CHALLENGES OF WORKING AT HOME

After the introductions, critique of employment and the several reasons why many opt to work from home, you might be motivated to go out there and give it your best shot. 

Now before you do anything rash you must make sure you could really handle it.  Running your own show does offer a lot of advantages, but working at home has a few pitfalls as well.

The truth is that it has many challenges. Probably more than most “regular” jobs. Those who work at home confront new puzzels every day. How much to pay in quarterly taxes and how.  Shopping for new equipment during cash flow problems.  How to resist the allure of the television and its siren song at ten a.m.  How to muster the energy to stay up a little later to get that project done tonight. 

The struggles are many.

That laundry list of challenges just scratches the surface.  There are so many challenges, and so many variations of each that it would be impossible to list them all.  Most of those challenges, however, tend to fall into one of two categories.  Let’s take a look at them.

 RISK AND INSECURITY

When you are out in the workforce punching a clock, some things are almost guaranteed.  You will have at least one co-worker who drives you crazy.  There will be a few things about the way the operation is run that will annoy you at all times.  At least one of your superiors will seem to have a personal axe to grind with your name emblazoned on the handle. 

Oh, and you will receive your paycheck in a blue envelope or via direct deposit every two weeks.

The water fountain will almost always work. Someone will pay the electric bill even after Schmidt loses the Anderson account. If you lean back too far in your swivel chair again and break it, someone from maintenance will magically make a new one appear. Your insurance card will work when you go to the doctor and, again, that paycheck will arrive like clockwork right on schedule.

Although being part of the great herd of employees has many horrifying drawbacks, it does come with consistency and some level of security. You know what to expect and what you will get in exchange for your time and effort. 

You may not get enough, but you will know what you are getting.  That kind of security does have value.

Those who work at home have to be a bit more adventurous, because they can no longer work with those creature comforts in place. If you don’t do business with your work at home operation, you don’t have money.  If you blow the Anderson deal, you suffer even worse than Schmidt would back at the office for doing the same thing. Water is your responsibility. If you break your swivel chair, you might find yourself working from a kitchen chair. And that paycheck? That’s completely in your hands. No one else will make sure it arrives. That’s up to you as well.

Those who have particularly risk-aversive personalities are usually a poor match for working at home. The risk of failure is real and so is the lack of any traditional job security. 

One may argue that today’s economy leaves everyone a bit insecure, but nothing quite compares to having your whole livelihood in your own hands. Yes, that provides opportunity, but it also creates a lot of risk.

 HARD WORK

Many people coast through their day jobs. The tasks aren’t that challenging and after awhile, they can be accomplished without a great deal of thought or real effort. The trick to being a good employee, some have joked, is showing up. The rest, one way or another, tends to take care of itself.

Admittedly, some jobs are particularly difficult. Take a look at those road crews the next time you are driving across town on a hundred degree August afternoon and you will see that. 

In many ways, however, working from home is probably more difficult than doing asphalt work while staving off a heat stroke.

Those who run their own work at home businesses have to learn so many new things. They have to learn the business itself, of course, but they also have to learn how to run a business. 

They have to learn about marketing, pricing, customer service, and a host of other things in addition to what they actually do to produce income.  It can be overwhelming for many people.

When you work without a net, the way many of those working from home do, you are often required to exert more energy and to keep longer hours than those who are just out punching clocks five days a week before hitting the bars. 

Running a work at home business requires unrivaled dedication and a serious work ethic. Anyone lacking those traits will probably find their home business flopping very quickly.

Once one has built their work at home business up and has mastered their “system,” things do tend to run more smoothly. However, every great work at home success story has its roots in a period of some very serious work.  Working at home provides many benefits, but they don’t come free.  The price is often hard work.
Next time we will ask a few serious questions that you should ask yourself before embarking on the home business band wagon.

Working from home. In this post we will examine the variety of factors that draw people to work from home.

 OPPORTUNITY

If the idea of working at home is appealing, you might just be an opportunity junkie.  Many of us crave the chance to do great things and find that our traditional nine to five work environments are very limiting. Women may have a glass ceiling with which to contend, but all of us have another even harder ceiling to break through right above that one.  It’s the inevitable ceiling of being an employee instead of an owner. 

