1. Build a list of your warm market and plague them to death:When I first started in direct sales I sold the primary shares of a new life insurance company and what do you suppose my sales manager recommended I do first? He gave me a sheet of paper with suggestions on it so I could jot down all of my family, friends, and acquaintances. Why? Because they know and every company knows that out of some of those people you will make a few sales and when the going gets tough you’ll probably quit. But what do they care. They got the prospects as customers and they’ll probably keep them.2. Hold meetings:In my first home based business, which was Amway, we were taught to hold opportunity meetings. I became quite good at doing demonstrations of this product and that and I sold some products and signed up some people — in fact I actually signed up about 20 people before it all fell apart. But the time and effort it took to do it netted me about $1.00 an hour.3. Three way calling:The only thing this establishes is that the guy you called to help you bring your prospect into the business is the expert. Why should they sign up under you? Wouldn’t you rather be signed up under the guy that knows what he is doing? It won’t take long to become the expert. All you have to know is a little more than your prospect and you’re the expert. So jump in and make a few mistakes — you too can be the expert. Then they’ll sign up under you.4. Company literature, business cards, and DVD’s:I can’t count all the business cards that still line my shelves that I use to take notes by the telephone. Or the other literature and DVD’s that I just couldn’t get up the courage to pass out to people. If you’re going to use literature, I would suggest that you should make something that builds your business — not the company whose products you happen to offer. Very few brick and mortar stores have the name on the sign the same as the name on the products they sell. Besides, guess who makes all the profit from all this material — or ask yourself why are these materials all so expensive anyway?5. Get 3 distributors who get 3 who get 3:I’m sure most of you have seen the compensation plans of companies who tell you to do this. Seven levels deep you have over 2,000 distributors who are all buying products and you are obviously going to be wealthy. I hate to burst your bubble, but this only happens to perhaps 3 out of 100 — if that. The average person in network marketing enrolls 2 or 3 people and then either quits or accepts their $10 — 20 per month profit in this great free enterprise system. It certainly doesn’t hurt the company. Fact: Out of thousands of distributors most never make more than $200 per year. And yet the company and its’ owners are rolling in the dough.6. Replicated Company Websites:These are the websites you get that are all exactly the same as everyone else’s. Do you really think that people are going to find your website amongst the other 10,000 websites that are identical? To get people to a website takes a lot of work including understanding keywords, search engine optimization, RSS feeds, article marketing, and other ideas. And the website itself needs to be properly put together and flow properly to make sure that people stay on it for longer than 8 seconds.8. Home parties:I remember doing similar kinds of things when I sold Watkins products. How many people with 6 figure incomes do you think do that? Now don’t get me wrong. It does sell products. And it’s fine if all you want to make is less than $200 per month, but I would like to retire before I’m 80.If you really want to make money, the network marketing or MLM business is possibly the greatest invention the business world has ever developed, but it doesn’t work as a hobby. If you want a home based business that makes you over $50,000 per year or even per month the above ideas are not the way to do it. What you need is a marketing system that works for you – instead of being part of the company’s system. Remember, it’s your home based business, not theirs.

Are You Covering Your Home Based Business With Homeowners Insurance? Many home based business owners rely upon their normal home insurance policy to cover their business assets. Sometimes, this will be ok, but very often, this is a big mistake. To understand why it could be a mistake, please take a moment to learn about typical homeowners policies.Personal Property vs. Business PropertyThe first problem that usually crops up is that the typical home policy does not have enough personal property coverage. A home based business may add supplies, equipment, computers, inventory, and records to the normal personal property in the home. Combine this with the furniture, TV sets, and appliances in that same home. Whatever coverage you and your agent thought was enough before you ran you home based business may be woefully inadequate now!Also be sure that your personal property is covered at the replacement costs, and not the real value. If your property is covered at real value, you will have to accept garage sale prices if your precious items are damaged. You laptop may cost $1,200 to replace, but would be unlikely to fetch more than a couple of hundred dollars if you sold it on eBay. You do not want to have to replace your business items that way.Do you even know how much personal property coverage you have in your own policy? Lots of homeowners have no idea. It is time to dig out your policy or call your agent or insurance company to find out.Home vs. Business Liability Insurance Typically, a home policy covers the home owner in case a visitor makes a claim for damages while they are visiting. This may not cover damages that happen in the course of business. Your normal policy will not contain professional or business liability coverage at all.Personal vs. Commercial Car InsuranceAnother coverage issue that many small business owners forget about is coverage for their cars. Personal auto insurance policies may not be adequate if you use your own car for business quite a bit. This can be especially true if you let employees drive it, carry inventory, or drive a lot more than you originally stated when you bought your policy.How Can You Find Adequate Home Based Business Insurance? It is no time to fret but just to take some action! It may be very simple to fix the problem with your homeowners and home based business insurance. Here are some of the solutions you may find.
