The Perfect Home Based Business?
Copyright 2006 Prepaid Solutions
It doesn't have to be a perfect home business but one that you
enjoy and have skills to manage the day to day projects.
Day by day people scour the internet looking for a home based
business to set them financially free. What happens more often
than not is that people end in worse shape than when they
started. Why you ask? The answer is not so simple.
The key to finding a home based business starts with knowing
yourself. That means knowing what you are good at and what you
do not do well. You must also be honest with yourself when doing
this. We would all love to be perfect in every aspect of life
but the truth is we are not and we have to accept this fact.
This is important because picking a business in which most of
the tasks that need to be done are your strengths will increase
your chances of success. For example let's say you are not much
of a talker. You do not talk much to people who you do not know
and you keep to yourself usually. You are however extremely
organized and love to write. It would most likely be in your
best interest to be an article writer or ghost writer. They do
not require you to do much talking or go to meetings all the
time.
The next thing you need to know is the product or service that
you will be offering. The more you believe in your product or
service, the more you will sell.
Now before I go on there is a handful of people in the world
that could sell ice to an Eskimo or sell water to a fish but
these people are the exception rather than the rule. For most of
us if we do not believe in what we are doing we will not reach
the level of success that we desire. People will be able to tell
if you believe in your product or not. So if you are looking at
a network marketing company try being their customer for a
couple of months before you join the business.
Once you try the product or try the service then you will know
how you feel about it. On top of that you will be more prepared
to answer question about it because you have become familiar
with it.
Pick a business that relies on your strengths and a product or
service you can believe in you have to choose what your budget
is going to be. Remember that most home businesses take at least
months before you really start seeing results off so it is
important to keep within a budget until then. If you decide to
join a mlm you may have the type of sponsor that says you should
buy this or buy that it will really help your business. Remember
that you need to stay within your budget. If the recommended
items are out of your budget ask your sponsor to rank the items
by importance. This way you can stay in budget and get the items
most needed first.
OK now you have your business, our product, and your budget now
you are ready to start your business. Just remember that it is a
business and should be treated as such. Running a home based
business can be more difficult than running a traditional
business. Running a business from home offers many distractions;
Kids, TV , your bed, etc. You could have followed this guide
perfectly but mess this up and you will not succeed. If you do
not take it seriously you will just be wasting money and wasting
time and since how most people start up home based businesses to
have more time and more money you would be defeating the
purpose. Make sure the home office is secluded so that when you
are working you cannot be distracted.
Now that you have your business running you must market it.
Marketing is how you get customers. Now there are many forms of
marketing such as newspaper ads, flyers, TV ads, mailing lists,
pay-per-click ads, power-linking, and many others.
How you market your business is up to you. Each technique has
its own strengths and weaknesses. Obviously you will want to
keep your budget in mind when picking a method of marketing.
Diversify your marketing as much as possible, and remember...
the more people that see and know your business the more
business you will do.
Whatever home based business you choose should be well thought
out with at least an outline and preferably a business plan. You
don't need to detail every little item or task but have a
general idea of what you want to do, when and how.
Most online businesses fail within 2-3 months as opposed to 9-12
months offline. Why? This is a multiple answer question and
somewhat complex but it can be boiled down to these reasons:
1. You don't pick a topic or subject you are excited about and
have skills to weather the ups and downs and long hours to
persist. 2. You don't want spend or don't have the financial
resources. If you treat your new business like a brick and
mortar store, you will be more likely to succeed. 3. You aren't
ready to go through the frustrations, long hours and budget
drain that a new business entails. 4. You aren't willing to
learn new things or be 'coachable'.
If you do the above, your chance of succeeding has just entered
the 'most likely to succeed' category!
And DON'T choose Internet Marketing as your home business as it
is dominated by very shrewd and aggressive marketers.