5 Steps to Making Money in your Home Based Business

Fact: People start a home business to make money. If your business is consistently costing you money and not making you money you should evaluate every aspect of the business.

Evaluate the Product Line

Any business evaluation should start with the product line. Are you marketing a product that is affordable to the majority of your target market? If the product is only affordable to a few then you have a problem. In order for you to make a sale or secure a reliable customer base of repeat buyers you will have to reach more people to find the few who can actually afford your product. This is no easy task and could cost you more money in advertising than you have to spend.

Is the product line a one time shot or will it be repurchased once used? This is key to repeat sales which can be the lifeline of any business. Repeat sales will also keep your business on the plus side of profit with little effort on your part.

Evaluate your Product Knowledge

How much do you really know about your product as well as your competitions products. This is another key factor in your own success. Have you done your research or are you relying on what you were told by your sponsor, upline or company? Your ability to portray yourself as an expert in your business will give you an advantage over other marketers not only when it comes to marketing your product, but also if you are working on building a team to earn residual income.

Take the time to learn as much as you can about your own products as well as those product lines and companies that are your competitors.

Evaluate the Tools of your Trade

Look at the marketing material that you were provided. If you fall prey to the old school marketing techniques filled with hype and buzz words you may need to develop your own tools to market your product and build your business.

Another aspect of evaluating your tools is to look at the actual tools provided by your sponsor or company. Are you looking at paying additional monies each month for websites, autoresponders or landing pages? This will be additional money spent each month and possibly will keep your business in the red.

Evaluate the Focus of your Sponsor

This is another important key to your success. Is your sponsor only looking to pad their own pocket each month by encouraging you to buy additional product or sign up for their affiliate programs? Is your sponsor available to you when you need them to answer your questions or are they hard to reach or keeping business hours that don’t fit into your schedule? Do they provide additional support systems that provide you with answers to the common questions for the times that they are not available?

The most important factor for any business should be getting that business into profit as quickly as possible. This can’t be done if your sponsor’s only focus in on their own business.

Evaluate Yourself

We all need to evaluate ourselves from time to time and doing so when it comes to our home business is what allows us to grow not only our business but also to expand our own knowledge.
Look at yourself honestly and determine if you truly stand behind your products, tools and marketing methods. Do you believe that you can sell the products? Do you believe that you can learn what you need to know in order to portray yourself as an expert? Do you offer your business partners up to date tools and training or are you relying on old school marketing techniques that have been handed down for generations?

My own Road to Success

One of the biggest problems in todays MLM and Direct Marketing industry is the lack of common sense and integrity when applied to your business. It’s up to each and every marketer to apply the same common sense and integrity to our business as we would in our own personal lives.

When I started my home business in January of 2005, I made a commitment to myself and my sponsor to work my business for 2 years. I fulfilled that commitment and then evaluated my accomplishments over that 2 year period.

I did have a small level of success however I also believed that I could have achieved much more had I been provided with the proper training and tools.

I had very few months where my business was in profit, and also had to deal with my husband who financed my business each month. It’s hard to justify continuing anything that consistently sucks money and doesn’t make money.

Late in 2006 I evaluated what I had done as well as the tools I used and changed my business plan to incorporate two key factors. The first was listening to my own common sense and the second was to educate myself in my industry as well as marketing.

These two very simple factors are what brought my own home business from sucking money from our family budget into a business that has made money every single month of 2007.

I am thrilled to say that now my expenses are not paid for through the earnings generated from my home business and I am also able to contribute to our family finances as well.

I am also better able to help my growing team to get their business into profit quickly and provide them with the up to date tools they need to grow their business without draining their budgets. This is key because a business that is in profit rarely closes its doors and by supporting my team I am supporting my own business.

If you are interested in how to get your own business into profit using common sense marketing, visit my Website and request information.

Truth in Advertising?

Your ability to portray your products and services in an honest and accurate way quite possibly could be the key to your success or failure.

It is my experience that the majority of distributors within my company rely heavily on their sponsor's and upline's (as they should) for information and guidance when it comes to building their websites and how they promote, however this could be a key mistake for those who are not inclined to do their own research.

Sadly much of this information is not accurate and bends the truth of what we have and what it is made of. Maybe it's my years in human resources that makes me stand out like a sore thumb in this industry but it is what it is and I can't bring myself to call it anything else.

Whenever you have key people in any company who are miss leading in their own representation of their products it creates a downward spiral in the accuracy of the information provided to the distributor base as well as the general population. This is especially true when working on the Internet.

If you truly believe in your product you don't have to depend on buzz words to promote it. I know of no business that has been able to sustain itself based on "wildfire" growth. A wildfire burns quickly and feeds on itself until it eventually snuffs itself out.

This is not what I want to rely on in my retirement. If you can not be honest about your products then maybe you should find a different product that you can promote honestly.

Downline Appreciation, Time To Lose The Step Up Or Step Aside Mindset

Do you truly appreciate your downline? This is a question we should all ask ourselves from time to time. If you do ask yourself this question it will help you focus on where your mindset is in regard to your downline.