No matter how hard you work, no matter how smart you are, the structure of a traditional job and the limitations inherent in your role as one of the hive’s worker bees will limit you. You might become a boss some day, but you will never become The Boss. The opportunity just isn’t there. Even if there is enough opportunity to entice you to continue making the daily commute to the office for awhile, chances are those real chances for fulfillment are doled out arbitrarily and unfairly. The shots you do get to move up the ladder or closer to your goals are few, far between, and inevitably mishandled by someone who outranks you.

Operating your own business from home restores opportunity. Any limits on your success or growth are within your own control.If you want to do something, there is no head office to clear it.  You don’t have to fill out a requisition form if you want to invest in yourself.  You don’t need to smile during evaluation week so that your middle manager with the happy face obsession will give you a great performance review.
Opportunity is everywhere.  When you have your own home business, the only limits are the one’s you place upon yourself.

 MONEY

Many of those who make a break from the herd and work from home do so because of the prospect of greater earnings.  Along with the aforementioned opportunity in a general sense comes the chance to make more dough. Many work at home successes earn so much more than they ever would have if they continued on their prior path that it boggles the mind.

If you get a halfway decent job that you can stay at for decades and you are a good employee, you will probably find a way to make a decent living by popular standards.  Your income will allow you to buy a home, keep your lawnmower blades sharpened and to occasionally take a family vacation. Two vehicles and a roof over your head and food on the table is nothing to sneer at but they beat a worn pair of shoes and a “will work for food” sign be a significant margin.

In the end, though, those in the regular workplace have a cap on their earnings.  That cap may not be expressed in any contract or the result of any hard and fast law, but it is very real. The very factors that limit opportunity in general will also limit earning capacity. By stepping outside the employee circle and into the world of running your own business, you can destroy that cap.

If having a chance to make big money is important to you, running your own operation is definitely appealing.

 FLEXIBILITY

The fact that you work nine to five, Monday through Friday, might not be that distressing to you. Until your kid’s softball team makes it to the state tournament and plays their Thursday semi-final game at six in a city two hours away. The fact that you only have five vacation days per year until you have been with the firm for more than two full years may make perfect sense for a company, but that provides little comfort when you finally meet the woman of your dreams and she wants to take you on a romantic, two-week tropical cruise.  You get the idea.

Those who work from home have the ultimate in flexibility. They really can set their own hours the way very few employees can. Some work early, others work late, some work only a few hours a week, for some only a few days a week but with long hours on those days and others work as necessary. 

It depends on the home business. However, the home business is within the control of its boss, and if he wants to take mid-afternoon naps or if he wants to spend Wednesdays at the driving range, there is nobody one step higher on the corporate ladder to tell her or him “no.”

 FAMILY

Every morning someone drops off his or her child at daycare, gets back in the car and starts to do the math in his or her head. Their daycare provider has the kid from eight until five-thirty, five days a week. That’s forty seven and a half hours per week. The parent has the child from about six a.m. until eight and then again from five-thirty until that eight o’clock bedtime.  That’s twenty two and a half hours per week.  Even if one gives himself or herself full credit for two full weekend days of “awake time,” the total is still only at fifty two and a half hours per week. That’s right, the child only sees his or her parent for about five more hours per week than he does his daycare provider.For many parents, that just isn’t’t tolerable. In fact, it’s heart-wrenching and it’s one of the chief reasons why many are inspired to start their own work at home business. Yes, it may be tough to seal big deals with a two year old trying to stick a Crayola up your nose, but that challenge is far more palatable than the idea of a child growing up with only slightly more contact with his or her parents than his or her babysitter.

Even those who don’t have children may be interested in the familial advantages offered by stay at home work.  Spouses can see more of each other.  Those who are accustomed to being forced to do business on the road can finally enjoy a husband or wife again. Working at home puts one in the midst of family as powerfully as regular jobs can separate one from his or her home life.

