Running a Work at Home Business

For anyone who wants to earn more money than they'd ever get with a day job, then the only real answer (besides winning the lottery) is to start their own business. Of course, starting a business can be very costly, something that puts starting a traditional business out of the reach of many people.

However, there is an alternative, and that's starting a business from home. There are several different alternatives a person can choose from, from coming up with a completely new idea and concept and creating their own products, to joining an existing MLM type business, to starting an online business.

Lately, a huge number of people have been lured by the idea of making their millions on the Internet, but the sad fact is, few of them ever make a decent living, let alone a fortune, online. Why is that? Many online opportunities are promoted as being very simple, and easy enough for everyone to do. If that were truly the case, there would be a lot more online success stories today than there are!

One problem people have is too much choice. There are so many different opportunities and ideas, that they try and run with the lot, and end up falling quite heavily, simply because without focus a business is doomed to failure. Another problem is that many people really don't have any idea about running a business, and don't think about their home business as they would a real, traditional business.

If you really do want to start a work at home business, and aren't afraid to put in a lot of time and effort (especially in the beginning) there are a few important things you need to know to set you on the right path.

Firstly, watch your expenditure. An online business can be one of the least expensive businesses to run. Most people already have the basics they need to get started (a computer with an Internet connection). However, the problem comes when they actually start looking at online businesses and means of making money. Suddenly they're confronted with a million and one different products ALL of which are supposed to guarantee success.

Many people spend hundreds, or even thousands of dollars, very quickly when they're starting out in the world of Internet business, and soon find that most of it was money down the toilet. To avoid this, you need to work out what it is you're going to be doing online and create a plan. There are numerous ways of making money on the Internet, including: eBay and other auction sites, affiliate marketing, Adsense (and other contextual advertising), as well as marketing your own product. Once you know what it is you want to do, then find one very good resource, and stick to it, The hint here is to do a bit of research first, and get honest reviews of any product before you purchase, rather than letting a sales letter induce you to purchase another worthless product.

The next thing you need to focus on is how you're going to build your business. Most online businesses start with a website (and although there are plenty of sites that promise you don't need a website of your own, anyone who wants to make a long term living online will need a website). You then need a step-by-step plan you can follow, and you need to be able to follow it! One of the best things about working from home is also one of the most problematic, and that's the fact that you can work your own hours. Unfortunately, if you're not able to discipline yourself you may find that the hours actually spent in front of your computer aren't enough. It helps if you can work out a day to day plan of exactly what you want to accomplish each day, so that you know you're on the right track.

Finally, it's worth remembering that a work at home business, even an online one, will require a certain amount of dedication and effort before you'll be rewarded with results. It's not a matter of whipping up a quick website and waiting for the money to start flowing in, and if anyone tells you it is, odds are, they're lying! Be prepared for months (even years) of hard, consistent work, and you'll reap the rewards, but fall for too many get-rich-quick schemes and promises and you'll be back to your day job before you know it.

Affiliate Marketing - The Art of the Squeeze Page

Affiliate marketing's one of the quickest methods to generate cash flow on the web today.

Among its many benefits is the fact that you don't have to spend time or money researching and developing a new product. All of this has been done for you by the product owner.

This is a tremendous burden lifted off your shoulders because this is usually the most costly aspect of any business venture.

A word of caution though, you should still do a little research yourself as to whether the market wants the product you are looking to promote and whether the price point is fair and reasonable enough to attract a big audience.

Once this is done and you have found the product or service you want to promote and are satisfied with the affiliate program you should set up what is referred to as a squeeze page.

Simply put, a squeeze page is a one page pre sales letter that entices the prospect to leave their name and email address in order to receive more information on the product or service of choice.

There are several points to be made for this superb sales tactic. Number one, you set yourself apart from all the other affiliates promoting the same product. Number two, you build your own opt-in list that you can promote other products to.

So what do you need to use this tactic? A few basics and a little skill.

The first thing you need is a web hosting account and domain name. These are very inexpensive these days and are a must have for anyone who is serious about doing business online.

Second is an autoresponder. These too are fairly inexpensive. Many hosting accounts will now offer free autoresponders with their service.

