Is Your Home Business Foundation Built Under A House Of Cards?

Posted by Steven Wagenheim on August 08, 2010 in General

More to the point…is your home business foundation about as secure as a house of cards?

Over the seven plus years that I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to tell my boss to stuff it where the sun doesn’t shine, I have seen more than my share of home businesses. Some good…some not so good. Some, downright awful. But what it all comes down to, good and bad, is the foundation. Lay a solid one and you can put almost anything on top of it. Lay one that is weak and you’re taking your life, not to mention your businesses life, in your hands.

And most people just don’t get it. What they call a business, Adsense here, Amazon there, maybe some affiliate products who knows where, is really just a fancy hobby…and not a well structured one at that. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that you can’t earn some money with a hobby. But if it’s a serious business that you’re looking to establish, then you might want to consider the foundation for which you’re going to build it upon.

Okay, fair enough. So what’s a good foundation? That’s a question that a lot of people either can’t find a good answer for or just flat out disagree with the answers given by the professionals. So let’s get this out in the open before we even dive into this subject.

There are two ways to run a business. The right way and the wrong way. If you want to run YOURS the right way, you’ll probably want to take the words that are to follow to heart. Otherwise, you’re not going to be looking at business income. You’ll be looking at hobby income at best and no income at worst.

You’ve been warned. Let’s begin.

Essentially, a solid foundation is one that, if you were to fall off the face of the planet, never to be heard from again, your business, with very little outside help, would continue to run and produce a sizeable income.

Now, having said that…take a look at YOUR business and see if it passes that test.

Didn’t think so.

Don’t feel too bad. Not a lot of people are in that situation where they can walk away from their business and the money keeps coming in. And for some of us, that point in time doesn’t come without a lot of hard work up front.

Yeah, I guess I should have said that…there is a lot of work involved in structuring and running a home business. If you think I’m kidding, take a look at all the home businesses that fail each and every year. The number is staggering.

But I digress. Let’s get back to our foundation.

If I had to pick out the most important thing about establishing your foundation I’d say it was making sure that you pick something where the is little chance of that area ever becoming obsolete. In other words, something that people are going to want for years and years to come.

For example…we all need to eat. So if you were to get into an area of the food industry, it’s a pretty good bet that you’ll have a market to sell to until the planet blows itself up.

Another example would be debt or money related issues. Let’s face it, we need money to live and most people have a terrible time either making ends meet or managing their finances. So, if you were to build your business in the area of debt relief or income generation, again, there is a pretty good chance that you’ll have a market to sell to for a long time.

I think you get the point. Pick something that is basically evergreen and has a substantial demand.

Getting into underwater pole vaulting is NOT going to cut it.

After you have decided on what broad market you’re going to tackle, you then want to zero in on a sub market. Why?

Because most broad markets are too broad. For example, with food, there are so many different kinds of food. You have entrees, desserts, beverages, salads, fast food, baked goods and on and on and on. There is no physical way to tackle each sub market.

Think about it. Does Wonder sell anything but bread products? They certainly don’t get into desserts and salads. And we’re talking about a HUGE company here.

Narrow your focus. But make sure that within that narrow focus there is still enough of a market to sell to, otherwise you’re not going to produce much of an income.

I’m going to stop there because I don’t want to toss too much at you at one time. We’ll pick up from here in our next installment.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of spinning your wheels trying to get your marketing off the ground? Haven’t got a clue what you’re doing and sick of being dead broke? Why not get some solid mentoring from somebody who has been EXACTLY where you are today? Check out my mentoring program at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/mentoring/mentoring.html and finally get yourself the one on one education that can FINALLY give you the success that you’ve been looking for.