How Secure Is Your Source Of Income?
After many years of hard work, you find yourself at the top of your field. All your income is riding on one customer, one job, or one avenue of revenue. Does this sound like your situation? If you answer yes, then you must consider creating multiple streams of income.
What if one day, unexpectedly, you are “down sized”, “cut loose”, “let go”. Call it what you like, but you find yourself without a job, without income. I know how it feels, it happened to me. First, you panic, then you get really mad and finally you settle down and realize you better do something and do it fast. For many, this has been a very real life experience, one that we wish never occurred. Most people find it difficult at best, to find a job that will replace the income they had and changing careers is very frightening. So what do you do? You might find another job that you feel is suitable, but in the long term, it is not always, what you thought it was going to be. |
What about starting your own business? This seems to be the next logical, and in most cases, the better choice. Whether you choose to start a home based business, a service business or online business, you must make a choice.
Multiple streams of income are imperative, not just for survival, but in order to secure your future. So start now, make the decision that you will develop other ways of producing income for you and your family. You cannot let a bad situation get you down and keep you on the ground. You must make a decision to get up and turn things around. Without action, nothing changes. Whatever you choose to do, whether a home based business or a new job and career, you must do it with all your might. |
How One Woman Found Her Perfect Home Business --- Three Times
Have you ever noticed that what works for you at one point in your life, might not work five years down the road. Maybe a divorce happens, or a partner gets a job transfer. Someone in the family could fall ill, and of course, kids come into our lives and then leave the nest to start their own lives. New opportunities arise and old ones disappear; it’s what we often refer to as…LIFE.
I’ve recently been introduced to a woman via the Internet who has changed her self-employment career three times. She has such a great story. Her name is Anlé. Her story starts back in the early 90’s when she and her husband emigrated from South Africa to Germany. It wasn’t an easy move for Anlé, but she was young and full of adventure and optimism. Anlé’s husband, who was of German descent, found work right away when they moved, but Anlé could barely speak ''ja, nein and ich liebe dich.'' Not being able to speak German was a huge hindrance to her getting hired. In Africa, Anlé was a promotional and advertising manager for their second largest wholesale group, but now, Anlé was going to have to think of a different approach making money, like starting her own business. She had no idea what type of business to start, so she began to use the Internet as a resource. She happened upon a site called Bizymoms.com and was able to read about women who had their own home businesses. “I couldn't stop reading, all those business ideas! I printed it all and read all the stories of all Bizymoms and their home businesses. I made a decision that I too can start my own business”. Explains Anlé. What Anlé did next is key to finding a profitable business. She looked at the needs of her area. Anlé says, “It was a time in Europe where English suddenly became a necessity because of the borders opening between the countries and most people between the age of 30 and 50 suddenly needed English for their careers.” Anlé had no problem speaking English, even though Afrikaans was her native language. She decided to take a five-day course on how to teach people a second language. Now we all have fears that keep us from improving our lives and moving forward. Anlé was very scared to take the course. She feared of making grammar mistakes, or that she wouldn’t be able to cope. Anlé explains, “I think the biggest problem is that you loose your own identity when you move to a country where you can't speak the language. You loose confidence in yourself when you go to the bakery and you cannot even say what you want. The phone rings and you just stare at it and don't dare to answer cause you don't understand and can't speak to who ever is calling you. The fear probably came from living with this situation for months and loosing confidence in my abilities and myself.” Amazingly today, Anlé speaks German better than English. The first day of class was hard. “I must admit that first day I was so petrified that I could hardly get my legs to move from my car to the entrance, but I survived.” Anlé took it one day at a time though and completed her five-day course. Then it was all about getting the word out about her business. She put an ad in the newspaper and waited, she really didn’t know if anyone would actually contact her or not. But it happened. She started to get clients. Then large companies started to contact her to teach their office staff. Anlé says, “English is not my native language, but with determination and good preparation one could make a success of everything.” Anlé’s soon became pregnant and had a little boy. She made it very clear to her clients that her son would be coming along to all appointments. But Anlé’s son did something that all of our kids do, he got older. Anlé says, “But as my son grew I found that it was not fair on him to spend so much time in the classroom, where he had to keep himself busy while I was teaching, and so it was back to square one.” |
Anlé had to find a new way to make money. Again, she turned to the Internet to get some ideas on what type of business she should start. She explains, “All these years I had been following Bizymoms' progress and as I needed a new idea I came across stories of Bizymoms who started daycare for little children. My daycare, ‘The Zwergenstübchen,’ was born. It was a wonderful time, five little children came from Monday to Friday and my son loved it too.” Anlé truly enjoyed her new business. She explains, “I learned so much from them. I learned to just leave all the 'adult work' and just play. Then my son and all the other children eventually went to Kindergarten, we were finally building our dream house, life was wonderful.”
