Starting a Home Business...things to consider

More and more people are starting home based businesses. There are many things to consider when starting a home based business and I’ll point out some of the obvious and the not so obvious.

One of the most important things you need to consider when looking for a home based business is your product. You have to choose something that you believe in and can have passion for. Whether its a Health and Wellbeing product, a Consumable product or a Service you must have passion for what you sell and what you do.

Here are 5 key things to consider when looking for your home based business…

Low unit cost: If the product line or service is not affordable to the majority of the population, who will buy it?

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  Is the product “Consumable”: Choosing a product line that is consumable ensures repete business.
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  Mystique or Exclusivity: You should not be able to visit your local discount store and find the same product at a lesser price.
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  Management Team: Newcomers or Experienced? Make sure you check out your sponsor as well!
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  Profit Margin: Has to be Adequate or BETTER than adequate. In order for a company to be financially stable, there needs to be enough funds to compensate the distributors as well as keep the company running.

Choose wisely and do as much research as possible before you put your hard earned money on the table! Whatever product or service you choose make sure that you are a user of that product or service. This will help you to give personal testimony when you are sharing with others.

Business Building….Luck, Leads or both?

The only time Luck comes into play when starting a home business if you are one of the very few who managed to join when the company was just getting started. Lucky for you that the company and product line took off! This isn’t the best time to sign up with any company because at that point in time there isn’t a track record for the company. Those who do join at this time and manage to build a successful business aren’t necessarly there because of their skill set. This would be a great example of good luck.

Another time when you would need luck is if you are one of those people who are paying through the nose for expensive leads. Sure they told you they were leads that were specific to your business but the bottom line is that unless you generate the lead yourself, you really don’t know what the quality of the lead really is. And worse than that, you aren’t the only one with the leads contact information. Do you really want to pay a premium for a lead that technically you could be sharing with someone else? I know I don’t!

If you understand your products and have a superior knowledge of that product you only need a bit of time to start making serious headway in your industry.

Taking time to build your Business Foundation and learn how to put up a content rich website will serve you far better than spending a fortune on expensive leads. If you think about it logically, you will see that with a little research you could be generating your own leads with any number of methods for as little as .20 each. Who in their right mind would ever have that knowledge and pay for a high priced lead knowing they could generate their own for a fraction of the cost?

Make a decision that your business is worth the effort of going through the learning process. And never rely on one resource for all of your leads. How many times have you been warned about having all your eggs in one basket. That may work for a while, until someone drops the basket.

There are many different ways to generate leads on the internet that you can control. Building a website with great content is one way, or start a pay per click campaign. Explore the possibilities for advertising your business on the Internet. And trust me, the quality of leads you generate yourself will always outshine the expensive ones that someone is always trying to sell you!

Downline Prospect Raiding

Ouch! Not something you want to be known for regardless of your industry! So what exactly is Downline Prospect Raiding?

It’s when you sponsor someone into your business that someone in your downline is already working with and sharing information with. This is bad form and bad business especially if you are building a downline for residual income. It demonstrates a total lack of regard for the wellbeing of your team and tells your team members something about you that should never be said or even thought about!

One of the first things a responsible sponsor will do when contacting prospects is to find out if they are working with someone else. Why would you do this? Simply to find out if they are getting information from someone in your downline. Once you have made that determination, you can decide how to proceed with this prospect and take the correct approach.

Lets say for the sake of this exercise that Susan is in your downline. In the process of contacting your leads (prospects) you come across Linda. Linda already has information about your products and services so clearly she has been talking to someone. She is very excited and ready to get on board with you. At this point you as a Team Leader have a responsibility to your team to stop and ask, who else are you working with.

If you find out that they are working with someone in your downline, then you need to use this platform to build up your Team Member Susan and encourage Linda to sign up with them.

My approach is to ALWAYS as each of my prospects if they are working with other sponsors. The only thing I need to accomplish with this question is to figure out if they are working with someone who is already on MY team. It is YOUR responsibility as a Team Leader to ask the question and do the right thing! If Susan is already sharing information with Linda, then Linda finds me and I sign her up directly under me what message does that send to Susan? Certainly not a message I would want Susan to get. And it has the potential to put doubt in Susan’s mind about the type of Leader I am and create bad feelings for my entire team.

When you are in a business that generates residual income from the efforts of the people in your downline, it is crucial for the wellbeing of your Team and your Business to draw that line in the sand and NOT CROSS IT! It will always be more beneficial for you to build up your downline and encourage these prospects to sign up under the Team Member they are already talking with. The prospect will then be able to benefit benefit from the knowledge of the person that sponsored them in, and from you as the team leader.

