Do You Expect Success or Is It Just a Passing Thought?

The Most Important Things for Home Business Success

Years ago, I struggled to find success with one home-based business after another. This cycle of failure was not fun; in fact, it was downright depressing. The meager income, if any, couldn’t even begin to make a dent in the pile of expenses. How can this be? I was doing well with my job in the corporate world. I had good performance reviews and received recognition for my work.

It was quite a blow to my ego to be able to succeed when working for somebody else and yet fail when trying to work for myself. I had plenty of company since the majority of people with a home business have been in a similar situation. That’s right; most of us, at some point, were better at working for others than we were at working for ourselves.

The good news is that it doesn’t have to stay that way! So, what does it take to turn things around?

The things that are most vital to our success can be identified by the letters T, A, D, and A.

It’s easy to remember Ta-Da, which is the sound often heard when a magician does his thing. That seems appropriate because when we make the transition from failure to success, it certainly feels as though something magical is happening.

T - Tenacity
A - Attitude
D – Desire
A - Action

Tenacity can be described best by looking at other words with similar meanings, such as resolve, firmness, persistence, doggedness, steadfastness, drive and determination. It’s what my grandfather called stick-to-itiveness, although he pronounced it stick-to-it-enoughs. It simply means the ability to stick-to-it until it’s done.

A positive attitude is essential for success. This includes your mind-set as well as your belief in yourself and your ability to reach your ultimate goal. Yes, there might be an obstacle pop up now and then, but I think you’ll find out, as I did, that the fear of an obstacle is usually much larger than the obstacle itself. When I faced an obstacle head-on rather than let the fear of it whittle away at my self-confidence, I was soon able to continue making good progress toward my goal.

A great quote from Henry Ford really sums up attitude and mind-set;
“Whether you think you can or can’t… you’re absolutely right!”

Desire is the reason you want to reach your goal in the first place. Whatever you want to do / be / have, you need a reason to do what it takes to make it happen. Call it motivation, a burning desire, or your life’s ambition; you need a reason to keep moving toward that goal. Without a good solid reason (your “WHY”) you run the risk of getting sidetracked or giving up altogether long before you reach the goal.

Action is a must-do part of the plan; it’s not an option. Having your desire and positive mind-set cranked up to 100% won’t matter much if your action is at/near zero. For a home business, action might include activities like reading, learning, contacting people who want more information, responding to email messages, sending postcards, and keeping in touch with your downline and upline.

Whether your home-based business involves niche marketing, affiliate marketing, or multi-level-marketing (MLM), you need to have the characteristics outlined above in order to have any measure of genuine success.

With Ta-Da, there really is magic in what you do!

Do You Have the Motivation to Reach Your Goals?

What is Your Reason for Wanting to Reach a Certain Goal?

Whether you call it your motivation, a core desire, a fire in the belly, or a burning desire, you need a strong reason to reach any significant goal in order to actually achieve it. The right motivation can fill you with the determination to keep at it until you attain your goal. Without an incentive that is your driving force, you run the risk of getting sidetracked and/or quitting too soon.

Many people simply call it their “WHY” and it’s the reason why they want to make a certain goal their reality.

A goal for many people is getting a home-based business to the point where they can be personally and financially independent. It’s a great situation to be in. However, it takes time and effort to get there. So, a good purpose for making it happen is needed in order to persevere.

Let’s take a look at a few examples of a “why” for a home biz.

• A lifestyle that allows more time for family activities and vacations.
• More income than most jobs can offer.
• Providing a college fund for your children/grandchildren.
• Being able to contribute to important causes you want to support.
• A fund for your “Golden Years.” (Pensions and Social Security are often inadequate.)
• Buying a new home for your parents or paying off their existing mortgage.

It is noteworthy that when all or part of our “why” includes things beyond our own personal wants and needs, the fortitude can be even stronger and more effective. Whether we call it “Karma” or “Positive Forces in the Universe,” it’s hard to deny that good fortune flows to us a bit easier when we are not being so selfish. After all, making a better life for our families, helping those less fortunate, and supporting worthy causes is the right thing to do.

Goals as well as the reason(s) for wanting to reach them are different from one person to the next. However, it is paramount to have a good “why” to give us the momentum to keep moving in the right direction.

Is Your Home Business Aimed for Success or Failure?

Why Do So Many People Fail with a Home Business?

I feel somewhat qualified to answer that question. I say that because I have failed to come close to any kind of success several different times, and now I know why.

There are many reasons for the high rate of failure for home-based businesses. However, there are only a few things that really make the difference for people who reach a desired level of success.

Here are some of the contributing factors for home biz failure:

• Many pay plans don’t offer fair compensation for selling the products or services.
• Some people buy into a home biz and then treat it like a lottery ticket (they sit back and hope for the best).
• Numerous programs have a low start-up cost and that’s good, but some people don’t realize it also takes time and effort to build a home business.
• People who believe their downline will be filled in entirely with spillover from other people’s efforts.
• Getting caught up in the hype and excitement and not fully understanding all aspects of a home biz.
• Some people don’t allow enough time for a home biz to grow and prosper. They give up too soon and move on to something else, often doing it time after time.
• Some MLMs and affiliate programs are here and gone in a matter of months. Some were poorly managed and others operated illegally and got shut down.

Can you personally relate to any of those scenarios?
I know I sure can.

That list doesn’t cover all of the reasons why people fail with a home-based business, but it has the most common ones. It gives you an idea of what we, as opportunity seekers, are up against.

Spillover might happen to some extent in certain groups, but it is not something we should rely on.

Marketing systems, downline builders, and autoresonders are great (I love ‘em!), but we should avoid thinking that everything is being done for us. We still need to get traffic to our splash page, follow-up (by phone or email) with people wanting more information, keep in touch with our upline and downline, and so forth, depending on which particular type of program we are in.

I mentioned above that there are a few things that really make a big difference (drum roll, please) and they are:

• Accepting responsibility for our own success.
• Taking action to move toward our goals.
• Believing in ourselves and our goals.
• Approach things with positive energy/attitude.

Part of accepting responsibility is to stop blaming circumstances and/or other people.

Something I did when I was in the failure cycle was to join too many programs at one time and never focus on any of them.

There is nothing wrong with being diversified, if you have the time, but it is best to do it one step at a time. Find a program you like and get it to a good point before adding something else.

The possible exception to this is when you have something that complements your main business, such as an autoresponder system that has an affiliate program and you promote that to people looking at your main program.

I finally tasted real success when I started to pay attention to statements like:

• “If you keep doing what you’ve been doing, you’ll keep getting what you’ve been getting.”
• “Learn from your mistakes.” (It’s a valuable education.)
• “If you don’t like the results, use a new course of action.”
• “In order for things to change, you must change.”
• “If it’s to be, it’s up to me.”

This might sound strange to people who have not yet experienced it for themselves, but I worked much harder to fail than I now work to succeed.

It’s true. Failure was hard for me, not only because of the frustration and disappointment, but also because of the time and effort (not to mention the expense of it all) that did not have a positive outcome.

Yes, I still put in plenty of time and effort on my home business, but it is more like a labor of love than the chore it used to be. After adjusting my approach as well as my attitude, success (and a nice profit) was not nearly as difficult as I once thought.

If you are still struggling, I sincerely hope that you’ll soon start to experience your own success.