1. FREEDOM: Wouldn't you like the freedom to pursue your own interests on YOUR schedule? Don't you wish you could say when your work day is going to start, and when it will end? And wouldn't it be great to take a day of when YOU wanted to...without asking anybody's permission?

2. FIRE YOUR BOSS: This would be great, wouldn't it? Don't forget, however, that it usually does take a boss to run a business successfully. If you aren't willing to assume the duties and responsibilities of the boss, your business will not be successful.

3. INCREASE YOUR INCOME: Normally, to increase your income will mean having to rise high enough in the ranks of a business to be rewarded for your skill, experience, loyalty, and/or education. If you have your own home or internet business in which you are rewarded based on your performance, you have an opportunity to go much farther - especially if your business uses a multilevel marketing system.

4. SPEND MORE TIME WITH YOUR FAMILY: Sometimes, the answer to this one isn't just having more time. You could still work the same number of hours you do now and spend more time with your family if YOU control your work schedule. With your own business, travel doesn't have to mean leaving the family behind, either. Take 'em along!

5. IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF YOUR LIFE: With a multilevel marketing business of your own, you will be able to build an organization which will allow you to decrease the hours you need to work. With this type of home or internet business, you can increase your income, cut your work hours, lower your stress level, and have more money to fund the activities you like.

6. TAKE THE JOB WITH YOU: This doesn't sound too great at first, but if you want a flexible lifestyle and don't want to be tied to a single office or schedule, think about it. Couldn't go on vacation last year because of job scheduling conflicts or work requirements? With laptop computers, cell phones, wireless links, and other modern marvels (including Kinko's), I can take my "home" business almost anywhere I travel.

Last Thanksgiving, I was able to work on my "home" business from my mother-in-law's place in Arizona, did a little work while traveling in Colorado, and did a little more at my mom's house in Atlanta. Then, on the way home from there, I did a little more after I got through gambling and eating dinner at a casino.

7. START WITHOUT LOSING YOUR PRESENT JOB OR BENEFITS: Select the proper online or home-based business, and you can start small and work around your current schedule. A word of warning, however. Don't expect miracles to happen overnight. You are starting a business, you will have to work, and the world is probably NOT going to beat a path to your door.

The less time you have to work at your new home business, the longer it will take to build it up to a performance level that will satisfy you.

You set the schedule. Some people choose to only work a few extra hours a week and slowly build their businesses. Others may work a lot of extra hours in order to grow their business as rapidly as possible. Expect to take 1 to 2 years at least. It took my daughter almost a year to get her first customer. Now her group is growing.

8. YOU CAN LEARN AS YOUR NEW HOME BUSINESS GROWS: Ever start a new job where you weren't really sure what you were doing and were afraid that one mistake could cost you that job - or at least get you in trouble with the boss?

Well, with most home or internet businesses, mistakes aren't much more than part of the training. In fact, in businesses I have managed, I made sure that every error was a learning experience.

Lose a sale today because you forgot to mention something important about your product or service, and you may feel like a fool, but nobody's going to chew you out...unless you want to get rough with yourself.

Just remember. It's a learning experience. Once you realize that you could have had the commission, you will probably not repeat that mistake again.

9. PROFESSIONAL ADVERTISING MATERIALS AND SERVICES AVAILABLE: If you choose the correct business to become a distributor for, you should have access to a wide range of professionally designed materials. You shouldn't even need to be a great sales person!

Before I entered network marketing with a multilevel marketing business, I watched two friends become millionaires with two different companies. In both instances, neither friend could even be remotely called considered to be a good sales person. However, both depended completely on the materials provided by their companies.

You will have to get your materials into the hands of the right people. Avon or tupperware probably won't sell well in Popular Mechanics. Some products, however have a wide appeal. Weight Loss products, for example, have a huge potential market since over 50% of the adult american population are overweight, and according to studies, about 75% of those have said they would be willing to purchase an effective weight loss product. So choose your product and market.

Other services of value that might be provided by the business you affiliate with could be credit card processing, order taking, order fulfillment, a website for sales and recruiting, and a support staff to handle customer inquiries.

10. ONLY ONE MAJOR JOB SKILL REQUIRED FOR A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS: In my personal experience (because it happened to me), in my observations (because it happened to friends), and in my research (because it happened to one successful entrepreneur after another), I have found that no other factor influences success more than perserverence.

Even if, like most of us, you are a lousy marketer, sooner or later the laws of chance are going put you in contact with people who want to purchase your product or service or people who can grow your business. Your job is to get your message to them.

A NOTE ON THIS LAST ITEM!

Years ago, a major company did a study to determine how their best salesmen became high-volume producers. After crunching a lot of numbers, they discovered a fact which has been revealed many times since in study after study. While salespeople certainly can do things to improve their performances (Would you rather talk to a rude person or a polite person?), there was one factor which was common to the best performers...

THEY MADE THE MOST PRESENTATIONS, SALES CALLS, MAILED THE MOST BROCHURES....WHATEVER!

The key is volume.

If you can't buy a billboard that catches the eye of thousands of motorists, and if you can't buy an ad on the Super Bowl half-time, you are just going to have to hand out your materials to as many people as possible. If it is a good product or service, and if you are getting the information into the hands of those who might be interested, sooner or later someone will buy. Then you just do that again.

The author is retired from the Army after 21 years of service, has worked as an accountant, optical lab manager, restaurant manager, and instructor. He has been a member of Mensa for several years, and has written and published poetry, essays, and articles on various subjects for the last 40 years. He has been an active internet marketer since 2000, and now makes his living online. To learn more about improving your marketing performance, please visit http://marketingsecrets.xtramoney4me.net To read more articles by the author, please visit his blog at http://donovanbaldwin.blogspot.com/