There is an increasing number of people who have turned to online marketing, to generate an income from the comfort of their howes, to supplement their 9-5 income.
The unfortunate reality in modern day times is that…
Working people are frustrated!
With businesses shipping jobs offshore and employees feeling insecure about their financial future, an awakening seems to be happening –people are taking control of their lives.
How?
By looking at ways to…
Turn their natural skills, hobbies and interests into income!
To earn money doing something that you love and are passionate about is one of the most rewarding feelings that a person can experience.
And, the good news is that this privilege isn’t just reserved for professional athletes, musicians and other such professions.
In all reality, anyone with an interest or hobby can find a way to monetise it, especially using the internet.
However, turning a hobby into a home business isn’t as simple as it sounds.
When most people turn a home business into a hobby…
They never make any money!
Why?
Because, they have not mentally prepared themselves to transition from 9-5er or hobbyist to business person.
I’m talking from personal experience here.
It took me at least 3 years of falling flat on my face and failing miserably before I learned the skills needed to earn an income online.
Running successful home business involves a number of elements:
- A good product.
- A responsive marketplace.
- Good marketing copy.
But…
None of the above matters, if you don’t have the mental grounding to make your business work.
You see, the success of your business will be down to your mindset before anything else.
So…
If you have ever thought about turning a hobby into a home business, you should get a lot of value from this post because I’m going to share some valuable insights that should help you to start your home business with an increased probability of success.
You ready?
Let’s get started.
Mindset Principle 1 – Be Proud & Shout It Out Loud
Most people hate the thought of being seen as a salesperson.
That’s just the way that most of us are conditioned.
But…
If you have ever convinced someone to get into a relationship with you – you’ve sold something.
If you have ever gone to a job interview, or a series of them and been offered the job – you’ve sold something.
So, if you are starting a home business for the first time, it is highly likely you already have enough ‘sales’ skills to sell a product or service to prospective customers.
You see…
The myth’s about people being born with ‘the gift of the gab’ or the ability to sell ice to Eskimos, aren’t true for most successful business owners.
Learning how to sell effectively is a learned skill.
So…
If you have a good product or service that can solve people’s problems and you are focused on helping them to achieve their goals or solve their problems, you should never be ashamed of the fact that you are in the business of improving people’s quality of life.
When most people set up their home business for the first time, they feel embarrassed when it comes to asking people to reach into their wallet and give them money to take advantage of their product.
It is often said that dog can smell fear in people.
Well…
Prospective customers can immediately sense when someone is trying to sell them something, knowing that they are not comfortable doing it.
There is nothing more disturbing to see someone who has an amazing product, who is speaking to a customer who says something like.
“I think you will find that this is a good product. If you don’t mind please give it a try if you want to. You might get some benefit from it, but if it’s not for you its OK I’ll understand”
Hardly inspires confidence – does it?
No!
The way that you should look at your business is that you have a gift that is going to improve someone’s quality of life and you are being selfish if you are not prepared to share it with them.
Now…
I’m not suggesting that you should approach your prospects like an over-confident used-car salesman either who doesn’t care about the customer and just wants their money.
But, you must develop confidence in yourself and the benefits that your product can offer to people and then be able to communicate this confidence to prospects in your marketplace.
It’s all about posture.
And..
If you don’t genuinely feel that your product/services can leave someone with a positive transformational experience…
Create a new product/service!
It’s as simple as that.
Selling something that you are not passionate about, will never work in the long-term.
So, assuming that you love your product, whenever you are speaking to your prospective customers, always speak with…
Enthusiasm!
Here’s the reality…
Without the ability to persuade, you will fail in business and most probably in life.
Enthusiasm plays an important part to play in persuasive communication.
Try not to forget this.
Be proud of the fact that you have something to sell that can improve people’s lives and always be enthusiastic when communicating to people in your marketplace about your products.
Mindset Principle 2 – Self-Finance Your Business
Bootstrapping is the best way to turn your hobby into a home business.
What is does bootstrapping mean?
Starting your business without external financial help or capital.
If you can force yourself to get your business off the ground without having to get yourself into debt, you will develop the skills that you will ultimately need to grow your business.
One of the most dangerous and riskiest thing that you can do is to…
Use borrowed money to fund an untested idea!
Here’s the reality when it comes to most new businesses and products…
They Fail!
..and if you have used friends, family or an financial institution’s money and things go wrong, the impact on your personal life, credit status could be monumental.
So, use your own money, develop a proof of concept where you can consistently demonstrate a ROI and then think about expanding using borrowed funds.
Mindset Principle 3 – Take your Time
Rome wasn’t built in a day.
If you read the origin stories about Rome, you will realise that from inception to the time that it was the most powerful region on the planet, it had to develop in a serious of stages.
