Remembering Childhood Lessons Can Boost Your Home Business Success

Take a moment to think about what you learned as a young child or teenager, Also, think about who showed you how to do certain things:

• Who gets credit for teaching you how to ride a bicycle?
• Do you remember who taught you how to tie your shoelaces?
• Who played the biggest role in showing you how to cook or use power tools?
• Name the people that helped you with swimming, tennis, baseball, and so on.
• If you can drive a vehicle with a manual transmission, who showed you how to work the clutch and shift gears?

Yeah, I realize that these might like silly questions, but I really want you to think about the things you’ve learned and who taught you.

Okay, so what does all this have to do with improving your chance for home business success?

As you read the questions above, a few names should have popped into your mind about who taught you to do the things you might now take for granted. The one thing most of those people had in common is that they already knew how to do something before showing you how to do it.

By now, I think you can see where I am headed with this… We learn best from people that have “been there, done that.”

Well then, why on earth are we willing to listen to people tell us this and that about home business success when they haven’t already reached a significant level of success for themselves?

Even when these people have good intentions, their opinions should be taken with a grain of salt unless they have the experience and/or the expertise to back it up.

Some people will say it can’t be done. Did they fail with a home business and now they think everybody will end up the same way?

Some people might try to discourage you. Maybe they don’t understand how important your dreams are and how strongly you believe that you can make those dreams a reality.

Also, think about the reason(s) you wanted to learn what did when you were younger. What prompted you to keep at it? What was your motivation?

For example, when I was learning to ride a bicycle, I remember that one of my reasons for not giving up was a girl named Patty. She lived a few houses down the block. Patty was a year older and she had been riding a bike for several months. Patty was the older sister of a childhood friend and I thought if that dumb girl could learn how to ride a bike, I could do it too!

It was the same for a few other things - I wanted to do it anyway, but seeing that others could do it helped me realize it was possible and gave me even more motivation. Besides, I didn’t want to be known as the dummy that couldn’t do such and such.

I remember being totally frustrated when I was trying to learn different things, but in reality, it wasn’t long before I was doing it and getting better all the time.

There are two main points to all of this that relate to home business success:

• If something is important to you, don’t give up. Know why you want to reach a certain goal and let that “WHY” be a motivating force.
• Pay attention to people that have already reached a level of success that you would like to reach for yourself. The people that have “been there, done that” will usually be the best guide or mentor.

Maybe we should remember what youthful enthusiasm felt like and apply some of that to the things we want to accomplish as adults.

Is This The Best Time For A Home-Based Business?

A friend recently asked me if this is a good time for a home-based business.

Generally speaking, yes, this is an ideal time to build a home business.

I use a word like build because in order to have success, a home business needs to have a good foundation. I’m not talking about the typical concrete or steel type of foundation, but rather a basic understanding of what your chosen type of home business is all about. You should also understand why you want to take on such an endeavor and what motivates you to keep moving forward.

The Internet and search engines make it possible to find information on every type of home business, whether it’s affiliate marketing, niche marketing, network marketing (MLM), or any other method of making money from home.

The downside to the vast amount of readily available information is that a large portion of it is hype or distorted truths. Unfortunately, much of it appears to be the real deal, until we find out the hard way that we have been deceived and/or lied to.

Many of us have been there, done that, and yet we kept seeking something that would be a “good fit” for us.

There are many reasons we fell for something that turned out to be a bad move on our part. It might have been our eagerness, our vulnerability, or a trusting nature that led us to believe that something was genuine. Sometimes, it was simply a lack of experience and we had to learn how to be more discerning about the things we saw and read.

Even though we have the minefields of hype and scammy programs, this is a great time for a home business because the Internet and the social networking sites provide us with a wide range of valuable options for finding customers and prospects.

As the Internet grew, there were opportunities that never existed before, such as niche marketing and article marketing. In the “old days” (for us baby boomers), there was no such thing as banners, affiliate links, and blogs.

For many of us that were involved with a home business before the Internet, it was overwhelming at first to have such a whole new world of possibilities.

Network marketing (MLM) has been around for decades. It used to be that cold-calling, making a list of friends and neighbors, hotel meetings, and the “three-foot rule” were the methods used to build a downline. Thank goodness we have so many more effective ways to do it now.

Nowadays, you can look in your back office or the member’s area to see what is happening and who might need a little encouragement or extra help to get going. In the “old days” we had to wait for a monthly downline report from the company. For example, if a member dropped out the first week of May, you might not know about it until you received your downline report in the mail around the third week of June.

So, to recap what I said at the start of this post… All in all, this is an ideal time to build a home-based business.

However, that is speaking in general terms. Whether this is an ideal time for you as an individual to build a home-based business can only be answered by you.

You should ask yourself these questions:

• Do I have a basic understanding of this type of activity?
• Am I willing to learn whatever I don’t already know?
• What goals do I have and why do I want to achieve them?
• Am I ready to devote at least 5 to 10 hours per week?
• Is my mind-set strong enough? (Drive - Desire - Determination)

I would strongly advise you not to take on any home business endeavor until you are honest with yourself and you feel comfortable with your answers to those questions.

My Home Business Is About More Than Making Money

Making money is the main reason that most people start a home-based business. For many of us, it goes way beyond that.

For myself, and many others, it’s also about sharing what we know so that others can get on the right track to success.

I had lots of disappointments and heartaches along the way, but I kept trying and finally saw things start to fall into place. I know now that experiencing one failed attempt after another was largely due to things such as quitting too soon, not being focused, as well as having a mind-set that was counter-productive.

As I’ve said before, this blog is one of the ways I share what I have learned along the way. It makes me feel good when someone is able to get a better perspective on things because of some information that I’ve written about.

Since my home business is full-time, I am able to be involved in various home business activities, one of which is niche marketing. One of my niche marketing sites is all about the different types and styles of area rugs. It can be seen at www.Area-Rug-Tips.com.

I was thrilled when someone told me how useful that site had been for them. Here are the kind and generous comments:

Thank you for the gift of your website!

I am a 5th grade teacher who found it through ‘google’ images. I was looking for photos of Navajo Rugs to show my students who are learning about the Southwestern US and the Navajo’s history there and voila! There was this wealth of education right at my fingertips.

We are also learning about poetry and I am excited to share the “Words of Wisdom” pages with them.

Last but definitely not least; I am printing the mini-poster for my classroom. We will discuss its wonderful message, which says: “The only people with whom you should try to get even are those who have helped you.”

Sincerely, Ellen Hickmott
aka “Mrs. H.”
Spencerport Schools, NY

Wow! A teacher found things on one of my sites that she wanted to share with her students. I have a hard time describing how good that made me feel.

Want to see what she was talking about?

This link is for the page about Navajo rugs.

This link is for the page with the “Words of Wisdom” and the mini-poster.

Here’s an image from the poster she mentioned…

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Yes, I like to make money, but I also like to share things that other people might find as interesting as I do, such as good quotes and the mini-posters.

Business articles and blog posts are one of the ways for me to give back. It might not be possible to repay all the people who have helped me along the way, so I pass along my experience and insights in hopes that other people can gain benefit from the information about having success with a home-based business.