5 Essential Strategies For Growing Your Home-Based Business Part Time
Hi Everyone,
The following is an article I recently wrote regarding the special challenges that those working their home businesses part time are faced with.
Thought you might enjoy it. Read below….
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We’ve all heard the feel good stories of people who quit their job soon after starting a home-based business to work full time from home. While this should be the goal of all home business owners, the reality is that most people need to continue working at a full time job, at least for a while. This means growing your business part time, a scenario that can often present a very different set of challenges.
There are specific strategies you can use to make sure you invest sufficient time in your home business to reach your goals.
Continue reading this article.
To your success!
Dr. Bob Clarke
Dr. Clarke’s primary business opportunity
What Is Your “Leadership Value” To Your Customers?
Home business opportunities abound on the internet today.
Someone seriously looking for a home business opportunity can easily become overwhelmed with the choices.
- Which business?
- Which products?
- Which compensation plan?
You now what?
None of this really matters.
What people really want is someone to follow!
Someone who they can count on to show them the ropes, how to be successful, and someone to lead them out of the mess they currently call their “lives”.
So how does one become a leader of value? Simply by posturing or positioning? While these are components of demonstrating leadership, they don’t define it.
If I had to think of one work to define Leadership, it would be this —
VALUE
In order to be a leader to someone, you must have value to that person. Maybe that value comes in your marketing or business knowledge. Maybe it’s your interpersonal skills and phone skills. Maybe it lies simply in the fact that you are successful online and they are not.
Whatever it is, if it’s NOT there, you won’t have a chance at sponsoring that person.
How does one go about INCREASING LEADERSHIP VALUE to attract more customers?
It’s fairly simple — making a consistent effort every day to increase your knowledge and skills.
I liken it to making deposits in a piggy bank.
When you’re first starting out, you are learning more elementary components of your business. In essence, you are putting pennies in your bank. But pennies build up, right?
Your knowledge and skills build as you take consistent steps to learn. With every step, another penny.
And then a funny thing happens. You start learning more advanced business or marketing ideas, and instead of depositing pennies in your bank, now you are depositing dimes. Dime after dime you are improving your value.
Then it’s quarters, and then dollar bills. The more skills you know, the more valuable you become. The more knowledge you accumulate, the more you have to offer to your customer.
And the more leadership you begin to display.
And what happens to your stuffed piggy bank?
That money begins to double, triple, quadruple and more… for it’s a well known fact that the more you have to offer, the more VALUE you have in the MARKETPLACE, the more money you will make.
The key is to make consistent, determined efforts to improve your knowledge and your skills so that you, too, can become the leader that everyone else will want to follow.
Once you’ve attained that status, you can write your own check.
To your success!
Global online business coach and marketing expert
The Power of Many — Grow Your Home Business with a Mastermind Group
Merry Christmas, everyone! Today’s post focuses on the importance of working as part of a group to accomplish your goals and objectives. I am going to share with you an article I just published on the concept of a Mastermind Group and how it can help you grow your business exponentially.
Welcome to Day 25 of the “30 Tips in 30 Days” Holiday Blog Special, where you get one free business or marketing tip for every day in the month of December. If you’ve missed any of the previous posts simply click on the Business and Marketing Tips Category link on the right sidebar.
Here is the article I promised you:
Students of business, regardless of their level of formal education, seem to always be searching for the latest and greatest management fad to help achieve more profits—and more success. Frequently though, there is great wisdom to be found in less-contemporary teachings as well. Take for example the concept of the Mastermind Group, first introduced by Napoleon Hill in his timeless and classic work, Think and Grow Rich, first published in 1937. Describing the Mastermind concept, Hill writes, “The coordination of knowledge and effort of two or more people, who work toward a definite purpose, in the spirit of harmony…No two minds ever come together without thereby creating a third, invisible intangible force, which may be likened to a third mind.”
What is a Mastermind Group? It’s simply a group of people sharing a common goal, and sharing insight and wisdom in their pursuit of it. In the case of a home-based network marketing business, each person in the group will most likely be pursuing their own individual goals—and business—but will benefit from the shared experience and expertise of the others.
