Top 10 Home Based Businesses

There are so many “work from home” opportunities online and offline, which ones would make the 10 best home based business list?

The reality is this, If 10 people were asked to evaluate 100 business opportunities and rank their top 10; I would venture to say that all of the lists would be different. I am not here to recruit you in my business per se, but whatever business you choose, I beseech you to go in with your eyes completely open.

The important thing would be to define a 10 best home based business list based on:

• lead generation preferences
•  goals (i.e. more time & flexibility)
• start-up costs
• ongoing financial requirements
• "product" vs. "service" based
• personality type
• scope of influence
• credibility
• compensation plan
• stress quotient

To some, it may sound like sour grapes, but in my opinion, here are some scenarios to watch out for as you evaluate your 10 best home based business candidates.

LEAD GENERATION

Some people may enjoy accosting prospects at the mall, striking up conversations with strangers …because “strangers are merely friends you haven’t met yet”! Or someone else may enjoy getting up and getting “dressed to impress” and networking in coffee shops or going to a busy part of town. If you are shy, this approach would make you faint. If you joined the business to help force you out of your shell, join a local toastmaster chapter, get a new hair style, and a couple of killer outfits that would make you feel confident.

Ask your up line how they generate new contacts for the business. If the answer is the standard make a list of 100 names of your friends and family, you may be at a dead-end if you have lost credibility due to previous business ventures. If you are in this boat, ask about other ways to generate leads before you invest money to get involved. You don’t want your business to be doomed before it gets started.

Do they participate in job fairs? If so, who pays the job fair fee and how are the leads split? Do you post flyers in grocery stores or on windshields in the parking lot? Per parking lots, be careful of non-solicitation signs and for goodness sake, don’t do something like that on a windy day. You may get charged a clean-up fee if the papers blow away. In all reality, what do you do with flyers that have been left on your windshield? Should you buy leads? If so, what is the recommended company?

If your business is mainly handled online, ask your sponsor how to get involved with an internet lead generation system or training.

YOUR GOALS

Do you want to work from home or just have a home office? You need to know the difference. I was once a consultant/director for a dual marketing firm and I thought it was a way for me to work from home and spend more time with my children. Boy, was I wrong – I spent the time when they were in school “getting leads” and when they came home from school, I was on the phone following up with the leads for them to come to an evening event or a Saturday morning career breakfast, both times I used to spend with my kids when I had a corporate job. I’m not trying to scare you away from considering this type of business structure, just know what you are getting yourself into. I actually had LESS time to spend with my kids and I spent LESS time at home. The only advantage was at tax time, I could deduct the expenses related to having a home office, even though I rarely “worked from home”.

CONSIDER START-UP COSTS

If your business requires inventory, tread lightly. If the company you are considering joining has a wide product line, you may be out of a lot of up-front money. You will be coached to have 1-2 of everything as you don’t know what people will want especially if they find you online. How about companies that tell you it’s only $X amount to join, but when they get you entered in the system and the clock is ticking, you now have a time-sensitive discount package to buy to maximize your “success” and then the offer goes away forever. I don’t know about you, but those are some of the things I would like to know about up-front before I sign-up and give them my check.

CALCULATE ONGOING COSTS

You will hear day in and day out to be COACHABLE. Your leader/up line has been where you are; don’t re-invent the wheel, etc. YES and NO. If something doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t. Don’t be afraid to go against the grain and ask why if you are not comfortable – especially if it involves you spending more money.

Ask to see a sample weekly plan – including training meetings, motivational calls, recruiting sessions, career luncheons, etc. and the cost for each. It is very common for the company to sell a full schedule as having lots of options for your prospects. In a zealous effort to get you to start inviting guests, your “support team” may offer what seems to be a courteous offer of being able to take care of your prospects when you can’t make it to the meetings. Be careful, this offer rarely stands for long and you may be labeled as someone who doesn’t take their business seriously or they will get tired of “picking up your slack”. This arrangement may work for one or two meetings, but you will need to limit your guests to the evenings where you can personally be there to see that they get their questions answered and to close your guests. Your up line will have their own guests and may also be covering for other missing marketing execs.

