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.

We live in a world of fast-paces, ever changing technology. Before you realize it, what you thought was the latest technology or cool feature is outdated with something even better. In some cases it is certainly overwhelming to try staying on top of it all, and I say that from experieince.

There are things you can do NOW that make technology less important to your success. It’s called…building relationships. Believe it or not, you can make such an impact on your business by having connections and building relationships with like-minded people.

When I started out there was more uncertainty in my mind because…I didn’t know ‘John’ from ‘Sally’. Along with those relationships builds trust. In my case, I thought it was safe to trust the people I came in contact with along the way. Truth: Trust your instincts and follow your heart. There are amazing people in this world and in the business/marketing community, you just have to find them. I’ve made friends with some incredible people – some of which I met years ago and still work with, it’s awesome.

When you launch a product, what is the easiest way to get it spreading like a wildfire? JV Partners. But you can’t have quality JV Partners without first building relationships with people.

As you’re trying to build your network marketing business, who are the types of people in your organization that are the most helpful? They are those with who you’ve built that relationship.

And…it’s far easier now than it was years ago.

Use Facebook. Use Twitter. Connect on blogs. Use Forums.  …and so on.

If you build those relationships now, you’ll change your odds of success, positively. Look at successful network marketers and you’ll see they have built a large number of quality, long-lasting relationships.

And yes, this can work in traditional business too. Don’t worry, you’re covered!

Sorry for the poor quality. My camera is supposed to be HD, but obviously that’s not working properly!