 INTERESTS

 Many people feel trapped doing jobs they despise. You can see it in their faces.  From the angst-ridden barista at any one of ten local Starbucks who could be making shrewd stock deals all day to the slow-moving house painter who always wanted to be a chef, you encounter people who are working outside of their interests and skills just to collect a check. Some people learn to compromise. They take solace in Mr. Holland’s Opus and convince themselves that eventually all of that compromise will add up to something meaningful. They shove their interests and true desires to the back of their mind and try to retain focus on doing their job. 

Yes, a few people are lucky enough to find employment that really matches their skill levels and attitudes nicely, but many more spend their time doing things in which they have only a marginal interest outside of the bib-weekly paycheck their efforts produce. Though some will swallow the disappointment and frustration, those who decide to work at home will not.  They opt to pursue their dreams and to find ways to make their skills and their “calling” into action.  It can be far more fulfilling than simply working for the sake of earning a salary.  It imbues one’s vocational life with great meaning and appeal.
In my next post we will examine the challenges of working from home.

It’s the daily grind.  It’s punching the clock.  Back to the salt mines. Another day, another dollar.  It’s a supervisor you can barely tolerate getting on your case even though you are clearly five times smarter than he’ll ever be.  It’s middle management bungles.  It’s upper management cold-heartedness. It’s a loud factory floor or a tiny slate gray cubicle.  Forty hours per week, plus overtime.

If you are a good boy or girl, that hourly wage will inch up just fast enough to almost keep up with inflation every year and some day you may even join the ranks of salaried management and longer hours dealing with even more annoying people.  It’s described as everything from a hassle to a prison.

It’s a job and you might be tempted to get rid of it. Unfortunately, along with all of the agony, the job also brings with it money.  If you’re lucky, it might bring a lot of money, health benefits and even a shot at retiring without starving to death.

Jobs mean money.  Money, whether it’s the root of all evil or not, makes the world go ‘round and ‘round.  Thus, the inmates refuse to attempt to escape.  In some workplace version of the Stockholm syndrome, the hostage employees begin to trust and rely upon their oppressive boss overlords even though they recognize that the guys upstairs don’t have their best interests in mind.

Even in this modern twenty-first century economy where people change treat jobs like disposable lighters—use it for awhile, then get rid of it—many spend their idle hours dreaming of a comfortable work prison.  Some place they can tolerate long enough to make it to age sixty-five with some benefits.  They don’t even want to grin and bear it for several decades.  They just want to bear it.  That alone would be enough. Even that can be hard.

There are some people who are willing to make a break for it.  They visualize a future that doesn’t consist of years of abuse capped off with little more than a stooped back and a gold-plated retirement watch.  When they daydream, they think about running their own show. They imagine not just making a living, but actually living. They don’t want a new office or to work for the company across town. They want to own their own future and they want to sweeten the deal by working at home.

Others are already at home and are looking for work.  Instead of trying to find a gig on the bus route, they may be ready to do their own thing. Others may just be looking for a way to add a few bucks to the family coffer every week while being able to spend quality time at home parenting.  Instead of forking over their slave wages for daycare, they decide they can be both a parent and a provider at the same time by effectively operating a work at home business.

If you have ever wanted to toss your name tag like a ninja’s shuriken right into the head or chest of a dimwitted middle manager or if you’d like to redefine casual Friday to mean actually putting on pants, this is your resource.

This has been written for anyone who may be ready to escape the daily work ritual. No more morning commutes with other wage-zombies. No more spilt gas station cappuccinos in the car. No more keeping your fingers crossed for a promotion. If that sounds good to you, keep reading.

We are going to examine the attraction and benefits of running your own home business.  We are also going to honestly approach some of the challenges of escaping the traditional work force and how you can deal with them.  We are going to cover some of the many work at home options available and discuss where to find new ones.

In this series of articles on working at home I won’t pull any punches or sell any bogus dreams. You can consider this as a letter of warning or a carefully-crafted escape plan. It may be both.

I’ll talk about avoiding the scores of work at home scams and will spend some time discussing some of the unique challenges faced by those who are working at home and dealing with kids at the same time.

Of course, the whole issue of working from home is incredibly expansive and I don’t profess to cover every single nook and cranny of the matter within these articles. I do, however, think this is a valuable resource that will help you decide whether or not working from home will work for you and, if so, can help you in deciding how to stop being a clock-puncher and to become your own boss.

