Have you been thinking about starting your own home based business?

Every day, thousands of people are looking into alternative business opportunities. With the jobless rate high, the future uncertain, and traditional businesses like franchises and retail shops priced way out of a budding entrepreneurs budget; home based businesses are becoming increasingly popular.

Starting a home business is attractive on many fronts – low start-up costs, low overheads, no office leases or extra utilities, you can also write off a portion of your home expenses in your tax return.
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The WORST thing you can do in this economy is get a second job. The BEST thing you can do is start a home-based business. Dave Ramsey

In order to make your business truly successful you have to understand that it is a long term commitment and not something that is going to happen over night. Most people will burn out long before they reach success if they spend every waking minute trying to achieve that success.

Having a home business can easily take all of your extra time, and although it is important to spend time building your business, it’s just as important to sit back and think about why you are doing this in the first place – to have a fun and happy life with the people you love.

If you create an organized, consistent plan of action it becomes easier to to get in to a routine which ultimately cuts the amount of time needed to spend on your business, giving you more time to do the things you want to do.

If you are thinking about starting a home based business, here are some tips to help you get started:

1. On Your Own or With Support?

Decide if you are going to start a business from scratch (larger investment of time and money), or if you’ll start a business under an existing company with a proven business model to follow (network marketing or direct sales).

2. What Kind of Business?

Are you interested in consulting, sales, virtual administrative support, creative products? Online or offline? There are many things you can do to make money that does not involve working for a boss or commuting..

Decide what you’re most interested in doing and most importantly, investigate whether or not you will be able to reach your income goals with your business.

Knitting booties for babies and selling them online may be rewarding but is it going to pay the bills?

3. Does it Suit Your Personality and Lifestyle?

When I was researching different home business models, I knew what I wanted to achieve and what I was good at. I had the following checklist in my mind:
Avoid:
Face to Face Selling/Home Parties/Catalogues – Though some people are very successful with these kinds of selling methods, it’s just not me.

Continual offline networking at business group meetups – I am more comfortable with online networking.

Cold Calling – the thought of cold calling a prospect makes my throat dry. Nobody likes to be cold called in this day and age.

Employing staff – even part-time staff is a hassle.

Selling to my Immediate Network – My marketing reach needs to be global, not just limited to my friends and family, and who they have in their network.

Pre-ordering stock – I don’t want to outlay any costs on products before I on-sell them.

I also have small children and need to fit my working hours around the needs of my family.

Think carefully about how a business would fit your personality, lifestyle and skills.

4. How Much Will I Need to Invest?

Be sure you understand the costs involved in starting a business. Start-up costs typically involve purchasing the right equipment or software to get started – for example a good quality headset and Skype number if you will be making a lot of calls, or a supply of materials or ingredients if you are creating products.

You will also need to put aside money for marketing and advertising. This could be for a website, branding, online or offline advertising. Network marketing and direct sales businesses normally charge a fee to have access to their training and support system and you may be more successful if you are using the products yourself.

Do you have the money right now, and are you able to earn your initial investment back quickly?

Not many first time entrepreneurs have their initial investment to get started, and their very first job as an entrepreneur is to go find their start-up money!

5. Do your Research!

Research the type of business you want to start.

• Who has been successful in this type of business?
• How much time is required?
• Will you need to learn any new skills to be successful?
• Is training and support provided?
• What is the income potential?
• Who is your competition?
• Who is your target audience?

Get your questions answered.

Talk to others who are running successful businesses in the field you wish to join. What makes them successful? What mistakes did they make at the start? Study them and learn their methods.

Call up somebody not in your potential upline to get their honest opinion of the company and products. They have nothing to gain by ‘selling’ you on the company.

6. Be Wary of Online Reviews.

If you are looking into a Network Marketing, MLM or Direct Sales business you will find plenty of online reviews and rants about your chosen business.

You will ALWAYS find bad reviews about specific companies, and the people who have had a bad experience often speak louder online than those who have been successful.

Take into consideration the personality of the person who was unsuccessful – did they really give the business 100% of their effort before they gave up and failed?

Ensure you listen to your gut feelings about the company and products.

There are many people making lucrative incomes from network marketing, often by just following a simple business system. If you pick the right company and products, are motivated and work hard, there is no reason why you can’t be successful too.

Can you honestly see yourself using and selling the products?

7. Tap Your Warm Market.

Talk to your friends and family about the business you are thinking about starting.

Are any of them potential customers? Would they do business with you?

It’s great to get a feel for your “warm market” prior to starting your business, as this can be a great foundation from which to start.

It is important to get honest feedback from your network without them feeling like you are using your friendship to sell to them.

8. Read Any Legal Contracts Carefully.

When you start your business, you will likely need to sign agreements or other contracts. Be sure you read these carefully, so you know exactly what terms you are agreeing to. When in doubt, seek legal advice before you commit to anything you are unsure of, especially if it involves recurring fees or compulsory sales targets.

If possible, ensure that any membership or products you purchase have a money back time frame.

In Summary:

Above all else, be sure you choose a business you will enjoy doing day-in and day-out, and still enjoy doing a couple of months down the track once you have settled into a routine and the initial fear and excitement of doing something new has subsided.

Every first time entrepreneur or business owner will experience some kind of fear in the beginning – fear to call back a potential customer, fear of publicly failing, fear of debt and lots of self doubt. But you most likely will not move forward in life unless you move out of your comfort zone – which you will not enjoy at first!

