income at your dead-end job with something you can enjoy doing from the comfort of your home! Since there are so many advertised ways to get started earning an income, you must learn how to weed out the best home based business opportunities from the flops.After you have decided what kind of marketing program is the best for you, then you can focus on identifying the specific characteristics of one online start up home based business from another. Do not pay for a program without first learning a little more about it. Unfortunately, there are a many scams out there, so you must be cautious. That being said, there are countless legitimate ways to make a real income with a top online business as well. Consider first the amount of training and support offered to you. You should not be expected to jump into a new program without any guidance.In addition to the willingness of a start up home based business to help you get started, it should be able to prove the ways in which it has helped other entrepreneurs before you become successful in the best home based business opportunity being offered. Prospects with strong track records are the most reliable. What does the company do to personally help you get your business off the ground? There should be a qualified staff of individuals available to guide you through any questions you may have.One of the biggest draws to a start up home based business is that it is accessible from your own home. However, it should also be mobile. Can you work from anywhere with the program you are considering? Can you choose your own hours and work from your living room, on the road or during vacation? The amount of freedom you are given is important as well. You should not be required to market or sell a product you either have no interest in or do not agree with. A money-back guarantee is another fail-safe way to know you are getting involved in a legitimate top online business.

Current Situation (February, 2009)Although house and property prices have seen dramatic declines recently in some countries (e.g. USA and UK), prices have been relatively stable in France. In fact, in January of 2009 there was a slight increase (0.6%) compared to the previous month. Furthermore, 2008 saw prices decline by only 2.5%, which did not even offset the 2007 increase of 3.8% (figures from FNAIM, France’s national association of estate agents).
 
Unlike certain other countries (e.g. USA, UK, Spain), France is not experiencing large property price reductions. Instead, it has seen over the past 4 years a reduction in the rate of house inflation, with last year a moderate price reduction. The many predictions of a large fall of French property prices in 2008 have been proven incorrect and more recent predictions for a large fall in 2009 will likely prove equally incorrect (see remainder of article for discussion).
 
French Property Price Stability
 
Historically, France has had relatively stable prices. In any given year property may increase or decrease by a small amount, but traditionally prices have been broadly in line with inflation over both the medium and long term. From 1999 to 2006 there was a change from this traditional pattern, but market fundamentals are now reasserting themselves and the French property market has returned to its normal behavior since 2006.
 
Expectations that this will be followed by a period of large property deflation are based largely on the experiences in other countries (such as the UK, USA and Spain). However, such predictions do not take sufficient account of the important differences between these markets and the French market. To begin with, price inflation in France has been much lower than in these other countries, so the French property prices have not reached the excessive levels to be found elsewhere and consequently are under much less pressure to drop.
 
Limited Property Speculation
 
In France, property investment is generally much more conservative than in other countries. Property tends to be purchased as a long-term investment for a number of reasons:
Historically, France has had a stable property market, rather than the boom-bust trends found elsewhere. Consequently, there is not a perception that property can be used to make quick or easy money. Instead, it is purchased for one’s own use, often later in life when one is settled and intends to remain in the same place for a considerable period of time. Alternatively, it is purchased as a long-term investment.
The costs of buying and selling property are relatively high in France, with estate agent fees typically double or even triple that found in the UK, while Notaire fees and taxes can consume 10% of the price of a property. Consequently, the price of a property needs to rise by up to 15% just to cover these fees, so one must hold onto a property for a longer period of time in order to profit.
French banks have substantially more conservative lending practices than elsewhere. A substantial deposit is typically required (as opposed to the 100% mortgages found in the UK), as is insurance to guarantee repayment. Furthermore, the large-scale lending to high risk borrowers (as found in the USA sub-prime mortgage market) is not to be found in France.

 
This view of property as a long-term investment, both by property owners and by banks, adds considerable stability to property prices. In the current economic crisis, the fact that France does not have a large number of high-risk borrowers is equally important. In the USA, as the economic situation has declined, many borrowers have defaulted on their mortgages and consequently a large number of properties are forced sales. These forced sales have reduced property prices, resulting in further mortgage defaults and additional forced sales. Thus, in the USA one sees a large increase in the supply of property, at the same time as demand for property is dropping due to the economic issues. The large drop in USA, UK and Spain property prices is due to this imbalance of supply and demand.
 
Although France, like all countries, has speculative property purchases and mortgage defaults, the levels are far lower than in other countries due to the reasons discussed above. Consequently, it has not seen a large increase in property supply and consequently is not experiencing the property price issues found elsewhere.
 
Property Demand
 
Although the French property market has been largely free of the issues found elsewhere in terms of property speculation, mortgage defaults and forced sales, it is suffering from a substantial decrease in demand. Within France, this decrease is partly due to economic issues and partly due to people holding off purchases due to lack of confidence about the future economic circumstances.
 
