While an online home-based business can be a very exciting endeavor, there are some pitfalls to be avoided if you are going to have some success.Some of these pitfalls include the following:* Getting distracted by other business opportunity offers;
* Getting distracted by other online based activities;
* Being bombarded with a tremendous amount of information that results in information overload.
* Being susceptible to a high level of business scam.Of course the above is not exhaustive but is enough to be cause for concern in running your online business.So how do you ensure that you at the very least avoid these pitfalls and get on with the task of running your business?The simple answer really is adequate preparation. Prepare yourself mentally in knowing what these pitfalls are for one, and the level of danger that they pose to the success of your business.Understanding how each of these threats can undermine your efforts at running your online home business is important in avoiding them and managing any attendant effects. For example, do you understand the danger posed to your own online business when you constantly pursue other business opportunities to you?Are you sufficiently aware of how allowing your enthusiasm to be driven by nothing but a slick sales pitch can negatively affect your mindset ultimately? Do you understand the linkage between this and the fact that you probably are guilty of jumping from opportunity to opportunity with no success to show?Do you understand the difference the importance of seeing yourself as an online home business operator and not an online consumer? Here is a clue – slick internet marketers love when you see yourself only as a consumer because then you tend to forget what your business is about. You become an easy sell.Businesses make rational buying decisions after careful thought and based on a good feel for how what they are buying fit into their business model. Consumers make decisions based on impulse and what they feel will bring them satisfaction.The lesson – you cannot be an online consumer trying to run an online home based business. You have to be a professional business operator.If you are going to have a good chance of running a successful online home based business, you have to get to understand the above issues at a very deep level. Just knowing that you should not waste time with e-mails or chasing other business opportunities when you should be doing something for your business is not enough.You have to have a deep understanding about these issues so that the negative consequences are drilled so deep into your consciousness that it becomes painful every time you even attempt to do anything like these that will undermine your own efforts. And we all know that most likely you will automatically seek to avoid the pain.That is your most effective approach to avoiding and dealing with the pitfalls that you are bound to face in running an online home-based business.
Running an Online Home Based Business – Avoiding The Usual Pitfalls
Home Based Business – A Rising Trend
The number of home based business is rising rapidly. With corporate downsizing and the current economic downturn, most people are exploring the new opportunities coming up putting the concept of telecommuting into use. There are quite a number of advantages that come with this especially for those who are looking for flexibility and a more balanced life.Increased Work TimeIt goes without saying that most people spend close to an hour a day travelling from home to their offices and way back to their homes. You have to grapple with daily heavy traffic issues, harsh weather and enduring hours of small talk with people you meet along the way. This does not only reduce your useful working hours, but it also leaves you fatigued and drained. When it comes to a home business however, all you need to take is a few steps to set up your home office and you will start earning your own money. You also do not have to worry about office close time as you can work for as long as your work permits. This leaves you with more time to respond to client phone calls, emails as well as handle other pressing business concerns.Increased ProductivityAlthough working from a corporate office may offer a wide base of clientele drawn especially from the walk-in clients; home business allows you to take advantage of all the business tools that come your way. Internet marketing is one crucial tool that is being used by both small and large business organizations to increase their sales. Online advertising gives a home-based business organization to enjoy level field in-terms of access to the market. A small company can also effectively launch an online advertising campaign just like large corporate organizations.Reduced OverheadsOperating a home business reduces your recurrent budget as expenses such as rent, service charges and other major office expenses are reduced. For most companies, you will find that rent is a major component of the recurrent expenditure as it has to be paid regardless of whether the company makes money or not. The global market is driving property rates higher to an extent that startups often find it hard to put up businesses in certain localities and neighborhoods. A home based business eliminates this unnecessary anxiety and pressure.Ease of Making DecisionsWhen you rent office space, you unintentionally make your landlord a part of your business. It hence becomes hard for you to make decisions about the business size without involving him. With a home business, the decision to upscale or downscale can be made easily as it does not involve other players. You can add more staff or reduces your staff size to suit the demands of your business.Unmatched FlexibilityIt goes without saying that more than 50% of startups fail in the first year of business. With the current global market trends, it is hard for a new business to survive unless properly managed. In this age of internet marketing and advertising, home based business allows you to try new ventures without incurring huge outlay costs.
Educational Wellness Seems Lost in North American Society – But We Can Get it Back
The personal philosophy of education, of the members of any society, is not something to be taken lightly. Do you have an opinion about how the public education system should work? Fifteen years ago, I was employed in a public, suburban high school that served grades 8 to 12 and as a result of that employment; I formed a very definite personal philosophy of education. My belief is that the education system is failing and the parents, who depend on it the most, have become so disempowered, that it would take a major change in how people think about educational wellness to make any real change. The writing has been on the wall since the 1950s that things are not working that well. Good stress management skills are learned very young in life.
Because the public education system, most often, meets children, at the tender age of five or six, it has the best chance possible to teach young people, the life skills needed to function as well-balanced adults. Unfortunately, the school experience is often so negative and destructive that children today really don’t stand any chance. It’s time for real change.
Just like every other institution in society, the public education system served a valuable function at a particular time in history, but that philosophy of education is no longer serving our society. It has to change! We now know that educating groups of kids all at the same age in massive groups of 30 or more per class just doesn’t cut it. Something has to change! This model came into use after WW2 when the population grew dramatically in a short amount of time. Schools had to make big adjustments to accommodate the increased numbers of students and it wasn’t long before children became little more than numbers in a cookie cutter education system.
The system began to weaken and even though the system was being stretched thinner and thinner, the system still wasn’t interested in hearing your personal philosophy of education. In the elementary classes, children still stayed with one teacher for the better part of each day but at the secondary level, the children were moved from class to class each hour like cattle on a cattle drive. Learning systems began to fail, drop out rates increased, violence and destructive behavior began to increase and today schools are some of the most dangerous places to send kids.
Educational experts tried all kinds of things to fix the problem and when school-based solutions didn’t help, schools began dictating to parents how to raise their children. They began offering sex education; death education; and they began forcing families to put their, so called, ADD/ADHD children on Ritalin. Not only was your personal philosophy of education unimportant but now your parenting philosophy was being challenged as well. When I attended high school, I had a mandatory reading list that included two well-known books-”Lord of the Flies” by William Golding and “1984″ by George Orwell. The first book talked about the consequences of allowing a large group of same age, same gender children to be in charge of their own destiny. The results were not pretty. The second book discussed the effects on society when there is too much governmental interference and control.
Again the picture was not particularly attractive. These two authors are considered by most to be some of the best writers of our time and yet we seem to have learned nothing from them. The individual parent’s personal philosophy of education is considered to be quite irrelevant as schools continue to dictate to families. Will it ever change? Can it change? I like to think that we can put an end to this very destructive educational model. We do not need to be dictated to by governments and unions. We are capable of raising the bar for the public education system. Schools have the ability to change, but families have to demand it. Parents cannot and should not be replaced as the stewards of educational wellness in society. Educational wellness is far too important to allow it to fall into the hands of politically motivated people. We have to return the system to the way it began. It has to, once again, be about the kids.