Many of us have tried different home based businesses; MLM’s, Direct Sales, Network Marketing, whatever you want to call it, with no success to show for hours of pitching but damage to our relationships with the friends & family we’ve pitched to. Frustrated, we vow to never get duped into another “scheme” again. Here’s the truth about most home based MLM’s and Network Marketing Opportunities: they have too many variables for failure.Variable for Failure #1 – The “Warm” Market: Most home based businesses tell you to start out by writing a list of 100 people you know. Then you are told to pitch your product or opportunity to these people. There is a HUGE problem with this. These people already know you! They know you’re broker than a pyromaniac on the 4th of July! They are never going to join you in a business until you can prove to them that you are successful. If you want to have a successful home based business, you need to find a system that will teach you how to attract people to your opportunity that are already looking for it!Variable for Failure #2 – The “Presentation” Meeting/Party: Attempting to draw people to your product, service, or opportunity through small meetings and parties is flat-out a waste of time. You need to use a vehicle that places your business right under the nose of people who are already looking for it. Millions of people are using the Internet everyday to search for the products and services they desire. Your business needs to be online, on the front page of Google!Variable for Failure #3 – Lack of Automation: Robert Kiyosaki said, “The only difference between a rich person and a poor person is how they use their time.” He also said, “The poor and middle class work for money. The rich have money work for them.” Many home based business owners get burnt out because they lack systems that automate many redundant tasks. They don’t have an automated system for drawing new, targeted prospects to their business. They don’t have an automated system for presenting their product to their prospects. They don’t have an automated system for signing up new members or customers. And they don’t have an automated system for training new team members. As a result, they never gain the time freedom they truly desire. Automation is the key to freeing up time. The most successful home based business owners are those who have systems at work in their business. They have systems for pitching their products, closing their sales and placing orders. These systems allow successful business owners to make money while they are taking a shower, getting their teeth cleaned or seeing a movie! Now that’s the way to do business!Variable for Failure #4 – YOU: Let’s face it, you are not the best sales person. You’re not even sure you understand what owning your business is all about. Many home based business opportunities get you to sign up, promising that your sponsor will teach you everything you need to know to make big bucks. What if your sponsor drops off the face of the Earth a couple weeks after you join? Then what do you do? When considering your next home based business opportunity, find a way to see what their training is like. If the company has an option to fully refund your start-up kit within 30 or 60 days, you may want to consider joining and take a good look at their training materials. If you don’t like what you see, get your money back! A cutting-edge company will have several different forms of training: live calls, recorded calls, video tutorials, webinars and live events. The best home based business opportunities will equip you to never having to rely on a sponsor again.
Home Based Business Services – Do You Really Need A Bunch Of Stuff?
How many times have you seen the ads pop up during a web session browser, “Make money fast online” with home based business services? How many times have you visited the same type of site, only to find it was just another way to make a website, with all the same old fees involved? Or, perhaps the fee was all inclusive? All one knows, is that after doing enough research on these sites, it’s easier than ever to run your own home based business.So, how do you start? Well, the best way is to list the services you will offer. Keep in mind that this will need to be a pretty comprehensive list, especially if you are offering multiple services. After you have a good list, post it on your website and then it’s just a matter of providing contact information so that would be clients can contact you. With all the many, many ways to create a home based business service, how can one really distinguish what’s important to such an endeavor? There are at least two things that you will need.First, you’re going to need an auto-responder, to answer all the incoming emails for your home based business services, something along the lines to let people know that you will follow up with them at some time in the future. What is really going to be the time consuming part, is actually going through each email and adding that personal touch to it by answering that “soon to be” client. This way, you can generate your own leads, without having to pay someone else to find your new clients. This will cost about $20.00 a month, but it’s worth every penny. You’ll have a readymade list of clients that have been answered by your auto-responder. This also will enable you to answer each person individually, at your own leisure. This allows you to start a rapport with a client that ultimately will decipher whether or not you wish to work with that person.There will also be a need for a custom domain name, so that people can visit your web link, which will cost about $10.00 a year. After all, how will people find out about your services, if they can’t visit a link that lists the services you offer? There might be other fees that you will find along the way that are included as a business expense. However, a domain name fee, and an auto-responder are two fees that are essential to a home based business. Of course, all of it is useless without a computer, which you already have or you wouldn’t be reading this.Once you have your home based business services set up, the next step is to get to work. Don’t go out there and buy leads, generate your own. When you generate your own leads, you’re positioning yourself as the expert, rather than someone else. At that point it becomes about your relationship with your audience AKA your potential customers.
