Almost everybody would love to work from home in some way or another. I am not talking about your job allowing you to spend a couple of days a month working at home on your computer. I am talking about a business that you own, run, and make a profit from, and one which you can operate either full or part time in the comfort of your living room.

So where do you start. Some people pick up the local newspaper and scan the business opportunity section whilst the majority of us search for a business online. Most of us will go straight to Google and type in something along the lines of Make Money From Home. From there on all internet hell breaks loose, as youre now bombarded by thousands of adverts from all walks of life telling you how great they all are, and how, by just working a few hours a week in your slippers you will be able to retire in 3-5 years and spend the rest of your days sailing around the Caribbean in your swanky new yacht! Sounds familiar?

So now what? Well here are some choices which might help you to decide your next course of action.
1. Spend the next few days/weeks trolling through all these different adverts, clicking on page after page of endless generic sites telling you what they want you to hear. Or you can do what I should have done when I first looked at a home based business all those years ago.
2. Turn your computer off, make yourself a cup of tea and then sit down with a pen and notepad and write the following:
What type of business do I really want? Now you might be thinking that going through all the home working adverts on the net will give you the answer to this question, but it will not. Sure, it will give you some ideas about what you are after, but at the same time it will also be very confusing. Working from Home covers such a broad spectrum, in fact just about any type of business can be operated from home, ranging from dog walking to e-commerce and everything in between, so narrowing it down a tad will save you hours of endless frustration. Working from Home generally falls into one of the following categories; Network Marketing, and Online Marketing.

Network Marketing (also known as multi level market) has over the last two decades become very popular as a home based business. Most people have heard the names of some of the big players in this industry, companies like: Amway, Herbalife, Forever Living Products, ACN. In fact there are over one thousand different MLM companies worldwide and the truth is that most of them wont make it past the first couple of years. Networking is generally started very part time and in most cases has a tangible product line such as: weight loss, nutrition, health and beauty etc. How Network Marketing works is simple, but do not confuse simple with easy. It is easy to stack shelves at your local store, this is why they pay minimum wage, but it is not easy to build a business from home from scratch. When you join a MLM company you normally pay a nominal sum to register and you become whats called a distributor, and from there on you are entitled to sell and market both the companys products and opportunity to others. Most MLM companies train their distributors to work with their circle of influence, in other words; you friends and family, as these people are less likely to say no to you when you try to sell (or recommend as the companies like to put it) to them. You can also sponsor or introduce other people into your team who intern, can sell and sponsor people into their team which is also a part of your team. And when they sell to their friends and family you will receive a small percentage payment of their sales going down several levels below you. In short, over time and with a lot of work on your part, you can build a substantial income which, like the advert says, will enable you to retire on your yacht around the Caribbean. In reality this life style only happens for less than 1% of distributors, as the majority start part time with the hope of making a few bucks to help pay the bills then after a few weeks fizzle out, never to be seen or heard of again. Putting it simply, Network Marketing is a people business; you will be selling to people, sponsoring people and telephoning people. This part of the business is absolutely unavoidable and is the reason why it is called Network Marketing. So if you dont like selling to your friends and family or youre not too keen on using the phone then this type of working from home is not for you. But if on the other hand you like all of the above, then find a product and company that you love and give it a go, just do not expect to make a full time living for a while.

The second type of home based business I am going to talk about is Online Marketing. This type of business is relatively new as it has only been around for a few years, but despite this, it has already had a major financial impact on many peoples lives. Where MLM generally involves pitching or selling to people, either in front of them or on the phone, then Online Marketing is the complete opposite. Its title tends to sum up exactly what it means; Marketing Online and this should give you a clear indication of what it is about. Online Marketing has many of the features of MLM, but the big difference is that in most cases there is no face to face or phone contact with your customers or potential customers. You still have products or services, but these tend to be e-commerce and are therefore not tangible like weight loss or health care products. Instead you will find products such as books, courses, web training, motivational material, as well as internet and computer software and alike. In fact anything then can be either sent or downloaded via the internet. Online Marketing has now become one of the fastest growing industries in the world, and as the internet expands then so does the business it produces. A good example of this was the introduction of broadband internet. Since its inception a few years ago, companies such as YouTube and Face Book have come out of nowhere and now dominate the industry, and with the introduction of video streaming came more Online Marketing companies as this gave them an even greater forum to present their business from.

MLM companies realised decades ago that people do not buy from faceless companies; people buy from people, which is why the whole concept of Networking worked and still works. Now with the internet being available in most households, customers or prospective customers are able to click on to your web site and see you as a real person talking to them about what you do, and how if at all it can be of benefit to them. If they like what they see they can click on a few boxes, pay and have their products or services delivered with ease, and you make a profit. This type of business can sometimes take a while to set up and learn, but once done it can often be run virtually on autopilot, freeing up time which you can spend on other pursuits such as your family. So putting it simply, Online Marketing is not a people business; you wont be chasing your friends and family and delivering products. Instead you will have people coming to you via your web site, and any questions that they may have are usually dealt with via email.
So if you are a people person and like getting out and meeting new friends and dealing face to face with your customers, then Online Marketing is most probably not for you. But if on the other hand you want to work online from home or anywhere in the world for that matter, then this business would suit you down to the ground.

Now I would like to end with one last question and answer; is building a business from home easy? No, nothing is easy, there is no such thing as a free lunch, and if you are planning to run a home based biz then youd better get used to that. It takes time and energy to create an income from nothing, but once you have mastered it you will never look back. Learning your trade and working hard in will reward you and make you financially free, but more important it will give you time freedom, which together will give you choices on how you live your life.
So my advice is; Start Now, because it is better to make your family rich than to go on working and making some other family rich!

Enjoy Your Day

John Drake