Working from home: what works and what doesn’t

It is a dream for many to work from the comfort of their own home. It is a dream that can be easily shattered if you do it the wrong way. Shattered dreams can lead to discouragement in the long run. Many experience disappointment when entering the world of home business. I guess it comes with the territory, but there are ways to minimize the risk of failure and lift your spirits.

First, I’m going to share a little story that may be familiar to many who want to work at home. In 1999 I was asked to attend a life changing seminar in Minneapolis MN. You know the kind of thing where you and others like you meet on a certain date in a hotel conference room. Yes, that’s the one. But, seriously. It was in 1999 when I was attending college at Minnesota State University and looking to earn a little extra money for my weekend activities. I was presented with the opportunity to attend one of these seminars. It was supposed to change my life and my friend’s life. While at the seminar, we were presented with a plan to generate a six figure income simply by promoting a travel club. It seemed simple, just get people to buy this low-priced club membership and your customers can save up to 50% on hotel and car rentals. Best of all, the suggested retail price was $99 and you would make a profit on anything over $10. Seemed like an easy sale at $20, right? How about $14.95? Well, it turned out that it wasn’t.

People are very skeptical of these offers, and it turns out for good reason. Long story short, 9 months later, the membership company was going through a fraud procedure. Unfortunately, my friend and I spent $600 each that we had invested to buy our distribution rights from the membership company. After all the work I put into going door to door to hand out flyers, including a lot of prep time, etc. I made a total of one sale, and that was to my parents. So what was missing you ask? On the one hand, a renowned company or a product to promote. Two, quality training on how to promote this product in a real and effective way. Don’t get me wrong, they did offer suggestions on how to promote this item, but they were only a scratch scratch for real, effective marketing. How do I know this? Because I have studied true and effective marketing for the last few years and I can honestly say that I can’t believe how ignorant I used to be, even when everything seemed great at the time.

First of all, when you get involved in a home based business, you should always look for products that don’t cost you a dime to promote. You are doing these companies a great favor by reducing their advertising costs.

Second, there are plenty of great products or services from reputable and highly visible companies that you can promote and get paid for. Online marketing is a great platform for your work at home business. The learning curve is moderate, but with good sources of information, the learning process can be eased.