There is also a very significant drop in purchases of property by foreigners. Partly this is due to the global economic crisis, with associated economic difficulties and concerns. However, changes in currency rates also play a substantial role; for example the drop in the UK pound from its historical average of 1.5 euros/pound to the current 1.1 euros/pound means that French property is now far more expensive for UK buyers. Furthermore, in addition to making property more expensive, those who are dependent on a UK income find that the currency rate changes make the cost of living in France much higher than a year ago. Finally, for those who would sell their UK property to fund the purchase of a French property, the drop in UK property prices mean that they would have less money. Similar difficulties are faced by potential buyers from USA and a number of other countries.
 
Although the decline in foreign purchases has only a limited effect on the overall market, it has a disproportionate effect on certain types of properties where the foreign buyer makes up a substantial segment. These include character properties (e.g. farmhouses in need of restoration, chateaux) and high-end properties in areas particularly favoured by foreign buyers (e.g. Provence). Consequently, the significant reduction in foreign clients has contributed to these types of properties falling more than the market average (in some cases, drops of 20% to 30% versus the market average decline of 2.5%).
 
Outlook for 2009, 2010
 
The overall French property market should continue to be relatively stable. Overall, it is likely there will be small declines over the next two years, although there will be months in which prices increase (such as January, 2009). However, in property segments where foreign buyers have a significant influence, prices will remain very depressed until the international economic situation improves.

Often times, you won’t really know if your property manager is doing his job until a problem arises. If a tenant from a managed property calls you directly, this could be a red flag that your manager is not doing his job. Here’s what you should do:

Ask your tenant if they’ve called the property manager about the issue they are calling you about. If they have not, then you need to educate them. Let them know that the manger will take care of their problem and give them the property manager’s number. Also, remind them that in the future, to get issues resolved efficiently, they should always call the property manager first.

If they have already spoken to the property manager, then you need to find out why they are now calling you. Did the property manager not call them back? How long ago did they leave the message? Or, did the property manager decline their maintenance request? (This may just mean that it was a frivolous request, or that your property manager is enforcing the lease regarding maintenance that the tenant is responsible for.)

In any case, make sure that you find out the full story from the tenant. Find out what they believe they needed service or redress for. Note when and how many times they contacted your property manager and the results of those interactions.

Now, it’s time to get on the phone with your property manager. Find out their story and determine if they’ve acted as they should, or if they aren’t responding appropriately to your tenants.

Another potential red flag is a call from a neighbor. Sometimes neighbors have legitimate concerns, and other times they are just persnickety. Regardless, listen to their concerns because they may alert you to a tenant who is in violation of their lease (i.e. vicious dog chained up in the back yard, etcetera). Then check in with your property manager. Are they doing regular drive by inspections to look for compliance in terms of overgrown lawns, adequate garbage disposal, pets not in the lease, excessive automobiles on your property, and so on?

A neighbor or tenant call doesn’t necessarily mean that your property manager isn’t doing his/her job, but it is an important invitation to check in with them to see why you received one of these calls. Pay attention and look for patterns. If you get repeated calls of this nature, consider if it’s just bad luck with officious neighbors or tenants who lack boundaries, or if there is a problem with the management that you have in place.

Personally, I like to give my property manager the benefit of the doubt until they give me reason to do otherwise.

As a business coach, new clients often ask: “Coach Maurice, what is the best way/place/form of advertising?”

The short answer is: none. There is no magic bullet. If there were a “best”, then everyone would use that method exclusively.

There is however a little known key that relates to all forms of advertising. Mastering this key will allow you to maximize your advertising efforts.

The majority of the time when, small business owners and entrepreneurs delve into advertising they take a universal approach. They do not realize there is an important dynamic to consider if they expect their advertising to be effective.

This key is simply the difference between active and passive advertising. Understanding active versus passive advertising methods (and subsequently an active versus a passive viewer) will make the difference in whether your advertising brings explosive results or gets lost in the crowd.

[Active Advertising]

This form of advertising is considered active or intrusive because the viewers are passive, meaning they are not specifically looking for you or your service at that time. Radio, Television and Billboard ads are all forms of Active Advertising.

The goal of active advertising is for your offer to catch a percentage of the people who see your advertisement at the exact right time and make them say “oh, that looks like something I need.”

Active ads either catch a person’s attention or they do not. Just like with a billboard on the freeway, you have 1-3 whole seconds to get your ad to capture their attention enough to begin to get your message across.

This means that if you do not interest a person within that time, they drive by, switch the channel or move their mouse to the upper right corner of your ad and press the [x] to close it.

An effective active ad is one used to reach out and grab someone who is not particularly looking for your product or service at that exact moment.

The idea is to generate name recognition and familiarity in the marketplace with your brand. Therefore, active ads are best suited for branding and positioning. They are mostly used to imprint an impression in a person’s subconscious so that when they are actually at a point of purchase, the buying decision goes in your favor.