Starting a Mastermind Group to support your network marketing business is relatively straightforward. The group size can vary, but most experts agree that the optimum size should be between three and six people. The group should meet weekly, typically for an hour and a half or so. Obviously flexibility is the key, but these guidelines are fairly standard. Often the person who founded the group serves as the coordinator and arranges the logistical details of the meeting. Location and time would be up to the coordinator to manage.
But because all of the group members are considered equal, there is no appointed leader. The best approach is to rotate meeting leadership responsibilities to the various members each time the group meets. The weekly leader guides the agenda for each meeting, typically starting with each group member recounting their week’s goals, accomplishments and challenges. And this is where the synergies of the group come into play. In a situation where the whole is clearly more than the sum of its parts, the group brainstorming is where the magic occurs. Some Mastermind Group proponents suggest that the entire process of sharing and discussing should be carefully structured. Others feel that a more free-form approach is recommended. Regardless of how you choose to approach it, a Mastermind Group should unquestionably become a part of your overall home-based business success strategy.
To your prosperity!
Bob Clarke
December 25, 2008; Cresskill, NJCheck out which business I chose above all others
Market with Integrity — Think With Your Heart and Not With Your Wallet
It’s Christmas Eve, and in the spirit of Christmas, a short blog post about the spirit in which you conduct your business.
Welcome to Day 24 of the “30 Tips in 30Days” Holiday Blog special. If you’ve missed any of the previous posts, or to see the entire series to date, click on the Business and Marketing Tips Category on the right sidebar.
I am flat broke and close to losing my house if I cannot come up with the mortgage soon. So please help me, I am a little old lady and I don’t want to loose my house, my husband and I have worked so hard for all our lives.
These sad words came across my desk last night in an application to join my main business opportunity. As I read it, my heart skipped a beat and I felt a heavy feeling in the pit of my stomach. Why?
Because I knew the tone of the conversation I was going to have with her.
People ask me all the time why we have an application process in my home business opportunity — this is exactly one of the reasons. Before this poor woman gets too far in the process, or gets too caught up in the excitement of making big money online, she needed some guidance… and fast!
What kind of guidance?
She needed to be told that starting a home business was a long term commitment, not one that yields big results in the first week or month. It is a PROCESS by which you gradually learn the skills necessary to really excel in this industry. It is a PROCESS where you learn by your mistakes, what works and what doesn’t work.
And it’s also a process that can be accelerated with cash. Not many people want to acknowledge this fact, because everyone wants to promote the low cost aspect of getting into network marketing. And it’s definitely true — you CAN make it big in network marketing with very little cash upfront. I have seen examples of it in my own company.
But if you need results faster then you pretty much MUST have more money to put into your new business up front. This is especially true if you have no prior experience in marketing or business.
These are the types of things this lady needed to hear before going any further — to save her critical time and money she is most definitely going to need in the short term.
Could I have convinced her to join my opportunity? Probably.
Could I have motivated her to throw whatever money she has at her new home business and get started right away? You bet.
But there are times in life when you have to think about what’s right for all involved, just not with yourself.
I knew that if this woman was not told what she needed to hear, and she joined, one thing would be for certain.
I would NOT have been able to sleep at night.
Because in this case, a home business opportunity is probably NOT what she needs. If she is in dire danger of losing her home and needs money fast, mine is not the opportunity she needs.
Sometimes saying NO is the best feeling in the world. Even if it means costing you a new consultant.
I wish this woman well. And if her situation changes, I’ll be glad to re-interview her.
But for tonight, I will be getting a good night sleep.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone…. from our home to yours.
To your prosperity and peace,
Bob
I have a new blog. Check it out!
Is Carbon Copy PRO a SCAM?
I got a nice email from a young lady yesterday. It seems she had visited my Carbon Copy PRO website but was concerned about leaving her name and email because, as she put it, “there are so many scams out there.”
I called and assured her that Carbon Copy PRO is NOT a scam, that it is a legitimate, lucrative home business opportunity, and that it is associated with a well recognized and respected financial education and wealth creation company called Wealth Masters International.
I told her that, NO , it most definitely is NOT A SCAM, that my wife and I are making good money with their system and improving weekly as we learn more and more from their 30 Day Marketing Guide.
She was assured, and she is now taking a closer look.