Don’t put yourself in a situation where your team members refer to you as a Prospect Raider! As a team leader regardless of your level, you always need to take the highest road possible when dealing with these situations. That way in the eyes of your team, you are the Leader and you have earned the respect of the team. Having the respect of your team is priceless! Losing the respect of your team will cost you more than you can afford to lose.

Taking Control, My Three Step Business Evolution

My business came to a stalemate in January of 07. After two years of trying very hard to do what everyone else was doing I came to realization that my instincts (that small voice you hear in your head) about carving my own path to success was something I should have followed from the beginning.

I have always worked on personal growth, it has been something consistent throughout my life. What I do and how I do it has never been something that I shared openly with others. I have always believed this is something very personal, and I still believe this.


I have made many mistakes throughout the course of building a home business. One of the biggest mistakes was sharing my "Why". What drives a person to achieve is so personal and if shared can show vunerablities that you would never show strangers. Its important to note that everyone in business needs to understand their why, I just don't think its anyone else's business what your why is.


My ability to always find something good in every experience is one of my strongest assets in my personal life, and now in my business life.


In early 2007, I was unceremoniously removed from a leaders board and had my moderator privileges taken away from a team board. Both of these events occurred without explanation and to this day I don’t know the reason why these decisions were made.


My attempts to find out why failed as the person who made the decision refused to tell me via email and I was not going to be manipulated into a phone conversation. In the end it didn't matter why because I realized that my knowing why was not going to change what had been done. This was the beginning of my taking control of my business.


I decided to evaluate the course of my business over the previous two years and this opened up a Pandora’s box that I was ill equipped to handle on my own. I credit the friendship of a single person with guiding me and helping me to keep my focus where it belonged as I evolved.


The first thing I realized while doing my business evaluation was that I had fallen into the herd. This was a shocking realization because I had always prided myself on not being a “follower”. Step One of my evolution was to stand up and take responsibility for my business as an individual.


Step one was huge because it meant that I couldn’t assign blame to anyone but had to hold myself responsible for straying from my own personal belief’s and making poor choices in regard to my business.


This is not to say that I did anything wrong only that I should have listened to my little voice who kept telling me that there was a better way. I also firmly believe that the people guiding me the first two years really belive that what they are doing is the correct path to follow. Ignorance can be bliss.


Step Two was the realization that the foundation of my business was not built on what I wanted or believed in. I kept a positive attitude as I tore down everything I had built the two years before by constantly telling myself that a successful business had to have a firm foundation.


As I rebuilt my business foundation, it was difficult for me not to be angry at what had led me to this point. This is where my friend played a key role in teaching me how to turn those bad feelings into something good.


Up until January, the foundation of my business had been built on old school methods of marketing like the three foot rule, working your warm market and some very long and boring training documents that were just tired and lacked any real substance. These were the tools I was given and I was told if I used these tools and didn't try to reinvent the wheel I too would be successful. Hogwash!


My process of rebuilding my foundation meant that I needed to learn how to market not only my product, but myself. It was silly of me to think that people with no formal training in marketing could ever teach me how to be a successful marketer. And it was stupid of me to not use my own common sense when making decisions about my business and business tools.


Step Three was a grueling process. It wasn’t enough to take responsibility and rebuild my foundation, the tools I had been given and in turn provided my team members simply did not work for the majority of people in our company. This conclusion is based on the number of people who actually promote to the higher levels within the company structure.


I had to look at what I had, and evaluate what really would be beneficial for my team members based on what worked for me and what my team members asked for. The actual process of building usable tools and putting training programs in place for my team was exhausting, frustrating but one of the most rewarding things I have done in my business.


I put my new marketing education to work and kept my focus where it needed to be and started working with my partner to produce quality tools that were simple and filled the need of my team.


In the beginning of the tool development, I struggled with each and every aspect of what I was doing. After the first tools were complete, things just started to flow like honey. I went against the old school rule and I reinvented the wheel.


My evolution is not yet complete. It will be an ongoing process as I learn more not only about myself, but about business and marketing. I am no longer angry or bitter over the culmination of events (not just the two I mentioned) that led me to this evolution, but look at them as part of my growth process.


I've learned that my responsibility as a Team Leader means that I lead my team and support my team. It is not my responsibility to lead and support someone else's team which is what I was doing prior to being tossed out of those two groups.


I have a firm grasp of why I got into this business and what I want to achieve within my business. I have also drawn my line in the sand and will continue to trust myself and believe in my own ability to be a leader and a moral and ethical business person.