Third is an HTML editor. There are several free editors out there that are easily found through a quick search. Nothing fancy is needed, just a simple user friendly application.

And the final ingredient is a little copy writing skill.

Here is a tip on what to write on your page: Go to the product sales page. Pick out the highlights, the biggest benefits you can see offered. Think about what other benefits there are that may not be stated already and jot them down.

Now go into your HTML editor and put together a small sales page using a good headline, subhead and bullet points listing all the benefits you gathered. This is where the copy writing skill comes in.

Put the email capture form generated from your autoresponder on the bottom of the page. Let your prospect know that by leaving their name and email address you will then reveal this highly coveted tool, piece of information, service or whatever it is you have and they so desperately want.

Do not mention the name of the product or service on the capture page, just the benefits. The reason for this is because they may have seen this product or service before and were sitting on the fence about it and you want the prospect to purchase through your link. You are going to nudge them over the fence with your presentation.

All you are trying to do is build interest, pique their curiosity and whet their appetite for more information.

Set up your autoresponder with 6-7 emails that go out in 3-4 day intervals, each building on one of the benefits mentioned on your squeeze page.

Then add in other related services or products that you are an affiliate of. Repetition is the key and your squeeze page gives you that advantage over other affiliates.

How to Find the Right Networking Marketing Opportunity

You finally decided to join the thousands of others who work from home. The home business you decide to pursue is network marketing.

Now, before you just up and join any network marketing company that looks good on the surface, seems to have a good product, etc. and so forth, STOP! Why stop? Because there are crucial steps you need to take to avoid being in the 93% failure rate of most people who join a network marketing company. Follow these tips and you will way ahead of many other home-based business opportunity seekers.

Tip #1: Commit to doing your research FIRST. I can't say enough how important this is. Starting a home-based business is a big decision and should never be done hastily and without careful thought. Commit to doing 5 or 6 hours of research on a number of companies. This one simple tip can greatly increase your level of success and save you years of frustration, being scammed, and most importantly, quitting.

Tip #2: When looking at a network marketing opportunity, make sure the product the company promotes meets the needs of a hot and hungry market. In other words, whatever company you are looking to join, make sure there are people out there clamoring for the product and would buy it even if there were no business opportunity associated with it.

You see, many people get so emotionally attached to a product or outcome that they totally miss the importance of seeing if there is even a market for it. If there is no market, you will have no success at all.

Tip #3: Use Overture. When researching if there is a hot and hungry market for a product, Overture.com is a great way to see how many people are searching for any particular product or service in a given month. If your research shows only 1,000 people are searching for a product, it would be a waste of time for you to join a network marketing company that sells it. However, if you see searches for 30,000, 50,000, 100,000 or even more, you are on the right track!

Tip #4: Check out the competitors of a product. Go the search engines Yahoo, Google, and MSN and look at the first 10 companies that are listed. If the first 10 are the same company, it's not good. However, if there are a variety of companies selling the product, this is good because it means that there is more of a demand for it.

Tip #5: Use Overture's bid tool. By doing this, you will be able to see if there are many people interested in a product and how much they are willing to pay per click to have folks come and visit their site. If there isn't a lot of bidding going, that's a bad sign. If there are quite a few people bidding on a specific term related to the product the network marketing opportunity promotes, that is a very good thing.

These are simple strategies and tools you can use to research if the network marketing opportunity is worth your time and money. If you follow these tips, and your research shows the home-based business opportunity is worth pursuing, go for it!

Avoiding MLM Scams

It's no secret that when multi level marketing (MLM) is mentioned, many people think of illegal pyramid schemes and other scams. Follow these tips to check out an MLM company and you will be able to avoid MLM scams.

1) Contact the Better Business Bureau (www.bbb.org), the State Attorney General's office and the Federal Trade commission (www.ftc.gov or 1-877-FTC-HELP) and at no charge you will be able to check the records of the MLM companies and will get some great tips about how to safely evaluate them.

2) Check Google and other search engines for "company name + scam" and you will find out quickly if there are complaints.

3) Check out home business message boards and scam.com for bad reviews. Obviously, there are always a couple of people that didn't make money and want to blame the company. Do proper research and you will quickly know which distributor had a legitimate complaint and who was just plain lazy.

