The One Thing you Must Do to Succeed at your Home Business

Copyright (c) 2008 Mark Albertson

We have all heard the stories. 90% of businesses fail in the first five years. For home businesses, that number is most-likely higher. Pundits and experts spend a huge amount of time examining businesses post-mortem, trying to understand why businesses fail. The experts point to lack of marketing, or taking too much cash out of the business before it's established, or inexperience, or even poor management skills.

All of these are certainly contributing factors to the failure of home businesses, and the experts are certainly correct. Yet most of those commentators fail to realize the most significant cause of failure of home businesses, and it is this: The business owner did not treat the business like a business. There, I said it. It's out in the open.

You aren't sitting there, stunned in your seat? Have no idea what I'm talking about? Then, read on ... Here's the issue: When a person decides to start a "brick and mortar" business, where a store, restaurant, office or other facility is needed, there are many things they must do. They need to draft a business plan, spend weeks, months or years saving the money to start the business, or commit to a large loan in which they will be held accountable to repay. They have to set up phones, set up credit card accounts, purchase office furniture or equipment, and they have to spend time and money marketing. People in this situation are invested in a very large way. Consequently, they have a great deal to risk. While it's not exciting to have so much at risk, it causes most of us, when put in this situation, to be incredibly motivated not to fail. When it's all on the line, when a person can't afford to fail, they don't allow themselves to fail, at least without a huge fight.

On the other hand, many people who decide to start a home business start looking around for something that they can do. They are introduced to a network marketing program, or they sign up for a "free" or low cost website with a program for making money on the internet. Or they read some information about selling on EBay and they set up a quick website and get ready to make some money. But what happens is that they don't make money the first week, and a little trickle comes in the second week, and maybe they actually make a little money the third week. The fourth week they don't make any money, and the fifth week, they give up. Ah heck, they only have $100 or $500 invested, and they weren't making money hand over fist in the first month, so they become discouraged and quit. They hadn't risked much, and had not invested much, and it was really easy to quit because their risk was minimal.

In advising hundreds of business people, I have become convinced of this: There are literally thousands of ways to earn an excellent living at home. Whether it's a traditional network marketing company like Amway or Avon, whether it's a recent network company like SFI or Success University; whether it's an internet marketing company in a box like the Plug in Profit site or empowerism , you can make a great living. It doesn't really matter what company you choose. It's how you treat that business that will make the difference between success and failure. It's a little like exercise programs. It doesn't matter whether you buy a bowflex or work out with a jump rope. The key is to invest yourself in the system and do what it takes to succeed.

So here is the bottom line. If you want to be successful at a home business, whether it is network marketing or selling bumper stickers, you have to treat it like a real business. You have to treat it as though you cannot fail; as though you have everything you own invested in making yourself successful.

What does that mean? Invest your time, the amount of money necessary and your passion in making your business successful. It doesn't sound like much of a secret, but I've become convinced that's what it takes.