Given the minefield of home based business opportunities available out there, it makes sense to go shopping with a list. Personally, I had 3 very strict criteria that I set for myself when I went looking (ok, I did have the benefit of hindsight. As a previous ‘homepreneur’ I did know the questions to ask and the mistakes to avoid, and I was damned sure that I wasn’t going to make the same mistakes twice!) Any business that I was going to plough my energy, effort and determination into a second time, had to be able to deliver on a BIG scale. Basically, I was looking to answer the classic question: “Is the Prize worth the Price”. Because, believe me, there is always a price to pay. Ask any Olympic Gold medallist.So, what were my 3 criteria, and how will they help you in your search?1) I decided that any home based business I would seriously consider, had to have the potential to earn me £100,000 from my first year. That was my figure. Now, that doesn’t mean to say that I was looking for that money to fall out of the sky and land in my lap. On the contrary. But I had to be able to see that the commission structure or compensation plan was robust enough that, given my own energy and determination, that figure was realistically available to me.Decide what you personally want from any home based business that you start. I speak to so many people who tell me they “hadn’t really thought about” how much they would like to earn. WHAT?! This is YOUR business. YOUR future. Are you seriously trying to tell me that you know what you want from your life if you don’t even have any idea of how much money you are going to need to achieve it? If you are only looking to earn £50 a week extra to ‘top up the bills’, then you don’t really need to be looking at setting up a MacDonald’s franchise do you? Knowing what you require your home based business to earn you is going to narrow down your search tremendously. How will you know that you have hit the bullseye, if you don’t even know which wall the dartboard is hanging on?2) I knew that any business that was seriously going to be able to deliver on my requirement of £100k per year had to have a proper system of training and support in place. After all, you can have the best business in the world but if there is no proper system in place when you start, you are going to waste an awful lot of time looking for the missing pieces in the jigsaw.Ask yourself, do you really want to be the ‘fish on the end of the hook’, and when they have ‘landed’ you, you are left high and dry to find your own way round the maze? Or are you looking for a system of training that will enable you to fast track yourself out of the gate?3) Finally, I understood that, particularly in this uncertain economic climate, any business that I was entering into, had to be in a growth market and not a market that was suffering from the vagaries of the so-called ‘recession’. In short, I had to feel confident that as I grew, the business was going to grow with me. It is no good trying to trying to paddle upstream if the tide on your opportunity has already turned and is going the other way. All businesses have a period of growth, plateau and then, if a new idea is not launched, they will go into decline.Choose wisely. Ask the question: When did the top earners have their best year income wise? This year, last year, 5 years ago?My process of due diligence served me well. I sincerely hope that, armed with the above questions, you find the business that is going to propel you to where you want to go in your life.Finally, there is one more essential piece of body armour that you are going to need if you are going to navigate your way successfully through the minefield: Self Belief. Henry Ford put it best: “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re probably right”.Good luck!
How To Discover Your PERFECT Home Based Business – The Third Of Seven Keys – It Is Real
This is the third in a series of seven articles that tell you how to sift through all the home business opportunities you hear about every day, and find the PERFECT home based business for you.What makes an opportunity P.E.R.F.E.C.T.? In the first two articles in this series, we learned that the “P” in PERFECT stands for “Profitable” and that the first “E” in PERFECT means “Easy”.Key Number Three-
The “R” in PERFECT stands for “Real”. A real business is one where you offer something of real value to people willing to pay you well for that value…no envelope stuffing or other bogus schemes.”Real” Means:• A large identifiable market segment, or a smaller specialized niche market that is easily identified and reached.Don’t make the mistake many people do in starting their new business. They get excited about something they like, create a product, and then find there is no market for the product. They discover too late that nobody wants to buy it. Ooops! There has to be a market for your product in order for your business to be real.You also have to be able to easily and inexpensively reach potential customers in that market with your product offer, or you will be very dissatisfied with your income. Find a reachable market first, and then create a product that gives the people in that market what they want or need.A side comment: if you are uncomfortable “selling” something, you should know that you will not really be “selling” anything to your market. You will be solving the real problems, and meeting the wants and needs of your customers by offering them something of real value in exchange for some of their money. The more people you help, the more money you will make.• A high perceived need or want.Ideally, your market will be passionate about their interests and have a strong need or desire for products or services related to their passion. For example, golfers are passionate about improving their game and will buy just about anything that will help them do that. Other groups are just as passionate about their hobbies or favorite activities.It is also just as good, if not better, to go after a market where your customer doesn’t have particular hobby or activity in mind, but has a desperate need to solve a problem. An example would be those who have black mold in their home and must find a way to eliminate it.Identify and market to passionate groups who are hungry for products and services you can provide, or those with a desperate need to solve some problem.• Something people are already buying.If people are already buying products or services like yours or related to yours, you have certain confirmation that there is an existing market for your products. All you have to do is offer your products to them and make your offer better than what they are already getting. As another marketing expert Mark Joyner says “Make them an irresistible offer, one they would feel a fool to turn down” and you will succeed.So, the PERFECT Home Based Business must be REAL. And, it must be PROFITABLE, and EASY.
