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.

I’ll admit openly that being in business for yourself is certainly not for everyone. However, thinking of positive ways out of a negative situation does not mean you have to be an entrepreneur or start a business. In fact, Career Builder explains 6 success strategies for a poor economy in which they share some simple yet effective tips for those who are concerned with their job security. And on a side note, there really is no job security – I hate to be blunt, but no job is “secure”.

Now, for those who feel they need to cut spending and invest more carefully, I’ve got a tip for you: Stop Listening to the News!As I mentioned, they play a big part of your psyche. Mindset is a major part of how you think, act, react and make decisions. Better yet, absorb material that is exactly opposite of negativity that is the news. For example, listen to/watch this video talking about how attitude can make all the difference by Zig Ziglar.

Sometimes it’s not necessarily as simple as soaking up positive material but the point is your success should not be a reflection of economic “news” reported by media. If they reported tomorrow that a massive shortage of available cash would begin taking place within 3 months from now, would you freak out and stop spending? I sure as hell hope not.

The truth of the matter is you’d want to do whatever it takes to get MORE money into your pocket than ever before. And how can you do that? Hire. Yes, I said it. Add to your sales force – it could be part-time or even on commission-only, but you need more people selling your product/service.

As an entrepreneur, a crappy economy doesn’t hinder my business, it actually offers more opportunities to step over those who hide, waiting for the media to tell them to come out of hiding. I see more opportunities now than I did 5 years ago. Yes, one could say that’s partially attributed to being wiser and more driven to seeing through to my business goals.

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal. – Henry Ford

So, I challenge you to shut out the negativity, stop bowing down to what media does to your psyche. Instead, spend that time reaching out to more customers, expanding your brand’s awareness, creating better & more attractive products/solutions. Set your mind on milestones, push yourself to complete objectives.

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.

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.

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….

Andrew Carnegie was the first drive behind Napoleon’s fortune as he (Napoleon) published his book in 1960 and started an entire empire which, I believe, still exists today. After Carnegie disclosed his secret to Napoleon, hundreds of other men told Napoleon how they made their fortunes, based off of Carnegie’s secret. Some of these men include John D. Rockefeller, Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Ford, Charles M. Schwab, Thomas A. Edison, and Woodrow Wilson, to name a few.

What’s most fascinating is that most of what the book talks about still holds true today. Of course technology effects marketing but the core values still remain in tact.

This book is a great read if you want to understand the basic, core fundamentals that many of the early millionaires built their fame on. Additionally, it will give you some serious insight on how this industry started.

Napoleon Hill Foundation

I’ll openly admit this was exciting to have a good friend ask me to help him and teach him the possibilities that the Internet serves people every second of the day. Not having a job can be very depressing if you don’t have another source of income, but on the positive side it can be a motivator to make something else work for yourself. Incase you aren’t aware, much of the “failure” that people witness in their businesses is attributed to their actions; be unproductive and your business will follow suit.

Not every person is going to have success with an internet business nor a home-based business. There are some fundamentals of a brick-and-mortar business which are important to a successful internet business. Being educated on general business practices, if you’re not already, would be a wise time investment so that you don’t make silly mistakes costing you money and/or customers. For some people, business is simply NOT their interest.

The most basic way to learn about general business practices would be to read a book. You don’t have to read every page necessarily but something like “Business 101″ where you learn the core needs to keep a business running smoothly (even if it’s just you involved in the operational side).

Now I know an internet business usually has much less management skills needed but that doesn’t mean it’s any easier if you’re looking for success. If it was easy, don’t you think a lot more people (including yourself) would see more success and growth in their business?

Look at what makes the money – sales and customer service. Successful companies (like Dell when they started) had great customer service and great products. Yeah, the CS has changed a lot after sending a lot of their support over-seas as well as caring less about the customer with problematic products. This lack of customer care has hurt sales and…you know the rest.

Before you decide to start a business, prepare yourself to be a loyal sponsor/upline and be willing to devote time to support your customers.

One of the only processors I truely trust is Paypal. Why? They’ve had a pretty good record and I’ve never had an issue thus far – I’ve used them for well over 6 years.

They have some information that could damage my bank account very easily, but…I take that calculated risk on my own terms. Though, one recent discovery is that they may have telephone support hosted in India. This is somewhat of an educated guess based on a previous telephone conversation I had with someone at Paypal – I’ll need to verify my guess and let you know.

But, why is this an issue anyway? Think about it; a third-world country potentially having access to your personal sensitive information (such as bank accounts, credit cards, and debit cards). How do you know the employees aren’t secretly keeping that information for themselves? What if that personal information is actually STORED in data centers in another country, how safe can that really be?

Yes, we have our own security issues within our country, but at least we can control it easier. And, those found guilty, we can take matters into our own hands; can’t do that with a third-world country.

Be careful what information you give to processors, especially when you don’t know where the information is stored. The 20 minutes of searching could save you from many problems down the road. Most importantly, do your research and due diligence.