What to look for in a home business?

Choosing the right home business opportunity is a very important decision and must not be taken lightly. The list of opportunities is endless and that list is growing every day.

There is no end to stories about failed home businesses, and people who lost lots of money attempting to start their own home business. It is very easy to not be included in one of those sad stories if you follow a few simple rules, which I will attempt to outline here.

1 - History of success:

You will hear many people tell you that the only way to be very successful is to get in on the "ground floor" of a start-up company. This is a total myth .

The potential of failure far outweighs the promises of riches in a new company. These "ground floor" and "pre-launch" opportunities are the source for a majority of the horror stories you hear about failures in this industry.

Although how long a company has been in business is no guarantee of it's success, it is the best tool we have when looking at companies. It has been reported that the home business industry has a history of approximately an 85% failure rate in it's first year, and that increases to 95% by year five. For the best odds of choosing a company with a good chance of being around to provide you residual income in the future, it is suggested that you not even consider a company less than five years old, and a company ten years or older is preferred. 

In good company with a good compensation plan, your residual income should be based upon the profitability of the organization you create, not upon how long you have been a distributor. Your comp plan should provide for the ability for you to be a top income earner within 2-5 years of joining, and you should expect to easily be able to earn more than your upline.

2 - Residual Income:

Residual income is income that continues to be paid to you long after you are no longer working the business.

This is a concept that many people just never seem to grasp. Most people understand the concept of trading time for money. An hour's pay for an hour's work. This is not the concept upon which network marketing was founded. That is a J.O.B. (Just Over Broke). You work from month to month hoping there is enough money coming in to pay the bills.

Residual income is possible because you build a business which is not dependent upon you being there to continue to do the work. Far too many people believe that because they are earning commissions from a downline that they have residual income. That is rarely the case because the majority of people do not build their businesses properly.

Building a business to provide maximum residual income should be your goal. Anyone can get a J.O.B.

When considering network marketing as a home business, one of the most important features to look for is a company that has a great potential of providing long term "Residual Income".

3 - Look for a company with excellent tools and a strong training program.

One of the largest misconceptions about network marketing is that it takes sales skills. Frequently the opposite is true. Many times a strong sales background will be a handicap to the growth of your business because you will be tempted to use those skills in building your business, and your downline will not be able to duplicate your talents.

The company should provide tools which can do 99% of the work of promoting and supporting your business for you. The tools include, brochures, audio tapes, CD's, Video Tapes, Internet web sites, conference calls, three-way calls, recorded training and presentations.

A good company will have all of these tools. However having the tools is not enough. The company must have a proven SIMPLE, duplicable method of using the tools, and a program of training the new distributors on the use of the tools

You may be a very good trainer, or have a great talent for speaking in front of large groups or making sales presentations, but 99% of the people you introduce to your company will not share your talents.

It should be possible to build a successful business with little or no sales or training abilities. Duplication is the key to achieving residual income. Tools are duplicable, but people are not.

For a company to provide true residual income, everyone must be able to duplicate your success.

If the company you are deciding to join has these 3 qualities then you are starting off on the right foot. The next step is up to you to work it like a business and duplicate the success of the top performers.