Nearly every week on any major news/media broadcast or publication you can soak up a report talking about some element of the weak economy. This may be about job cuts at a large high-tech corporation, suffering public school funding, rising healthcare costs, wasteful Government spending, or dozens of other applicable situations. The media does a great job of telling you the sky is falling and unfortunately far too many people get sucked into believing most, if not all, of it.

While this is not meant to bring forth attention to the negative side of news (notice how the majority of it IS negative), I want to open your eyes to a different, abnormal way to listen. It may be unconventional but have you realized that much of the recent success behind so many start-ups is because they have NOT been conventional? They’ve thought out of the box, different than their competitors.

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Do you pay people as “affiliates” of your products or services after they’ve made a sale? That’s great – a good way to get your sales moving! Though you must be cautious and take the right steps if you ARE paying anyone. You are responsible for keeping a record of those commissions and claiming that you’ve paid those people by filing the proper tax documents.

Whenever you generate a sale for your own products, you claim it as income/revenue in your accounting process. After you’ve made the sale, there may have been an affiliate who “made” the sale for you and thus earned a commission. You would ethically record earning X dollars and paying out Y dollars from that X dollar amount, thus lowering your “profit”. In this case you would record paying that affiliate Y dollars as an expense, profiting the difference between X and Y.

At the end of the year it is important to file the tax paperwork for each of those affiliates to you can inform the IRS where that Y dollar amount went, and why you are not claiming it in your profits. So, why is this important? Imagine if you were audited or contacted by the IRS saying “Where did Y dollars go?” You’d then want to say “Oh, I gave it to so-and-so.” But if you didn’t fill out the tax documents at the beginning of the year, how will the IRS know?

In the case of not filing for those individuals…you’ve got a big problem on your hands. The IRS would hold YOU responsible for all those commissions, requiring you to pay taxes on them – yup, you would pay taxes on money that you didn’t end up claiming as profit.

Imagine paying out 100,000 dollars in commissions and having to pay taxes on them? That’s like throwing money into a fire.

Long story short…collect tax info from your affiliates before you pay them, and file the right paper work during tax season to save yourself a potentially devastating experience.

And, if you think the IRS will say “Oh sure, give us the names of those people you paid, we’ll hunt them down!”…think again.

There are thousands of people who join a home-based business or network marketing business every year. Many people simply want a side income while some people want to work the business as a full-time income. Whatever your interest level may be, it doesn’t make a difference. What DOES make a difference is your time and attitude.

Many years ago when I first got into network marketing it was simply because I wanted to make money. Now of course the majority of people want to make money in their business – kind of silly to think otherwise. My drive was to make a bunch of money even though I didn’t really know what a “business” was at the time. My mind was focused on the wrong thing. I was not seeing the overall picture of the situation.

At the time I was in college, trying to get through classes I really didn’t want to attend, doing homework I wasn’t excited to do, etc.. But when I could, I spent time advertising (probably spamming), calling cold leads, emailing people that I had networked with, and so on. While I was doing that my mind was in the game of “Come on, I want to make some money!” and “Dude…please buy this stuff so I can get paid!”.

The unfortunate side to it all is that…it really didn’t work out too well. I made a few sales but I worked FAR more than I should have for the results I got. It wasn’t the products (directly) nor that I wasn’t spending enough time (that’s for sure). It was me, and partially the training I had been through…if it can be considered training.

Please please please…before you jump into a home-based business or network marketing business, ask yourself these following questions:

1. Do you want a full-time, part-time or passive income?
2. Will you dedicate 2, 4, 8, 12 or more hours a week?
3. Would this be a business or a hobby for you?

Those are three simple questions you need to know your answers to BEFORE you start. Why? It’s important to plan ahead, not to fool yourself into thinking “I want to have a business too!” when in you’re only fooling yourself.

People who really build a network marketing business well spend 3 to 4+ hours a day doing so, and for many people it’s hard to get 30 minutes to themselves just to relax after a long day at their job.

So…my question to you is…are you interested in a business or is your goal just to try making some extra money? A business takes work, lots of it. You need to provide support to your customers and to your team members/organization. You will want to constantly be building leads, finding new customers and new distributors. It may involve some light traveling and even attending corporate events. You may also want to attend house parties or organize meetings.You see? These are things you should be thinking about.

Building a home-based business doesn’t happen over night. It may take you a few months before you have more than a dozen new members or you could be very successful and grow at 20 new members a month – both are very possible situations.

Be realistic with yourself. Get excited but don’t think that by joining a business you will suddenly make a bunch of money with little work – it simply doesn’t happen like you may believe.

Questions? Ask me and I’d be glad to help you out.

The general population knows that globally there is a financial crisis in several countries, including the USA. People aren’t buying houses, are deciding to keep their cars for longer, they are taking the time to shop around for the best deals on practically everything from Shampoo to Clothing to Entertainment. Nobody likes to have less fun but if they can cut costs here and there, they’ll make it happen. For small business (and even big business as you may be aware through many big companies filing bankruptcy or Chapter 11) it can hurt revenue big time when people spend less AND businesses give away more just to continue keeping sales near the average monthly volume. But this financial meltdown we seem to be facing is a little extreme and opens many doors if you’re smart about it.

As you focus your attention on Internet Marketing and Network Marketing, you’ll find that more people are turning to additional income opportunities, even if they’ve never considered/tried before. Job security has always meant nothing to me and now it means even less. At my young age I never thought I’d hear about so many friends/contacts getting laid-off. The wake-up calls are coming and people are finally realizing that “Job Security” is a myth.

Out of all this comes what I (and many others) consider a great time to start a business in Internet Marketing (if you’re going to spend the time necessary). As I mentioned, more people are turning to income opportunities they can do from their homes. Although they don’t want to spend money, they’ll be willing to invest into something that could be a nice ROI (return on investment). I hope to see every single person that has had and will have the unfortunate lay-off happen to them able to generate their own revenue to supplement their income loss.

Not everyone has the interest to start their own company nor should they want to do so without a concrete plan. If you’ve dreamed about having your own business/company, can afford the investment, I’d say now is the time to do so. No, I wouldn’t start a clothing store or franchise, but rather work entirely online as your costs will likely be much lower than a traditional brick and mortar business.

So, if I were asked, “Should I start an Internet business?” my answer would be simple. “Yes, if you have a plan, have performed the needed research and understand (can afford) the investment.

Millions of people use the Internet everyday, despite the economy – chances are, you can tap into some of those millions….