Could A Home Based Business Be Right For You?

A note from peter@thewealthyattitude.com for Wednesday March 4 2009

Good day there folks and welcome to the midweek point.

I had a great experience last night as our good friend Randy Gage held an open conference call for networkers and home-based business operators. The call was about the etiquette of working with social networking sites.

His views were relevant, timely, and considerate as he went on to honor the entire networking industry. He agrees, as we certainly do, that these years will be looked back upon as the "golden" years for our industry. The change in the world's economic circumstance is going to create so many opportunites for enterprising people that the industry will be vaulted to a whole new level of appreciation.

Today we're going to continue our theme for the week as our contributor Eileen asks.....

Could A Home Based Business Be Right For You?

by Eileen Daly

For those who have longed for Saturday, because they get to wake up when they want instead of setting the alarm. To be followed by dressing in comfy clothes, instead of a rushed shower and donning of business attire. Not to mention the absence of commuting in a car, bus or train and all the wonderful experiences that evokes. The thought of working from home with their own home based business is a pleasant daydream. Some people have made it a reality by starting out part-time to see if they can make money online, and others have found themselves without a job and needing to replace the income they lost in order to support their families. You have to think about the pluses and minuses to see if a home based business is right for you. Here are a few things to consider.

Discipline and Time Management

When you work at home, you essentially become your own boss. For some that is not a problem, but it does require a tremendous amount of discipline. You have to be very focused and not easily distracted by friends and family, TV, pets, gardening, cleaning, shopping, etc. You have to explain to the ones you love that, even though you are home, you are busy building your business. It is also easy to get distracted online with email, forums, reviewing products, studying the amazing amount of information available online on how to build your business, which can use up valuable time you need to make your business happen. You have to set goals for each day or week of what you need to accomplish, and make sure you get to the projects that will meet your goals and build your business.

Budget

When you first start your business, assuming you do not have unlimited resources, you have to set a budget and stick to it. You will be amazed at the array of products you can choose from online. Most of them promise you will be making millions overnight, if you follow their amazing system! You have to be very careful. Research products before you buy or sign up for any service that can supposedly help you build your business. Reputable products will have reviews online for you to research and forums are a great place to get honest advice on which services actually perform. It pays to do your research.

Other costs can include setting up a website, and the monthly costs for the company that hosts your website. If you sign up to be an affiliate with an online company, and there is a recurring income opportunity with that company, you will likely be paying monthly costs to maintain your membership status. The biggest expense can be advertising, with Pay Per Click ads being the primary expense for many online marketers. You do not want to start throwing money at Pay Per Click ads until you know what you are doing. Many online entrepreneurs have lost a lot of money doing just that! All these expenses add up, and it could be months before you see any revenue from your efforts.

Organization

When you first start working online, you will find yourself accumulating a variety of information that you have to keep organized. If you decide to market digital products you will probably join ClickBank.com or Commission Junction. You will join forums, Warrior Forum being one of the best for online marketers, and social sites like Twitter, My Space or Facebook. You may be setting yourself up to be an affiliate of one or more programs, creating a blog, and in all of these situations you will have different identification names and passwords, or affiliate identification numbers or a personalized link to the merchant’s website. All this information needs to kept in a way that is easy to access.

The best thing to do from the start, to make sure you keep everything organized, is to set up folders in your email account, and keep every confirmation email you receive with all your account information, and set up a directory on your computer where you can cut and paste all of your affiliate links. That way you can easily find whatever you need, without having to go through the frustration of searching through pages of emails. Trust me, this will save you lots of time. It’s also not a bad idea to keep a register of all this information off line in case you have a problem with your computer. It is always better to be safe than sorry!

Expectations

When you first get started, you think you will be seeing fat checks before you know it. The reality is that starting a home based business requires a tremendous amount of initial startup time to get your business up and running. In fact, it usually takes months of working full time before most people see any money at all. It is like any business you could start, you have to work hard and trust that all your efforts will eventually pay off. If you are looking for instant gratification, you will be disappointed. There are a lot of people making a very good living online, but they put a lot of effort in usually for a long time to get to that point.

If you think you have the drive and the patience to invest the time and money to build your business, then you have the makings of a successful home based business entrepreneur. Once you build your business, and have learned and accomplished what it takes to be successful, you too could benefit from all your hard work for years to come.