How to Ensure Your Home Based Business Gets Off to a Good Start
The home based business industry has flourished since the turn of the century. This is mainly due to the fact that the internet has provided numerous opportunities for people to earn good money from the comfort of their own homes.There are many stories in the media about the latest online success story from the multi-billion dollar guru to the university student who is making a small fortune using just a laptop in his bedroom.Having a home based business is very appealing to many people, especially those who are struggling to make ends meet, or those who have a very stressful job with long commutes and long hours. Many of these people mistakenly think that it is easy to set up a home based business thinking that all they have to do is create a website and the orders will come flooding in. “Build it and they will come”Needless to say it is not that easy, especially now that internet marketing has become so competitive. It can be a lot of hard work setting it all up, it is also important to be aware that in the early days you will earn little or no money and what you do earn may have to be reinvested back into your business in order for it to grow.If a website is likely to be a major part of your home based business, then it is vital to take advice and have a fully optimized web site created by someone who knows what they are doing. This is particularly important if you are going t need to set up a shopping cart on your website. Lots of newbie internet marketers fall into the trap of trying to create their own with little or no knowledge of what they are doing. Needless to say they are usually disappointed and disillusioned when they get little or no traffic and subsequently very few sales. This is the most likely time for people to give up thinking that internet marketing doesn’t work.If you have a cash flow problem in the early days there are plenty of free options available to you such as blogs and other web 2.0 sites that enable you to write articles and create one page web sites.The most important thing with any home based business is traffic. You need to get visitors to your site, whether it is a blog or a web site. The most important thing is to ensure that your blog or website has good quality content that is updated on a regular basis. The search engines want to find unique content on your website.Many people find writing difficult in the first instance or may not have the confidence to publish their own words on the net. If that is the case you may want to consider hiring a professional copywriter to write your articles for you, or maybe to purchase a bundle of articles that you can edit. This may well be money well spent and would help you to get your home based business off to a good start.One of the one aspect that many newbie home based business owners forget about is their market research. Is there a market for your product or service and what is the competition that you will need to beat in order to get custom? If having done that you feel that your home based business is viable you need to do your keyword research to find the best keywords to use in your articles so that you attract traffic to your site. It is pointless having most amazing interesting site, even if it has good information if no one is searching your keywords. The chances are you won’t be indexed in Google and it is highly unlikely that anybody will find you.Preparation, research and planning done in the early stages will build a solid foundation for your home based business. It will be time well spent and will give your business the very best chance of being successful both now and in the future.
Top Home Based Businesses – Discover the Innovative System That Will Take Your Business to the Top
Starting a New Business?With today’s tough economic climate people are practically crawling over each other to find the next top home based businesses to join. If you have been taken in by promises of a great work-at-home based business opportunity but have been disappointed by your results so far, keep reading to learn about some exciting changes in the network marketing business.Entrepreneur OpportunitiesIt’s very common today to find people who are searching for alternatives to the traditional 9 to 5 way of making a living. However if you have decided to try out an MLM marketing business that promised to be one of the top home based businesses of the year, I’d wager a bet that you have been struggling to keep your head above water.You are a budding entrepreneur, ready to give your business all you’ve got. You have set up a fantastic presentation, developed a great leads list, followed through on everything you were supposed to only to find that it’s nearly impossible to recruit and hold onto new reps.The bottom line is, there is just too much competition in the world of network marketing for any MLM business to really take off these days. But if you are ready and willing to try something new, an exciting and fresh approach to network marketing is available for you to start implementing today.Top TierThis innovative new system, sometimes called “top tier” system, is designed specifically to answer to today’s declining MLM business market. For those who are ready to try a totally different approach, you stand an excellent chance of not only succeeding but exceeding your wildest expectations.Today’s top home based businesses know that the model of building a downline team and living off of residuals income is just no longer feasible. There is too much market saturation for this structure to continue to work.The top tier approach frees you up from having to build a downline team and keep them productive. It also frees your finances up from having to wait for a residual check. With this new system, you work on building a customer base who pay you immediately, not six months from now.Research, Read and LearnDon’t rely on anyone else’s advice, take that all in stride. But do research on your own and learn more about the top tier approach to network marketing. I am confident that once you review the information, you’ll be just as excited as I am about the new generation of top home based businesses.
