The Exciting Life of
HomePreneurs

".. entrepreneurship is a key component of economic vitality and innovation."  Working from home is now considered cool. 

"Stats about small businesses are encouraging. It is a fact that small businesses represent over 90% of ALL businesses, provide for 2/3 of ALL jobs in the U.S. and have created over 70% of all jobs in the last decade. This is pretty amazing and clearly shows not only the potential, but also the importance that small businesses have for the economy."  Danielle Vallee. 

Being your own boss raises your image while lowering your impact. 
In many instances you will earn more and work less when you become a HomePreneur.  Then there are all those fringe benefits like writeoffs, and discounts. 

Now, before you start studying this working-from-home field there are two things I want to warn you about. 

#1 are the parrots.  Parrots are the people that read books written by so-called "gurus" and then straightway write their own books that parrot what they believe the "gurus" said.  People like this have decided that "the real money is in telling beginners how to make it" -- so that's all they ever do. 

#2 is reading the best-selling business books.  Clients of this type writer are the ones bragging for all the world to hear... "We only lost $100 million in the last quarter!" 

Do you really need to learn how to lose less money?  I read one biography from a sales letter writing "guru" trusted by the whole world. The first step in his secret for success was first finding out "how much my client could afford to lose."  I'm just saying, "Be real careful who you invest your learning time with."

The one bad part of the best pieces of advice given by these authors on library shelves is:  "You can't start making money immediately." 

That statement is not true 100% of the time.  For example, I have never invested a penny in any of my businesses.  With Tale Wins I started with nothing but a hare-brained idea and I have never spent one cent for advertising; it's now worth $125,000, which isn't much, but it has also kept my family fed for 12 years now. 

Make real sure you have enough financial cushion behind you to fall back on if sales don't spurt through the ceiling.  

So, if you must throw these things out of your permutations, who do you listen to?  Here's your first tip: 

• NOBODY KNOWS ALL THE ANSWERS.
• NOBODY WILL GIVE YOU ALL THE RIGHT ANSWERS. 
• NOBODY IS RIGHT ABOUT ALL THE ANSWERS THEY GIVE.
• NOBODY WANTS TO GIVE YOU ALL THE RIGHT ANSWERS.

Even the people who made a fortune overnight, or the first year, can not tell you how they did it.  They honestly think they can.  If you follow their advice line for line and word for word -- and don't succeed, they will insist you did something wrong.  Some of them can even zero in with their 20/20 hindsight and tell you exactly where you went astray, but they can't answer your question of: "When and where did you tell me that?"

So, okay.  Is there a rule for success that works most of the time?  Yes, there is.  I didn't make it up, nor did I ever use it.  I interviewed this lady that had earned the SMEA award 19 years in a row.  The only reason she was so successful is that she keeps working.  Don't come in first?  Keep working.  Somebody says NO? Keep working. No sales training?  KEEP WORKING.  That was it, her philosophy for success.  "KEEP WORKING."

Second rule of success from my arsenal:  Try everything you believe MIGHT work.  From that pile take anything that made a dollar or more and keep doing it.  As you run out of time, drop the less successful modes of earning money.  Improve everything that helps you make money. 

KEEP RECORDS

I had one ad that made $1,900 for me in its first month.  At a quarter per click, that was so good that the company thought I was cheating them.  They shut me down.  No problem, I thought.  I'll take that same ad and use it with another company.  Well, this was before big businesses were smart enough to hire little businesses to find business for them; there were no other companies providing that same service. 

So, I found a similar company and wrote an ad to fit their services.  It worked wonders, and my head swelled up with vanity and pride.  So I dropped that ad and very confidently I improved the ad. 

Big mistake.  My sales plummeted! 

Immediately I discovered that I couldn't go back to my first ad that had worked because I had deleted it.  So, instead I read more success books and then I improved my ads again, and again.  Finally when my sales were next to zero I accidentally threw everything out and just wrote a first ad for a new company. 

It worked almost as good as that first ad (with the second company) and THAT time I was smart enough to save that ad that worked.  In fact, I locked it up in a real, genuine vault.  Every time I read some new success plot and came up with a new ad that didn't work,

Because my ads that worked were locked up and available I could safely come back to the last ad that did work.  For that second compay, I then ran all the variations through my mind and created the PERFECT AD.  You know what? 

You're right; It didn't work either.  After a years of trying to improve that ad that worked the first time I narrowed it down to what made one work. 

What made it work was ONE word, and that word was a NEGATIVE.  The word NO (put in the right place) got me a yes about 14% of the time.  The word NO in that ad has been putting food on my table on a regular basis for the last 7 years.

Sure, I know that breaks all the laws of human nature as well as all the laws of advertising.  Who cares?  If I even suggest I might improve that ad, my spouse faints. 

The only problem here is that: .. based on my personal experience, I can't tell you how to write advertising that works.  I'm sure not going to give you THAT ad, nor even tell you what company it works for.  That's against all the laws of human nature too.  But -- hopefully -- you did pick up on several hot tips for your success...

1. RECORD your efforts so you can go back to what works a little bit. 
2. Ads, products, list, marketing, service and company; EVERYTHING has got to fit together for anything to work -- for me, anyway. 
3. You'll want to listen to a whole lot of people other than me.  Click HERE and I'll let you meet a whole lot of my friends, many of whom DO seem to know what they are doing. 
4. Remember everything I've said in the lines above as you listen and learn. 
5. NEVER throw the baby out just because something new sounds good, or sounds like it MUST be the real answer.  The only real answer that I know of is the little one that YOU make work Big!