DETERMINE PRODUCT vs. SERVICE BASE

If you choose a product intensive business, compare the retail price of your product with other similar products on the market and make a determination if anyone will truly buy your product at that price. If applicable, check Sam’s club and Costco prices – the last thing you want to see is someone blogging about where you can get a similar product for half the price. Some companies set the retail price unreasonably high so that people will join to buy wholesale. However, joining as a wholesale customer usually means some sort of membership fee and having to order more often to continue to enjoy the wholesale pricing.

Find out how will prospects experience the product or service before joining? Will there be hotel meetings? If so, how much is it for the business builder/distributor? Is parking free or validated? Who supplies the product or device to be demonstrated or sampled? Who supplies the information packets and agreements for the guests? Who supplies any guests raffle gifts (if applicable)? Where are the meetings in reference to your home? Will you need to obtain prospects closer to the meeting site to get a better turnout? Also, if they boast multiple meeting sites, don’t join based on a closer meeting site location only to find out you should be driving across town to the site where your up-line manager meets so you can stay plugged-in and have help closing your guests. You will be welcome at other meetings but don’t expect the same level of support. Unless your up-line manager has an arrangement with a peer manager at that site for assistance, wait until you are seasoned before venturing out.

Is the product consumable? Will they use it up and buy more establishing a repeatable business?

If the business is service based, would you honestly use it yourself? What does the competition charge for a similar service? Will your prospective customers need this service more than once in their lifetime?

ASSESS PERSONALITY TYPES

Read an article on personality types. There are a lot of studies yielding various labels, from colors, letters to quadrants. I’m most familiar with the DISC personality definition. Once you determine your personality type, try to determine how well you fit with the type of people the company seems to attract. Guess your prospective up line’s personality type – will you be able to work well together? See if the company has something for each personality type. This will help you close your guests once you are able to peg their personality type. http://www.discinsights.com/cyber/Scripts/disc.asp

EVALUATE YOUR SCOPE OF INFLUENCE/CREDIBILITY

If you’ve been in a MLM or Network Marketing company before and have accumulated inventory, the first thing is to close or slow down your previous business. You’ve probably arrived at this point because the market isn’t conducive to your product, you’ve finally given upon the business or your spouse has given you an ultimatum. If you have product that is outdated, obsolete, expired, excessive (to stay active) overpriced, or is too late to return for a refund, you are not alone, but all is not lost. Go through your garage, attic, closets, and anywhere else you’ve stashed inventory to keep it out of site in order to have peace in your home. Take out items that your family will personally use or give as potential gifts and record the remaining inventory and status (i.e. expired, obsolete, etc.). Develop a disposition plan – have a “lighten my load” sale, donate, obtain refunds where feasible, or throw out. Determine the value and take off the loss on your tax return. You will regain some credibility and support from your spouse or significant other if you treat a previous failed business venture with an exit strategy.

Most people don’t want to be seen by their friends and family as a failure in their selected business so they keep going to keep up appearances. If you are one of those eternal network marketers or MLMers that have lost credibility with their family and friends, the first thing you want to do is start speaking in terms of multiple streams of income and passive income. So when they ask you are you still “doing” that “thing”? You can simply tell them yes (if you need to save face), however, I keep my options open, so when I run across a lucrative business opportunity, I add it to my many streams of passive income. You could find the golden grail and show it to them, but they wouldn’t see it because it is YOU that is showing it to them. So my suggestion, make some money first, gain a level of success and then they will be asking you. If it is a new product, be a product of the product. If you start getting compliments on your look if it is makeup, compliments on your signature scent if it is perfume, or your house is so clean and fresh if they are home hygiene products, any type of improvement….skin is no longer dry, hair looks great, etc.

If you were previously in a MLM company, have you tried to talk to a business or charity about your product or service only to find out that you are their 12^th call from your same company? The target business or charity may choose not to get involved at all because they have been bombarded and may feel that your company is not organized with sales people tripping over each other. Ask your up-line how this is handled. Some companies have protected client lists so the company doesn’t experience that embarrassment and lose the account all together.