4) Go to www.mlmwatchdog.com and see if any problems are posted there.

5) Ask your attorney to review any documents before you sign them.

6) Present the entire program to a trusted friend and see what he or she thinks. Take their advice under consideration. You never know, if the company does turn out to be legit, then that friend is a great first recruit.

7) You should be focusing on selling products or services and not recruiting more distributors. If this is the case, proceed with caution and at your own risk.

8) Be leery of requests to make large purchases up front.

9) All MLM's, just like any type of business, require work. Beware of false promises of easy money making schemes. Beware of guarantees such as "everyone is making money with this automatically."

10) Do the math for yourself. Have a trusted advisor, friend, accountant or attorney check you and make sure that the payout plan is actually feasible.

11) You don't want to sell products or services with false "miracle" claims to them. Actually try to promote the products and services yourself to make sure that you like them and WANT to promote them first and how they work.

The MLM industry is one that holds great promise. Unfortunately, there are a few undesirable people and companies. By following your due diligence, asking questions and proceeding with caution you should be safe. Check these things out first!

You Must be a 'Hedgehog' to Accomplish Great Things!

Yuck! A hedgehog...

Not the most glamorous of all the beasts to compare yourself with, for sure. So how did the lowly hedgehog become the mammalian mentor for us all?

After all (and no offense to all you hedgehogs out there), it appears to be nature's accidental cross between an armadillo and a porcupine -- slow moving, methodical, prickly and not all that bright.

The fox, on the other hand, is...well...FOXY! A quick-witted, sleek, fast and agile predator, the fox seems to have the attributes that we can easily imagine we share? (And even if we don't, we pretend.)

Why compare a hedgehog to a fox anyway? It all started with ancient lines of poetry that were found from a fragment of verse by Greek poet Archilochus which says:

"The fox knows MANY things, but the hedgehog knows ONE big thing."

One thing! And that's a good thing?

What about Renaissance men like Leonardo Da Vinci? He's one of the exceptions to a very perplexing rule according to Jim Collins, author of the classic business best-seller "Good to Great". He picked up on the ancient hedgehog vs. fox comparison in his book. All top level CEOs he says are very hedgehog-ish.

He tells this story:

"Day in and day out, the fox circles around the hedgehog's den, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce... (The emerging hedgehog) waddles along, going about his simple day, searching for lunch and taking care of his home."

While minding his own business, focusing on vittles, the hedgehog wanders right into the path of the fox. Sensing danger, he rolls up into a perfect little ball, becoming "...a sphere of sharp spikes, pointing outward in all directions. The fox, bounding toward his prey, sees the hedgehog defense and calls off the attack...Each day, some version of this battle between the hedgehog and the fox takes place, and despite the greater cunning of the fox, the hedgehog always wins."

The hedgehog ALWAYS wins!

Think about this: Are you a hedgehog, or a fox?

Your answer holds the key to whether you'll be successful in business or life!

Nobody wants to be a hedgehog. Admit it. How boring is that?

He doesn't see much of the world. He's too focused for that. He doesn't learn all the latest hunting tools and tricks because his world view is boiled down to just what he needs.

In "Good to Great," a terrific book by the way, Collins says the hedgehog "reduces all challenges and dilemmas to simple -- indeed almost simplistic -- hedgehog ideas."

"For a hedgehog, anything that does not somehow relate to the hedgehog idea holds no relevance."

Ever known anyone so focused that they could only pursue a single goal? Ever known anyone so focused on that goal that nothing else mattered?

Think about Olympians. Even thought the Winter Olympics may be a distant event to us, there's a 10-year old girl somewhere who gets up at 3:30 every morning to practice figure skating compulsories for four hours before school. The Winter Olympics is all she thinks about.

And NOTHING else matters!

Foxes on the other hand, "pursue many ends at the same time and see the world in all its complexity. They are 'scattered or diffused, moving on many levels.'"

Multi-tasking with too many balls in the air at once already, we're asked to do more and be more. Our bosses want us to be busy, working hard, doing as much as possible.