I just found this excellent article by legendary internet marketer Jeremy Gislason on effectively using Private Lable Rights (PLR). I could not resist and I had to share it with you…

Private Label Rights - How PLR Products Can Boost Your Internet Income

Popularizing a web site to improve your online business can be easily achieved by learning how to use private label rights in acquiring high-quality content or information. Private label rights (PLR) content generally are articles, manuals, software, and e-books that are free for subscribers to use as they wish.

Having private label rights gives you ownership and the right to PLR products, as well as the right to make changes on these products, as you may wish. This is especially useful when you have an idea on what your clients or visitors most need to know, as you can just tweak these PLR content articles to be more relevant to your web site and your clients.

Using PLR Content for Your Business

Increasing profit from your online business can be done easily by using PLR content and products. You can use PLR content and products to increase your web site’s search engine optimization (SEO), or your ranking on search engines, which plays an important role in boosting traffic to your web sites. You can make your web site available in search engines by posting unique articles, which is made easy by PLR because you can just rewrite your PLR articles to make them unique and exclusive. It is highly suggested that the revisions are at least 30% of the original content.

You can make some revenue by driving traffic to your web site through paid advertising, such as Pay Per Click (PPC), or through organic traffic that comes to your web sites through search engines. You can also use PLR articles to boost your affiliate commissions by making a lot of sales just by boosting traffic to your websites. You can also build your reputation as an expert in your niche, by distributing as many high quality and useful articles.

All you need to do is to use PLR articles on a wide range of niches, and edit the PLR articles before you post them. You can also use them to create viral reports by compiling PLR articles into short reports, and giving them away for free. If your products are high quality, your viral reports will be distributed all over the Internet. You can also create back-end products with the use of PLR articles, and then sell them with other complementary products.

How to Alter Your PLR Articles

Having useful, unique, and fresh content on your web site, and being able to submit articles to public article directories, will drive massive traffic to your web site. However, submitting duplicate content is not allowed by most directories, which is why you need to send unique articles. It is recommended that you completely alter the articles that you have obtained from private label rights content resources, so that they are no longer recognizable as the original articles. Many article directories require you to be the sole author of an article, so check their submission guidelines before submitting. They will know if a PLR article has been re-written; and in some cases, they can get the author banned.

To make PLR articles unique, you should learn how to customize them. If you are using keyword optimized articles, change the title without changing the keyword in the title. So if your article is based on the keyword “Losing weight”, your title might be “Losing Weight the right way” and so on.

You should also modify the opening paragraph of the article, but just make sure that your keyword appears at least once or twice. Find out ways on how to modify a sentence but still mean the same thing. You can use synonyms to alter tones of different words, or even add to the introduction, if not change it completely. You can also adopt a different approach while dealing with a topic. Just make sure that the opening paragraph is altered.

The same techniques can be applied when working through the body of the article. You can also alter or delete words and sentences in the paragraphs. You can present the facts in a different order, or expand them by adding new points. Rewrite in your own words and be creative.

You can actually create a whole new article if you take two or more Private Label Rights Content articles of the same theme and blending them into one longer, better informative article. You may need to supply additional information if the article lacks them. Keep in mind that your intention is to make the readers love your articles and make them crave for more stuff from you.

However you may choose to go about altering PLR content articles, make sure that you insist on producing top quality articles on niches that have high levels of demand, so you can ensure that your site will yield revenues. Profitable niches, naturally, will always have competition, so make sure that you stand out from the others.

How to Effectively Market Your PLR Content Articles

One of the most cost-effective ways of marketing products or services in the Internet is through the “Pay-per-click” advertisement campaign, which can attract the right consumers at the shortest possible time. This is an easy to understand advertising strategy, wherein you pay to be always visible in the net for specific keywords of your choice.

You select keywords and/or key phrases about your web site, and the highest bidder ranks the best. You only pay after the visitors click your link, hence the name “Pay-per-click”. This also allows you to improve the campaign strategy by effectively responding to the activities of both customers and competitors. This will be easy, considering that you can manage the “Pay-per-click” advertising 24 hours a day and 7 days a week through the Internet.