UNDERSTAND THE COMPENSATION PLAN

How often and how much of a purchase do you personally need to make in order to remain “active” and receive a commission check? Does your personal use and/or customer base justify this periodic requirement? Do the math, are you spending more than your commission check to remain active to be eligible to receive a check? In all actuality, this may be the case early on as you build your business, but predetermine a timeframe when you feel your monthly income should outweigh your required expenditures. Determine your motivation for your actions. Are you spending more money for your business to get off the ground or for the recognition, applause and the prizes? Also, don’t buy into the “we need to pull together as a team” to get you to spend money on stuff you don’t need. If that happens close to the end of the month, more than likely your up-line needs to make his/her quota I’m not saying not to be a team player, but only spend what you feel you can turnover into a profit.

Beware of break-aways in the marketing plan. You will hear terms like “Police car”, “Fire from the ground up” or something as sweet as “You wouldn’t want to hold them back, would you?” or “It will be fun for the two of you to work the business together”. A lot of company reps will try to convince you to bring in your best people, your heavy hitters right away. While you are still green behind the ears, they are working behind your back to bring that person to your peer level so that both of you are direct to your up-line director and you then lose a lot of the credit and benefit for introducing them to the company.

How is the customer matrix designed. Do you have a limited front line? How many levels deep are you paid? What percentages are you paid at each level?

What is your profit margin? Do you have to buy in bulk or buy a minimum amount in order to receive a profit otherwise the profit goes straight to the company? These are things you need to know up front.

Find out the career path and the expenditure/sales quotas required at each level. Can you lose your position or lose people in your organization if certain goals aren’t met? I can’t stress how important this point is. Independent marketers sometimes rush up the MLM ladder without understanding the complete picture and then end up losing their status and part of their organization if they can’t maintain a sales quota.

DON’T LET THEM STRESS YOU OUT!

Have you heard the “Fake it till you make it”? People literally go broke to look the part. Or another one, “If you show up, you’ll go up”? “No one follows a parked car” and all of the rest of the stupid ways of explaining the company’s position to stress you completely out!

Have you been involved with companies that allow you to upgrade from one level to another, but only in the first 30 – 90 days. This again is another stress producing deadline to get people moving. I’m going to be honest with you, true go-getters, don’t need a deadline so that tells me you attract a lot of dead beats to your organization, get their money banking on the fact that they are not going to do anything.

Fun fact, if you ask all of these questions and they start accusing you of having analysis paralysis, you might be stomping around some sensitive issues. Any up-line director you consider joining should be willing to answer your questions and should be happy that you are putting some thought into this before you leap.

Also, be wary of a network marketing up line that discourages you from having multiple streams of income in the name of “FOCUS” and being “LOYAL” and that tough times build “CHARACTER”. Are you kidding me? If successful major companies make shifts in the direction when the economy changes, shouldn’t you as a independent marketer of “whatever company” do the same? Why limit yourself to selling suntan lotion in the dead of winter? Who’s buying? Only people going to warm climates on vacation, and with the economy the way it is, less people are getting away to the Caribbean.

I think some up-line managers are afraid that you will get sucked into another opportunity which will affect their bottom line. The only bottom line here is that you KEEP YOUR OPTIONS OPEN!! You don’t have to leave their company all together, the market conditions may not warrant as much of your time and effort. If there is a hot new business and you are fortunate to find out about it early on, why not put your business on cruise control, shift gears (if it makes sense) and earn some quick money. What is important is that you have a plan – do your market research, be ready to adjust if need be. If you don’t look out for your business well being and your retirement, who will? FOCUS, LOYALTY and CHARACTER will not pay your medical bills and get you through your golden years.

CONCLUSION

If and when my current “primary” business starts to slow down or the market adjusts, I will take the pulse on my “alternate” businesses and decide if it is time to bring one back into the forefront or take on a new adventure. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing. In each business, I've met great people which allowed me to build my network overtime, I got valuable training that could be applied to other businesses, I learned how to be an effective leader, I learned to take responsibility for my actions or inaction, and I also learned of business practices and policies that if I should ever see them again, I should flee like the plague!