I Want To Work From Home – But How?

We’ve all been there! Searching for a way to work from home. Whether it is because you are fed up with your daily toil traveling to your day job or you just want to earn a bit of pocket money to pay for those small luxuries in life. Or maybe like thousands across the globe in the present economic climate, you are fearful of losing your job or maybe you have already lost your job. Whatever the reason, we all have to start somewhere and because of the untold tales of riches, many of you are turning to the internet and herein lies your first problem, a great many people are falling for some of the “Get Rich Quick” schemes which in many cases leave you in a worse predicament than when you first started.

So how do you start?

Whatever online business you are thinking of starting working from home, it requires a certain amount of planning and preparation. You need to set yourself a budget that you are comfortable with whether it’s pennies or pounds/ dollars – you must stick to your budget and not be tempted to go over. You need also to decide what time you have available to work your business.

If you already know what business you wish to start, then you need to set yourself an action plan, outlining your goals and a realistic time frame to meet each one keeping your budget in mind at all times. For those who are unsure of which type of business to start, research different areas of interest. Ideally something you are passionate about and believe in. This way, you can very quickly promote yourself as an authority in that field. Don’t worry if you can’t think of anything, there are a million and one areas you could start out with and maybe not realize it.

Now then, this bit is crucial.

No matter what business, product or service you want to sell, you need to know how to promote it! There is absolutely no point in you setting up a website or paying someone to do so for you, if you don’t know how to promote it and get visitors to your website. Not just any visitors, we can all get them, but targeted visitors – visitors who have an interest in your product or service and are ready to buy from you. You can have the best all singing, all dancing website in the world, but what good is it without visitors who are prepared to buy from you? Exactly…..it would not only be pointless, but costly too.

So what’s the answer?

Simply put – Work! Now at this point many people will just shy away and go and join one of those opportunities that promise the earth. But they will soon see the error of there ways and will probably either give up, or come back and read through this article again or one like it. They will almost certainly be a little more broke. Seriously, you need to work at promoting your business. Those of you who know something of internet marketing will know what I mean and have an edge over anyone just starting out, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do it. No, on the contrary, anyone can if they are prepared to learn the different facets of internet marketing. Everyone’s learning curve is different, so claims that you can make money overnight are unfounded – yes of course, you may get lucky and make a sale here and there, but that’s not what you want is it? You want a business that sustains a regular income at a level that you are comfortable with…am I right?

Okay, so how do you learn?

There are many ways in which you can teach yourself, by doing research on the internet and visiting various marketing forums, reading articles many of which you can find on this website and you will get there….in time.

You may even consider joining a program that offers a free tutorial, just be cautious here though, because in most cases there will be an up sell – an up sell is a recommendation that you purchase a product or service that is required to make your business work. many people get suckered into these, this is after all how the person giving away something free initially, makes his money.

Now, if you want my honest opinion, you need to find a mentor, someone who is prepared to take you by the hand and teach you step-by-step. This can however be very expensive as you can probably imagine. There is a similar alternative however and that is a mentoring from the Adam Short and the Niche Profit Classroom.

I can personally recommend these people who incidentally, started out just like you and me and are now hugely successful with their online businesses. They have been around for a while now and there are many testimonies and success stories from everyday people whom they mentored and coached using their step-by-step methods to build an online home business. There are obviously many other mentors to be found on the internet, but this group stand apart from the rest and charge only a fraction of what others do without any and give you all the tools you need to help with your business.

In summary

In order to start an online home business and promote it successfully, you need to know how. Learning by self help is one option, but by far the best option is to seek out a mentor for fast track success and ultimately save yourself heartache and money.

It is the aspiration of many people to become self employed and run a home business enterprise.
Being able to avoid the rush hour as well as spending more time with the family while eliminating the shackles of a job and boss is very attractive to many individuals around the world. You could even say that running your own home business is a sort of universal dream.

It also seems that people often focus on the positive aspects of a home business while not fully taking into account the potential downsides of it.

I have worked from home for several years now and have got to know both sides of the coin intimately.

Most home business ventures these days involve working on the internet, which can intensify the potential negatives.

The flip side of that coin of working from home includes the relative social isolation of working alone, the stress of keeping the books up to date, dealing with complaints,
being responsible for your own health insurance
and the lack of financial predictability that a steady paycheck can provide.

In addition, the potential to lose your savings, house and ability to pay the bills,
the long hours and the difficulty of compartmentalizing your work from your family life can also be extremely challenging.

Most home businesses are not profitable in the near term and most new home business ventures run the risk of undercapitalization,
especially in the first year of operation.
However, there are a number of things that you as a home business owner can do to increase your odds of success
and keep from being overwhelmed.

First, make sure to have a ‘To Do’ list ready for each day
that you can refer to as soon as you wake up in the morning. This will help offset the fact that there is no one telling you what needs to be done.
Without such a list, you may suffer from spending time in front of your monitor for long hours, but done nothing
at the end of the day except checked your email. You cannot afford too many days like that.
Get a large marker or chalk board to help you stay organized because planning and goal setting are so important to the upstart entrepreneur.
Be certain to schedule regular trips to the health spa or go biking, etc on a regular basis. This will really help to clear your head.

If you work on the computer you will probably begin to feel lethargic after a while. But plenty of exercise, clean air and healthy food will help.

Go to the cinema and see a film or go to a sporting event from time to time so that you do not feel so isolated as you make the transition from employee to working your own home business.
If possible, go to local small business owner meetings as well.