Think of your business as a new Rome.
One of the problems with modern say society is that we all want everything yesterday.
We don’t think about the long-term and , it is this mentality that often results in home businesses failing to get of the ground successfully.
So…
Do not put too much pressure on yourself to grow too fast.
Be satisfied starting small and getting it right first.
Turning a hobby or interest into a home business is a journey which will involve you learning about the way business works and more importantly, learning more about…
Who you are as a person!
Don’t be impatient.
Launching a new business whether its a small start-up or a home business is never easy, but when we try to turn our hobbies and passions into a vehicle that we can use to earn an income it get even harder.
Why?
Emotions!
Sometimes, when we first start a new business venture, we get so emotionally connected to the outcome, we throw all of our time, energy and resources into it because we are so focused on growing the business as fast a possible.
We want to experience the same level of enjoyment running the business that we did when we were participating in the hobby.
But…
Hobbies and businesses require two different mentalities to master.
So…
When you are first starting out an ideal approach to take is to focus on thing and one thing alone….
Your 1st Customer!
And…
Once you develop the skills to create one new customer, then, and only then, should you will look to scale upwards.
Here’s what is likely to happen…
You will think of a strategy to attract your first paying customer, you will then go ahead an implement this strategy when you come across a prospective customer and…
They will not buy!
And that’s OK.
Why?
Because, it will mean that you can go back to the drawing board and refine your strategy until you have all of the pieces of the puzzle in place to successfully acquire your first paying customer.
Now…
You might have to keep tweaking your strategy but eventually you will have a ‘eureka’ moment and you will know what to do consistently create new customers in the future – like clockwork.
This might mean being able to get a new customer every day, week or month but once you have been able to demonstrate consistency you will have developed the confidence in yourself and your business concept and this is all you will need to grow your business.
So, be patient and focus your efforts on getting one new customer at a time.
Mindset Principle 4 – Don’t Be Afraid To Fail Often
You will be wrong most of the time.
It kind of goes back to what I was saying in the previous principle and the one before that.
If you can launch your home business, knowing in advance that the majority of your product ideas, strategies, niche choices and marketing messages will not work, you will be able to sustain the right mindset to overcome any challenges, that you will meet along your entrepreneurial journey.
The most successful home based businesses are obsessive about…
Testing & Tweaking!
Here’s another interesting fact..
Did you know that most professional baseball players only have to hit 3 out of 10 balls to be successful and keep their place in their team and continue to earn a salary of over $10m/year?
And…
Most fund managers are lucky to have 20% of trades work beat the market.
What does this tell you?
You don’t need to be right all of the time!
The Pareto principle is so true when applied to business.
Approximately 80% of your income will most probably come from 20% of the ideas, strategies and tactics that you use to grow your business.
All you have to is to be prepared to constantly test, tweak and throw away ideas that are not working.
You see…
One of the downfalls of us human beings is that instant gratification is one of the main reasons we do not build successful businesses from scratch.
Now now now!
A microwave mentality.
Having bundles of patience and thinking long-term is something that you will have to do if you are ever going to start and grow your business. In my humble opinion this is probably one of the most important home business success tip because you need to be a risk taker to run a profitable business.
Mindset Principle 5 – Your Business Isn’t a JOB
Never approach your business like it is a job – because it’s not!
How do most people approach their 9-5 jobs?
For most people, when they go to do their 9-5 job, their ability to earn an income is based on showing up, clocking in, working at a moderate level of competency for 8 hours and then clocking out.
That’s it.
They do this for 20 something days a month, eagerly anticipating their next paycheque and then repeat the whole process again until they retire.
Now…
If you have had a 9-5 job before, I’m sure you were a hard working individual who always went that extra mile and was a top performer but even that mindset won’t help you in your business.
You see..
When you run your home business, your income and your ability to support yourself will be directly related to the value you offer to your marketplace – not the number of hours you trade for money.
Well…
Before can add value you should really attempt to understand what value is.
So, what exactly is value?
From an economic standpoint, value is all about…
Utility!
And…
One way to look at utility is in terms of the satisfaction that a person will get when they use your product.
So, start thinking about your business in terms of the amount of satisfaction that you offer people. Your products and services are tools to enable satisfaction
Always remember…
Value drives income – not work!
This is the true key to achieving home business success.
Mindset 6 – Balance
Work-life balance is important but that’s not what I’m talking about here.
A successful business is one where many things are done correctly simultaneously.
It’s kind of like owning a car.
Ask yourself this…
If you have a car that has every part of the car working apart a hole in the exhaust, how smooth is your ride likely to be?
How efficient is it likely to run?
I suppose the same thing can be said about the human body.
Think about the word health for a second.
One could say that a healthy body is one without pain and disease, radiating vitality and energy.
