Today's Feature Article

Are YOU Right For A Home-Based Business?

by Ken Leonard Jr.

Online The internet is loaded with all sorts of ways for you to work from home. You will consider many options, finding the right fit for your personality and goals. But first, you have to take a look at yourself. Do you have what it takes to run a successful business from home? How do you know if YOU are cut-out to be "The Boss"?

Before you spend too much time and money looking for that perfect home-based business, make sure that you have these essential qualities first:

1) You're A Hard Worker Running any home based business takes a lot of time and effort. Sure, automation can have your business running mostly on it's own, but there is a lot of work involved in getting it to that point. Even after it is established, there will still be a lot of things that demand your attention daily. If you are afraid of hard work, there is no way you will enjoy working at home. It is still a full work day, you're just at home. If you are not good at working unsupervised, you'll never get anything done. You are the boss now. Be The Boss.

2) Persistence Can you follow through on tasks that you start? Do you give up easily, when things start to get rough? To succeed in any small business, you need to have a "never-say-die" attitude. You must commit to building your business to a successful level. You have to be in it for the duration. Remember, success is not a destination, it is an ongoing journey. 3) A Great Attitude Are you an upbeat person, or do you find the negative in every- thing?

Maintaining a positive outlook on life will help you deal with the ups and downs of running a small business. Make it your mission to have a great attitude, always. You will be much more productive this way, and you might even discover that you are having a good time. Don't take this attitude thing lightly. You won't get what you want with a bad attitude, and your life will be stressful and unfulfilling.

4) Achieving Goals Motivates You Why do you want to run a home-based business? What do you want in life? What is it going to take to get it? Strong motivation to succeed in your chosen field comes from knowing that the results will make all of your plans and goals in life a reality. Setting and following through on detailed goals will ultimately give you what you want.

Looking at the "big picture" when dealing with day to day tasks will keep your motivation high. You will enjoy each day of work on your business. You will also be able to keep that great attitude going strong. Do what you have to do, to get what you want the most. Let "the big picture" motivate YOU to success.

5) Have Control Of Your Life And Business There is no way you are going to build a successful home-based business if your life is a mess. A business that is not run in a controlled manner is also doomed to failure. You must be in control of everything you do. That means dealing with family or personal problems in an effective way. Focus will grow your business, but lack of control will destroy your focus. Filter business advice received from others with your own good sense. Take control of your website, and your customers. Never give control of your life or business to anyone.

6) Willing To Learn Do you enjoy learning something new? Your business success will depend on your ability to be in a "constant learning" mode. The top marketers on the 'net admit that they spend a good chunk of cash each year on courses, eBooks and seminars. This assures that they will be up on all of the new, innovative techniques used to market online.

If an eBook can give you one, great, original idea, your investment of $50 could turn into thousands. Be willing to take what you've learned and apply and test it in your situation. Some ideas will work well. Some won't. It's all part of the never-ending learning and testing process.

7) You Can Make It Happen Do you know what separates successful people from those who are not? They are willing to do what others won't. These people have a "make it happen" attitude. This puts them in a position to take risks, and be reasonably sure that they will reach their goals.

Entrepreneurs like this don't make excuses. They hold themselves personally accountable for the success of their business.

In Closing... If you don't have all of these qualities, don't worry. You can develop these inside YOU over time, and your home-based business will have the greatest chance for success.

Don't think that these points are too basic or trite. That would be a grave mistake. Those who take these ideas lightly will find that they can't succeed at any kind of small business. Those people would be more suited for working at someone else's business. Working from home is not for everyone.

Is it right for you?