Home Based Business: Trust
In a home based business, trust is of utmost importance. you just cannot forge trust regardless of how one tries. It is very important for an entrepreneur to say what they mean and stand for what is said consistently for it to penetrate through to your customers and potential customers. You have to be constantly straightforward and honest. If something is declared regarding merchandise, a business owner must ensure to deliver on that assurance since it is hard to get a second opportunity to build a first impression.Home based business customers distinguish that they have a say and if they perceive a sham, they would not think twice of telling others. If you wish to spoil your home based business and your name or business name, do not make a guarantee and observe what comes about. If somebody has a query that is difficult to answer, then you should not be embarrassed to let them discern that you will do all in your ability to get the answer right away, and do not disregard them no matter what you do otherwise they would not speak of anything although you will no longer hear from them for a second time and they will set off to the business rival and open out the remark regarding your pitiable service. An entrepreneur’s goal is to be distinguished from the competition.Innovative technologies, in addition to a revolution in the way people, as a social order, feel regarding work, has caused a lot of people leaving the office or work place for the autonomy of a home office. However, home is not only an annex of the office or work place. It is a home base business for a lot of entrepreneurs who are in search of finding a totally new way of making a livingHome based business is a very extensive subject matter. Something essential to keep in mind is that the marketplace is constantly shifting. To be thriving, you have to be ready to continually check and try new-fangled ideas. By no means should you take something for granted and you should constantly seek progress. One factor is obvious, if one proactively endorses oneself and their product, his or her business will fail. Ensure that the product is practical to your projected customers. Check that the product really does what it declares it does. Take on a business at home that is suitable for you and you will discover that it can be satisfying and profitable. Also, when it comes to home based business, distinguish what people require, what they want and willing to shell out for it.Home Based Business is the future for many people of today, the world is changing at such a fast pace today, that sometimes it’s hard to keep up with all the technology that surrounds us. So long as you try to keep yourself updated by spending a few hours each week catching up with the changes, then there is no reason why you will not have the success you desire with your home based business.Copyright (c) 2011 Steve Duval
What Makes a Good Property Manager?
You hear reports of people earning monthly income from their myriad of rental properties and you hope to be part of this seemingly lucrative moneymaking venture. Who wouldn’t mind passive income like this, where you don’t really need to do much and you can already expect income on a regular basis?
However, what is not being mentioned by economy gurus is that such an income is not as passive as one would think. One of the things required for this industry to generate you the maximum profits you can expect from it is that somebody has to oversee the property to make sure that the condition of your house does not deteriorate in a faster speed as usual. There is that sad reality that other people don’t value property as much as you do and will not take care of it in the way you’d expect. Given this reason and others, the task of managing the property will surely be a big one, so if you feel you don’t have the time or the capacity to do this, hiring professionals is the safest and best alternative option. Here are some features of good property managers:
1. Experience in the Area
You don’t learn real management from a classroom, so to know if a particular team is good in property management, check out how long they’ve been in the business. Another indicator that tells you they’re good at what they do is the number of clients they’ve been servicing. You can also check out the number of years these people have been with them-a determining factor of customer satisfaction.
2. Has Connections to Trusted Tradespeople
House maintenance always requires some kind of repair or other at any given time, so good managers will have access to reliable carpenters, plumbers, electricians, and/or gas men, just in case something happens in your property that would need to be looked at and repaired. In this way, such minor problems need not reach your ears anymore because your hired managers can already sort them out by themselves. Of course, management of property comes in various levels, and this kind of management is a more comprehensive form, so expect a more expensive charge for such services.
3. Have 24/7 Access for Certain Property-Related Concerns
Not all property owners live in the same area as their rental property, so it would be good if your hired managers have a website, an email address, and contact numbers you can easily reach in case you would need to coordinate with them from where you are. Since you are not physically there, it would be virtually impossible to run whenever there’s something you’d want to have done with regards to the property, so having reliable managers will definitely take a great load off your chest.