Another affordable way to generate traffic for your web site is through search engines. You can use this effectively if you can rank high on the search engines, which is only possible if you can offer fresh and unique content on your web site. Ranking high in search engines is important because when people type in specific keywords that relate to your web site, your site comes up listed high on these search engines, offering you a better chance to get more people to visit.

Private Label Rights Content is a welcome alternative for those who are not yet generating a high income through AdSense or affiliate sales, especially if acquiring articles from freelance writers at sites like Elance or Rentacorder are rather an expensive proposition. In any case, you can use private label rights products to increase profits for your online business.

Jeremy Gislason is a leading expert on membership sites, marketing and online business. Find private label right downloads and reviews related to online business, internet marketing and various niche topics at SureFireWealth.com Website URL http://www.surefirewealth.com/goto/Private_Label_Rights.html

Saving is basically putting aside money or a way to utilize your present income for future use.

One saves for several reasons such as for a college education, buying a new car, for a new TV set you wish to acquire in three to four months time, for down payment on a home, or to provide for yourself when retirement comes.

As much as there are several reasons for saving, there are likewise many methods in which one can save. In most instances, the best method can be determined by whatever plans you have for the future.

1. Savings accounts. When saving for just a short period or for emergency purposes, consider opening a savings account passbook, as it is in this method that you can easily gain access to your funds.

Great for both long and short term savings, you can deposit and withdraw money to your account and earn interest, based on your average daily balance. A minimum balance is required to be maintained though, and you are charged with a penalty should you fail to maintain it.

2. Checking account with interest.  Here one can benefit from checking account conveniences, while your deposits gain interests. Generally these types of accounts grants privileges such as limitless withdrawal and check writing, access to ATM and bill payments that can be done online.

This method typically requires a daily maintaining balance of at least $2,000.

3. Money market insured accounts. For long-termed goals, this method is ideal, as it generally offers a much higher rate of interest compared to a regular or standard savings account.

The interest rate usually is dependent on the amount of money in your bank account; larger balance means higher interest.

4. “CD” or Certificates of Deposit.  This is a savings method requiring you to “loan” your money to your financial agency for a certain time frame, usually ranging from thirty days up to five years. Here, the longer the time span again, means higher interest.

Keep in mind that usually insurance companies offer better deals on interests compared to banks, so before you invest, compare rates first!

At certain times, when your goal is many years away, it can be a wiser decision to save money in a certain way that you are not drawn on using it other than the main reason for saving it. Deciding on the right financial agency such as a bank, credit union or insurance firm can bring about a lot of benefit in your finances.

A Guide To Getting Started

Starting an internet home business isn’t as challenging as it sounds. Thousands of single moms, teenagers, and elderly folk are successfully doing it. With a well thought-out plan of action and a proven system to take you to success, your internet home business can soon be a reality.

Getting starting with an internet home business can be tricky. In the beginning, it’s a good idea not to assume you’ll be making tons of money quickly. In other words, until you’re making a steady income through your internet home business, don’t quit your day job.

If you have several months of living expenses saved up and you’re determined to leave your day job for good, plan to have at least 3 months of living expenses, plus several hundred dollars for miscellaneous marketing-related expenses. (Domain names, hosting, marketing, etc.)

Before you get started, you should familiarize yourself with the various available methods of making money online. Should you sell items on eBay? Should you create your own product and market it online? Or would you prefer to write articles and drive traffic to other people’s websites? Find an approach that works best for you, learn everything you can about it, create a plan, and stick to that plan.

Once you’ve picked an approach, educated yourself, and created a plan, the next step is to start setting achievable, quantifiable goals. Recent studies show that only about 2% of the popular sets goals, yet those 2% are making more money than the other 98% combined.

Set goals that stretch your abilities just a little, set a specific time and a gauge to know whether you achieved your goals or not. Once you have your long-term goal, break it down into smaller and smaller sized goals until you have a “today” or “current task” goal.

James Brown is a home based internet entrepreneur living in beautiful Japan. He travels frequently throughout Asia with his wife sharing the benefits of running your own home internet business. You can read more about him at his blog http://www.jamesbrown.name

Does a Law on Human Attraction Exist?

