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I think a few companies are doing this currently with the sample of products to the community, it seems to be working ok in the UK and US I notice some investment coming in for Australian companies in the samples space. 

But my question is:

1. How will you break this down via various niches for example:

- Fashion goods - Tech goods - b2b goods - office goods? Are you going to make it niche specific? 

2. I have contacts in all types of business but they would question what is the existing marketing budget, what is the currently marketing base you are working off ect?

Good luck with the project

Hi Andrew: Would that be business coaching? For effective PR, you'd need to position yourself as an expert. There are a few ways you can go about this. Tactic A - Media Relations. Journos are always looking for experts with interesting stories/points of view. Identify a fresh and interesting angle in your area and craft a concise media pitch. Identify publications that your market segment would be reading - then research/identify appropriate journo(s) in those pubs you should approach. Tactic B- Content Development. Same objective - raising your profile. Develop quality and high-value content targeted to your potential clients. Examples, blog posts (for your site and/or a contributed piece for an appropriate publication), SlideShares, eBooks. Look for guest blog opportunities, speaking gigs. The thing here is to be a little different from the rest. Too often pieces from "thought leaders" regurgitate the same info over and over. Hope this helps.

This really depends on how much work is involved - for my clients, I review the work involved, and provide an upfront quote - it will depend on lots of things, does the client use accounting software, are they registered for GST, do they have employees etc?  Depending on the size of the business - my small business tax returns can start from $175 - going up to around $425.  

My Grandfather told me there is only one book I should read. It made him a lot of money and gave him a good life. 

Dale Carnegie: how to win friends and influence people

He told me to read it at least 3 times as you tend to miss things the first time round. Good honest book. Many authors have tried to copy this book and failed. 

There are a lot of books out there. This to me is the only one worth reading. If you spend all your time reading all the book in the world on how to imporve your life or make more money. How in the world will you have time to actually do it?

Great question! There are many factors you’ll need to consider, depending on the country you want to set up your business in - So careful planning is the key.

If you are looking to expand your business with China, Australia’s largest trading partner, here are a few practical tips that might help.

Doing business in China may seem rather daunting for newcomers. Taking a strategic approach is one of the keys to making the process manageable. In particular, it is important to:

• Avoid going into China cold – get a foot in the door first by making connections and conducting research before travelling there

• Take care with your choices of advisers, partners and contractors

• Allow time for bureaucracy – both filling in forms and waiting for approvals

• Choose a business structure based on research specific to your industry, objectives and your product

• If establishing your own business there or in a partnership, make sure you are directly involved in the setting-up process.

Once you’ve decided to set up a business in China, there are a number of channels of entry open to foreign investors; the one you choose must fundamentally be supported by your company’s business objectives.

Setting up a business in China overall generally takes three to six months and involves various government authorities and procedures that may differ depending on the industry your business is in and the structure you have chosen.

The four primary options Australians businesses can choose from to set up a foreign investment enterprise (FIE) are:

1. representative offices (RO)

2. wholly foreign owned enterprises (WFOE)

3. joint ventures (JVs) – of which there are two types – one being foreign invested partnerships (FIP).

You can find out more – including on investment rules and regulations and other factors you need to consider– in these free business guides:

https://asialinkbusiness.com.au/country-starter-packs

In addition to China, the guides cover a number of other key markets as well, like Singapore, Hong Kong, India, Korea and Indonesia.

I wrote about speedup ecommece website in easy way here -

http://webdesignxperts.com.au/blog/speed-up-your-e-commerce-website/

It all depends what stage your business is and how well you know your customers. Without knowing this it is hard to give you a good answer. Feel free to contact me directly and I'll see how I can help.

i have found courses at coursera and udemy very useful.

Preferably before they get into a "critical" position. Coaches are there as sounding boards, to look at your business (and therefore you) to give perspectives on what is happening and what you can't see for yourself because you are too involved, and to motivate and push you outside of your comfort zone. My coach did actions and challenges for the week, and things have gone forward faster than I thought they would.

I think you have the same problem a lot of people who work from home have: you don't treat it like it's work from the office.

Basically, that's the first thing you need to do: treat it with the same respect as you would an actual 9-5 job.

Get up early. Eat a hearty breakfast. Grab coffee. Get yourself in front of your desk and begin chipping away at your tasks.

How about dinner and the dog and the dishes? Get a nanny or someone to help you with the chores. If that's not possible, get your work done...and when you've accomplished the work-related tasks for the day...that's when you do everything else.

There's a lot to be thankful for, when you work from home (not being suck in traffic is a huge plus), so make sure you do a great job at keeping your work from home boss/clients happy.

If you want to know a bit more detail about how I succeeded in working from home for more than a decade, just drop me a SavvyMail.

Hope that helps.