Why A Home Based Business and What Makes It Profitable?
Every day people start new online businesses. They were searching the web, found some compelling sales copy that sold them on how easy it is to earn money on the internet and voila! Another home based business is born.
The reason this is happening, which is also the reason why there is a 97% failure rate of new business startups, is because most people get their start in a home based business by an experienced "salesperson" who is only interested in getting money for himself/herself. The 3 or 4 simple steps to profit are the "final steps" in the process.
Are you asking yourself, "what wasn't I told?" The answer is "A lot." And the discussion of just how much you were not told will be broken down into the
following categories:
You-The Basis of Your Home Based Business Success
The discussion of "You" needs to be broken down further as this is the most important lesson all new entrepreneurs must learn. This being because internet
marketing is not based on selling a product or service. It is based on selling yourself as a trustworthy, reliable and fair business person. The product,
if it's good and even if it's not good will sell if the buyer feels there is a connection between himself and the seller, you. And because you are basically
competing with a lot of other people who sell that same product, you must make yourself "stand out" from the crowd in the mind of the buyer. So, the
discussion of "you" will now be broken down into the following categories:
Have you sat back and really thought about why you want your own home based business? Did you see ad copy and say to yourself "maybe I'll give this a try?" Are you looking just to supplement an income that you earn working for someone else or are you looking for complete independence, fully self sufficient? Are you dreaming of a better life and wishing to find it on the internet? These are very important questions you must ask yourself as their answers will determine if your home based business is successful.
Any internet business and/or internet marketing is not easy. A home based business requires a lot of work, dedication and downright refusal to quit in order
to make it successful. As you examine the "why am I doing this?" you must be able to convey to yourself strong, compelling and convincing reasons for
becoming an entrepreneur. Are you willing to:
To speak very bluntly, if you are "just going to give it a try," don't waste your time--you will not succeed. Trying only means that you will quit when the going gets tough, becoming part of the 97% failure rate. You have to "want it," "crave it," be willing to learn and do what it takes to make your home based business successful.
And again, are you "wishing" for success? Go back to your 40 hour work week. Wishing will get you nowhere real fast on the internet. A home based business on the internet is a lot of work. Success doesn't happen by wishing. Success only happens by hard work, dedication and time. It requires getting the education necessary, thinking "outside the box," determination or stubbornness to keep going no matter what. Henry Ford said "If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can't, you're right." If your "why am I doing this?" is strong enough to drive you to keep going forward, even when things seem impossible, "can't" will no longer be part of your vocabulary. It will be replaced with "let me find a way."
Do you really want to do all the extra work to make your home based business succeed? Changing from a mentality of "just doing what the boss says to do" to developing a discipline to direct yourself to find, create and implement any system requires a lot of education. Are you willing? And once you find that system, the internet is constantly changing. Are you also willing to keep learning as technologies and marketing methods are improved? Do you want to promote products or services using somebody elses website or do you want to learn how to write and maintain your own home based business website? Are you willing to put in the time to keep it maintained with fresh information to keep your customers interest? And are you willing to keep teaching what you've learned to all those that request your help? Your relationship with people is what will sustain you, not any product or service.
As you answer the above questions you will determine the type of business person you will become. Are you only looking for a "quick buck" and will go only as far as writing compelling sales copy, much like the one you were sold on and then forget about the customer and try to "bag" the next one? Or do you want to develop relationships with your customers and satisfy their needs and keep them coming to you for the answers? The latter requires much more work but will give you the most rewards and feeling of success. Are you willing to learn and develop this in yourself and subsequently in your home based business?
What should becoming clear to you now is that "you" are the foundation of any home based business you want to set up. In order to succeed, you must be willing to take all steps necessary to develop "you." This may require a lot of learning, time, dedication and most important the "want" must always be present.
The Company-Provides the Product or Service For Your Home Based Business
New companies appear on the internet on a daily basis. There are an innumerable number of scam, "get rich quick" schemes and legitimate companies online and
you have to decipher which companies fit into what catagories. I have found that in general, a legitimate company will supply a new affiliate with the
following: (from my article "Find a Legitimate Home Based Business-Enough With The Scams Online")
The above information does not mean success though. Many times your upline can only repeat what you have already read about marketing. If your success with the marketing methods taught are minimal or nonexistent, your upline may not be able to help you. This is where your ability to "think outside the box" must come to the forefront. You may need to research and find and possibly develop a new marketing system. This is also where 97% of all new internet home based businesses fail. Most, when faced with a failure or failures in marketing, just quit. "You" must find your own uniqueness to sell yourself before you try to sell the product. Sales pitches in advertising do not work in todays internet marketing. You cannot succeed in marketing if you are only going to try and "hard sell" a product or service based on its own attributes. "You" have to fill a need that the potential customer has. Or "You" have to write such compelling copy to convince that customer of the need they may not know about yet, for the given product or service. In either case, it tells any potential customer about "you." All internet marketing is based on selling yourself as a valuable source of information to the potential customer and one who can satisfy a need.
You must also be aware that if you choose to promote a company through their webpage versus creating your own business website, you will not develop a relationship with the customer. All questions and comments will be directed to the company, not you. Also, search engines basically ignore company web pages. They are seen thousands of times over by the search engine robots and are considered replicated pages which deserve no merit. Typically this piece of information is omitted in any company-based jargon.
