Retired? Now You Can Start a Home Based Business

You’re retired. Congratulations! Now you can become the entrepreneur that you have always wished you could become.Mathew Bandyk in U.S. News and World Report says:”When you think of entrepreneurs, you’re more likely to envision a 24-year-old like Mark Zukerberg, the founder of Facebook, than a retiree. Taking the risks of starting up a business seems easier to do before life commitments tie you down.”But retirement can lessen the fear of failure that comes with launching a venture. Some people cling to the security of working for someone else most of their lives, repressing their inner entrepreneur until retirement, says Sam Spector, author of The Baby Boomer’s Official Guide to Retirement Income. ‘They really have a desire for entrepreneurship their whole life. The money and benefits were so good it wasn’t worth taking a risk.’ Once retired, they might find that risk to be worth it.”Of course, retirees starting businesses certainly should be careful. The key question that retiree-entrepreneurs need to consider, says Alex De Noble, a professor of management at San Diego State University, is ‘how much risk are they willing to take after they’ve put some retirement money away.’ There are ways to mitigate risk so that, regardless of how a new business fares, the owner won’t lose retirement security.”A home based Internet business is an ideal business for retirees who want to become entrepreneurs and earn a substantial income after they retire.
A home based business has no additional overhead other than that which you already have for your home. It avoids the costs of many other businesses such as leasing an office and maintaining a large inventory.
Most people starting a home based business have to keep their day job until they make enough money from their home based business to quit their day job. As a result they can devote only a limited number of hours to building their business. As a retiree, you can devote as much time as you want to building your home based business.
You have experience that is invaluable. The experience you gained during your career gives you a tremendous advantage over the 20-something youth who attempts to start a home based business. You know what it takes to run a business, you have knowledge about markets that lets you select a market niche to promote your products, and you have developed good time management habits that are required for running a business.
Needless to say, you know how to use the Internet. Otherwise you would not be viewing this article.
To get help in determining which home based business is best suited to you, email me and I will give you a free consultation.

How to Choose a Home-Based Business Today

There are hundreds of home-based businesses in various industries, such as travel, health, real estate, business, or based around certain products or service out there. The task of finding the perfect business to do at home fit for you can be very challenging. Many people give up their desire to start their own business because they get frustrated in the initial search process, but this is the most important step if you are to see success as a home-based business owner or not.There are many things to consider when looking for the best business to start, these include:1. Right Company and right leadershipFor anyone researching for the best home-based businesses to start, it is almost inevitable to come across scams. Search for reviews on any opportunity that you come across. Do thorough research on any company that you are considering to join or do business with and make sure that they have a track record of success. Is the company expanding or contracting?2. Right product or serviceBefore you choose a home-based business opportunity, do a market research to find out if there is a demand for the product or service you will be offering. Also, make sure that the business you choose is something that you can effectively market. You need to take into account your personality, your talents and strengths. Is it a product or service that excites you and something you can talk about passionately?3. Start up and reoccurring costKnowing what the start up costs is is a very important factor when deciding which business to choose. Selecting a home-based business that would put you into debt from the very beginning is not recommended. It is better to do them on a shoestring budget and focus on stability in the beginning. There are also monthly costs or obligations, which may include fees for a website and hosting, product fees, marketing fees, advertising fees, etc. Can you handle these fees for the business?4. Availability of timeYou need to consider how much time you can put into the business. Will the business demand more time than you can offer? Many people go into home-based businesses in order to spend more time with their families. If the business will take all your time, then this purpose will be defeated.5. Compensation planMake sure that when you start the home business that your profits will reward your time, effort, and money you will put into it. And if it is a network marketing business, you need to understand how much profit you will make every time you sign someone up or make a sale. Furthermore, with a realistic plan, figure out how long it will take you to earn enough money that will meet your basic needs.6. Adequate tools, systems and supportAnother thing to consider is the availability of adequate tools and systems to train you in the business and help you to market both yourself and the business. You need massive training and support for you to succeed in a business, especially if you are new in this business opportunity.Do not be in a hurry to choose a home-based business, take the time to research the vast number of opportunities available, with diligence and honesty, so as to experience the success that you hope to find.

Plan To Succeed With Information Product Creation: Why You Need To Split Your Process Up

One of the keys to succeeding in information product creation is to break the process up into discrete steps. This frequently isn’t an instinctive reaction for the typical information marketer. Especially on the internet where small sized learning products are the norm.

However, it is extremely important to your ultimate success. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if you don’t do this you probably won’t succeed… even when you are starting out let alone as you move forward.

Your product creation system should do this for you if only to help you to understand the overall task.

But why?

In this article, I’m going to ignore chunking and focus on the practical aspects. That’s not to say that chunking isn’t important. It is. It’s important to understanding and to learning the process. But while you can use the same chunks as you move forward, long term your focus needs to be on the operation of the system not the understanding of it. Unless of course you are constantly training new people!

So why is chunking important to long term use of the product creation process? (Yes, I know systems design uses a different term for this process but I’m not teaching you systems design. So I’m going to use the word learning content designers use.)

The first reason that having individual discrete tasks is important is one of schedule estimation. Frequently it is very difficult to estimate how long the total task of creating a product will take. After all, the size and type of the products matters as does the number of products in your product funnel. And those are just the most obvious elements. However, estimating a discrete task is often much easier. The total can then be estimated as the total of the discrete tasks.

Secondly, scheduling a large task can be problematic. However, by segmenting the task into a number of discrete tasks, you gain a much greater flexibility in scheduling. Not only that but as your business begins to add people you are able to schedule multiple people to the product creation.

Finally, segmenting a large task into smaller discrete tasks allows you to have much better control over the product creation. This affects two different areas — status and quality.

By segmenting your process into discrete tasks you are able to schedule and record the progress at much more detailed level. As a result you are more in control of the status of the product creation. You know what everyone is doing. When they should complete it. And how much it should cost. You also know exactly what has been done.

You also improve your overall quality. Instead of waiting until everything is done you can check quality as you go. This allows you to immediate react to low quality products without absorbing their costs. This means that you have less rework and your rework costs less. And if the product is not going to meet its quality requirement you will know about it in time to stop the development, change the requirement or fix the product.