Do you want to start a home-based business but have no idea what goes into building a successful business? If so, you are not alone, as most people who decide to start a home-based business have no formal training in business, but this doesn’t mean you won’t succeed. Often times, the most successful people don’t actually have training in their fields, but what they do have is a burning desire to succeed, and a work-ethic that lets nothing stand in their ways.So, if you want to start a successful business from home, don’t let a lack of knowledge or experience slow you down, because it is very possible for someone to build a six-figure per year business from home with the right support and the right tools in their corner.So let’s take a minute and look at some of the building blocks of a successful home-based business:1 – Set goalsSuccess requires that you know what you want and where you want to bring your business, so be sure to set both short-term and long-term goals, then strive to meet them every single day.2 – Create your own productsIf you want to make the most money possible, you must create your own products. Whether you build physical products or information products, you should strongly consider creating your own products.3 – Learn to build a customer listIn the online arena, you absolutely must build a list of potential customers that you can sell to over and over again.4 – You need a websiteThere’s no getting around this these days, you need to put up a website so that you can reach people on a global scale. Not only is this the smart way to do business, but without it you will have little chance of succeeding.5 – Learn how to satisfy your customersCustomer satisfaction is essential, especially when you are running your own business. Learn what you have to do in order to satisfy your potential customers, as this will likely lead them to become paying customers.6 – Automate as much of your business as possibleYou want to leverage your time as much as possible so that you can get more done with less effort. By setting as much of your business to work automatically whether you are there or not, you will enable yourself to do business around the clock 24/7.7 – Learn how to find targeted leadsWhile you can build a fortune working online, you have to master the art of driving targeted leads to your website on a daily basis. There are many free ways to do this, simply try out a few, see what works best, and apply it with massive action.8 – Learn to be persistentSuccess with a home-based business will not come overnight, and anybody who tells you otherwise is just plain wrong. Expect to work hard for quite some time before making a significant income, be persistent and dedicate yourself to overcoming every hurdle, as this will help you achieve your goals of a more than full-time income.
Plan To Succeed With Information Product Creation: Why You Need To Split Your Process Up
One of the keys to succeeding in information product creation is to break the process up into discrete steps. This frequently isn’t an instinctive reaction for the typical information marketer. Especially on the internet where small sized learning products are the norm.
However, it is extremely important to your ultimate success. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if you don’t do this you probably won’t succeed… even when you are starting out let alone as you move forward.
Your product creation system should do this for you if only to help you to understand the overall task.
But why?
In this article, I’m going to ignore chunking and focus on the practical aspects. That’s not to say that chunking isn’t important. It is. It’s important to understanding and to learning the process. But while you can use the same chunks as you move forward, long term your focus needs to be on the operation of the system not the understanding of it. Unless of course you are constantly training new people!
So why is chunking important to long term use of the product creation process? (Yes, I know systems design uses a different term for this process but I’m not teaching you systems design. So I’m going to use the word learning content designers use.)
The first reason that having individual discrete tasks is important is one of schedule estimation. Frequently it is very difficult to estimate how long the total task of creating a product will take. After all, the size and type of the products matters as does the number of products in your product funnel. And those are just the most obvious elements. However, estimating a discrete task is often much easier. The total can then be estimated as the total of the discrete tasks.
Secondly, scheduling a large task can be problematic. However, by segmenting the task into a number of discrete tasks, you gain a much greater flexibility in scheduling. Not only that but as your business begins to add people you are able to schedule multiple people to the product creation.
Finally, segmenting a large task into smaller discrete tasks allows you to have much better control over the product creation. This affects two different areas — status and quality.
By segmenting your process into discrete tasks you are able to schedule and record the progress at much more detailed level. As a result you are more in control of the status of the product creation. You know what everyone is doing. When they should complete it. And how much it should cost. You also know exactly what has been done.
You also improve your overall quality. Instead of waiting until everything is done you can check quality as you go. This allows you to immediate react to low quality products without absorbing their costs. This means that you have less rework and your rework costs less. And if the product is not going to meet its quality requirement you will know about it in time to stop the development, change the requirement or fix the product.