So…
For the body to be healthy, all of the biological systems need to be working in harmony with each other. When they are not, dis-ease sets in.
How healthy is someone when one of their major organs stops working properly?
Not very – right?
The body has 78 organs, but all it takes is for one organ to start failing and then the body no longer is healthy.
In a way, you could argue that the major organs are the building blocks of your health.
So…
If you think of health as concept made up of the synergistic collaboration of biological systems, you could argue that business success emerges, when a number of critical elements are in harmony and working together at the same time.
What I mean by critical elements is that you will need to have the right product, the right marketing, the right audience, the right sales funnel, the right after-sale support, the right book keeping and accounting practices and the right relationships with people who can help grow your business to be working together.
And…
If one of the key pieces of your business isn’t functioning will, it will be as debilitating to your business.
So, always strive to dedicate a % of your time to the development of all of these organs of your business.
Mindset 7 – Focus on Profits not Revenue
Revenue isn’t the same as profit.
The reason that you would make the decision to start a part-time or full time business is to …
Make MONEY!
But, in all honesty, experience has taught me that people don’t really want the money.
It’s true.
What they are really looking for is the things that money will do for them, some of which include:
- Choosing the hours they work and the people they work with
- Being able to afford ‘shiny’ new things that they couldn’t get working a 9-5
- Being able to go on vacations without having to ask for anyone’s permission
- …and the list goes on
The profits that you generate are what will ultimately allow you to do these things not the revenue that your business produces.
Just in case you weren’t aware…
When you customer pays you $100 for your product. That $100 is revenue. However, to make that sale you might have had to pay $60 in costs.
By costs, I’m talking about things like:
- Accounting fees
- Manufacturing costs
- Taxes
- Advertising costs
- …and any other costs associated with running your business
After you have paid these costs you are left with profit.
It is this profit that you can use to buy your food , clothing ,shelter and other treats.
So, as a business person, always ask yourself the following question…
“What can I do to lower my costs so that I can increase my profits”
Mindset 8 – Be Responsible
It’s your fault.
You are the only person who is responsible for you business.
When new and experienced business people fail to launch their business successfully, it is quite common to hear them blame every man and their dog for their business failure.
This used to be me until a multi-millionaire gave me a swift quick and woke me up to the realities of how business really works. If you struggle with your business, blaming:
- The government
- The negativity of your friends and family
- Your manufacturers
- Your up-line and company – if part of a MLM business
- The economy – some business owners make millions in recessions and even depressions
- A deity – I’ve honestly heard this as a reason before
- A black cat who ran past you on the way to the printers
- …and any other inconceivable excuses
… will not server any logical purpose.
I keep rattling on about this but the main cause of business failure is lack of patience.
Talking unnecessary risks without enough time invested in strategic planning.
I don’t want to get all Bob Proctor on you now but your business in inextricably linked to how much you grow as a person.
As a marketing fanatic, I probably shouldn’t say this but all of the sales and marketing won’t make the slightest difference help you if you have the wrong mindset.
So, embrace learning and growing.
Be teachable, and coach-able.
Expand you knowledge in the areas of business and personal development on a consistent basis and then you will be equipped to grow a business.
Mindset 9 – Get on With It
You business success will be related to your willingness to….
Take Massive Action!
I talked about business failure happening because people are too impatient and I stand by that.
But….
Shuffling folders around your desk, spending hours in social media communities, watching inspiring videos and listening audios isn’t going to help you.
You time and energy should be focused on…
Income Producing Activity!
Anything that you are doing that doesn’t involve converting prospective customers into paying customers will not be contributing to your business success.
A great question to ask yourself as you build your business is…
“What have I done over the last hour that has contributed to me selling more products/services”
Asking yourself this question will help you to stay focused and improve your chances of hitting your goals.
You see…
Feedback from your marketplace is how you will develop and grow your business.
Out of everything I have said throughout this post – if you can take one thing and run with it, let it be the importance of feedback.
If you create and advert and no one responds to it – that’s feedback.
If people respond to your adverts or sales messages but don’t buy – that’s more feedback.
If customers buy your product but don’t reorder – even more feedback.
Feedback from your market is what enables you to tweak and improve elements of your business and you need to spend the majority of your time doing work that will generate the most feedback.
So, don’t take ridiculous risks, plan every thing that you do but once you have come up with your plan….
Get going!
And remember…
All of that Law of Attraction stuff is unlikely to help you if you aren’t prepared to take take massive action, fall flat on your face and keep trying till you succeed.
Finito!
So, that’s it for today, 9 home business success tips that can dramatically increases your chance of being successful.
Now that we have gone over the mindset stuff, you are now ready to delve into the nuts and bolts of exactly what you need to do to launch a successful home business.
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Till next time.