Over and over I have heard sponsors and uplines publicly state that they keep their focus on the team members who are producing and don’t have time to waste on those who only produce a small commission each month. This “Step Up or Step Aside” ego trip makes me angry.
In the MLM and Direct marketing industry, there are generally two types of people that will end up in our downlines. The ones that perform and the ones that make the minimum purchase required by the company.

Visit Cherrie's personal website to view the complete article

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.

Todays MLM and Responsible Leadership

Multi Level Marketing is different today than it was just a few years ago. When the World Wide Web opened up it changed how we promote our products, our services as well as ourselves. It changed the way we do many things in our business and our personal lives. Our ability to adapt and our openness to developing new, up to date tools to help our own business grow as well as that of out downline should be a major concern for all of us.

My experience is that the majority of the “Old School” marketing techniques just don’t work in todays modern, electronically driven Multi Level Marketing businesses.

I've been told that in the not so distant past when you wanted to share your Multi Level Marketing opportunity with someone you would invite him or her to an Opportunity Meeting at a local hotel. If they showed up, you relied on the Key Speaker to “Close” for you. Conference calls, online meetings and digital recordings sent over the Internet now relay our message to our prospects.

We have a huge advantage over Network Marketers of the past. We are able to reach more people and have the ability to target exactly who we are looking for. It is in our best interest to develop the tools and training to teach our downlines how to do exactly that.

The Internet has made it possible for MLM prospects to look at many different business opportunities at once, without leaving the comfort of their homes. Today’s prospects are savvier and rarely fall prey to the old school pressure tactics. They also have the ability to shop for their sponsor, which can make the competition stiff. Knowing this, you have to find a way to stand out from the crowd and offer something special to your prospects and your customers.

Working Your Warm Market

We have all been told to work our warm market. The warm list is an MLM standard. Make the list of your friends and family and then introduce them to your business. Is this really a method that works?

If you think about it, this method is ineffective in todays MLM. Look at the top money earners in your company. When they show up at a company function are their friends and families there with them as top money earners? A better way to work your warm market is to send out an announcement about your products and leave it at that. This gets the word out and you will still be invited to family dinners. Working your warm market may work if you have a quality product that is affordable, but if you are looking to build a downline your warm market is the last place you should start.

The Company Convention

How many of you have been told the importance of attending your company conventions? I know I was. I even hosted a couple of events myself. “If you attend the company convention your business will grow!”

I will be the first to tell you that what I got from attending company events was some warm fuzzies and an empty wallet. Yes these events are exciting and get you pumped up. If you determine that is what you need to be successful, then you should go.

I'm not "anti-company convention”, but you have to keep in perspective. I personally can't justify telling someone in my downline who is struggling to show a profit each month that they should do what they have to in order to attend a company function because attending company conventions does not generate income or leads.

Get Them Into Profit

As sponsors we have a responsibility to help our downline get into profit as quickly as possible. This is not accomplished by sending them to meetings they can ill afford or by getting them hooked up with all of our affiliates before they really need those services.

We do need to provide our downlines with these resources, but only when it is appropriate. Our first efforts need to be focused on getting them into profit so they can generate the income to pay for the affiliate services they need using the money they earned.

Provide Accurate Information

Another change that the Internet has brought about is the amount of information that our customers and prospects have access to. As a young adult I attended some of the opportunity meetings for several different companies. The only information I was given came from the person who invited me to the meeting and those who ran the meeting. Now they have it all at their fingertips and it amazes me how much wrong information is being given out.

As responsible business people we do a disservice to our company and ourselves if we represent our products using incorrect information. If you have to misrepresent your product to make a sale or recruit someone you should reconsider what you are marketing.

Empowerment

Much of the MLM world is focused on empowering your downline. However, to accomplish this you must provide the tools of empowerment. If someone in your downline asks what they should do to build their page rank and you tell them to write articles and submit them, is that really empowering them? What if they have no clue about article writing let alone where to submit one? Telling someone who has never written an article that this is what he or she needs to do is only going to put another obstacle in his or her path.

A better option is to tell them they need to write articles and provide some resources for the basics of how to write an article. Not providing this simple type of resource has the ability to make your team member feel trapped and anyone who feels trapped is not very productive.

Whats Your Bottom Line?

Lets face it; most of us are in business to make money and because we were tired of having a JOB and a BOSS. As Responsible Leaders we need to provide our downline with up to date tools that produce and stop telling them to do things simply because that is what we were told.
Don’t short change your own or your teams creativity because you are more comfortable with the old school ways.

Allow yourself and your team to “Step out of their Box” by not shooting down their new ideas and exploring the possibilities because it doesn’t fit into your way of thinking. Empower yourself and your team by looking for new avenues that teach what is necessary to be successful.

Conclusion

Take the tools you were given and find a way to adapt them to our time. No you don’t have to reinvent that proverbial wheel. But you do need to modernize it. But keep in mind, if the wheel is broken, you are going to need to get out your saw an hammer. If these means putting in some extra time and developing tools that work, then get to it! Teach your downline to build a firm foundation and lead them by example!