Methods of Marketing Your Home Based Business
As mentioned above, most home based businesses fail because of failure to market correctly. Usually the biggest reason for failure is MONEY. Many companies offer free advertising solutions for the internet entrepreneur without an advertising budget. Although you can succeed after a long period of time with these methods, having money to devote to advertising or upgrading in various advertising programs greatly increases your exposure throughout the internet. Basically, unless you have a lot of time,"it takes money to make money."
The second reason for failure in marketing is NOT TALKING TO THE RIGHT PEOPLE. You have to direct your efforts to those that are interested. The old method of advertising saying "I have a great product and you should really try it" actually sells nothing if the person(s) you are talking to have absolutely no interest in it. For example, a home based business is not the dream of every individual you know. To try and talk to a friend, relative or neighbor who happens to be quite happy with their 40 hour a week job is like talking to a wall. Furthermore it gives you the reputation of trying to force your interest on somebody that does not care to know. In this instance, the "hard sell" does not work and damages existing relationships. Successful marketing of your home based business includes selling yourself and your product to people who are interested. Again you must dedicate the time to find the right outlets for the information or product you are offering. Researching the great number of forums online to find those that include your interest. Again don't try to sell jewelry at a hardware store. Find those that have an interest in jewelry. Craft forums where jewelry might be a hobby for someone. Other retailers of jewelry might be another. Look for a similar interests first and expand upon it by expressing once again, "yourself" and your interest with jewelry. Many forums are actually free to join and offer a place where you can build a network of friends interested in the same thing you are.
A third reason for failure in marketing a home based business is FAILURE TO ACT. You can wish for a lot of things but in internet marketing, if you do not act you will not succeed. There is an enormous fear factor that holds people back. Again, "You" must develop that spirit of adventure in yourself. No one is going to do it for you. If you want it bad enough, fear will never stop you from action. Look at the reasons why you wanted a home based business and "go for it." If you fall down once or twice, a skinned knee heels. But if you let a dream die, you will never know if you could have succeeded. From an Unknown Author: "None of the secrets of success will work unless you do." And from Henry Ford "Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal."
The fourth reason that takes out the majority of new home based business entrepreneurs is the skills necessary to make it happen successfully. Again you must look at your reasons for why you set out to do this and again ask yourself, "am I willing to learn what is necessary?" Nobody I know of can start a business knowing everything. It is a constant learning experience and "you" must develop the need to learn more as you progress. If you ever think that you know it all, pack it in because you will become like a stale loaf of bread in about the same timeframe. Skills in internet marketing can always be improved and must be improved on a regular basis as more and more people decide that an internet home based business is their goal. Website designs and technologies change and you must keep your home based business website fresh to keep your customers interested. Not keeping up with new methods of marketing is like telling someone about last weeks news headlines. Who cares?
If you made it this far through this article, you have already shown an interest in learning. This is vital to your success. Information Online Center-Home Based Business Information Center is designed to provide information on many of the steps necessary to develop and market a home based business successfully. It offers both free and paid sources of business and website development, marketing and advertising sources, directory submission sites and search engine optimization. Keep in the back of your mind always that only "you" can put the unique twist on how you will develop your home based business.
I hope you find this and the many articles in the IOC Newsletter enlightening and useful. Feel free to send comments and/or questions about anything on this site. The comments box is small but it does handle a detailed question. I will get back to you with a detailed answer to the email address provided. To Success With Your Home Based Business.
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The Myth About Internet Marketing of Your Home Based Business
Many people think of the internet marketing of a home based business as being the slickest salesman online with the best salescopy. And although many a person has found their way to an internet home based business by being taken in by one of these, true success on the internet is made up of people, people relying on you for information, training or to satisfy a need. To do this successfully you must realize the type of person you are and understand the needs of types of people you will come in contact with in order to effectively deal with each type.
Givers--because they give, they actually build the biggest home based business or brick and mortar business in the long run. Givers don't buy the hard sell by "salesmen" who only sell the product. Givers want to be talked to as a person and the product mentioned well into a conversation. Usually when a Giver recruits in new affiliates into their home based business, they train and retain much longer than those that are not givers.
Salesman--sell what's hot at the moment. Being exposed to so many products and systems through their salesmanship, they are usually the most creative when it comes to representing a new product introduced to their home based business. They need only minimal information about the product, just enough to do the hard sell. The "salesman" buyer also wants the abbreviated details only, what it will do for them, to base their decision on without the "long winded explanation" as to why they should have it.
Analyst--wants all the information on a product or service to be either a fully informed seller/recruiter or a customer. The seller/recruiter is slow to recruit affiliates to his/her home based business due to the need to understand it all. The customer is slow to buy since they won't make a decision until they have disected all the information they received. The analyst also will not respond well to the "hard sell."
Motivated by Money--just wants to sell whatever will bring in money to the home based business and is actually the most aggressive type of salesman. The buyer motivated by money is usually only interested in buying if they can get something from it personally or for their home based business, namely money.
Internet marketing can make this distinction between people more difficult because of lack of personal communication. Everything is an email or a group teleconference meeting; very little one on one. What I have found to be true is that you must define very clearly the type of person you are as the seller and realize that you are not going to make everyone happy. If you are fully defined, your style will definately come through. If you are detailed, detailed oriented people (analysts or givers) will be interested but the salesman and those motivated by money will think your style is too long winded and not to the point.
Forums and social networks will help you find the differences in people within your industry. If you listen (read between the words) carefully, you will learn the type of person you are dealing with and can compensate to effectively deal with a type (or personality) that is not quite your own. As you learn more about people and how they want to be dealt with you will build more successful relationships with people from all groups and build your home based business at the same time with a variety of personalities looking to you to satisfy their need or provide the answer. That is true success.
