About

My name is Devin Best. I own my own business and am an advocate for small business owners. I see opportunity for people like me to explore blogging, podcasting, and online video as powerful ways to differentiate themselves and their businesses online.

I’m an Internet / social networking geek, among other things. My success derives from helping others achieve success and accomplish their goals online.

I come from a short line of short entrepreneurs (my dad), and business ownership is in my blood, which is one of the reasons I have historically been so unemployable. I grew up knowing that I would run my own business one day, but following in my father’s footsteps in the gourmet food industry wasn’t for me.

Turns out, neither was printing (my major in college), multi-level marketing (both telecommunication and health & wellness products), corporate out-sourcery, document management, video production, insurance, photography, real estate, computer network administration, or food service.

Go figure.

None of those occupations occupied me for longer than two years. I needed the paychecks, but held no illusions that I was serving my life’s purpose. The icing on the cake for me was realizing that my role as corporate out-sourcerer was to save somebody else money!

What a yucky position to find myself in! My mark on the world would be that I saved some corporate hospital chain $32,000 in one year. Great. Not the legacy I envisioned leaving my sons.

This is what brings me before you today.

My purpose in being here is to create a valuable resource for people like me who want to succeed in online business of all varieties. I am obsessed with information marketing and determining how to deliver the most compelling content and products to the people who most want it.

Listening to podcasts is actually what turned me on to the world of information publishing and marketing online. From there, I belatedly started reading and subscribing to blogs, and eventually started blogging early this year.

I have no credibility, only ideas. This blog is an exercise in the belief that what we can learn together will genuinely help you liberate yourself from some of the mundane struggles of your home business.

I plan to share with you my discoveries and techniques for both managing and marketing a small home business online. Along the way, we will explore such topics as:

  • Outsourcing—the single most powerful tool available to the overworked home business owner. Learn the value of sharing that load with capable virtual assistants.
  • Business Automation—Anything that can be automated, should be automated.
  • Podcasting—how to get the attention of the people who can most benefit from your services and expertise using online, portable audio and video.
  • Social Networking Sites and the Relationship Marketing Model. Crowdsource your way to better products and services by working with your audience!
  • Web-based applications that enable your virtual home office to exist anywhere within range of a hi-speed internet connection

Learn as I learn. I’ll show you the implementation of new ideas, strategies, and tactics as they happen.

But hopefully I won’t just be bouncing ideas off the wall around here. I’d really like to get your feedback on the content I produce, whether you hate it or love it, whether what I suggest is realistic or not, or whether I’m on-track or off-base.

You are witnessing the foundation of what I hope will be a thriving community of home business entrepreneurs.

I’m here to keep the conversation going.

Why are you here?

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Tags: liberate, Devin Best, social networking sites, Business Automation

August 10, 2008 · Filed Under Uncategorized

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Embrace the Digital Home Office

I founded Home Office Web Tools for one purpose: to teach home office workers, small business owners, and entrepreneurs how to transmogrify their businesses using Web 2.0 and social media technology.

In my search for ways to manage my various past businesses 100% digitally, the wealth of resources available simply confused my preoccupied mind. I had enough to do without experimenting with yet another untried, untested online service.

Mustering the time and focus necessary to discover reliable, authoritative forums and reviews proved too challenging to balance with family responsibilities, a day job, etc. and it occurred to me that other home business owners probably had similar problems.

Which is why we are here. I plan to share with you my discoveries and techniques for both managing and marketing a small home business online. Along the way, we will explore such topics as:

  • Outsourcing—the single most powerful tool available to the Bartholomew Cubbins-like home office worker. Learn the value of sharing all those hats with capable virtual assistants.
  • Business Automation—let he who wants to continually waste time doing repetitive work avoid this section. Anything that can be automated, should be automated.
  • Podcasting—how to get inside the ears and minds of the people who can most benefit from your services, expertise, and message.
  • Social Networking Sites and the relationship marketing model. Crowdsource your way to better products and services by working with your audience!
  • Web-based applications that enable your virtual home office to exist anywhere within range of a hi-speed internet connection
  • The iPhone—the essential piece of technology for your journey of liberation from your business.

Look for regular blog updates and an upcoming weekly podcast, where we will discuss these online tools and how to best use them to accomplish our personal and professional goals.

Looking forward to serving you…

Devin Best

Tags: Business Automation, virtual assistants, home business owners, social networking sites

May 5, 2008 · Filed Under Uncategorized

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