Think of it this way: these people are supposed to stand in for you in case you are not able to help the tenants yourself. When assessing potential managers, make sure you see yourself in them, and that should make them worth hiring.
Costa Rica Real Estate For Sale and Costa Rica Rentals
Even though the economy of the country is in a poor shape, high levels of education in the country are a welcome factor for international real estate investors. The major advantages for buying Costa Rica for sale and rentals are the substantial incentives offered by the government of Costa Rica for foreign direct investment.
Majority of foreigners, who had visited, had straightaway fallen in love with that country. Most of them had bought properties including farm lands. Several others had rented vacation properties. The most significant plus point in purchasing listings is that there are absolutely no restrictions on foreign ownership of Costa Rica real estate for sale or rentals. Foreigners enjoy the same rights as the local citizens. Still, the local laws follow the Spanish Civil Law Code, which differs substantially from the Anglo-American common law system. Hence, it would be advisable to engage a person or an organization conversant with local real estate laws and procedures before investing in.
All the titled properties are registered invariably with the National Registry. Unregistered properties should not be considered as good avenues of investment. The Registry would have details of all encumbrances, unregistered leases, and legal liens. A legal expert in investment would be able to advice the international investors about the encumbrances, liens, and unregistered leases that could be successfully eliminated. However, physical inspection of the property is also a must when considering the real estate in Costa Rica. Squatters had been given legal rights on properties in law and these would not be revealed by the Registry records. Making such squatters vacate the place might require legal proceedings, which could prove to be a long-drawn and cumbersome process. If the squatters had been occupying the property for more than 10 years, they would have legal rights to the property. Hence, such properties should be avoided without hesitation.
Property taxes and fees should be paid to the federal government and the local municipal authorities. However, these fees and taxes are very less, compared to United States and other developed countries. The regulations regarding beach front properties and condominiums also differ significantly. Most beach front properties could only be leased and outright purchase might not be possible. Foreign investors would be well advised to utilize the services of a legal expert or a professional agent before investing in such real estate listings.
How To Succeed At Online Product Creation The Easy Way
Product creation could be a frightening subject for a lot of Internet marketers to face. Some folks who get in the game with the intention of making a full time income are completely ignorant as to how an online business operates. One of the most profitable ways to create online cash is by creating a product that others are happy to pay for.
Product creation is legitimate method of generating money through internet marketing but many entrepreneurs get it wrong. They start by imitating their Internet marketing gurus by creating information products on Internet marketing in hopes of getting rich the way their heroes did. The problem is that they usually don’t know what they are doing and enter a highly competitive niche with very little marketing experience or connections.
Here are a few tips for effective product creation that may help you get on the right track:
Start by finding a profitable niche with low to moderate competition. If you conduct some rudimentary market research and keyword research, you’ll find many opportunities in areas that will surprise you. Amazon and eBay are two great places to brainstorm for product ideas.
Developing Your Product does not have to be a difficult project. You can find experts in the right field for your niche and pay them to write the material while an artist designs the packaging and website or blog. You can outsource the entire product creation part of the project after you conduct the research and testing to ensure profitability.
Sales and marketing strategies should be created while developing the product and learning about the market. Some experienced marketers use pay per click to drive traffic to their offer page; some folks outsource the entire marketing campaign to affiliates through ClickBank or other affiliate programs.
Product creation does not need to be hard, particularly when the merchandise is electronic. E-books, videos, audio and multi-media products sell very well. They are distributed immediately to customers electronically. Once you have a good feel for a niche market, try to service your customers with associated products and upgrades. If you want to earn money online through product creation, you must understand supply and demand. The majority of new online marketers fail miserably because they go after highly competitive markets or forget to research their chosen niche properly. You have to create your products according to the needs, wants and desires of the prospective customers.
Information Product Creation: Never Compete on Price Because There Is Only One You
Information product creation requires extensive preparation, no matter which niche you work within and you want to make sure that your information product has a successful launch. That probably sounds scary and intimidating but here’s the thing: this is a one time effort and it will pay off in a foundation that is strong enough to get your ideal clients to invest in your high-end programs and services without the perils of a traditional funnel. This article will teach you a few of the things that you need to remember if you’d like to invest in yourself and start on the information product creation path using your unique talents and abilities. Remember that you never have to worry about anyone ripping off your ideas because if you understand how to properly position yourself around your story.
