Defining Success in a Home Based Business

Success is one of those words that is tossed around the home based business arena quite often. Those of us who start home based businesses generally are able to illustrate clearly the reason we did so. Earning money to contribute to the household income, being able to stay at home with the kids and for some simply as a hobby to fill their time.

Regardless of why you start a home business, defining your success can only be done by you. You see, you know better than anyone what you need out of your home based business. This is not something that should be dictated to you by your sponsor or upline.

Keeping your focus on your own success should always be your priority over helping your sponsor or upline achieve their success. They will benefit from your success only if you achieve the level of success as defined by them.

This simple revelation took me the better part of two years to discover and this journey was not a profitable one for me. I was losing money every month in my business with the majority of my business expenditures going into affiliate programs and purchasing leads from those in the business above me. It’s important to note that a business that consistently loses money is one that will eventually dry up and close its doors while a business in profit rarely closes its doors.

I have often talked about the steps I took to rebuild my home based business into one that was profitable, but the most important step I took was deciding to define my own success.

For me it was as simple as getting my business into profit. This didn’t just mean breaking even, I needed to see cash after the monthly expenses were paid for. This realization propelled me into a new way of looking at my home based business and started a domino effect that has resulted in the realization that I could have a profitable business.

Think about the reasons you started your business, or the reasons you are thinking about starting a business. List them and use that list to help you define what success is for you. For some it could be as simple as generating a hundred dollars a month to help pay for a household bill. For others it could be the ability to become financially independent or the avenue for quitting your day job.

I know that once you’ve made the list you won’t see helping my sponsor or upline achieve their success on your list, and there is nothing wrong with that. It is your business not theirs.

The role of a sponsor is sometimes lost in the hype of a company. A good sponsor will do what they can to help you define your success and provide you with tools and resources necessary to achieve that success regardless of how it benefits them.

Your ability to define your own success also relates closely to taking responsibility for your home based business. While it is great to have a sponsor or upline willing to provide the tools and resources to help you achieve your success, ultimately it’s up to you as the business owner to use the tools and resources provided. Furthermore if those tools or resources aren’t working for you, it’s up to you to find the ones that do work in your situation.

Expecting anyone other than yourself to build your business is irresponsible and frankly not a solid business plan. Defining your own success is just one of the puzzle pieces that will help you to build your home based business successfully and earn you the income you desire.

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.

Marketing Responsibly on the Internet – Social Networking

Now that Social Networking has wrapped it’s arms around the Internet I’m seeing more spam originating from these networks landing in my email box.

My frustration level with these newbie marketers has grown to a point that now I’m turning the tables on them.

The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 clearly states that using deceptive emails in order to “pitch” your opportunity is in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act yet for some reason these social networkers think that if you reply to their email, they are in compliance.

Social Networking certainly has it’s place in today's world of electronic marketing, but it isn’t in my mailbox and I’ll venture to guess that it’s not in your mailbox either.

Clearly for those looking for home business ideas or an online business opportunity, a social network could provide them with a plethora of information. But no more information than if they had used Google or Yahoo.

How many of you have received a request for information about your business that looks like this:

Hello,

I am requesting more info on your business ad and how it works. Is an investment required?

Looking forward to hearing more.

Name of Sender
Email of Sender

The first few I got I took the time to answer that question in a thoughtful manner only to get this:

Thank you for the email. I am screening people who have home businesses that would like free advertising in what is the “My Space” for business people. I am associated with many thousands of networking professionals that may also be interested in your offer.

You are invited to post a free profile on my site. And I will send some business contacts your way.

Many serious entrepreneurs, from around the world, will view your contact and business information.
http://www.directmatches.com/XXXXX

Join for free… Advertise for free in The Business Directory.

“As relationships mature, incomes grow.”

Name of Sender
Email of Sender

Clearly I’m not a social networker. I did not start a home base business so that I could grow relationships. I started my business so I could earn money.

So how have I turned the tables? Quite simply. When I receive these requests for information, I reply with a short note that directs them to my website to fill out my Auto Responder form. I tell them that because I am in 100% compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 that this is the best method for them to learn more about my business.

This usually is enough to stop the spam but not always, so I added the CAN-SPAM Act to my website and direct them there. Their curiosity usually gets them onto my website.

Because they have requested information about my business I am now also in compliance with the act and can send them my promotional emails. Technically I could add them to my list, but I don’t because I prefer to have a clean list of only people who have opted in because they are interested in my home based business.

If you are into Social Networking and using the types of techniques included in this article, wouldn’t your time be better spent doing things that actually drive traffic to your website or educating yourself on your chosen business instead of cruising online classified ads archives harvesting email address’s?

Like many multi level marketing business’s, my advertising budget is limited. I have to maximize each dollar I spend to achieve the maximum benefit for my business.

I make a conscious effort to ensure that each method I use in my promotion of my primary business has at least two functions. Showing that I am knowledgeable about my business and driving traffic to my site. Once they land on my site I’m able to build trust based on my knowledge.

This is a more productive way for me to build that “relationship” and by example they have the opportunity to learn how to earn money online with a home based business.

The email used in this article was an actual email that I received this month. Interestingly enough the email address it was sent to has never been used in any open ad campaigns for any of my business adverts, but only as an administrative contact.

MLM’s reputation has suffered over the years, however it is still the best opportunity for regular people to earn extra income or replace the income from their “JOB”. Lets give our newcomers the best chance of actually building a respectable business and lead them by example as well as provide them tools that work in today's electronic world.

Learn more about compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003