If your business if fairly small, your insurer may be able to adjust your policy to cover business items by adding a rider. This is probably a simple and fairly affordable solution.
Business Owners Policies (BOP) are insurance packages that many small businesses purchase. They contain a package of coverage that are typically adequate. If your business is a bit larger, this may be the solution you need.
You may also be able to adjust your car insurance policy to cover some business use. If not, you may need to purchase a commercial vehicle policy.
Your auto and home insurance policies may be very simple and affordable to adjust. But if you ignore the issue you run the risk of having big financial problems if some essential business supplies are damaged or a customer claims damages.

Starting a business has been an integral part of the American dream for hundreds of years. This is the segment of the business world that has helped this country grow during its infancy, and it has been a mainstay in helping to keep the American economy afloat ever since. With all of the changes that all of this growth during the years has brought, the most important thing a person needs when starting a small business is knowledge. The amount of training and assistance that is available is staggering to say the least. What you need is to focus on what type of business you plan on operating, and find the assistance and training that is applicable to that field.The time involved to get trained will depend on the type of business you want to have, and whether you plan on having someone train you or you plan on training yourself. Either way, you want this to be comprehensive in that it should cover everything from starting your business, maintaining it and then possibly selling it out when you want to retire. Everything involved may seem overwhelming at first, but it will all be worth it when you see the success starting to overtake the hard work you put in to make it a success.The training you get and any assistance that comes with that training is going to be the foundation on which your business is built. From here, what you will need to get is a business plan. You can keep the plan in your head and just do it, or you can write it down in a professional manner. The latter of those 2 options is preferable for at least 2 reasons. One, having it all written will keep the ideas you have fresh for years to come. Your business, be it large or small, is going to be complex because it involves so many things. From where the business is going to be, how many employee’s you plan on starting with, advertising, marketing, and the list goes on.The second, and possibly most important reason, is that a professionally written business plan is key to getting a loan to help get your business up and running. Now, if you have your own capital this isn’t going to be necessary. Nor would writing down your plan for the purpose of securing a loan, but again, writing down your plan is beneficial. There have been many times when people start their own business with certain things in mind, only to have those certain things change in time. The business world can be very fickle and your own plans may have to change to keep up with the external changes that have a direct or indirect influence on your business.Having all of the applicable business licences is a legal necessity and something you definitely need to plan on getting. The reason this fact is being pointed out after the financial aspect is that some people tend to put the cart before the horse. Securing a loan is typically not contingent upon having the required licences to legally operate the business. However, getting the required licences would be pointless without the cash to get the business up and running. If need be, if the licensing procedures are costly, you can always take out 2 separate loans. One to get the licensing you need, and then when that is taken care of, secure a second loan for the business itself. With small businesses though, this is typically unneeded as many licences can cost as little as ninety-nine dollars.Once you have the capital and the legal obligations taken care of, you need to come up with a name for your business and register that with the state where the business is head-quartered. When starting a small business this is kind of a no-brainer because you, typically, will only have one location. Some people though, when starting out, will have their main offices in one state while having another portion of the business, like a distribution centre for example, in another state. With this being the case, you need to register your business name in the state where the business originates from.Your business name needs to be filed for the obvious legal reasons, but it also needs to be filed because it would be rather hard to advertise and market your business without one. Hopefully, this aspect of your business is a part of your plan because, without it, no other part of your plan is likely to work. This should also be a part of the budget that was included in your start-up loan. The main reason new businesses fail is because they fail to get the word out. Focusing on the best ways to do this should have been a part of the training you received at the outset.Adding to these musts when starting your new business, is to actively retain legal advice. You will want to do this to get advice on contract and documents, as well as ongoing consultation and representation as you build and protect your business. One way to do this, without enormous cost, is to purchase a small business legal plan. You can usually find one that will provide the essentials for a start-up business, as well as ongoing advice as your business matures.Aside from the training, the business plan, the loans, the licensing, and the small business legal plan, perhaps the most important thing you need to start your own business is patience. The old parable about the tortoise and the hare is true. Especially in the business world. No one gets rich quick, at least not legitimately, so slow and steady really does win this race. The rule of thumb to go by is to expect to be in business for 5 years before turning enough of a profit to live comfortably on. This is why many financial institutions that give out loans to small businesses like to see a 5 year plan. They know as well as anyone that 5 years is typically how long it takes to turn a liveable profit.If this all sounds like a lot of work, well, it is. But with education, planning, organization and patience it doesn’t have to be hard. The rewards of owning your own business and being your own boss far outweigh the time and effort it took to become successful. There are many places online and, you can go to get testimonials from people who have “been there, done that”, and succeeded. I wish you good luck and much success with your new business.