Misconceptions about a Business Plan

We’ve probably all been told to have a business plan and stick to it. How many times have you been told about the importance of a business plan? Do you just ignore the advice and go about your business simply because this is network marketing? Maybe you feel that because it’s network marketing, you don’t need a plan? Maybe you think, oh well, the company has the plan so I don’t need one.

Well if you want to differentiate yourself in your company, then you need a business plan to guide you. People tend to think, oh no, a Business Plan, that sounds so formal and awful, etc. But here’s a little secret; it’s doesn’t have to be formal. While there are formal business plans, it really can be anything. It just has to be written down in a document somewhere on your computer. I say document on your computer because it needs to be something you can edit and change as time goes on.

Another misconception about business plans is that they are fixed. The fact of the matter is that a business plan should be changed as your strategies change. Maybe something you planned to do last year no longer makes sense. I try to make a habit of revisiting my business plan at least once per year to add to it and make any changes to it.

Another thing about a written business plan is that by its very nature, it’s something you commit to writing. Committing something to writing helps solidify any ideas you might be having about your business. Furthermore, the act of writing helps you to clarify them. Often we think about things in abstract terms, but the written business will help you to put those ideas in absolute words and give them further clarity.

So don’t be afraid of a business plan; it’s a tool for your business and one that you should look at as something in your business toolbox.

A Lot of Interest in Home Based Business

I got to wondering about how many people are looking for a home based business each month. So I decided to check my favorite online resource: Google. In this case, I logged into my Google account and checked their “Keyword Research Tool” to see how many searches were done last month for ‘home based business’. 673,000 searches were done in Google in February! That’s a lot of people thinking about a home business. And of course that doesn’t even count people that are looking for home based business somewhere other than Google.

All these people looking for home businesses but I wonder how many of them are actually serious about it? It isn’t surprising that under the current conditions, a lot of people are looking to supplement or replace their income. But I wonder how many of these are actually ready for such an endeavor?

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Learning a New Trade – Home Business

The other day I wrote about the Employee Mentality. It’s a way of thinking in relation to the major focus of your lifestyle – your livelihood. There are a lot of people getting laid off now due to the current economic problems. Actually, the certain job markets have been deteriorating for quite some time. Take computer programming for example. During the 1980s and 1990s, computer programmers could write their own ticket. Over the past decade however, that industry has deteriorated for a variety of reasons. Many of the jobs have moved overseas, yes, but guess where a lot more of them have gone? To independent contractors or programmers who work from home. Entrepreneur programmers if you will. At any rate, this is just one example.

Other examples include the auto industry workers, financial sector workers, and even lawyers (which has become a crowded field). What happens when you lose a job that you have special training for (like auto industry worker)? You would basically have 3 choices. You could try to find a job in the same industry and/or wait out the recession. But for people who want to move on to a new industry would have a 2nd option. They could spend time training for a new line of work; choosing from the many options that today seem to have a good future. What is the 3rd option? Get a home based business! Instead of spending the time, energy, and money going back to school to learn a new trade, spend some time and some energy to learn how to manage and grow a home based business from MyWirelessRep and I will help you grow that business.

Can you Visualize it?

The layoff stories keep coming and the mainstream news media loves to report on them. Are you dwelling on the unemployment issue? Are you still thinking like an employee? As I mentioned in the last post, the employee mentality is not something that goes away right away. It takes some time to replace that mentality with the mentality of a business owner. Part of that transition might be simpler than you think.

Try visualizing yourself as a business owner. Simply start to see yourself in that role and eventually it will be your main mentality. I know in my case, it took several years of working my business part time before I was ready to take that full time leap. The most recent year with all its layoffs may be raising your interesting in a home based business but you may not know where to start. Start here with MyWirelessRep; a home based cell phone business.

Circuit City and other Retail Changes

Today the New York Times reported that Circuit City will be closing down. Circuit City has 30,000 employees so that’s 30K more people being added to the unemployment line. Once again, I reiterate the problems with a JOB. Apart from just layoffs to cut expenses, whole companies can collapse. And Circuit City is not the only one; there are lot of other large retailers having problems with liquidity. The Retail Industry used to be a somewhat recession proof business and people could always look to it for jobs (even if they weren’t very good paying jobs).

According to CNN Money, there is a paradigm shift in retail that’s coming along with this recession. What does this mean for home based businesses like MyWirelessRep? The conditions are favorable for home based businesses including MyWirelessRep. I can easily see this paradigm shift favoring people shopping for wireless products and services online and through direct sales over going to retail stores like the Verizon Stores or AT&T Stores. This is because the business model of Lightyear Wireless is streamlined, compact, and the independent reps have light overhead in our businesses unlike brick and mortar retail stores. I don’t revel in store closures, but I just say to those 30,000 ex-employees of Circuit City: have you thought about a home based business selling wireless good and services?