But I got to thinking about her statement….
“There are so many SCAMS out there!”
Are there really?
I don’t think so, and I’ll tell you why. I’ll also tell you why I feel sorry for people searching for a legitimate home business opportunity.
Surely, there are some scams out there, some illegal at worst and misleading at best. But I think they are exposed fairly quickly and gone from the horizon.
But do this exercise for me….
Go to Google and type in any home based business you can think of. MLM, direct sales, it doesn’t matter which ones you choose. After each business type in the word “Scam.”
Type in Carbon Copy PRO Scam.
Type in Wealth Masters International Scam.
Type in Amway Scam. Type in Herbalife Scam. Type in USANA Scam.
Type in any other network marketing company you know of.
What do you see?
I just performed this exercise with Carbon Copy PRO, and this is a sampling of what I found:
Don’t Join Carbon C. Pro
Don’t Buy Carbon C Pro
(Carbon Copy Pro Scam) *FORBIDDEN* Truth Here
YouTube – Carbon Copy Pro SCAM – TOOK MY MONEY!! (internet business)
Is Carbon Copy Pro a scam?
Work From Home Are Scams
You see a trend here? You will see these headlines for ANY home business opportunity you type in Google.
Surely, THEY CAN’T ALL BE SCAMS! In fact, this last example seems to implicate the ENTIRE Network Marketing Industry!
A closer look tells the story.
Every one of these ads or articles is written by someone who is marketing another home business opportunity. Every one.
And sadly, some are even written by other Carbon Copy PRO associates, who then turn it around and get more leads for their business. Why would they do this?
Because people type in scam in Google all the time. It is always one of the highest searched words, so marketers take advantage of it.
So what is the person to do if they are looking for a legitimate home based business?
Here is my advice
- Be brave and try not to be so suspicious. Most opportunities are not scams.
- Learn more about each company, talk to people actually doing the business, and study the compensation plans and business models (i.e. doyour due diligence).
- Ask a lot of questions, go on conference calls if offered.
- Ask to speak with other members, especially ones who have just joined — not the person who will be sponsoring you and profiting from your joining his business.
- Find a mentor who is knowledgeable, friendly and most importantly, willing to take the time to show you the ropes to get you started in your new business.
Remember, the ads you see on Google are meant to draw your attention. But they are almost always written by people selling their own opportunity.
Sometimes they are posted by angry former home business owners who failed and did not make money.
But that is the subject for a different post.
Remember…..
BE AWARE, not BEWARE!
Do your due diligence, but don’t buy into these scare tactics.
Good luck and prosperity!
Bob Clarke
October 24, 2008, Cresskill, NJ
MLM Success Secrets: Can I Make Fast Money?
The quick answer to this question is: NOT USUALLY.
You’d be surprised how many people I talk with who really want to start a home business, or so they think. But when I really start asking the tough questions about their motives for wanting to be a home business owner, things often get a little dicey.
My first 3 questions are always the same:
- Do you have any prior sales/marketing/home business experience?
- How much capital are you willing to spend to get your business started and positioned in the compensation plan?
- What is your monthly income goal and how quickly are you looking to attain this goal?
By the time I get to the 3rd question, you can just see the eyes starting to glaze over. It’s about this time that they realize that a home business is going to mean HARD WORK and some MONEY to get it going and maintain it until a profit is seen.
It’s also at this point that I lose alot of prospects, but that’s okay with me. I’d rather find out now than to invest a lot of time in training and mentoring, just to have them drift away from disillusionment.
In the next few blog posts I will examine each of these factors in more detail, but in general, here’s the truth in making money with a home-based business:
- You’ll make money faster if you’ve had prior experience in sales and marketing, or if you’ve owned a business before.
- You’ll make money faster if you buy into the opportunity at a higher level in the compensation plan (consider this your capital investment).
- You’ll make money faster if you have a marketing budget that will allow you to get the word out. In general, the more you can spend in marketing, the more extensively your product will be in front of people, and the more sales you will make.
We’ll discuss these more in future posts, and how you can shorten your learning curve if you are lacking the experience that will put you in the winners circle.
To your prosperity!
Dr. Bob Clarke
October 4, 2008; Cresskill, NJ
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