“Opposites attract” is a law of attraction, at least where electromagnetism is concerned. But are there laws about attraction between two people? “In a world that is full of strangers” as a line in a famous song of the 1980’s goes, is there a clear set of rules that allows two people to fall for each other?

Is attraction a matter of chemistry?

Maybe. According to scientists, the attraction between animals of the opposite sex is all about chemicals called pheromones. The effect of pheromones in behavior of insects is the most studied to date. It has been observed, at least in some experiments, that pheromones are responsible for communication among same species and colony of ants. The horrible odor released by skunks to ward off enemies is said to be a kind of pheromone. Some species of apes rub pheromone-containing urine on the feet of potential mates to attract them. Some scientists believe that animals (usually the females) such as insects and mammals send out these chemical signals to tell the male of their species that their genes are different from theirs. This gene diversity is important in producing offspring with better chances of survival. The perfume industry has capitalized on pheromones as a means to increase one’s sexual attractiveness to the opposite sex. Animals such as the whale and the musk deer were hunted down for these chemicals.

Lately, scientists are looking into the existence of human pheromones and its role in mate selection. There are many conflicting views in the realm of biology, chemistry, genetics, and psychology. Most scientists would assert that these do not exist, or if they do, do not play a role in sexual attraction between a man and a woman. But new researches such as that conducted by Swiss researchers from the University of Bern led by Klaus Wedekind are slowly making these scientists rethink their stand. Their experiment involved women sniffing the cotton shirts of different men during their ovulation period. It was found out that women prefer the smell of men’s shirts that were genetically different, but also shared similarities with the women’s genes. This, like in the case of insects and other mammals, was to ensure better and healthier characteristics for their future children. But researchers also cautioned that preference for a male odor is affected by the women’s ovulation period, the food that men eat, perfumes and other scented body products, and the use of contraceptive pills.

Does personality figure in sexual attraction?

Yes, but so does your perception of a potential mate’s personality. According to a research conducted by Klohnen, E.C., & S. Luo in 2003 on interpersonal attraction and personality, a person’s sense of self-security and at least the person’s perception of his/her partner were found to be strong determinants of attraction in hypothetical situations. What does this tell us? We prefer a certain personality type, which attracts you to a person. But aside from the actual personality of the person, which can only be verified through close interaction through time, it is your perception of your potential partner that attracts you to him/her, whether the person of your affection truly has that kind of personality or not. This could probably account for a statement commonly heard from men and women on their failed relationships: “I thought he/she was this kind of person.”

So how does attraction figure in relationships?

You have probably heard that attraction is a prelude, or a factor towards a relationship. Most probably, at least in the beginning; but attraction alone cannot make a relationship work. It is that attraction that makes you notice a person from the opposite sex, but once you get to know the person more, attraction is just one consideration. Shared values, dreams, and passions become more significant in long-term relationships.

So should I stop trying to become attractive?

More than trying to become physically attractive, work on all aspects of your health: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Physical attraction is still a precursor. Remember, biology predisposes us to choose the partner with the healthiest genes. Where your emotions are concerned, just ask this to yourself: would you want to spend time with a person who feels insecure about him/herself? Probably not! There is wisdom in knowing yourself: who you are, your beliefs, values, and dreams. And do not pretend to be someone you are not. Fooling another person by making him/her think that you share the same values and beliefs is only going to cause you both disappointments. When you are healthy in all aspects, attractiveness becomes a consequence and not an end. As mentioned in the Klohnen and Luo’s research, a person’s sense of self-security matters, perhaps even beyond attraction. But remember: do these things for yourself and not for other people. Only then can you truly harness your attractiveness as a person.

Your secret to success is having a vision of who you are and who you want to be!

Life Mapping: A Vision of Success

Success is more than economic gains, titles, and degrees. Planning for success is about mapping out all the aspects of your life. Similar to a map, you need to define the following details: origin, destination, vehicle, backpack, landmarks, and route.

Origin:  Who you are?