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Experience and Hard Work

I read the CNN every day (CNN doesn’t refer to the network, it refers to ‘constant negative news’) and it never ceases to amaze me on how many ways they come up with to write woe and grief into the news. The latest article is about how deep the layoffs in this recession are digging. According to the CNN, what’s different about this recession is that it’s affecting a lot of people who have never been laid off before or who were in what they thought to be secure jobs and got laid off anyway. According to one article:

Now the employment line includes workers who’ve never lost a job before and always believed experience and hard work would protect them.

My advice for those people would be to take a good look at that belief. Experience and hard work will help you, but not protect you. And those two attributes will take you much further if you have your own business rather than if you are working for someone else. At least with your own business you are the boss and you can’t be fired. That’s not to say that you can’t fail, but in your own business, you and you alone are in charge of the ship. I have been talking to a lot people in the last month about working with MyWirelessRep and many of them are shocked to find out that you can run such a home based business for less than $50 per month. And they ask themselves, why didn’t I start this sooner?

Losing Job for First Time a Painful Experience

What’s Holding you Back?

What is stopping you from starting that home based business? Usually when I ask that question, I get one of several answers, usually having to do with doubt, fear, or time (not enough of). Or some combination or variation of those three. Of those three, only doubt is perhaps well founded.  There are a lot of scams out on the net masquerading as home based businesses and anyone considering a home business should be wary of them. But that doesn’t mean you should keep a closed mind to every opportunity that comes your way. Keep the doors open, but don’t walk through them blindly.  Ask some tough questions of whoever you tries to sign you up and that includes me.  I am not afraid of tough questions, the worst that can happen is that I won’t know the answer and have to get back to you on it. As for the other two things; fear and lack of time, perhaps a subject for another day. But those are self imposed limits in my opinion.  So what’s stopping you?

Consumer Electronics ahead of the Down Curve

There is no shortage of bad economic news these days, but once again we see that electronics (specifically consumer electronics) are faring better than most industries under the current conditions. Cell phones are a part of this group. Not limited to cell phones, the percentage of consumer spending on durable goods was at 17% last year. That is up from single digits 30 years ago and shows that consumer electronics like cell phones have become necessities, not luxury items. This makes MyWirelessRep a good solid option for a home based business. It’s a business where you don’t have to worry about the product going out of style or becoming obsolete any time soon.

Consumer electronics to stay ahead of other sectors in recession

Layoffs, Gambling, and News

I know that many occupations in life are a gamble, but today I read that the casinos in Atlantic City have had large layoffs for routine casino staff. One might think the gambling industry would be a pretty safe industry to work in as far as job security, but it seems to be subject to the same business pressures as any other business. In the case of Atlantic City, it’s not the only gambling stop in the Greater NY vicinity as it once was and that has contributed to its demise.

I don’t bring this up to underscore the layoff situation. Instead I want to point out that this is representative of the mainstream media and their incessant love affair with bad news. Bad news sells and they can’t dish up enough of it. I’m not sure why people like reading bad news; there must be some deep psychology going on there or else the news outlets wouldn’t focus so much on it. As for me, I see such layoffs opportunities since those people might be interested in starting a home based business such as MyWirelessRep. At least some of the folks getting laid off must be thinking: I’m getting tired of this, I want some time different, I want to be own boss for a change. Those are the people I would love to speak with.

Making Money Versus Saving Money

With the current ‘economic crisis’ everyone it seems is interested in saving money. This is evidenced by a recent report that showed November as being one of the worst months for sales in recent history (compared to prior Novembers). This is good evidence of people just hanging on to their money and not buying what they don’t need. And there is good reason for this. It’s not just out of fear, but it’s out of the need to plan accordingly. Also prices in some areas have remained high. Many food prices that went up over the summer due to fuel prices have not fallen back down accordingly with the now lower fuel prices. So people have to hang to more dollars to make ends meet, particularly those with a family.

But how far can you cut expenses? How much can you really cut back? How low can you go? At some point when you start to cut back on things that shape your lifestyle, you are cutting back on the quality of your life. Wouldn’t it be better to take in a few hundred extra dollars per month than to have to save that amount each month? For that matter, why not make more than a few hundred!  But instead of scraping and saving, why not try earning more with a low cost home based business that’s easy to build and operate like MyWirelessRep.