If you are ready for a change in your life – perhaps you are sick of commuting or answering to a boss; owning your own business can be a fun and profitable experience. You will develop new skills, meet new people and gain enormous amounts of self confidence when you are successfully running your own home business.

It can be hard for some people to visualize the skills and confidence you will gain, the success you will achieve and the different person you will become after your first year in business. To ensure you are developing the right mindset for success, consider hiring a business coach or investing in a personal development program to assist in your journey and keep you on the right track.

Start visualizing your success now!

Wise words of advice from a Youth Judge, retold by Northland College (NZ) principal John Tapene.

Always we hear the cry from teenagers ‘What can we do, where can we go?’

My answer is, “Go home, mow the lawn, wash the windows, learn to cook, build a raft, get a job, visit the sick, study your lessons, and after you’ve finished, read a book.

Your town does not owe you recreational facilities and your parents do not owe you fun.

The world does not owe you a living, you owe the world something.

You owe it your time, energy and talent so that no one will be at war, in poverty or sick and lonely again.”

In other words, grow up, stop being a cry baby, get out of your dream world and develop a backbone, not a wishbone.

Start behaving like a responsible person.

You are important and you are needed.

It’s too late to sit around and wait for somebody to do something someday.

Someday is now and that somebody is you.

A personal checklist to get more out of your life:

1. Less sugar {you’re sweet enough already}
2. Eat more green things
3. Say nice things about others
4. Don’t forget to B R E A T H E
5. Ask for HELP when you need it
6. THIS TOO SHALL PASS
7. Drink more water – your body is 55% water after all
8. Make new friends
9. Give yourself a BREAK
10. Talk less listen more
11. You’re doing great!
12. Choose to be happy
13. Add more colour to your life
14. GET MOVING even if it’s just around the block
15. Take RISKS
16. Step outside of your normal routine
17. Forget milestonesREMEMBER magical moments
18. SMILE

The above image contains only 18 rules but I have added two of my own:

Number 19. Get enough SLEEP

Sleep restores energy.  Listen to your body and develop a healthy sleep habit.  A deep, regular and restful sleep routine is good for mind, body and spirit.

Number 20. Stay Present

Try not to dwell on the past or worry about the future. Over-thinking decisions or over-analysing situations will result in “analysis paralysis” so that a decision or action is never taken, in effect paralyzing the outcome.

Over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind.

Withering my intuition leaving opportunities behind. Tool

Living by these 20 simple self improvement rules will make you happier, healthier and will make a HUGE difference in every aspect of your life.

The level of success we experience in our outer world is simply the mirror reflection of our self-identity and personal development of our inner world.

Invest three percent of your income in yourself (self-development) in order to guarantee your future.
Brian Tracy

How often do you invest in YOU…and your greater personal development?

You may have heard this Jim Rohn quote before: “Income seldom exceeds personal development.”

Therein lies the key to growing your income — growing yourself.

Personal development involves making ones life better. It focuses on the career and education among other factors. Self improvement and taking a look at spirituality are also emphasized. The focus goes beyond the body to include improvement of habits and productivity.

It begins with the setting of personal goals with the current situation in mind. The evaluation of self becomes the point to begin your journey to self-improvement. It is important to know what you are aiming at before setting out a plan on how to achieve it. Your goals must be clear and tangible and be measurable for them to make any meaning.

Career forms a big part of life. It defines what we feel and become and is a huge contributor to overall personal improvement. Seeking to improve your career and financial situation will leave you a better person with a huge potential and feeling good about you life. It will enlarge you horizon and improve on your thinking and interactions.

Personal goals can be both short term and long term. It is the short ones that lead to the achievement of the long term ones. Self-improvement carries with it all these goals and covers even a healthy body. A holistically improved person is stable in body and spirit.

Self development is an on going process. It is about taking the current moment and being optimistic about the future.

The best platform for self-improvement is in the mind. Taking control of your thoughts will win most of the situations for you. The thoughts are the ones that lead in to habits. The best way to accomplish a holistic self development is to alter the habits and align them towards your desired self.

Inside of each of us is also an emotional and happiness set point. This is your current level of self-worth or personal development. No matter what happens outside you (temporary financial win, losing those last kilos of baby weight, happy relationship) you will always adjust back (sabotage) to your set points. We ALL do this.

Simply put, you will only ever be, do, have or maintain on the outside what matches your inside set points — your personal development.

When you raise your set points/personal development (self-identity, mindset, attitude, philosophy, skills and abilities), everything in your life will be raised with them.

In Jim Rohn’s words:

If you want to have more, you have to become more.
For things to change, you have to change.
For things to get better, you have to become better.

If you improve, everything will improve for you.
If you grow, your money will grow; your relationships, your health, your business and every external effect will mirror that growth in equal correlation.

If you have big goals, dreams and ambitions and are serious about achieving them, I encourage you make sure the size of your personal development investment matches the size of your goals.

Otherwise, they may remain just frustrating fantasies.

We offer a personal development educational home study course to help you to achieve your goals. The program is a series of techniques, concepts and like-minded advice that will guide you through steps of thinking, action and evaluation to attain what you desire.

Fill in the form on the right or contact us for more information on this award winning program.

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