Starting and running a successful online business is something that almost anyone can do. It doesn’t require a college degree. It doesn’t require perfect SAT scores or straight A’s in high school.

So, why don’t more people have success with an online business?

The reason is because it does require things that you can’t attach a grade to or assign a degree to. Running a successful home business requires you to untrain your mind, get out of an employee mindset and be extremely focused.

The following seven things are, in my opinion, absolutely essential to not only starting an online home business, but are also essential if you want it to be successful!

7 Keys To A Successful Online Home Business:

Great Business Model

If you try to build a big, beautiful house on a weak foundation, it may seem great and look perfect at first, but watch out. Over time, it could crumble and eventually fall to the ground.

The same is true with a home business.

A home business isn’t about getting rich quick and “free” business opportunities. (Remember, you get what you pay for!) It’s about finding a solid business model, one that has been proven to work and that you can build your business with over time.

Leadership & Training

For many, having an online home business is a completely new experience, so don’t go it alone. Whenever we want to be successful at something in life, we should find someone who is having success and do what they are doing.

The same is true here.

There are many successful home business owners out there, so finding great leadership is extremely important. It can takes months or even years off of your learning curve.

Make sure your mentor can offer you not only leadership, but extensive training as well. There are going to be many new skills you will need to acquire, and there is no short cut here. You will need to be focused, but it is important that you have the right training available to you.

Leverage

Leverage is key. One of the greatest rewards to running an online home business is being able to leverage your time. It’s great to be able to do something only once, and then reap the benefits over and over again, for years to come.

Another important aspect of leverage is the training we mentioned above. You are going to want to anticipate how new prospects you bring into your business are going to be trained. It will be your job to guide and help them, but are you going to be responsible for all of the training yourself? Or is there a system built into your business model that will take care of that for you?

As a home business owner, you want to enjoy the freedom that this industry allows. It is important to make sure you are not going to get caught in the cycle of having to do all of the training yourself, because that is certainly not a good way to leverage your time!

Discipline

This one is so important. Most of us come into this business with an employee mindset. We go to work, do our “job” and then we get paid. We work for a certain number of hours and are compensated for our time.

Be ready for all of this to change.

When you are running an online home business, no one cares how much time you work. Sorry, but it’s true. What is important is that you work smart, rather than hard. The most crucial thing is committing yourself, every day, to actually getting the work you need done!

No one is going to be standing over you telling you to get your job done. There is no time clock, and there is no “paycheck.” You must have the discipline to do the work yourself if you want to be successful. This can be harder than most think, but if you are disciplined, the rewards are huge.

Focus

So, you are disciplined enough to sit down and work, but are you focused? This one can be a struggle for all home business owners, novices and veterans alike. You go online to do some research and you stumble across a YouTube video which leads to another video and another…you get the point!

Having a well-written “To-Do” list can be the difference between a profitable home business and a “hobby.” Some people write their lists the night before, some prefer to do it in the morning. Some write them on a white board, some use a text document on the computer and others just write them on a piece of paper.

It doesn’t matter where and when you do it, but it does matter that you do do it. If you don’t know what you need to accomplish during a particular day, then how are you going to accomplish it, and how will you know when you do? Working “on the fly” may feel like it works for a while, but in the end maintaining a focused effort will make all the difference in the world.

Mindset

This one must not be overlooked. Having the right mindset is integral to having a successful online home business. You have to believe in what you are doing.

Period.

If you are just “trying out” your business to see if it “works,” let me tell you: it won’t work. It’s that simple.

Our businesses grow in direct correlation to our own personal growth. Personal development is key to entrepreneurs. In fact, I’ve never met a successful home business owner who hasn’t spent a considerable amount of time on personal development and working on their mindset.

Again, there is a shift from being an employee to being a home business owner. A shift from having $50,000 being a yearly goal to having it become a monthly goal. We are programmed to believe we have certain limitations in life. We are programmed to believe we need to go to school and get a job in order to be successful – that there is only one path to success.

This is not true, and we need to reprogram our way of thinking.

I can tell you from experience that personal development has been integral to the success of our business and I truly don’t think anyone can have long term success without the right mindset.

Passion

Are you excited about what you are doing? Or are you ashamed of it? Does your business feel like a J.O.B.? Are you inspired to help others be successful in starting and running their own home business? If your home business feels like “work” or a chore, than you probably won’t be inclined to spend much time on it. If you can’t put the time in to build your business, it probably won’t be successful.

