So today I had a conversation with a buddy of mine, Jonathan Burke about a good article marketing software to use, more about that later. After our chat, I decided to check out his blog for a bit. He posted this video on there and it was the best video about Network Marketing that I think I have ever seen.

[youtube width=”470″ height=”290″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNI–ULZ-dM&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

One of the biggest selling points of a home based business is the System! S-Y-S-T-E-M, Save Yourself Time, Energy and Money. It’s already in place to ensure your success, or at least make it a bit easier for you to succeed. It brings in the all too familiar term, “turnkey.” It’s all about duplication and making things easier for the newest person in the company to get into profit quickly, or duplicate their Enrollers results.

Parts of the system includes scripts, lead generation and pre-built websites, so that when somebody finds your turnkey website, pre-populated with content and pictures, they can submit their contact information. That information then goes into a lead management system that sends out pre-written auto-responders that drip bits and pieces of motivational information about their decision to start a home business.

MY SECOND BIGGEST MISTAKE…..I didn’t build my list and USE it properly.

For the first few years as a network marketer I used their turnkey websites and systems to generate my leads and I allowed those leads to go into their pre-built lead management systems. I took on the belief that once I called that lead and introduced the business to them, whether they got started with me or not, that their information was then useless. The lead was then dropped and I paid it no more attention, at least when it came to continued marketing.

I might as well have been throwing twenty dollar bills down the toilet!!

Although I made my profit from the sale, I missed out on continued, residual profits that can and will come from building your email list. I let tens of thousands of email addresses go to waste….Email addresses for people who were desperate for information on how to make money from home!

A huge part of creating an online presence(Part of my first mistake) is setting yourself up to win regardless. Having a contact form on your site that sends the information captured(email, phone number etc..) into an auto-responder system of YOUR OWN, is where it’s at. You wonder how people can make millions of dollars online with a blog and how network marketers can have continued success regardless of the opportunity they are part of. It’s because the real money, the real income comes from continually marketing to your list of subscribers….people that have opted into YOU and what you have to offer them. And if what you have to offer them is of value…..well….that equals income for you.

Right now, I use AWeber for building my list. In my opinion, it is the best one out there. I did a post a while back on starting an email marketing campaign comparing a few other services. Feel free to check it out.

And feel free to subscribe to my emails to see how I do things. You’ll find the form on the left side of this blog.

So I think my point was made. Do it right the first time. Build the list!

Unfortunately, Network Marketing companies come and go, or, you are someone that comes and goes, bouncing from one company to the next. Although a company seems solid, with a good product and great compensation, there’s no guarantee that it will be around forever.

My BIGGEST mistake as a home business owner, was putting all of my eggs into one basket. I put so much trust in the concept/product/owners of the company I was part of that I didn’t have a back-up plan. Now, if it’s all solid, there are no worries. But, if things go a different direction, if the company crashes, if the products lose their value or if any other variable happens that effects the company, it also directly effects your income. Instead of putting so much into the company, put that focus on the goal.

So imagine that 6 figure income you had managed to create while working your home business, suddenly gone, or significantly reduced. Now, if it was your doing, that’s one thing. But if was a direct correlation to something that happened in the company, that’s an entire different story! Without pointing fingers or taking a victims mentality, how does one recover from something like that?

Here’s how I recovered……I relied on the online presence I had. With the amount of content I have all over the net, the presence in social networking sites and the organic rankings on all major search engines, I had choices. With consistent, FREE traffic coming to my website, this site, a crash of a company wasn’t a complete disaster. All that did was gave me options.

I could…….

1. Join another business opportunity or….
2. Do something else with the traffic I was getting.

I could develop my own products and promote them on my site. I could completely monetize my website with sponsored listing from ad networks such as Adsense. I could continue to capture leads and sell them. I could promote affiliate products on my site. The list could go on and on.

So if you find yourself in a home based business, and you are purchasing leads, spending high dollar on CPC ads or don’t have a web presence, you may want to rethink your strategy. Set yourself up to win regardless of the opportunity.

One thing I teach people about marketing is to use three or four different sources of lead generation. If one or two drop out, you have the other two to rely on until they can be replaced. Without spreading yourself too thin, the same thing applies for your sources of income.

I believe in the Cortez concept of burning your boats, but I also believe in having a back up plan. Expect the best but prepare for the worst and you’ll never find yourself in a hard spot, without options.

Stay tuned for my SECOND BIGGEST MISTAKE in the next post!

For the last several years, my wife Amy and I have been teaching ordinary people how to create success in a home based business. These people range from stay at home Moms to former military officers and all have one or both of these  common goals: Time Freedom or Financial Freedom. It seems that as people realize how much fun they are not having in their current lives, they start to look for alternate ways to provide them with a different kind of lifestyle. Most people, including you, want a change to take place in their financial life or their personal life. Most people have no idea what that change is, but they know they want it. Some people are very clear on what they want to change but have no idea how to do it.

This is where we come into the picture. We were at this same stage several years ago. I was in a job, knowing I didn’t want to be there, yet I didn’t know how to change it all. Hats off to my wife for finding the way to make that change occur. She discovered a simple system designed for people with zero experience in network marketing or internet advertising. It is a system designed to inspire change in people’s lives. It is a system created by visionaries who wanted that change to happen in their own lives and then in the lives of thousands of others as well.

The simple fact is, most people spend their entire lives just living day to day. They fail to plan for their future. They fail to plan for much of anything thinking they have a sense of security. Until one day, that security ends with a layoff or a dip in the economy and then what?

Why live your entire life enjoying the struggle when you have the ability to skip the struggle and just enjoy life. Time Freedom is reserved for those who step out of the ordinary. Financial Freedom is reserved for the ones who are willing to take a risk and stick their neck out on the line. To have both, it requires leverage. Leverage over your time!

