The Long Way Home

Anyone who has embarked on the long journey involved in building any type of business can relate horror stories concerning the difficulties and problems they faced. Then they can tell you about all the money they spent, the time it took and the small return they experienced as the end result. Let's face it, doing something like that is a real job fraught with all sorts of pitfalls and hazards. Does it have to be that way? No it does not. There are some basic rules and procedures a person needs to know about if they are to make a success of any type business. Now here is a real problem. Where can a person find these rules and procedures, gain a clear understanding of them and how to apply them to best effect? There are hundreds of online business and marketing gurus on the web. Just take their word for it they are there. How do you know? Well, they tell you so and try to get you to sign-up with some rinky-dink program of their invention which will make you rich if only you will follow their advice and use their system. Don't be fooled my friend. The serious and ethical business building services on the web do not work that way. A serious business helper invites you to describe your idea, product or service and then offers a consultation on a way or ways to go in building your business and market your products or services. They do this for free and also assure you, in writing if necessary, that the information you are passing to them belongs to you and will advise you on the steps to take to protect that information. Before we go any further along this very long road, let's stop a minute, take a deep breath and think about some of the things you need to build or improve your online business. First you had better come up with some hard cash or other dependable source of money to pay for those services you will need just to get started. What are these things? Well the list below identifies some of them, the ones we should call essential online business tools. 1. A modern, fast computer with a large hard drive capacity and sufficient memory to do the job. 2. A fast and reliable Internet connection and a reliable ISP. For efficiency you should have a dedicated telephone line for your Internet connection. 3. A printer and probably a FAX. A scanner would not hurt. 4. Sufficient knowledge and skill to operate your computer and on the Internet. OK, you have these things. Now what? Well, the next step is knowing what you may wish to accomplish. Build your dream. Motivate yourself to move ahead. We all want more money, all of us for whatever reason we may have. A new house. A new Car. Travel and vacations. The kid's education. Whatever your dream, solidify it in your mind and visualize it to extreme clarity. Know what you want. I cannot overstress the importance of this. Now you know what it is what you want. How do you get it and make the dream come true? Well my friend you plan, organize, work hard and consistently, that is what you do. There are many ways for you to do this. You can attempt to do it on your own. Develop your own products or services, set up a plan and market it to the world. Wait a minute how do I do that you ask? First of all be sure you know what you are doing. Online marketing is like everything else in life. There are correct ways to do it and wrong ways to do it. Doing it correctly gives you the best chance to achieve a measure of success with your efforts. You can spend the time and effort to teach yourself all you need to know through the study of the millions of free words on the Internet. That is a hard way to go. How do you know the stuff you are reading is actually helpful or not. You don't. What I suggest is that you find someone to help you. There exists on the web several companies dedicated to online business start-ups or to the improving of existing online businesses. The Company I am most familiar with is the Internet Musketeers Incorporated Online Business Center or IMIOBC. The IMIOBC is dedicated to helping people start-up or improve their own online businesses. The list of services provided by these people are impressive and covers the entire spectrum of requirements concerning the operations of online businesses. For example they provide a free consultation service designed to explore your ideas, products or services, determine your specific requirements, and then recommend courses of action designed to meet your specific requirements. No one else does that. Many times this free consultation is all you need to get started in the right direction. That's OK with them because in talking with you they have the opportunity to expose you to their unique business building products and services for your future use if you are so inclined. Below is a short list of the products and services available to you through the IMIOBC. 1. Business, Marketing, Promotional and Advertising Plans. 2. Web Design and Construction Bureau. A full service agency and includes all the state of the art Website design capabilities. They even help you find a proper host for your website. 3. A Website Search Engine Submission Service. Gets your Websites on the major search engines with all the appropriate keywords and Meta Tags. They teach you how to do it or do it for you. 4. A Marketing, Promotional and Advertising Service wherein they devise and place the copy material for you. 5. A Ghost Writing Service. Professional ghost writers prepare and place articles covering topics of your choice with your byline. Get yourself known on the web through published articles. When you hook-up with these guys they are with you all the way on your long journey home to success. You owe it to yourself to check them out and see what they can do for you.