Life is great when it’s wonderful, but when it turns ugly, it can be devastating. During the building of Anlé’s home her husband had an accident. He slipped and fell from a two-story building. The doctors gave him a 20% chance of ever walking again. Anlé found that out later. Her husband, being a very positive soul, turned it around and told he had a 80% chance to walk. He spent many weeks in the hospital, ten months in a wheelchair, underwent lots of therapy, and because of all the time he had to take off to recover, he lost his job. Anlé found herself with no job, a half-built house in middle of winter, and lots of debt! The situation was bleak, but Anlé didn’t give up. She again turned to the Internet for help and motivation. She explains, “I read everything on Bizymoms, again and again, trying to find something that I could do. And then one day I found it. Liz Folger advised someone who didn’t know what kind of home business to start to 'to do what you really love,' and as I have always painted and loved it, I tried to draw a picture of my son; combining the two things that I love most!” When you look at Anlé’s work you will be amazed. She is such a gifted artist, and that is how she is currently making her living. On the front page of her site you will see the picture she drew of her son. Anlé’s business is a dream come true. She says, “I get up in the morning and can’t wait to start!” And really, that’s how it should be. Anlé now works on a commission basis, and she has the support of all her friends and family. Anlé’s son is a huge supporter of her business. He is so proud of his mothers work. He tells everybody his mom is an artist and all his little friends get a business card with the strict order to give it to their parents. Anlé says, “When they come and play, he always shows them what I am working on and tells them if they want a picture of themselves, his mom can draw it. I even got two commissions because of his networking.” Anlé’s determination and power of positive thinking has clearly helped in the success of her business. Two quotes that she loves are, 'I always do the things that I can't do, that's how I get to do them,' and 'it's always to soon to quit!'. She ends by saying, “It is very true that if you do something that you love, the rest is history.. Now, I want you to go back into the ad campaign and create another a slightly different ad. It will automatically use the same keywords. In Yahoo, you will need to then go back to the campaign level, click on the ads and then click on optimize ads button. Please select no and submit. What will happen then is each of your two ads will run, each showing (50) fifty percent of the time. After some time has passed you will be able to tell by the conversion rate, which one is performing best. Simply modify the worst one with some new text and check it again after receiving more hits. You are always improving on your ads therefore your conversion rates only get better. You will need to let them run so that you get at least 50 - 100 clicks before changing. After getting someone to click on your ad, you want to take him or her to the specific landing page that offers exactly what he or she are looking for. Always remember the steps we talked about from beginning to end. It's very important to tie them all together nicely. A potential customer wants to click on an ad they think will take care of their needs and go to exactly the product or service they the ad referred to. |
How Much Fun Are You As a Home-Based Business Owner?
Isn't it amazing how when something is off kilter, a series of events or circumstances arise that shines a big bright light on the situation?
The matter requiring attention is revealed one way or another whether you want it to be or not. If you're a coach, this may ring true more so for you. I don't know how many times I've conducted a session with a client only to realize that I am in as much need of directing my attention to the very same issue they're working on. In recent weeks, I have allowed myself to become consumed by business activities while fitness, family and fun have taken a back seat. Sometimes you need to burn a little extra fuel to get the rocket off the ground, but there comes a time when you have to let up on the power boosters and let the momentum you've created propel the ship. If you continue to run the ship at full power, the fuel supply will quickly disappear and you may not make it to your intended destination. Fortunately, a series of events have required that I pay attention to the imbalance I created. First, I was asked to write an article on how to build fun and balance into a home-based business while remaining productive. Second, I paid an impromptu visit to the library and picked up Jay Conrad Levinson's, The Way of The Guerilla, an excellent exposé on the motivations of today's entrepreneur and the critical importance of balance, family, health and relationships. |
I had no idea what this book was about until I started reading it, however, it was exactly what I needed at the time.
