Starting a home business can be a very exciting, gratifying experience. It can also turn out to be your worst nightmare. Everyone has heard stories about home-based business scams. Some people even fail to make an online home business successful because of bad timing, poor leadership or simply a lack of interest in the business.

How Companies Have Given Home-Based Businesses a Bad Name

Hearing about a bad experience with a multi-level marketing (MLM) business can put a bad taste in your mouth and may make you hesitant to try this type of money-making opportunity. All free online businesses are not the same though.

Reasons people fear getting involved with a home-based business:

* Many people have failed using a home-based business model.

* Only 3% of people who try MLM actually succeed.

* 97% of the people who get involved in MLM fail. They end up not making any money and feel discouraged.

How to Succeed at a Home-Based Business

Legitimate free online businesses are available if you know how to evaluate them to weed out the bad choices. Choose the home based company carefully. Read all of the fine print and information on the company’s website. Check to make sure the company is listed with the Better Business Bureau. A high volume of complaints is a sign of a poorly run company. Talk to others who work for the company about the pros and cons of the company in question.

Don’t pay to get involved with a home-based business. Many opportunities are available for you to work from home for free. Find out what a realistic paycheck would be; not the amount of the highest earning affiliate (as promotional materials often include).

Earn Money through a Free Home-Based Business

One MLM idea that has been proven as a successful work-at-home program is to earn money from buying things you would normally buy anyway. The concept is a two part program.

1. Shop. It’s that easy! Just shop online or through catalogues from many stores and many brands. Each store is an affiliate of the MLM and offers a certain percentage of the total purchase back as a shopper’s reward. This idea allows shoppers to save money on what they would normally but anyway and get a rebate check based on the amount of their total purchases each month or each quarter.

2. Recruit. The second step of the free home based business is just as easy. Just share what you have learned about saving money and earning a paycheck with this work at home shopping systems. You can watch your check grow to unlimited proportions as you earn a percentage of your referral’s purchases too.

The Freedom a Home-Based Business Allows

Working from home is a dream for most people, especially anyone who has kids at home that would otherwise require the expense of daycare. Work-at-home jobs are hard to come by, but the benefit is the freedom a home-based business allows you.

* Eliminate time spend standing in long lines waiting to checkout after shopping at the mall of local discount store.

* Save gas and time spent in the car.

* Combine a work at home job with your 9-5 job for additional income.

* Products are delivered directly to your door. There is nothing to pick up or deliver.

* Allows people to become a stay at home mom or dad while continuing to contribute financially.

* There isn’t a dress code when you work at home.

The benefits and freedom that a ‘work from home’ job offers are priceless. Finding a reputable home-based business company to work for is half of the battle.

Generating leads for your home based business opportunity is the lifeblood of your business. It’s a fact that if you don’t have fresh leads to talk to on a daily basis, you aren’t going to make any sales and even though that’s true, many home based business owners struggle with this day in and day out. So, if you are not generating new, fresh prospects on a daily basis, then you need to pay close attention to the rest of this article.2 Proven Ways To Generate Leads For Any Home Based Business Opportunity1. Article Marketing – This is one of the oldest, yet most effective ways of driving traffic to a website. And we all know that the more traffic you get to your website, the more leads you are going to generate. Not only is article marketing easy to do and very effective, it’s also free. Yes, it does require some effort on your part, however, the amount of traffic and leads it will bring to your business will be well worth it.Articles provide information on anything. When someone types something into the search engine, what are they looking for? Information! The Internet is used to find information and that is exactly what articles provide. If you are not using article marketing for your home based business opportunity, you are missing out on a lot of traffic and leads.2. Video Marketing – This is another highly effective way to market your home based business opportunity online and it’s also free to do. This is very similar to article marketing, just with videos. And for those of you who are camera shy, don’t worry because slide show and power point presentations work and convert just as well as you sitting there talking. Record videos about your opportunity and anything related to it. Post them to as many video sharing sites as possible, including YouTube.*Hot Tip – Here’s a way to combine these two forms of marketing for double the exposure with your articles. You can take your articles and turn them into videos that are just slide shows with you reading the article and you can submit that video. This is just a little tip to maximize your exposure.There are several ways to generate leads for your home based business opportunity. Article marketing and video marketing have proven to be extremely effective and easy to do. On top of that they are free and I don’t know about you, but I would be all over a free lead generation technique.

Oh no, not again. Yes, that’s right, I’m not going to go there… at least not for today. There’s no shortage of excuses and reasons why small businesses can’t get approved for business loans. It never fails to amaze me the coverage this topic gets especially when the national economy goes into recession or when major political races are at stake. Yes, I agree that small business growth and success is the economic back bone of the US and also, that more than 60% of the US workforce are employed by small businesses. But where I get off the group think is when it comes to the lack of financing for a small business with a business loan. In this article, let’s explore the REAL REASON that small business don’t qualify for loans and the truth may even surprise you.

It’s Deeper Than Statistics
I love numbers and even better, I love reading financial statements and the notes. The love for numbers did not become a passion for me in the world of small business lending until I came to understand that the financial statements tell the story of a business. Similar to the story behind the financial statements, there’s a story behind the statistics stating that small business owners can’t get approved for loans especially if they’re of a certain ethnic group, gender, and / or industry. I’m not completely washing away the reality that there’s a shred of discrimination in our world… hey, we live in a broken society with broken people. However, a large part of this thinking (small business owners can’t get a loan because of skin color, gender, etc) is just simply untrue. I’ve been on both sides of the fence so to speak in the world of small business lending. I’ve worked for a big bank, and I’ve worked for a not for profit community development financial institution and it’s always the same. The number one reason why small business can’t (and don’t) get approved for loans is due to the considerably large operating risk that exists in these businesses.

Operating Risk: It All Starts with You
What does operating risk mean? Well, here’s a question to bring some clarity. What speaks more to sustainability: a business that’s been operating for at least one year or a business that’s still in the owner(s) mind? I’d go with the first option. Operating risk means that you have and continue to execute on your business plan(s) and that the business is cash flow positive (i.e. returning a sustainable profit margin to cover costs and make you money). Here’s the sad truth: not many small businesses get to this point. Most if any, within two years are still trying to figure things out. OK, granted, there are levels to this particularly when you observe the diversity of businesses. However, I’m speaking to the ones that endeavor to obtain a business loan.

In closing, I offer a couple of ways to minimize your operating risk and increase your chances of getting approved for a loan. (1) Grow tough skin and learn to survive. The game of business is one of survival. Most days, things will not go your way and you just have to stay the course, be adaptable, and stay true to the business mission. (2) Never forget the 3 P’s – Production, Processes, and Personnel. Become efficient in the production of what you offer for sale, create and put in place processes to enhance production efficiency and ultimately the customer experience, and finally, hire, train, and invest in people who share your vision for the business.