A map has a starting point. Your origin is who you are right now. Most people when asked to introduce themselves would say, “Hi, I’m Jean and I am a 17-year old, senior high school student.” It does not tell you about who Jean is; it only tells you her present preoccupation. To gain insights about yourself, you need to look closely at your beliefs, values, and principles aside from your economic, professional, cultural, and civil status. Moreover, you can also reflect on your experiences to give you insights on your good and not-so-good traits, skills, knowledge, strengths, and weaknesses. Upon introspection, Jean realized that she was highly motivated, generous, service-oriented, but impatient. Her inclination was in the biological-medical field. Furthermore, she believed that life must serve a purpose, and that wars were destructive to human dignity.

Destination: A vision of who you want to be

“Who do want to be?” this is your vision. Now it is important that you know yourself so that you would have a clearer idea of who you want to be; and the things you want to change whether they are attitudes, habits, or points of view. If you hardly know yourself, then your vision and targets for the future would also be unclear. Your destination should cover all the aspects of your being: the physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. Continuing Jean’s story, after she defined her beliefs, values, and principles in life, she decided that she wanted to have a life dedicated in serving her fellowmen.

Vehicle: Your Mission

A vehicle is the means by which you can reach your destination. It can be analogized to your mission or vocation in life. To a great extent, your mission would depend on what you know about yourself. Bases on Jean’s self-assessment, she decided that she was suited to become a doctor, and that she wanted to become one. Her chosen vocation was a medical doctor. Describing her vision-mission fully: it was to live a life dedicated to serving her fellowmen as a doctor in conflict-areas.

Travel Bag: Your knowledge, skills, and attitude

Food, drinks, medicines, and other travelling necessities are contained in a bag. Applying this concept to your life map, you also bring with you certain knowledge, skills, and attitudes. These determine your competence and help you in attaining your vision. Given such, there is a need for you to assess what knowledge, skills, and attitudes you have at present and what you need to gain along the way. This two-fold assessment will give you insights on your landmarks or measures of success. Jean realized that she needed to gain professional knowledge and skills on medicine so that she could become a doctor. She knew that she was a bit impatient with people so she realized that this was something she wanted to change.

Landmarks and Route: S.M.A.R.T. objectives

Landmarks confirm if you are on the right track while the route determines the travel time. Thus, in planning out your life, you also need to have landmarks and a route. These landmarks are your measures of success. These measures must be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time bound. Thus you cannot set two major landmarks such as earning a master’s degree and a doctorate degree within a period of three years, since the minimum number of years to complete a master’s degree is two years. Going back to Jean as an example, she identified the following landmarks in her life map: completing a bachelor’s degree in biology by the age of 21; completing medicine by the age of 27; earning her specialization in infectious diseases by the age of 30; getting deployed in local public hospitals of their town by the age of 32; and serving as doctor in war-torn areas by the age of 35.

Anticipate Turns, Detours, and Potholes

The purpose of your life map is to minimize hasty and spur-of-the-moment decisions that can make you lose your way. But oftentimes our plans are modified along the way due to some inconveniences, delays, and other situations beyond our control. Like in any path, there are turns, detours, and potholes thus; we must anticipate them and adjust accordingly.

Extra income working from home

Every entrepreneur, to achieve any amount of success should be motivated. Motivation comes from passion. Every book published or e-book that deals in money making and motivation screams passion – the most important ingredient in any successful entrepreneur.

Similarly, when you think about going after that extra income, you have to create a burning passion to do so. It will keep your fire glowing for a long time, at least till the first results become apparent. After that passion at a particular level keeps in rotation, after all money is the biggest motivator.

An entrepreneur embarking upon the route of home office and extra income should strongly believe in himself and his capabilities. He/ She should be thick skinned not to be perturbed or affected in any way by others comments and opinions. People are just plain jealous. Clear conscience and belief in oneself does not seek external approval. Evidence enough that, once you are successful and start earning extra income, the negative opinions and nasty comments turn into praise. One should have the ability and courage to make independent decisions and abide by them. This would be your most valuable asset yet.