*************************
How do YOU get results online with little or no business experience? Get Ken Leonard Jr.'s new mini-course, "7 Ways To Beat The Competition", a smart first step for YOUR small business. End your frustration, get going in the right direction! 7waystobeattherest@kljonline.com
http://www.kenleonardjr.com

Today's Motivational Reading

Only The Lonely - Miss your co-workers? Our Homebased Psychology Expert shows you how to get over those work-at-home blues.
By Azriela Jaffe

Q: When I left my job to work from home, I couldn't wait to work in peace and quiet. I was in one of those awful cubicles where you couldn't get any privacy. Now I'd give anything to be interrupted and have a conversation with someone! I've only been working from home for three months, but I'm already thinking of getting a job. Is it too soon to be giving up? Do you know anyone who works from home who is really happy doing it? I had no idea it would be this isolating.

A: Yes, I know one very happy home-office professional - ME! I came from 15 years in a corporate HR management job, surrounded by people all the time, so I know what you're going hrough. On most days, it's just me, my computer, and my e-mail friends.

Rest assured--what you're feeling is completely normal. The grass often looks greener on the other side. Many people who leap into homebased self-employment relish the thought of no more committee meetings, constant interruptions or wasted time on chit-chat with a co-worker they don't even like. Then they figure out that gaining peace and freedom can be a lonely endeavor.

Before you glamorize your previous employment too much, remember that you're in a transition period and three months is not a long time to get adjusted. Is the lack of social connection your primary complaint? Do you like the work? Do you prefer to be self-employed? Are you making any money? Is it hard to make sales calls from home with no one cheerleading or directing you? Do you have a comfortable home office conducive to productive work?

Complaints about lack of social contact can often be a disguise for other grievances. When we're unsettled, fearful or bored, we crave the distraction of friends and co-workers.

If your primary problem truly is isolation, there's plenty you can do. Immerse yourself in cyberspace, and start making online connections with others who work from home or are in your industry. (Entrepreneur.com is a good place to start!) Network with business groups in your community with a neighborhood organization. Volunteer for a few hours in your community. Buddy up with another homebased professional for daily phone and e-mail contact and weekly breakfast or lunch meetings. If you miss your co-workers, lunch with them. Just be careful you aren't sucked back into your former job—unless that's what you really want! Arrange for plenty of social plans outside of your working hours.

Treat yourself to the benefits of isolation! Turn on the stereo and sing while you're working—no one is looking or listening! Hang out in grunge clothes. Take a short nap in the middle of the afternoon. Take a daily half-hour walk. You may soon come to appreciate your privacy. Isolation can become your friend rather than your enemy.

****************************
Syndicated newspaper advice columnist and author of twelve books, Azriela Jaffe is an international expert on entrepreneurial couples, business partnerships, handling rejection and criticism, balancing work and family, breadwinner wife and dual career issues, creating more luck and prosperity in your life, and resolving marital conflict. Her mission: "To be a catalyst" for spiritual growth and comfort. http://www.isquare.com/crlink.htm

Subscribers' Corner

12 Quick Tips For Beginning E-zine Publishers
by Ken Hill

Publishing an e-zine is a terrific way to increase your profits online by successfully staying in touch with your visitors, prospects, and customers.

To help you get started on the right track, I've provided the following tips to help you successfully publish your own e-zine as well as help you successfully promote your e-zine once you begin.

1. Choose a publishing schedule and stick to it. When deciding on a schedule, keep in mind what day is best for you to send out your publication and when you will have enough time to properly format and edit your e-zine with the least distraction.

2. Use a listserver that allows you to double opt in all your subscribers by having them reply to a confirmation message or by clicking on a confirmation link.

This will ensure that all your readers really do want to receive your e-zine since they asked for it twice, and also provide proof that all your subscribers truly are opt in.

3. Limit your use of different fonts and bullets. Keep your e-zine easy to read.

4. Keep your line length to 60 to 65 characters per line when publishing in text format. If you plan to publish your e-zine in html, give your subscribers the choice of which version they want to receive.

5. Provide your readers with a table of contents so that they can quickly go to the parts of your e-zine that most interest them.

