Home Based Business

Article Navigation

Click Here for more articles

Five Ways to Kill Your Home Business

by: Craig Friesen

Copyright 2005 Craig Friesen

I know it is better to be positive than negative. But speaking from experience sometimes you can do things that are bad for your home business without realizing it. You might even think you are doing the right thing when in fact you are hurting your online business. So here are some "top 5" ways you can throw your work-from-home opportunity down the drain (and how to avoid doing so):

1) Have no plan, vision or goals.
Sure, you may find success in your home business by accident. But you are more likely to keep your online business alive (and have it grow) by setting some direction. Besides, without a plan and destination how would you even know if you achieved success? Do some dreaming about what you would like your home based business to be in 2 years. Then set some attainable but challenging goals based on your vision. With your goals in mind, chart a plan for your home business.

2) Do nothing.
"If you build it, they will come." Wrong - who told you that? One of the most frequent mistakes made by newcomers to online business is the belief that if they can just build a nice looking website then they will earn money. Of course some marketing ploys feed on that assumption, luring Internet marketing rookies to purchase the only website they will ever need. Just like an offline business, your online opportunity does not usually sell itself. You need to somehow bring potential customers or clients to your business website. This takes hard work, consistency and determination to succeed.

3) Do too much.
You can't do too much of the right things. But please do not mistake activity for progress! I hear this all the time: "I spend xx hours a week at my computer and not one sale!" Quality not quantity, people. There are some promotional activities such as writing home business articles (hey, like I'm doing here!) and networking politely in business forums that you can never do too much of. But some marketing tools can be over used and actually harm your home based business. Examples: submitting too frequently to some search engines or blasting customer support with an endless line of similar requests.

4) Join everything.
If it is free to join, why not? Affiliate marketers especially are always on the lookout for the next great business opportunity. What happens, however, is that unless the business opportunity somehow compliments your primary home based business then you are going to end up spreading your efforts thin. Choose programs to join that provide you with marketing leverage or which will enhance what you are offering without providing unwanted competition. The other danger with free progams is that once you join there may very well be an "upgrade opportunity" that you will find difficult to pass up. Be sure that this is what you want before you click on the payment button...all those free programs upgraded adds up soon!

5) Spend lots of money on advertising.
This is a tough one. You would think that the people who spend the most money get the most traffic to their websites and therefore earn the most money. While this may be true, how much are you willing to spend to have the kind of traffic volume to your business opportunity that is going to pay off? It is really hard to tell. The best advice I can give you is to take it slow. Track the results of every advertising campaign so that you can assess how effective the method or ad itself is. If you do not track your marketing then you might just be throwing money down the drain. Spend too much too fast and you might soon find it difficult to keep your home based business running. You might even adversely affect your current lifestyle by piling up bills that you can't pay because the website advertising you chose is not bringing you a good return on investment.

There are other things that can help your home business become successful or kill it. And these may not be the "top 5" for you. Just listing these made me think of another 5 that have probably hurt my own home business. Time to make some adjustments!

About the author:
Craig Friesen is a freelance writer and home business entrepreneur. Find other articles, ideas, resources and opportunities for home business or subscribe to the free newsletter.

Circulated by Article Emporium

Read Articles:

Wealth is in the Eyes of the Prospect

Home based Business - Tips for Time Management

3 Steps To Home Business Success

How to start a home business.

The Home Business University That Changed My Life

How To Create A Successful Work at Home Business

The Pitfalls of the Work From Home Craze

Home Business Misconceptions

Home business happiness

Should I Be My Own Boss?

Dedication is essential to your home business s...

Advertising Your Home Business on a Budget

How can you Earn Money On The Web?

Top Tips For Generating Killer Work At Home Art...

WebToor's Guide To Success

Yes, You CAN Succeed in At Home Work!

Get Serious About Your Web Business

5 Tips for better management of home business

The Real Truth About Online Affiliate Marketing

Online Business, Where do I start?

Work at home? Why should I start a home based b...

Affiliate Products or Create Your Own? You Deci...

Home Business Success - 5 Things You Learn From...

Working From Home � The Online Business Reality

Finding What You Want With Your Home Business

Using Blogs to promote your Home Business

How to Stop Internet Copyright Thieves

What is MLM?

New Approach for Rating Home Biz Opportunities

10 Power-Packed Ways To Spark Your Sales

Tips for Making Your "Work-at-home" Business Wo...

10 Sizzling Ways To Ignite Your Profits

Tips for Starting a Home Business

How To Get Free Publicity For Your Home Business

The golden road

Is Your MLM/Multilevel Marketing Business Legit...

Home Business Success is All In The Mind

Earn Income By Starting Your Own Home-Based Bus...

Why Branding Is Vital For Your Home Business Su...

Why So Many Don't Succeed At Developing A Home-...

More Article Pages 1 - 2 - 3

The Perfect Home Based Business and How to Start
by: Michael Saunders

Day by day people scour the internet looking for a home based business to set them financially free. What happens more often than not is that people end in worse shape than when they started. Why you ask? The answer is not so simple.

The key to finding a home based business starts with knowing yourself. That means knowing what you are good at and what you do not do well. You must also be honest with yourself when doing this. We would all love to be perfect in every aspect of life but the truth is we are not and we have to accept this fact. This is important because picking a business in which most of the tasks that need to be done are your strengths will increase your chances of success.For example let's say you are not much of a talker. You do not talk much to people who you do not know and you keep to yourself usually. You are however extremely organized and love to write. It would most likely be in your best interest to be an article writer or ghost writer. They do not require you to do much talking or go to meetings all the time.

The next thing you need to know is the product or service that you will be offering. The more you believe in your product or service, the more you will sell. Now before I go on there is a handful of people in the world that could sell ice to an Eskimo or sell water to a fish but these people are the exception rather than the rule. For most of us if we do not believe in what we are doing we will not reach the level of success that we desire. People will be able to tell if you believe in your product or not. So if you are looking at a network marketing company try being their customer for a couple of months before you join the business. Once you try the product or try the service then you will know how you feel about it. On top of that you will be more prepared to answer question about it because you have become familiar with it.

Once you picked a business that relies on your strengths and a product or service you can believe in you have to choose what your budget is going to be. Remember that most home businesses take at least months before you really start seeing results off so it is important to keep within a budget until then. If you decide to join a mlm you may have the type of sponsor that says you should buy this or buy that it will really help your business. Remembers that you need to stay within your budget. If the recommended items are out of your budget ask your sponsor to rank the items by importance. This way you can stay in budget and get the items most needed first.

OK now you have your business, our product, and your budget now you are ready to start your business. Just remember that it is a business and should be treated as such. Running a home based business can be more difficult than running a traditional business. Running a business from home offers many distractions; Kids, TV , your bed, etc. You could have followed this guide perfectly but mess this up and you will not succeed. If you do not take it seriously you will just be wasting money and wasting time and since how most people start up home based businesses to have more time and more money you would be defeating the purpose. Make sure the home office is secluded so that when you are working you cannot be distracted.

Now that you have your business running you must market it. Marketing is how you get customers. Now there are many forms of marketing such as newspaper ads, flyers, TV ads, mailing lists, pay-per-click ads, power-linking, and many others. How you market your business is up to you. Each technique has its own strengths and weaknesses. Obviously you will want to keep your budget in mind when picking a method of marketing.

Diversify your marketing as much as possible, and remember... the more people that see and know your business the more business you will do.

[ Submitted with ArticleSubmitter Pro - http://www.articlecity.com/article_submitter_pro.shtml

This Static Spot is open for sponsor

This Static Spot is open for sponsor