A Simple Product Creation and Product Launching Formula
If you tried to think of people involved in product creation, who would come to mind? You may think of Edison, Franklin, or maybe Henry Ford. Would you ever think of yourself as someone who can create a quality product? Product creation is actually relatively easy and product launching is not that tough either! If you follow a few easy to understand steps, you could be starting the product creation and product launching process sooner than you think.
The first step in creating your information product is to know and understand your market. This can be very time-consuming, especially if you are unsure of what to do or where to look to know your market. Studying your niche market and understanding the buzz words and buying patterns can ease the process dramatically. Personally, I would recommend networking with someone who has had success in the niche market you are considering and learn from their results. If they are into product creation and not very business savvy expect some hesitation. If they only sell products and have nothing to do with product launching or product creation you may your first affiliate (sales person)! Something else you can use to find hot trends is with the Google Trends tool.
The second step is the product creation process. Take your niche market and brainstorm ideas and topics relating to it. There are a lot of product launching contests going on recently relating to a newly created internet marketing tool. There are so many aspects to the mentioned niche that literally, and unfortunately, anything can be considered an Internet Marketing tool. The reason that anyone can basically create an Internet Marketing tool is because of something called Private Label Rights products.
What I use private label rights products for, and highly recommend them in this specific manner, is to cure writer’s block especially when it is lingering. Many people base their entire product creation and product launching on a private label rights product. This is where you can start to shine and build a strong brand for yourself. If you set goals for yourself, short-term goals to be exact, you can see your product creation come into being much faster and there is a good chance with less revision needed. If you keep hitting time restraint road blocks; however there is nothing wrong with a slow and steady approach, you can consider outsourcing portions of your project. Outsourcing can be an extremely huge benefit or just as great of a disaster.
You can find someone to outsource work to at a freelance site such as Guru.com or eLance.com. When reviewing proposals it is almost mandatory you perform a background check on them as you are in essence hiring them. Doing a background check on freelancers is as easy as asking for samples of their work and reviewing feedback on the freelance site from previous customers. Depending on the size and requirements of your project this can add up to a decent sized investment, so caution is very important. One tip I always recommend to people looking to hire an individual is to ask them what they can provide you that no one else can. This simple question gives them a chance to “toot their own horn” and acknowledge where they feel most competent as far as their skill set.
The final portion of the product creation and product launching formula is the launch. This can literally make or break the effort, time, and maybe (if you invested) money you put in to your project. There are numerous aspects to product launching and although their relevance is debated in terms to their effect, experts agree all must be followed. The person in your field who you asked for product advice from can help you substantially if you have kept in touch. If not, the first thing you need to do is to create a visually appealing website with flawless design work.
I also mentioned outsourcing before, this is one aspect of product launching I have little strength in and I always outsource this portion. The website does not have to be large however the content (ad copy in Internet Marketing) must be stellar and as perfect as possible. This is where advertising knowledge or experience is beneficial. When the site is set up you now put a lead capture form on your website.
I put two lead capture pages on all products I create on the internet and is one of the best methods of getting a solid start when you are in the product launching stage. When you gain information from a prospect or someone looking to get paid for referring sales you are able to provide them updates or specials. Many people abuse their prospect or affiliate lists by in turn emailing them with a new product daily and I find the recommendations to be totally unrelated to their original need, problem, or interest.
Another stage in the product launching stage is creating a free report or demo version of your product to entice the product to sign up to your email list. Using proper follow up with this can help generate numerous sales for you. One thing you need to ensure is that your free product completely relates to your main product that you are looking to sell.
You are now ready to advertise your product launching to customers as well as the opportunity to sell for affiliates. This is the single aspect that many product creations and launches fail on. It is actually not entirely difficult. One thing you can do is write articles (and a good amount of them) on topics relating to your product. I am a huge advocate of giving a solution in forums. When you join a forum you are normally offered the opportunity to create a signature. In your signature, you should enter the link to your opt-in or lead capture page. When you respond to posts, you are advertising your opportunity.
It is not impossible to create a product and it does not have to take a long time. You need to setup a plan and stick to it. If you get stuck, look at similar and successful products to your own and try and see how they did it. When you sit down and brainstorm you will be surprised with what you can imagine.