6. Along with your subscribe and unsubscribe instructions at the end of your e-zine, include your copyright notice, and also let your readers know that they can forward your e-zine in it's entirety to any friends or associates that they think will like it too.

7. Submit your e-zine to directories that list e-zines for people to subscribe to, and also to e-zine announcement lists.

8. Swap ads with other e-zines. This is a good way to get an ad for your e-zine out to readers already proven to be interested in what your e-zine offers.

9. Write your own articles. Writing articles will help you to establish and continue to re-enforce your status as an expert in your field to your subscriber base.

10. Use the title of your feature article as the headline of your e-zine along with the name of your publication.

11. Submit your articles to other e-zine publishers. This is a good way to give your future subscribers a taste of the fantastic content that can be found in your e-zine.

To get your articles to the most publishers, submit your articles to both article announcement lists and directories, in addition to individual e-zines that accept article submissions.

12. When choosing which articles you've written to submit for publication in other e-zines, choose articles that you have already run in your e-zine so that you will always be giving your current subscribers first look at your content.

***************************
Article by Ken Hill. Launching An Ezine? Need Subscribers? Amazing new automated software puts you on the fast track to ezine success! Includes over 900 resources. Results are 100% guaranteed! Learn more now at: http://www.scstats.com/r.cfm?i=4604

Visit Our Subscriber Corner - Read more articles

Today's Tip On the Site worth visiting:

This site is definitely worth browsing: lots of resources, articles to read and use in your ezine, opportunities... see for yourself:   http://www.businessnation.com/index.html

Today's Tip On the Book worth having:

1) Grab our special March Package. A new discounted package is available for every month. This offer disappears on 31st March. Don't miss out!
http://www.thecassiopeia.com/ePublishing/Special3.html

2) Robert Evans, Market for Profit, designed a Unique and Powerful Action Plan to bring you Floods of Quality, Targeted Visitors even if you have never done any online marketing before and don't have your own product, service or website. Get a free customizable promo-book you can use to give away for free and get targeted traffic. Download here:
http://www.thecassiopeia.com/Market4Profit/ActionPlan.zip

To listen to a new Top Show, click the picture.

Today's Tip On Software:

AlphaCuts swiftly displays, in alphabetical listings, ALL your programs on your start/programs menu, ALL your favorites in Internet Explorer and ALL documents in the My documents folder. It lists the relevant directories and categories and the items they contain, to help you quickly find (like lightning!) what you are looking for. It is also possible to search for full or partial words.   Download here

Today's Tip On Learning:

1) Learn How To Boost Your Affiliate Profits: Introducing New And Easy To Use Affiliate Marketing Tools You Can Use To Boost Your Affiliate Commissions. Plus receive a FREE rebrandable ebook every month! Join here: Click here

2) Learn 10 Keys To Time Management Click here

Read Our Weekly Column
http://www.thecassiopeia.com/Guide/DrEBiz.html

Subscribe to 'Pathway To Success' Published every other Sunday, our FREE Ezine helps Subscribers to succeed in their online home business providing them with hot marketing tips, top webmaster resources, articles, motivational reading, FREE Ads, Subscriber Corner, Web Lions Library, special FREE services, Bonuses and more. Check current visitor Issue. Click here! Name: Email:  Don't forget to collect YOUR FREE Bonuses! Get Your Special Motivational 2003 Calendar Privacy Guarantee: Your privacy is 100% guaranteed. We never share any personal data incl email addresses with any third party, we do not even store email addresses on third party servers.

Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You will find that they haven't half the strength you think they have.
Norman Vincent Peale

Get one of the Feature Ads in our Ezine:
http://www.thecassiopeia.com/WebmasterMall/EzineAdPrices.html

If you like our Ezine, click the button to recommend us, your ad will get a higher exposure and you can also win $10,000:

Administration

***************************************************** The articles published here may be reprinted or used freely as long as it is in its entirety incl the resource box of the author *****************************************************