It starts when an old friend comes shows up on your doorstep. He has just discovered the IDEAL home business opportunity. You aren't seriously very interested at first, but soon after you get caught up in his excitement.
You sign on the dotted line. You choose to spend $ 300 rather than $150 because you want the very best chance of earning the big money. You have to sign today or that "Limited Time Special Offer" might be gone if you wait.
After a couple weeks with little of no sales that original excitement just isn't there any longer, at least like it was when you first signed up. Your sponsor has also moved on to another business opportunity.
Next you hear about another home business opportunity, it looks like you can make twice as much as the first one - and in less time. Now your more excited than ever as you see yourself on that big vacation spending all that residual income you are going to be earning soon. You sign up, then sit back and wait for the checks to start rolling in.
Next time you see your friend, you want to tell him all about your new business opportunity, but he's disillusioned, he says. "Multi-Level Marketing Doesn't Work".
I call this the "Opportunity Lottery". You rationalize that success depends on factors beyond your control. Your success depends on circumstances working out just right. Without any real effort or developing the skills required on your part your chances of success are about the same as winning the lottery.
Most people are accustomed to being told what to do and how to do it. Most of the folks who read this article are experienced with this income model. Our common experience it to do some work, get paid, then do some more work and getting paid more. The more we learn through experience the more we are paid.
There is one big problem following this income model. It depends on your employer earning more from your efforts than you are earning.
Employers train you to do what they want you to do. They are not going to train you to start and run your own business. Your employer doesn't want you to acquire the skills you'll need to go out on your own. The longer you are kept in the dark about the unlimited possibilities the longer you will remain an employee.
A home-based business works like any other business; the people with the best skills earn the most money. Our western culture is designed to leverage the efforts of other people in the company's best interest.
In business, you earn money through your own efforts and you may also earn a percentage from the efforts of others. In marketing businesses, you earn income in the future for the work you do today.
The key is always going to be doing the work - FIRST. Luck just doesn't play a major role in our marketing success.
If our marketing plan doesn't work, it's usually because we depended on someone else to do too much of the work. Without specific education and training most businesses will flounder and fail.
When you own your own home business; you are responsible for knowing what to do and how it should be done. This added responsibility is uncomfortable until we develop the skills required.
So what can we do?
When you learned how to do your job, you learned the specific set of skills you needed to do your job successfully. Before you were assigned a specific job your employers required you to know the specific skills you need. As you learned more through experience you were paid more. You are paid more because your employer earns more through the "added value" your specific skills bring to the business.
Don't look outside yourself for the skills you'll need. Invest in the specific skill sets required.
I worked 30+ years in the lithography business; I was responsible for creating the point of purchase color brochures and software packaging for Microsoft and other large corporations. They hired me because I already had the specific experience and knowledge they required.
The problem with working for others is that when circumstances change; the value of your skills to the company changes. For example when the printing industry started using computers to do everything my skills no longer as valuable. From the companies point of view, why pay $25 an hour to do work that could be preformed by someone willing to work for $10 an hour.
After thirty years experience in a trade after my last paycheck was gone I was flat broke. I realized that I needed to develop new skills. I wanted a home business where I would be in control; I also wanted to develop a residual income.
Like many others, I started out with the opportunity lottery. It seemed to me that I was doing the same things that my upline was doing, yet I found myself always just out of the big money.
I decided I couldn't do worse if I did what I thought was right instead of what worked for others. Next I discovered an article that changed my mind-set.
The 300-Dollar Solution
http://www.smithfam.com/three300.html
I learned how to set easily obtainable goals. I grew according to a plan, step by step. Every time I obtained one goal I moved almost effortlessly on to the next challenge. That's when things started working for me. I invested a lot of my time in learning how to sell things on the Internet.
Successful people usually make more wrong decisions than unsuccessful people, so how is it they can still be successful? Successful people are successful because they make more decisions, they work smarter, learn from their mistakes and they don't give up. Since successful people make more decisions than unsuccessful people; so it shouldn't be a surprise when things start working.
Multi-level and direct marketing is not easy. If you can make money in Multi-level marketing you can make money selling just about anything. Multi-level organizations and affiliate programs are an excellent way to earn while your learning.
The key to success is not contained in the opportunity itself, great opportunities exist everywhere. The key is to invest your efforts in learning the skills that will actually take you where you want to go.
So direct marketing is like anything else in life, it doesn't work unless we work it. Through continuing learning almost anyone can operate a profitable home-based Internet business.
Rather than moving from one opportunity to another, invest in long-term strategies. Eventually invest in products and services you can control. Develop a mastermind alliance with others of like mind. Most importantly, do something every day, and never give up. It's impossible to fail at anything unless you give up.
Best Wishes
Bob
Click Here to Email Bob Smith
