Financial Resource

Article by Deanna K Lawrence

With the way the economy has been for the past few years, lots of folks are looking into starting a home business to make extra income.

A mistake people often make is not researching their options enough before choosing which is the best home business to start.

If you’re like most people, you’re probably short on either time or money or both. So the best home business for you is one that will take this into consideration. For me, that business is network marketing, and here’s why I think so.

Low Start-up Costs

Network marketing is one of the most reasonably priced businesses to get into. You can join most opportunities as a consultant for $ 100 or less. With this relatively small investment, you’re able to market the company’s products and earn commissions, team bonuses and overrides.

That being said, you’ll want to use the products yourself, so you want to buy those and maybe some business tools or systems, too. So you’re start-up investment will in reality be $ 500-$ 1000, more of less.

Now, I know you may be thinking to yourself, “If I had $ 1000 in the bank, I wouldn’t need to start a home business.” But remember, in comparison to other types of businesses, $ 1000 is very low. Think of how much it would cost if you wished to start a franchise – even a home-based one.

Of the top 10 home-based franchises listed on Entrepreneur.com, the start-up costs run from $ 3000 to an astonishing $ 290,000. Network marketing is starting to look pretty cheap, huh?

Even Lower Monthly Costs

After your initial expenditure, you’ll have some ongoing costs. There’s you’re monthly auto-ship or membership dues for your product or service, ongoing education, and probably some meeting and seminar costs. You’ll need a phone, of course, and depending on if you’re marketing offline or online, more gas for the car or web hosting. All this will run you about $ 300 a month.

There’s a little good news, though. As an added benefit, many MLM companies now have a referral program as an incentive to bring in new customers. After referring 3 or 4 new people, you’re monthly auto-ship or membership costs are waived. That by itself will save you around $ 100 a month. How easy would it be for you to find just four customers?

No Unique Skills Required to Get Started

Network marketing is truly the equalizer among businesses. I don’t know of any other business with the same income potential that you can start with absolutely no prior knowledge or skills. Everyone is welcome regardless of their past or education. That rocks!

Just because you don’t need special training to get started doesn’t mean you don’t need any education at all. Getting involved in network marketing is one of the best ways to expand your expertise in business, increase your knowledge of human behavior, and most of all, get to know yourself better.

There’s a saying in the industry that MLM is a personal development program with a compensation plan attached! You’ll love the person you become while learning to make money.

Work When You Want

Network marketing gets another point as the best home business for flexibility. In just a few hours a week of persistent effort, you can build a business. Of course, the more hours you have to dedicate, the faster you’ll climb the ladder of success. And you can work any time of day or night.

Up at 5am every day? That’s a great time to get that article written while everyone else is still asleep. Want to watch your child’s ballet recital this weekend? No problem! You can put in a couple hours today instead. No matter what your schedule, you can find the hours to create a successful network marketing business.

Leverage Other People’s Efforts

This is the greatest reason that makes network marketing the best home business. As you grow your network marketing team, you start to earn commissions on their sales as well as your own. Is that not cool?

I know it may be hard to visualize now, but picture having a team of 10,000 members and earning a few dollars from every one of them. This is called leverage. The reason this business model works is, if you want to make more money, then you have to help the people below you get to where you are.

Put another way, by helping and raising others up, you get what you want. Can you think of a better way of attaining wealth for yourself than enriching the lives of your friends and family? That is by far the best home business you could have.

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