Yet the fox "who pursues many ends at the same time" NEVER wins!

And the guy who gets the promotion or has the very successful business is the one who focused on fewer tasks and did them well.

That was one of Collins' points -- instead of demanding too much from employees and executives; we should demand one BIG thing.

Think this doesn't apply to you? Wanna bet? You're an employee or an executive -- or both -- if you're self-employed. And just because you may wear many hats doesn't get you off the hook either. Focusing on the hedgehog ideas even when you're doing the grunt work is the key to your success.

Okay, so it's good to be a hedgehog.

How do we become one if we're a fox by nature?

It's simple. You act as if...

What would the hedgehog do? He'd focus on hedgehog ideas. Don't know what your hedgehog ideas are? Sure you do. You're just not focusing on them. This will help:

1) What six things are vital to the success of your business this year?

2) Narrow it down to three -- two's better

3) Make 'em BIG

4) Focus on those only

5) Nothing else matters

Make this part of your soul. Eliminate everything that is not helping you focus on your goals.

Keep working at it and some day you'll be a hedgehog too.

Keep Your Downline Active for the Long Term

Anyone who has recruited more than a couple of people into their organization have experienced the "revolving door" syndrome - where you recruit one person and it seems two others drop out. Obviously, this is frustrating and makes you wonder why it is so difficult to get your downline to stay active. It is even more frustrating to see people leaving faster than you can recruit them. Realize this happens in every business that fails to implement the one often forgotten element of retention.

Too often we are so caught up in recruiting new downline that we forget about the downline we already have. We focus all of our energies on the toughest part of building the business which is recruiting. Yet we forget to take action on the easiest part: Follow-up customer service.

While follow-up customer service may seem difficult to get to sometimes, it is extremely important for future growth and improving your retention rates. The number of people in the downline who drop out should not be dropping out like they are. People drop out because they are often ignored or forgotten by their up line.

Your goal should be to improve the retention within your own team and to make your customer service to your downline a priority. It is far more difficult to recruit new downline than it is to follow-up and follow-through with those you already have.

Below are seven things you MUST do to ensure your "revolving door" in your organization stays locked and to keep your downline active for the long term:

1. Implement a customer service policy. If you truly want to build a solid and profitable network marketing business, you need to implement the following policy: Provide service and follow-up to your downline.

2. Follow-up is following-through. Just because someone signed on the dotted line, does not mean the sale is complete. You must follow-up with your new downline within one week. Call them within one week of their purchase to ensure they are happy and are using the product/service. If they want to build the business, call to make certain they are tapping into the resources and getting off to a good start.

3. Staying in contact shows you care. In your prospecting and recruiting efforts, you planted seeds to start the relationship building process. Stay in touch with your downline. Doing so will show you care and value their business. Staying in touch will also provide you with an opportunity to get additional business and to strengthen the relationship.

4. Anticipate the needs of your downline. By staying in contact, you can anticipate or stay ahead of your downline needs. You will strengthen your relationship and will more fully understand their current needs. This ultimately leads to anticipation of future needs. Try to always think ahead. This will help you keep your downline happy, satisfied and even can help you to exceed expectations.

5. Keep records on your downline. As your business grows, it will become impossible to keep all downline information and individual needs in your head. You must create customer files with personal information on your downline. This information should include notes on your conversations and on their current or potential needs.

6. Work closely and be supportive. No one is guaranteed success. However, you will be amazed at how high of a success rate you will have with those you personally sponsor when you work closely with them and are supportive of their efforts. Granted some people will never do what they need to do and you can't build the business for them. But, if you provide support and show you care, you improve the retention of your downline.

7. Create intimacy with your downline. What this means is to be genuine in your concern for your downline as a person. Show them you are not just in it to get their money. You must go beyond just an order taker and help people get what they want and need. The difference between you and your competition boils down to one thing - customer service. If you provide value through concern for them as a person and deliver quality customer service in every way possible, you will find your downline will be there for the long term.

Keep in mind, the stability of your residual income will be in direct proportion to your personal follow-up and customer service. Make follow-up and customer service your PRIORITY! As you build your business in the future, make certain you follow-up and follow-through with customer service. Your wealth depends on it!