10 Ways to Maximize Your Performance As a Real Estate Investor
Now, this is not a scientific study. I did not go out and survey 5,000 real estate investors and determine who were successful and who were not and then look at the characteristics that shape their success (or lack thereof). This is based on years of personal investing experience and what we have learned from other successful real estate investors.
If you lack these traits (or characteristics), there is a good chance you will under-perform as a real estate investor. You don’t have to have ALL of these, but the more you have, the more likely you will be highly successful.
Passion – I feel strongly that if you have passion, real passion about real estate (and investing in it), you will perform better than if you don’t. We know quite a few investors that are not passionate about real estate that have been successful but they feel worn out and want to leave the business. The only reason they don’t leave is because it’s making them money… but they aren’t having fun and they aren’t making as much money as they would (I think) if they were passionate about it. Besides, why spend so much time, energy, focus, and money on something you don’t love? Life is too short!
Mental strength – There are so many times where you may want to just give up because you’re doing so much heavy lifting mentally. Challenges like insurance issues, and property financing troubles, and tenant challenges are part of the business of real estate investing – be strong and you’ll do well. And by the way – the more physically fit you are – the better you’ll perform mentally. That’s a fact that has been proven by scientific study.
Belief – No one, and I mean no one will (or should) believe in you as much as you do. If you don’t really believe that you can be a successful real estate investor, then you may as well stop trying. There will be times when it seems like you are the only one that believes in what you’re trying to do so you have to be there for yourself! You should also surround yourself with folks that believe in and support you… but that’s a different point.
Guts – You have to be willing to go the opposite direction from the rest of the people you know. You have to be able to make your own decisions and have the guts to take action on them. This is not an easy thing to do especially when you first start out. And, to continue and advance as an investor you will still need guts to try new real estate strategies and techniques.
Integrity – Sadly, I have met many folks who have become successful without integrity but I believe that their success is likely only financial. I am confident they don’t have the relationships nor the personal satisfaction that comes with doing business with integrity. Doing business in a way that treats everyone with respect in turn makes you easier to respect and like… and makes it easier to attract the folks that will help you grow your business.
Focus – This is probably the most underrated trait or action for becoming successful. If you lack focus, it is still possible to become successful. Heck, over the years I have had trouble staying focused but I have still performed fairly well in the REI game. But, my lack of focus has certainly played an important role in keeping me from reaching my full potential. And, the best part about focus, along with most of these other traits is you can learn it/them!
Communication – If you dislike talking to people, emailing, or just all around don’t communicate well with others, good luck performing and being successful with real estate. You have to communicate constantly with realtors, mortgage brokers, banks, accountants, lawyers, vendors, buyers, tenants, appraisers, inspectors, contractors, the list goes on and on. If you aren’t at least somewhat effective at not only getting your point across but also being a good listener and understanding others, forget about being in the REI game.
Hustle – Lining up your joint venture partners, obtaining financing, managing all the appraisers, inspectors, realtors, placing and showing tenants the property all require a large amount of hustle. Sure, you don’t need to hustle 365 days a year to perform well, but you sure better be able to hustle every time a deal starts to come together!
Commitment – Are you committed? Really committed to being an amazing investor? Are you making it a priority everyday that you do something that will move you towards your goal of being a real estate millionaire? Now, you don’t have to do something everyday, but your level of commitment is directly related to becoming better, stronger, faster, smarter, and wealthier. No commitment = Little to no payoff.
Persistent – In my humble opinion, this is absolutely the most critical reason why some real estate investors under-perform. If you want to succeed in this business, you HAVE to be persistent. You will find the best deals by continuously following up on opportunities. You will secure the best financing by continuously trying to find a better option. If your partner backs out at the last minute you have to pick up that phone again and again until you find a new partner. Keep trying, keep pushing, keep being persistent. Do not give up.
Sure, there are likely several more traits that you need to have to rise to the top of the real estate investing pile, but if you have most (or all) of the above, you have a very good chance… in fact I would say you’re darn near guaranteed… to become a successful real estate investor.