Online businesses are basically scams – popular opinion of people around you in any part of the world. Your online business needs your approval heart and soul; otherwise success will keep eluding you and so will the extra income you planned from it. If Edison did not believe, that electricity can be harnessed to light up human life; we would still be living in the dark ages, wouldn’t we?

Being flexible with working hours, being energetic, planning wisely, focusing on short-term objectives and stress control are hallmarks of a successful home business owner. If you think you lack in any of them, practice till you make these attributes a part of your involuntary senses.

Discipline to start is very important but to know where to stop is more important. Do not overwork or stress up yourself to the point of not stopping. It will only burn out your imagination and render you useless for some time to come. Making short time extra income, you will lose out on the next few dollars (ex: Burning out today may earn you $1000 today, but by not working for the next 3 days you will lose $500X3 =  $1500). Work the number of hours as per the plan you carefully laid out.

Building your business is more important than earning money out of it. As your business sustains and grows, the money you earn from it automatically grows. Treat the home business as your hobby and keep abreast of it through updated information. Knowledge earned does not cost a cent here but will help in decision making in all spheres of independent life.

Last but not the least, fear of failure and not failure itself leads to most failures. Keep trying, look at failure as a part of learning and appreciate your benefit of knowledge from it. Learn from your mistakes, a lesson we have learnt in primary school.

All the best for your online success!

How To Generate Traffic Using Only Free Methods!

Starting up a company would of course require a lot of things, to get straight to the point, you need a little capital. To make money requires money as well. But of course, with the versatility the internet offers, there are many ways you could find that could help optimize the potential of your site or business in generating traffic.

While there are ways to jumpstart your traffic flows, many sites don’t have the resources that others have to generate more traffic for your site. Well, you don’t have to spend a cent; all you need is the proper mindset and a lot of eagerness. You also must have the drive and perseverance to do hard work and research to generate more traffic for your site.

How sweet it is to have more traffic for your site without spending a single cent.  Now it’s a sure thing that many sites have articles that offer tips and guidelines in how to generate traffic using only free methods. Because it is possible, you don’t need to speed a single cent, it may take time, to say honestly, I’m not going to beat around the bush with you. You get better chances by paying for your advertisements, but at least you get a fighting chance with some of these free methods I’m about to tell you.

Take advantage of online forums and online communities. The great thing about forums and online communities is that you can target a certain group that fits the certain demographic that you are looking for. You can discuss about lots of things about the niche that you represent or offer.  Another great advantage is that you know what you are getting into and you will be prepared.

With online communities and forums you can build a reputation for your company. Show them what you are made of and wow them with your range of expertise about the subject, with that you can build a reputation and build trust with the people in your expertise and knowledge.

You can also make use of newsletters. Provide people with a catalog of your products and interesting and entertaining articles. If you make it really interesting and entertaining, more people will sign up for your newsletter and recommend it to other people. The more people who signs up for your newsletter, the more people there will be that will go to your site increasing your traffic.

Another great idea is trading links with other sites. You don’t have to spend a cent. All you have to do is reach an agreement with another webmaster. With exchanging links, the efforts both sites do will benefit both sites. Every traffic that goes to the site could potentially click on the link of your site and visit your site as well. This works well especially when both sites feature the same niche.

Write articles that could pique the attention of people that have interest in your product. Try writing articles that will provide tips and guides to other aficionados. Writing articles that provide good service and knowledge to other people would provide the necessary mileage your traffic flow needs. 

Many sites offer free submission and posting of your articles. When people find interest in your articles they have a good chance of following the track by finding out where the article originated. Include a link or a brief description of your company with the article and there’s a great probability that they will go to your site.

Write good content for your site. Many search engines track down the keywords and keyword phrases your site uses and how they are used. It is not a requirement that a content should be done by a professional content writer. You could do your on but you have to make content for your site that is entertaining as well as informational. It should provide certain requirements as well as great quality.

Generally, internet users use search engines to find what they are looking for. Search engines in return use keyword searching in aiding their search results. With the right keywords, you could get high rankings in search engine results without the costs.

All of these methods and more will drive more traffic to your site for free. All it takes is a bit of effort and extended man hours. Learn all you can about the methods depicted here and you will soon have a site with a great traffic flow without the usual costs that come with it.