BY
RONNIE J. MILLER
My goal from college until today has remained the same. I want to learn as much as I can about business. I hold a degree in accounting from the University of Michigan, with 30 accounting credits, and 47 general business credits, and 24 credits in economics and social sciences. After graduating from college I became a substitute teacher for a short period to gain presentation skills under various conditions. I then began a sales career with a top fortune 500 company learning about marketing from the trenches, direct selling. I then moved onto a sales and managing position requiring not only sales but also a heavy emphasis on customer service and leadership. The job also required specialty product knowledge that I had to learn and train others about. However, I was never alone and part of a team. In a home business, you are alone unless you find a better way to do business.
Many people feel they can just walk away from all their troubles at work by simply moving the office into their home and running a home business. The people, I know, who have done that will also do the glance toward the floor after they reflect on their experiences. The glance toward the floor is a remembering of all the stress, and problems, and weeks of payless days that running a home business can bring.
In a home business, a person is forced to take on all aspects of a business. From developing to implementing, a home business entrepreneur has her work cut out for her. Working in sales, I learned that the rosy picture painted by the marketing department, many of whom never saw the street or the competition, was never as bright and shinny when presented to customers. In sales, you learn to pick up shattered pieces of a marketing campaign and reassemble the product offering until you are able to find something for a prospect to want to buy. Salespeople work on a commission while marketing people work on a salary and the sweat and skill of the sells department. Marketing people work with a competitive analysis in a room of no objections and happy praises. While, Salespeople work with the prospect telling the salesperson why his product is horrible and why the competitors product is great. Oddly enough, the marketing and sells departments form a team encouraging each other and expressing very individual viewpoints allowing the company to grow more competitive. The marketing department has an entire team spending countless hours doing research and focus groups, studying and creating a strong marketing presence. The people in the marketing department are the coaches, guides, and teachers for the salespeople, giving strategy to desperation. The salesperson relies on the sweat and skill of the marketing department. When a person is running a home business, the line between establishing a marketing position and marketing the products to customers becomes very confusing, creates doubt, and leads to more home business failures than anything else.
However, if a person endures, running a home business can bring many rewards. In fact, the established home entrepreneur will enjoy more freedom and have more money than other people doing the same type of work as employees. If possible, the entrepreneur should pick an opportunity where he can team up with an already established company. That way, he will have an entire marketing staff supporting him. He can spend more time selling and doing business and less time developing a marketing strategy.
Ideally, the entrepreneur should be able to start a business in his spare time and not rush into an opportunity with so much at risk. An entrepreneur should build his business slowly, like an investment, until it offers an additional stream of income. The entrepreneur should find an opportunity that he can do in his spare time while working a full time job. In doing so, the entrepreneur will never feel a money strain and yet gain all the monetary rewards. The 21st century, with its unpredictable job and financial markets, is a perfect time to let go of the traditional retirement plan. There are many pension accounts that are so under funded the pension funds may not be a reliable source of a retirement income, yet people are relying on them. The three US automakers, three of the largest companies in the world, have already requested the US government take over their pension plans. It is a great time for a person to look toward additional revenue streams and alternatives to retirement plans.
I recommend a company called SFI. The company is a network marketing company; but unlike other network marketing companies, they dont require a person to buy their products in order for a person to sell the products. They offer free membership, a free website, and free training. They allow a person to take as much time as she may want to learn about their system. However, I personally recommend joining IAHBE, SFIs flagship product. IAHBE is a valuable resource, and it returns more in benefits than it cost to join. Also, unlike other network marketing companies, they put a real emphasis on product variety. Many network marketing companies only offer over priced supplements. Also, other network companies give little or no information about the products until a participant pays money, and then many of them require the participant to keep a large inventory in stock. A business can only exist with products being sold, not an opportunity. SFI offers people the chance to learn about the products before they sell them. It also offers the opportunity to sell something once and get paid forever. Everything on my website is because of what I learned by joining SFI for free, and taking the free Internet income course, and also by joining IAHBE. To learn more about the SFI opportunity, IAHBE, and some of their other products, go to: