Whether you want to admit it or not, soap operas may hold the key to your home business success. This article includes a few home and small business principles I learned while watching SoapNet.

Be really, really good looking. I don’t know if you’ve had this experience, but every time I turn on SoapNet I feel overweight, ugly, and hopelessly average. There is no way I could ever compete with the collection of beauties, male and female, that the soap operas have assembled. But before you go out and buy a Bow Flex and dye your hair blonde, remember that I’m talking about your home business in this article. Just because you are running your business out of your home on a low budget does not mean it has to look like you are running your business out of your home on a low budget. Invest a little bit of money into getting a professional logo and stationary. If you own a website and cannot afford a professional web designer, take courses at your local college. Presenting your business professionally can open up doors you may believe are closed to you.

Give them something to talk about. If soap operas do nothing else well, they create scandals that have people talking for days. It is a TV show for crying out loud! Can you imagine what kind of publicity you could bring to your business if you gave people something to talk about the way the soaps do? I’m not suggesting doing anything illegal or scandalous. But make sure your business does something that people would be willing to talk about. What do you differently than your competitors? How can you turn that idiosyncrasy into positive publicity? What good causes are related to your area of business? Is there some kind of event you could sponsor that would make the evening news and benefit a worthy cause at the same time? People like SoapNet because it is a lot more exciting than there own lives. Give people something exciting to talk about, and I guarantee they will.

Be the good guy. In the days of silent films, the audience used to cheer when the hero first appeared on screen, and they would boo and hiss each time the villain showed up. Earn your clients’ and customers’ applause by being the good guy. We have all had dealings with people we don’t trust or who were extremely difficult to work with. Ask yourself, Are you the shifty-eyed gravedigger American housewives everywhere hate to see on television? Or are you the honest, wholesome doctor moms would love to have their daughters marry? Conducting your business in a way that earns peoples’ trust will go a long way in creating word-of-mouth referrals and sincere praise for your company. Remember, like so many SoapNet actors and actresses, your business can get type-cast very easily. Make sure you are cast as a hero and you can’t go wrong.

Keep it simple. There is an entire channel, SoapNet, dedicated to explaining who is sleeping with whom, what happened when, and who is whose father. Plot twists and messed-up family trees may work well for soap operas, but people place a premium on simplicity when it comes to business. This does not mean that you have to dumb down everything you do, or stop offering complicated or intellectual services. It means the way you present your business is honest – what they see is what they get (see the first tip above). Do not sign a new client only to later surprise them with hidden fees or contract loopholes that will strain your relationship. This tip has everything to do with creating a relationship that is honest and transparent. Perhaps your business is built around something that you know that other people don’t. Do not put yourself out of business by giving away all your secrets. But keep your client or customer relationships open and honest. You’ll find that fewer people will try to take advantage of you when they trust you are not trying to take advantage of them.

Nobody actually falls down elevator shafts. But you may want to consider pushing parts of your business over the edge. Soap operas are king when it comes to character turnover – if they are unpopular or the story line isn’t going anywhere, there never seems to be a lack of creative ways to kill them off. Take a look at your business and see if there are any aspects of it that may need to be “taken care of,” as it were. Cutting down costs by cutting out baggage could do wonders with regards to your bottom line.

The SoapNet channel is now in more than 40 million homes. If you play your cards right, your business could be too.

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