That is simply all my wife and I do. We show you Leverage!

What is an Entrepreneur who is everywhere all at once without ever having to set foot outside his home? Wealthy! Wealthy with Time and Wealthy with Money!

I think it’s about time for you to learn how to walk the walk that most of the people you associate with everyday will never walk. It’s time for you to learn how to walk the path of Leverage!

Yes, if you are currently in a home based business, you are a business owner. You own and operate your own successful or unsuccessful business right out of your home office. For some, that home office can be where ever their feet take them, just as long as they have their phone. For others, it’s right at home in their office.

So what do business owners do? Well, they do business, and doing business means that they make money! Now, in a home business, it is just as easy to make money as it is to “not” make money. It takes the same amount of effort to succeed as it does to fail. The difference between success and failure is smaller than you think. Very small actions taken during the day, every single day, will move you closer to or farther from success.

Here are ten mistakes home business owners make that will obviously move them closer to failure:

1. They give themselves a back door, a quit date, an ultimatum or an excuse.
2. They treat it like a hobby instead of a business. When I think of a successful business owner, I think of someone who is his business. He is always thinking and looking for ways to increase his business. When I think of someone with a hobby, they tend to get to it when they have a little extra time. I can tell you this much, unless your home business is a priority, it will fail and produce “hobby” income.
3. They play small. They place a little tiny ad, they market a little bit, they call a few people, they don’t think big enough. Their decisions are most likely being driven by fear, instead of ambition.
4. Half invest themselves. In most network marketing opportunities, there are income levels. If you are not playing at the highest level you can, you are playing small. You can’t catch the BIG fish by fishing in the two foot wide aquarium.
5. Don’t use the products. This is huge! I know in my business, I suggest to everyone I choose to mentor, to purchase the products. Purchase whatever products you would like to be paid for. Know your product! A Nike shoe salesman better have owned and used a pair of the shoes he is selling. Otherwise, he is going to look a little foolish when someone asks about the product.
6. Inconsistency. It takes more than a few drops in a storm to soak a driveway. Instead of working their business, doing income producing activities every single day, they choose to skip it here or there. Skip your business, skip your goals!
7. Play the blame game. It’s their mentors fault, the companies fault, the compensation plans fault or their teams fault that they haven’t had the success they came here for. Personal responsibility is a myth.
8. Don’t follow the system. This is called “re-inventing the wheel.” In other words, thinking that their way is better. The system is in place because it works. Why re-invent something that isn’t broken.
9. They are dishonest. You have all heard of the term, “fake it til you make it.” In my eyes, that’s a lie. Standing in front of that Mercedes and that huge home, all of which belongs to someone else, is dishonest. If it’s not yours, don’t claim that it is.
10. Failure to mastermind. There is no other industry in the world that operates like Network Marketing. You don’t see McDonalds willing to share their marketing techniques with Burger King. Home business owners, yes that’s you, are willing to share with others the things they are doing to create success. Believe it or not, this part of the system.

Do you see? It takes just as much effort to not do things as it does to do things. Yes, you may miss a few of your favorite TV shows on your trip to success, but what would you rather have….an evening with House or an American Idol or a successful home business? One provides you with time freedom, financial freedom and a lifestyle of your design. The other is just a pastime.

Don’t fall short of the goal by making these simple, yet devastating mistakes. You are a business owner. Act like one!

During college did you ever think about being a walk-on in your favorite sport? Now, of course I’m speaking about the ones that didn’t have that full ride scholarship and a reserved spot on the team. However, this pertains to everyone, scholarship or not. So how about it? Did you? Did you actually try out for the team or did you just think about doing it? If you did try out, did you make the team? Did you give it your best?

This is about making things happen. It’s about creating a spot for yourself. It’s about wanting it bad enough that you’ll do just about anything to get it.

If you think about a walk-on, what comes to mind? Determination? Persistence? Vision? I can tell you this much, a walk-on is someone that makes the team out of pure will power. It is that person that knows they can hang with the big dogs, the high recruits, that already have a place on the team. This is a person with drive, with ambition and with a tremendous amount of self belief. There is no spot on the team for the walk-on. He has to create his spot on the team, work hard for it and claim it as his own. He has to earn the right to play with the big dogs and a lot of the time, is one of the better players on the team. Most if the time, the coach already has a good idea of who is going to fill the open spot on the team. So if that’s not you, you’ve got to want it more!

I’d like to give credit to Wendy Stevens for providing the idea for this post. True story, Wendy was actually a walk-on. She had a conversation with the coach one day about what she could do to make the team. The coach told her, “Play left handed!” So she did everything with her left hand. When opening the door, she would use her left hand. She brushed her teeth left handed. If you’ve never tried that, do it. It isn’t as easy as it may seem. Wendy was right handed, but she made the team. She used muscles that had never been used in that way before. She had to train these muscles to work just as good as her right hand muscles in order to get the spot on the team.

This is exactly the same thing that a new entrepreneur or new network marketer goes through. They get started in a business opportunity to create that spot on the team, to reach their goal of being a big time player. Once started in a business you quickly find out that you have never done some of the things you are now required to do. You must think differently, work differently and operate in a completely different way than before. So you work at it and work at it until it becomes natural. You are exercising your entrepreneurial muscles and the more you do, the easier the game becomes. The easier the game becomes, the better your chances are in winning that spot.

If you’re having trouble finding the way to get ahead, just keep being consistent. Consistency = exercising those muscles. By doing things that feel different than anything else you have ever done before, you will start adding new skills into your game. Once these skills are streamlined to perfection, you will gain that winners edge and claim your spot on the team as the walk-on who wanted it most!