Plan For Success

Congratulations, you have made the decision to start a home-based business on the Internet. This is the first step towards financial independence for you and your family.

For a business to be successful, you will need to develop a complete business plan. You will need to research the business that you plan on joining. You will also need to set up a budget and work schedule.

When choosing the business that you want to pursue, you need to do some research. There are 1,000's of business opportunities on the Internet and 100's of new programs coming out all of the time. Every one of them will tell you that you will be successful. But lets face facts, if it was as easy as they made it sound, everyone would be doing it.

The truth is, 95% of all Internet marketers fail. Why do they fail? The majority that do fail, do so because of two reasons.

First, they tried to go into business without a workable business plan. they sign up for a program, and start pushing out to everyone they know. A lot of the time, they don't even know much about the program or the products. They just know that their sponsor told them they were going to make a bunch of money, so they run with it. Do you think that IBM or Pepsi started without a plan? I don't think so.

A successful business must meet several criteria:

Is it a marketable product?

A legitimate business must have a marketable product to survive. Any business depends on product sales.

Will I use the product?

You need to choose a business that has a product that appeals to you. It is much more difficult to market something you don't use or believe in.

Can I teach someone else how to duplicate my efforts?

If you can't teach others how to duplicate your business efforts, how can you expect to achieve success.

If your business can't meet these three basic factors, you may need to reconsider whether it is right for you.

Researching your business is an important part if the decision process. The more informed you are, the better decision you can make. Talk to the person who presented the business to you. I suggest speaking on the phone or through a live chat on the Internet. It is difficult to get to know someone via email. Try to communicate with their sponsor, find out as much information as possible. Go to one of the popular search engines on the Internet, like http://www.google.com , and type in the name of the business and you should get links to several other people's websites who are also involved in that business opportunity. Contact them and ask about the business. Tell them you are thinking of joining and want to get some good information. Make sure they understand that if you join, it will be under the original person you spoke to. Try to get the true story and not a bunch of hype.

The second reason for failure is lack of upline support. If your sponsor gets you to sign up and then forgets about you, your chances of failure increase dramatically. Stay in constant communication with your sponsor until you are entirely comfortable with the business. If your sponsor won't help, try to contact their upline until you find someone to help.

Now it is time to put your business plan together.

The first thing you need to do is create a work schedule. No matter how many hours a week you plan to devote to your business, write down a work schedule. If you decide to work 10 hours a week, for example, decide which 10 hours you are going to work. Once you have a schedule in place, STICK TO IT. This is YOUR business and you need to work the schedule. If you have had a job, you were expected to work a certain amount of hours. This is no different.

Next, you need to learn all about your business. Go to your website and read every page and every word. I know this sounds very time consuming, and it is, but it is very important. If you don't know your business, how can you properly present it to someone. Knowledge is power. Take notes if you need to. Sign up for any training that is offered. Learn about any promoting tools or systems that are available.

Next, you need to set up your monthly budget. This should include the cost of the business, as well as an advertising budget. You should definitely have some money put aside for advertising, no matter how little. As with your work schedule, once you establish your budget, STICK TO IT. If you budgeted $50 a month to spend on paid advertising, spend it. I know that life will through things at you to make you have to change directions, but this will be a key to getting your business off of the ground.

The last thing I want to cover in this article is patience. Any successful business will take some time to grow. Don't become discouraged because you aren't making big money in the beginning. When you start your business, make a commitment to work towards success for at least one full year. Remember the old saying, "Rome was not built in a day".

Jim Clary
Training Director-AIM Marketing Team
http://www.jimclary.com
Copyright 2004, James D. Clary.
This article may be copied and reprinted in its entirety,
without modification, and including this notice. Any other
use is a violation of the author's copyright.

Jim Clary is the Training Director for the AIM Marketing Team. Jim can be reached via email at training@jimclary.com or through his website at http://www.jimclary.com