Understand Both Strengths and Weaknesses: It is good to have an impartial view of your own strengths and weaknesses when lay the foundation of selling yourself within the information product creation process. It helps you figure out where you are, what you lack and how to move forward so that you get as much growth as possible. It is more than important, it is urgent if you want to create fast success for yourself to have personal positive reinforcement and deep belief to provide yourself the support you need so that you can get over your own limitations to ensure that your information product is as valuable as it can be.
You also need to know exactly who your competition is so you can study them and use their methods to help you improve your own standings. Down recreate the wheel, but understand the wheel and position yourself going uphill from the competition. Check out which kinds of opportunities you’ve already got and try to figure out how best to use them while taking care to remember your strengths and weaknesses. This is a great way to figure out where you stand against your competition which helps you figure out how best to grow.
Launch on Time: No matter what, even if you haven’t officially announced your “launch date” you should launch the site when you’ve said you would. This will force you to stick to your goal and actually work on it. Thinking that “I’ll launch it when I think it’s ready to launch” will only hinder your efforts. You’ve got a responsibility that you need to live up to with your launch, and you can’t move back on that one. If you get close to your launch date and you are getting hung up on your self limiting beliefs in your information product creation, don’t worry this about getting it out there and not perfection. As long as it is usable you should launch it. Launching on time is the professional thing to do and it is more important than creating a “wow” effect in your site visitors. You can always update/upgrade your website when you have to, so there shouldn’t be any issue with that.
Analyze Your Own Concept: If you want to make your information product creation successful you need to understand how good your concept is: is it really going to work for your chosen audience or would something else be better? You already know about your competition; how does your concept measure up? If you haven’t come up with your own idea and are trying to work with someone else’s concept, do some more work on your own before your launch. People want original ideas because they’ve seen too many other me-too websites already.
Test Your Concept Before You Commit To The Information Product Creation Process: One of the biggest failures people have with information product creation is not testing an idea before putting a lot of effort into producing an information product. PPC to a small 5 page site with a landing page is a great way to test an offer before you even produce it. If people will sign up to get it, you can be sure that you can create an information product that will target eliminating the pain of your target market. The small amount of money will be invaluable in using crowd sourcing to direct the final outline of the information product creation process.
You’ll have lots of hurdles to clear after the launch of your information product and the only way to truly take care of them is to follow the advice in this article to work smarter. Plenty of people work hard, but it is the ones who work smarter who make real money online with the information product creation business model.
Plan To Succeed With Information Product Creation: Why You Need To Split Your Process Up
One of the keys to succeeding in information product creation is to break the process up into discrete steps. This frequently isn’t an instinctive reaction for the typical information marketer. Especially on the internet where small sized learning products are the norm.
However, it is extremely important to your ultimate success. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if you don’t do this you probably won’t succeed… even when you are starting out let alone as you move forward.
Your product creation system should do this for you if only to help you to understand the overall task.
But why?
In this article, I’m going to ignore chunking and focus on the practical aspects. That’s not to say that chunking isn’t important. It is. It’s important to understanding and to learning the process. But while you can use the same chunks as you move forward, long term your focus needs to be on the operation of the system not the understanding of it. Unless of course you are constantly training new people!
So why is chunking important to long term use of the product creation process? (Yes, I know systems design uses a different term for this process but I’m not teaching you systems design. So I’m going to use the word learning content designers use.)
The first reason that having individual discrete tasks is important is one of schedule estimation. Frequently it is very difficult to estimate how long the total task of creating a product will take. After all, the size and type of the products matters as does the number of products in your product funnel. And those are just the most obvious elements. However, estimating a discrete task is often much easier. The total can then be estimated as the total of the discrete tasks.
Secondly, scheduling a large task can be problematic. However, by segmenting the task into a number of discrete tasks, you gain a much greater flexibility in scheduling. Not only that but as your business begins to add people you are able to schedule multiple people to the product creation.
Finally, segmenting a large task into smaller discrete tasks allows you to have much better control over the product creation. This affects two different areas — status and quality.
By segmenting your process into discrete tasks you are able to schedule and record the progress at much more detailed level. As a result you are more in control of the status of the product creation. You know what everyone is doing. When they should complete it. And how much it should cost. You also know exactly what has been done.
You also improve your overall quality. Instead of waiting until everything is done you can check quality as you go. This allows you to immediate react to low quality products without absorbing their costs. This means that you have less rework and your rework costs less. And if the product is not going to meet its quality requirement you will know about it in time to stop the development, change the requirement or fix the product.