Third, I had a coaching session with a client in which we focused our attention on an extensive project that will involve a large group of people and require specific structures, processes, responsibilities and a compelling vision that will be embraced by every member of the team. Focusing on the schematics of a project is often the easy part. It's giving our self top priority throughout the process that poses the biggest challenge. As we wrapped up the session I stressed the importance of taking care of "self" to my client and at the same time, I realized the message applied to me as well. As you go through your day and work your plan, keep in mind these words I shared with my client ... "Your body and your mind are the vehicles that will allow you to carry out your dream. Give them top priority because without them, everything else is dust." I actually posted these words on my computer screen as a daily reminder to myself. If this is what you need to do to serve as a daily reminder of the importance of taking care of yourself first, I encourage you to do the same. |
How Long Will Your Home Biz Company Be Around?
Often someone will ask me if I’ve heard of a certain company, or if I know how long they’ve been around. But the most interesting question that I am sometimes asked is, “how long do you think they ‘will’ be around?”
That last one is not only an interesting question, but it’s one that really no one can possibly have an answer to. Just in the weeks prior to this article being written two of the World’s largest corporations, General Motors Corporation, and Ford Motor Company, had their credit ratings downgraded to junk bond status by the industry’s credit and investment rating services such as Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings. It is only coincidence that two of the largest automakers were in the news when I wrote this article, but certainly many corporate giants in numerous industries have faced tough times, including Kmart, Sears, and most of the major airlines. Excel Communications became one of the most successful companies in the home business industry, and in American business history, only to later end in bankruptcy due to corporate greed and mismanagement. Despite examples like those above it is certainly not all doom and gloom. In fact, with the exception of Excel and some of the airlines, such as TWA, every one of the companies mentioned above is still in business. I started with the examples above to illustrate that no company is immune from ups and downs, regardless of how large or how well established. But that certainly doesn’t mean that you can’t stack the odds in your favor when considering home business opportunities. In fact, some of the criteria that you can use to make your evaluation are incredibly simple. But many people still choose to ignore good advice when it comes to making such decisions. We could go into more detailed considerations of such things as company management, the lineup of products and services, etc. (all important factors). However, not only can it be difficult to judge such things, but even those and many other factors aren’t as important as the test of time. |
Simply choosing a company that has been around for a while (with “a while” being a minimum of 2 to 3 years and preferably 5 or more) will automatically stack the odds in your favor as opposed to people who choose to go with risky startups and pre-launches.
Most “new” businesses fail, and that’s a fact that is now so well documented that it might as well be cast in stone. And, again, we’re not just talking about the home business industry. It’s a statistic that applies to businesses of almost every type. However, once a business is no longer, “new,” after it has proven that it can survive beyond those first critical months and years, its chances for continued success simply continue to increase over time. There can be no assurance that even a company that has been around for a long time won’t experience bumps in the road, or even major problems, but history clearly shows that the longer the company has been in business, the longer they are likely to be able to continue to survive and be successful. Of course, there are some who enjoy the potential rewards, and substantially much higher risks, associated with new companies. However, in reality, most people who become involved with such companies only do so because they aren’t aware of the statistics regarding business success and failure. And then also many people become so wrapped up in the hype, emotion, and sometimes even greed (of promised skyrocketing profits due to being in on “the ground floor”) often associated with new companies that they throw all caution aside and jump in anyway. You don’t have to become as knowledgeable as a business analyst to boost your chances of success tremendously simply by following the one simple rule of picking a company that has been around for a while. Can you or anyone else guarantee that any particular company will be around 5, 10, or 20 years from now? Absolutely not… Can you stack the odds in your favor and make it much more likely that your company will still be around 5, 10, or 20 years from now simply by avoiding startups and new companies? Absolutely the answer is yes! |