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The Tortoise and the Hare…Which One Are YOU?I am a Bugs Bunny fan and have been for over 40 years. I like the episodes where Bugs and the tortoise race against each other. Those cartoons are based on a children’s story that has a moral along the lines of "the slow but certain traveler will achieve their objective while the speedy haphazard roadster will certainly run out of gas or go astray."That is certainly not an actual quote, but I think you get my meaning. That guidance also can apply to your plans to launch your own Internet home based business. Here is a FACT: In my nearly 15 years of operating off-line and on-line home businesses, I LOST MONEY EVERY TIME I RUSHED INTO SOMETHING. This fact does not surprise you I am sure but many of you STILL jump into things despite knowing that you should not. If you have been doing "business" for very long, you have probably lost money. It may not have been a lot of money, perhaps only $49.95, but it is still a precious resource that you could ill afford to lose. What is the definition of "lost?" If you plunked down your money and ended up with nothing of value as a result. "Lost" does not mean that you used money to establish yourself in a legitimate business and you failed to succeed. You did not LOSE money in this situation; you just FAILED. If what you purchased was worth what you paid, then it was probably a good investment but you did not do the things that were necessary to achieve success. If you slowed down and had taken off your gold-glazed glasses you may have seen the opportunity in the proper light and gone into the business with a bit more awareness of your risks and chances for success. The point of this article is to get you to slow down and evaluate what you must do to properly succeed in your efforts to launch a business on the Internet. These principles also apply to off-line businesses to some degree, but my focus will be mostly on the Internet based business since so many of us really enjoy this type of business. This can be used as a checklist to determine if you wish to get involved in a particular Internet business. EVALUATION STEP NUMBER ONE: What product or service are you selling and are YOU going to be your best customer? If you do not wish to buy the product or use the service then you will make a lousy salesman of it. Sure there are those talented Teflon-coated slick salesmen who could sell used phone books for $15 but you do not want to be one of them because your profits, if any, will be short-lived as your poor reputation spreads. YOU must believe in the business opportunity, product or service passionately in order for you to sell it, which is where you’ll make your money. If you cannot do this, then DO NOT venture into this business. Many people in network marketing do not give a hoot about what the product is. They have literally told me that it does not matter. The compensation plan and bringing more people in was all that mattered. None of those people have succeeded, and many of the companies that they represented are long gone. Another part of this step is whether or not the product/service/opportunity has good market appeal. YOU may be the only person on the planet who thinks that dried toad skin crackers are wonderful. They may not sell well in a mass market. So, WHAT you decide to sell is critical. Make sure that you have a good idea of exactly how marketable your product/service is. EVALUATION STEP NUMBER TWO: Is your profit margin adequate to support your income goals? Usually not. Most Internet marketers are selling affiliate programs at 10-30% profit. That is OK but it will not make YOU wealthy but it certainly may make the program owner wealthy. I do not have a problem with affiliate programs because many people do not have access to their own products or services to sell so it is a good way to start. That is exactly how I started in 1998. By the way, it will be hard as the dickens to bring in more than a few hundreds dollars each month selling affiliate program products. You really must own the rights to your own products or services so that your profit margin is 80-95%. If you decide to work an MLM or Network Marketing program profit margin does not become an issue, compensation plan does. As long as your program meets step one above, then compensation plan must be studied in detail to ensure that you are adequately compensated for the very hard work you are about to take on. We are trying to run a home business in order to supplement our income but what is the point if you spend 20 hours a week for a $49.95 commission? Time spent versus NET income derived is an important measure. I am involved in home businesses in order to replace my full time income. I do not wish to work 90 hours per week to achieve that. Working hours like that make a JOB look attractive. Bottom line, you need to evaluate income potential and you need to evaluate the amount of effort that it will take to achieve that potential. I have a detailed explanation that goes over profit margin and I would be happy to send it you for free. Just mailto:profitmargin@profitstation.com?subject=profit-margin and my auto-responder will send it immediately . EVALUATION STEP NUMBER THREE: Do you have the physical things that you need in order to run this business? All businesses require physical things. Even a website is a physical piece of storage on a souped-up computer. You must evaluate whether or not you have or can obtain the physical tools that you must have to make your business a success. I will focus on the physical things that you must have for an Internet business. In many of the items listed below, you can procure the service from a professional rather than learn it yourself, but that requires more financial resources. 1. You must own your own domain and have it hosted by a reputable company on the Internet. This is the place where you hang up your business license, a place to hang your hat. It is your actual "store." Do not even THINK of launching an Internet business without this. 2. You must have a computer. If you have Internet access without a computer (like webtv), you must change your service and buy a computer. You must have a storage medium that interfaces with the Internet, which allows you the ability to hold files on your computer. Even something as simple as bookkeeping will require a computer. 3. You must have the ability to create and edit web pages. What is the point of having a store with four walls a floor and a ceiling with no curtains, paint, advertisements, etc? A store like that cannot function. So, you must be able to create those things using a web drafting software or html. Or, you must hire a professional designer to do these things for you. 4. You must have visitors to your business. A mall without people is just a showcase for businesses about to go OUT of business. Traffic to your website is a complicated issue and I cannot go over it here. I have a free article about traffic that you may wish to take a look at. Mailto:traffic@profitstation.com?subject=traffic 5. You must have a list server, which is a software tool that sends email to thousands of people and customers. You are reading this article through the power of a list server. You cannot run an Internet business without one! 6. You must have email handling software either as a stand-alone program or as part of the Internet Service Provider or browser that you use. I use Microsoft’s Outlook Express and love it. EVALUATION STEP NUMBER FOUR: Do you have the NON-physical things that you need to run your business? 1. You need a mentor. Someone who you can trust to help guide you in your chosen business. You must find someone who has accomplished what you are trying to accomplish or is well on his or her way. In MLM or Network Marketing this should be your upline so CHOOSE CAREFULLY! 2. You need time. Two to three hours each evening and at least eight hours over the weekend is my conservative estimate of the MINIMUM amount of time that you will need to work your business. 3. You need honor courage and commitment. You must understand that you are in this for the long haul. You are the tortoise, not the hare, but even a dishonest tortoise will fail. You need the courage to persist despite possible YEARS of setbacks and finally you must make the proper commitment to your business and apply enough resources to allow it to flourish. Take the Internet Test to see if YOU have what it takes. Just mailto:honor@profitstation.com?subject=honor-courage-commitment and I will send you a free article which goes into more detail. Last words. When you move more quickly than you feel comfortable with, more often than not you will get burned. Hot Stock tips, MLM ground floor opportunities, you name it, if the advertising focuses on the timing of your involvement rather than the value of the offering then your warning signal should sound and you should SLOW DOWN!. If you launch before you think, you will more than likely end up with a slimmer wallet. Use this evaluation to help you figure out if your hotshot Internet business really is a good one. They are certainly out there! --- Mark Petersen-Overton is a part time author; Internet marketer and entrepreneur who specializes in assisting businesses expand their market into the Internet. His web sites, including ProfitStation (http://www.profitstation.com), ProfitStation-isp.com (http://www.profitstation-isp.com) and All-Prizes (http://www.all-prizes.com) enjoy over three million annual hits. Publishers are invited to use this article in its entirety provided this resource box is left intact.
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