Get emailed Home-Based 100 Updates

About the 2009 StartupNation Home-Based 100

Welcome to the one and only ranking focused on you – the outstanding unsung heroes of our economy – home-based entrepreneurs.

The second annual 2009 StartupNation Home-Based 100 will once again rank the best performing home-based businesses across America in ten distinct categories.

This year’s categories are:

• Best Financial Performers
• Most Innovative
• Boomers Back in Business
• Greenest
• Yummiest
• Wackiest
• Savviest in Social Media
• Recession Busters
• Most Slacker Friendly
• Most Glamorous

Building on the fanfare surrounding last year’s winners, the 2009 competition has the makings of an even bigger celebration of contestants, and ultimately, finalists who will claim their place among the 100 winners.

Selection Process and Important Dates

You can enter your business until midnight Pacific Time on September 30, 2009. Throughout October, winners will be judged by StartupNation and a panel of judges who are each passionate about home-based business and the Top Ten categories highlighted in this year’s competition. Winners will be announced in mid-November, 2009.

The judges’ decision-making process will be influenced by the following factors:

• How well your business fits the category (or secondary category) for which you entered
• The quality and completeness of the description about your business and the case you make for it. Your passion, achievements, creativity, integrity and/or humor may be instrumental factors depending upon which category(s) you entered
• The popularity of your entry based on number of popular votes received

Voting will remain open throughout much of October, which will culminate in announcement of the Top Ten Highest Vote Getters winners along with other winners (see last year’s Highest Vote-Getters).

Smart Strategies

• Use StartupNation’s various downloads to drum up support for your entry in the competition. Locate them at your website, in your emails, on your Facebook and LinkedIn pages, etc., to encourage daily voting!
• Use a flattering image for your Contestant’s Profile. This could be a personal photo, a photo of your home office, a product photo, or a logo. Just use something that best expresses what’s special about you and your business.
• Forward a link from your Contestant’s Profile page to people you think are “influencers” and who would be helpful in spreading the word about your quest to be a winner. Be sure to do this selectively – don’t be a SPAMmer!
• Become an active commenter/poster in networking sites and blogs like StartupNation (and other communities) where you can elevate your brand by providing value and all the while maintain links in your posts to your Contestant’s Profile where they can vote for you.

Promote your Entry with Widgets

What is a Widget?

• Technical definition: A web widget is a portable chunk of code that can be installed and executed within any separate HTML-based web page by an end user without requiring additional compilation.
  (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_widget)
• Our definition: A web widget let's people from one website "do something" from another website (examples: Facebook, Google, Wordpress). In this case, these widgets let people vote for your entry.

How can I use my Widget?

• After entering the competition and completing your contestant profile, personalized widgets will be available to you that include your company name, image, and a "vote for me" button.
• Email your widget to a friend so they can vote for you.
• Place your widget on your website, Facebook profile, Wordpress, Blogger, MySpace, Yahoo, Google, and more social networking sites.

Refer Someone You Know

We hope the StartupNation Home-Based 100 is an exciting opportunity for you and your home-based business. If you believe there’s someone else who’s running a home-based business that should enter the competition in one of the categories, definitely send that person a link to get them registered.

For us at StartupNation, our hope is to make the biggest possible positive impact on home-based businesses and we appreciate your help in spreading the word and shining the spotlight on more unsung heroes who base their businesses at home.