Many people stuck in the daily grind of working in
corporate America find themselves fantasizing about "being
their own boss". I have been my own boss for over 13 years.
I have practiced law, and was successful, but didn't like
the idea that every client of mine was my boss. Sure, I
charged a high hourly rate, but forty hours at that rate
was a rare week. I longed to own a business where I had
employees working for me. I thought that they could make
me money while I could work on "more strategic" things.
So I started a contracting business. I ran it from my home.
I no longer had to drive to an office and was around my
kids much more. The freedom it brought me felt good but it
created a whole new barrage of headaches and presented me
with a very costly learning curve.
I had to become a salesman, accountant, foreman, strategic
planner and, occasionally, a worker bee. Once the business
started going well, I started hiring sales people. They
all wanted to make 100k, but were only willing to do about
30k worth of work. I soon realized that I was the best
salesman, but if I spent too much time on sales, operations
and other areas suffered. After 7 years in the contracting
business, I started looking for something that was less
stressful and hopefully more profitable.
One thing that I had been very intrigued with was selling
and marketing on the internet. I am an avid reader of
business magazines, and I frankly get tired of reading
about a 20 something person that has become a gazillionaire
through the internet. I had no idea at all how Google,
e-bay or Craig's list works, but I thought I should look
into it a little.
Now part of my trepidation about the internet stems from
the fact that I'm 45 years old. The internet seemed
complicated to me. A thought that continually nagged me,
however, is that if a 20 something could figure it out, I
probably could.
I spent about 18 months looking at scores of internet
marketing plans and products. I soon learned that there
were almost as many scams as there were opportunities. I
also realized that while there are an endless number ways
to try to make money on-line, the marketing of your product
is the key to true success.
I then started looking at the people that called themselves
internet mentors. I realized that if I wanted to be
successful in making money on line, I had to ally myself
with someone who knew what they were doing, knew how to
teach, were willing to work with me and had a product that
I could be excited about.
I became convinced that I could be successful on line. The
internet was not as scary as I thought it was.
I studied and learned about article marketing, pay per
click advertising, forum advertising and many other methods.
At the end of my 18 month journey, I jumped in with both
feet. I worked at it every chance I could, and in about
one month I was able to call myself a full time internet
marketer. Now I could work when I wanted and wherever I
wanted. I could take a vacation without worrying about my
customers or corporate cash flow. All I needed was a cell
phone and a laptop and I could continue to make money on
line and grow my business.
What did I do with my contracting business you ask? I shut
it down. I kept some of the cool toys that the business
owned and offered my employees an opportunity to work with
me on-line.
They haven't taken me up on it yet, but they are young, and
perhaps they'll come around.
Now, I don't have employees. I don't have to deal with
customers or vendors like I used to, and the people are
much more exciting to work with. I am both their mentor
and student, but we all share a common goal of mutual
success. My level of job satisfaction is immensely
improved, my stress level is almost gone, and my family
sure notices the difference.
If you decide to embark on an internet marketing career, it
will be hard work and there will be some risk, but if you
stick with it until you are successful, you will never look
back. And the coolest thing about it is that internet
marketing is not really that difficult. The tools that are
available for on line marketers are almost dummy proof. If
you can find a mentor that will guide you to those tools,
and if you have a little patience, success will come.
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http://www.TopTierMentor.biz
Author's journey from a brick
and mortar business mentality so success on-line. Building
a home business can be done and will change your life.
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