The dream of many parents is to be free to work at home isn’t it? Be able to play with your kids all day, go to playgroups, take them to the library and play at the park. Then spend your evenings staring at a computer screen until the wee morning hours when you finally get done and go to bed only to be awoken bright and early the next day by your little ones eager to play.

Not exactly how you pictured your dream? Didn’t really think it through? Truth of the matter is neither did I. All I thought about was making money at home. Not the how or when or any of the technical aspects of it. Building this site was a huge job. I did it all myself from blank screen after blank screen. I knew zero HTML when I started. What started as 5 pages has ballooned into over 50. If you include my newsletters it is over 100. No joke it took a lot of time and that was AFTER I had decided what I was going to actually do. That doesn’t count the time spent researching, learning, reading, experimenting and failing. Because of the tools and software that I have used my site is now virtually hands free. If I were to never return it would run on in cyberspace forever unaided and still make me a small income. But I continue to research and test and experiment and add because I am a bit of a perfectionist and I want to provide the best content for you.

So what do you need to know to be able to start your own business?

A lot.

But lucky for you there is a ton of information out there to get you started. And even luckier for you I have been so kind as to share a little bit of my own knowledge with you to get you started on getting started. In case you haven’t yet realized there is a lot to know and be wary of.

The world is a dangerous place full of people who are more than willing to rip you off. So consider learning to spot a scam the first thing you do.

The second thing you should do is understand that you can make money on the internet without completely losing all morality and abandoning every value you have. But…..

This is a big but here…

This is REAL life. And in REAL life you do not get rich overnight. REAL life requires consistent and persistant effort, a business plan and SELLing something (ugg. I hate selling) but unfortuntately that is a fact of life and business.

Real businesses make their money from selling a product or service. There is NO SUCH THING as a product that sells itself. And there is NO product that everyone is going to want to buy from you. (Not even my 6-way veggie slicer? – NOPE.)

A business isn’t a ‘program’ it can be an opportunity but it is a self created opportunity not one that is handed to you on a silver platter. Customers are NOT going to come to you begging you to take their money. You have to work to get them, keep them and earn their trust by providing them with quality information, service and/or products.

And lets be honest with ourselves here. Money makes the world go round and everybody wants it. You don’t get anything for free. You need to spend money to make money. Um…I’m all out of cliches at the moment but you get the idea. If you are serious about this and you know next to nothing about business or marketing online or otherwise then I highly reccommend reading Derek Gehl’s Insider Secrets to Marketing your Busines on the Internet. I learned way more than I ever imagined I didn’t know.

I ordered it through a friends recommendation and got a massive amount of information that was incredibly overwhelming. But it was simple and neatly laid out and over the course of the next few months I started reading. And reading and reading some more and I realized everything I had been doing wrong. I also realized just how much work this was going to be and how foolish I was for thinking I could buy a “business in a box” or some “chip off a block website” (see how to spot a scam) and make a living, much less the stable income that I dreamed of.

Since all that reading that I did my research became a lot more effective and productive. I could start eliminating ideas and notions immediately with my new found knowledge. I could also spot a few more scams! Then I started wondering – well isn’t this just a scam too? – And I researched the information that I was now holding so dear to my heart. I quickly discovered that there was tons of other information out there about marketing on the internet but none even came close to touching Derek’s books.

The additional resources that he offered alone were a cut above and the information was ten times more comprehensive. Which made me feel sort of warm and fuzzy inside and really thankful that I happened across it.

To Sum it All Up

The world wide web is really an amazing thing, it has enabled and empowered the work at home parent in ways like never before. Home shopping (ecommerce) and online sales are growing at unprecedented rates. Ebay and online autions are a craze that has swept the world. Hundreds of thousands of people now run ‘stores’ right within eBay itself. If you love to sell or know a lot about something inparticular then see my section on making money on eBay I have piles of resources and warnings for you. It can be profitable and tons of fun at the same time.

The trick to working online and having your own business is automation. You don’t want to waste your day responding to requests, emails, managing subscriptions and handling orders. You want to be with your kids, playing, reading or traveling with your new found wealth! The single greatest book I ever purchased was Derek Gehl’s
Insider Secrets to Marketing your Busines on the Internet. He covers the automation part of your business and has a pile of tools to help you do it.

Just don’t forget that if it is too good to be true it probably is. And don’t be afraid to follow your dreams.