Although you can use them for lead generation, do not expect a high percentage of immediate response from active ads.

[SUCCESS TIP]

Whenever using active advertising, you must do a LOT of it (quantity and frequency) in order to be most effective.

The reason you need to do a lot of active marketing, is because the target audience is passive. They are in the middle of doing something else, i.e. reading a magazine, watching a show or driving to work.

Because they are passive in response to your ad, expect your response (as it relates to your ROI) to be lower than passive forms of advertising. This is because the majority of potential customers will not respond the very first time they see your ad. People are busy, and they need to be reminded of your business.

Again, remember viewers are not necessarily looking at that time for what you have to offer. So you are in a sense interrupting their experience. This is why it is called “intrusive” marketing.

SPAM is an example of active marketing that is seen as both “intrusive” and “offensive”.

Make sure your advertising is intrusive, but not offensive.

[Think about it]

When was the last time you saw an ad only ONE time and responded to it immediately? How often do you have that type of immediate response to an ad? Do you usually need to see an ad a few times before you take action if it is not an immediate need?

Ideally, when placing an active type of advertisement, you want to get a chance to be seen by the same people over and over with your exact same message. In the advertising business, this important technique of repetition is called “frequency”.

[Frequency]

Term used to describe the ratio or number of times an individual sees or hears the same advertisement. A person needs to repeatedly hear the same message in order for it to stick. The higher the “frequency”, the better response you will get.

Frequency is a major factor in the response rate of any advertisement. You can see this in how often you see the same commercials on TV in a short time period.

Frequency creates name recognition, brand familiarity and stability. All of which are necessary for positioning a product or service properly in consumers minds.

Let’s use our billboard example again. A billboard gets a lot of frequency. They are often effective at branding because travelers usually use the same roads multiple times per week. This allows the same message to be presented repeatedly to the same people, day after day, month after month.

Again, this method is best used for branding, because with the exception of a directional (i.e. Waffle House – next exit on right,) people are not likely to stop their car and respond immediately to a billboards offer.

The other form of advertising is a passive type of advertising. They are called passive ads because rather than reaching out to the area a potential customer is, instead they sit and wait for the customer to find them. The viewer is “active” in that their goal is to find a specific advertisement with an offer related to their needs.

[Passive Advertising]

This form of advertising is considered passive because the viewers are active, meaning they are currently seeking out your type of product or service. Coupon Books, Yellow Page Advertising & Search Engine pay-per-click (PPC) are forms of Passive Advertising.

People who see passive ads are already looking for your type of service and have actively made the decision to search out a provider. Usually they do not have any particular provider in mind, which is why they are looking for someone to service their needs.

[APPLES-TO-APPLES]

Be sure you properly compare advertising methods before judging their effectiveness. Do not confuse response with conversion.

One frustration common among advertisers is the difference between the pricing and response rates of an active campaign compared to a passive campaign. An advertiser may compare a banner or pop-under-ads campaign to a pay-per-click campaign. The cost and response rate of both will be dramatically different.

There are many, many reasons for this difference, but a main reason is they are not the same type of advertising. One is active, the other is passive.

In general passive campaigns, like pay-per-click (Yahoo Advertiser Network, Google AdWords, etc) will always yield a higher conversion rate than a passive campaign, like banner or pop-under-ads. It is also much more expensive and difficult to track when using a passive form of advertising.

The key reason there is better response rate in PPC (a passive form of advertising) is these are people who took the time to type in a phrase into a search engine and click a link or open the yellow pages and make a phone call. They are currently and actively looking for your service.

Billboard or Pop type ads are active forms of advertising and show up in areas or on a site where your customer hangs out. However, the viewer, who is passive about (i.e. not currently looking for) your service at the moment, was in the midst of doing something else.

It takes several impressions and reminders to get the passive viewer to RESPOND. Response, or taking action based on the advertisement, should not be confused with CONVERSION, or the viewer actually making a purchase (or other required action taken).

This is the same reason Yellow Page inquiries are more expensive, and generally will yield higher response than something like Radio Advertising. This is due to the different focus of the viewers at the time of seeing the ad.

[KEY POINT]

DO NOT compare your active campaign response results to your passive campaign results. They will NEVER match, nor should they. When you attempt this, you are making an apples-to-oranges comparison.

Most vehicles offer either active or passive. Sometimes, certain mediums like a magazine may have both active (display ads throughout) and passive (classifieds in back).

Both methods should be properly implemented as a part of a well-rounded marketing plan.

When creating a media mix, be sure to recognize whether the vehicle you are using is an active or passive vehicle.

While in the creative phase, ask yourself:

Are you intruding on a (passive) person’s activity and need to let them know what your ad is about?

Or, do you just need to answer the need of the (actively looking) person’s desire?

Be sure to create your ad according to whether the person is active or passive about your offer.