This is why it’s so important that you are passionate about your business. It is also important that you are passionate about why you want to be successful and that you have clear reasons as to why you started a home business in the first place.

Please don’t say it’s about the money or the fancy cars because at the end of the day, those don’t make for good reasons. You see, money is just a vehicle to allow you to have/do what you want in life.

So, what is it that you want?

• Do you want to be able to spend more time with your family?
• Do you want to be able to sit down every night to dinner with your kids?
• Do you want to be able to travel the world?
• Do you want to be able to dedicate time to your favorite charity?
• Do you want to start your own charity?
• Or do you just want to be able to get up without an alarm clock and work in your pajamas…?

Whatever the reason, it has to be something you are extremely passionate about because if you aren’t, you may lose the drive to succeed. It may just become easier to go to your J.O.B. and collect your paycheck.

So find your passion and nurture it! That is what will propel you to succeed and that will be what keeps you going when things might seem tough!

Well, now that you know the 7 keys to starting and running a successful online home business, what are you waiting for? This industry is filled with some amazing people, but there’s always room for one more!

P.S. We are always looking for motivated, hard-working people that we can mentor and help start their own business. If this sounds like you, then click here to find out how you can get started!

This is a question so many people are looking for the answer to. We all want to know what the best home business is so we can live the lifestyle we desire and still enjoy our work from home.

Well, herein lies the problem. What I might enjoy may not be something you are particularly passionate about. If that’s the case, the business I’m involved in may not interest you at all and vice versa.

I mean c’mon, not everyone likes the same ice cream flavor which is why there are so many flavors, right? It doesn’t necessarily mean that some are good and some are bad (well, except maybe pistachio ).

And what about sports? Is there a best sport for kids to play? Not necessarily, but if your child is playing soccer and they absolutely hate it, they probably won’t excel at it.

On the other hand, if they love baseball and really enjoy playing and practicing, they are probably going to do really well.

It’s the same with finding the best home business. It can’t be a one size fits all approach because we are all different and enjoy and excel at different things.

Would it make sense to align yourself with a company that sells alternative energy products and promotes green living if you drive around in a hummer and can’t be bothered to recycle?

Probably not.

That’s the message here. Find a mentor and a business that aligns with your passions and your interests and build around that. If you are excited about your work, it will be much easier for you to find the type of success you are looking for.

That all being said, there are some things to look for when looking for the best home business.

What Makes The Best Home Business For You?

First, let’s answer a few questions.

What are your goals?

Are you looking to make a few hundred dollars a month to supplement your current income? Do you want to make a full-time living with your business? Do you want to make a fortune so you can live a life of luxury and leave a legacy for your kids? Remember, everyone wants something different so it is important to be clear about what you want.

What are you passionate about?

What do you get excited about? What is it that interests you most? If you didn’t have to worry about money, what would you pursue or spend your time doing or learning more about?

To be honest, for us it’s not about trying to sign up everyone we can into our business to try to make a quick buck. You see, we understand the passion and drive that is necessary to succeed so we look to work with people who have that, and who we can help reach their goals.

Does the business allow you complete freedom and mobility and is this important to you?

In other words, if you wanted to move or travel, would you be able to do so without missing a beat in your business?

This one is really important to Chad and I because we are planning a move to a warmer climate in the near future and we also love to travel.

It’s really nice to not be tied down to one place and to know we have the ability to go where we want when we want. After all, who wants to have a home business only to be captive in their home office?

What type of leverage is built in to the potential home business?

Once you learn how to leverage your time and money, that is when true freedom really happens. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to do something only once yet reap the benefits 24-7 for years to come? Wouldn’t it be nice to learn how your money can work for you?

Once you learn these skills, it is unbelievable the doors that open up!

Chad and I wrote a post called 11 Things To Consider When Choosing a Network Marketing Business. Those 11 things are:

1. Find A Product Line That You Are Passionate About
2. Look For A Valuable And Unique Product Line
3. Compensation Plan
4. Built In Training Platform
5. Access To Online And Offline Marketing Strategies
6. Having A Marketing System/Sales Funnel
7. The Ease Of Order Processing
8. The Strength Of The Leadership
9. Integrity
10. Finding A Good Mentor
11. Company History And Track Record

We go into much more detail in the article to help you make your decision so we invite you to take a minute to check it out.

In the meantime, trust your gut, follow your passion and keep your eyes open and head clear when making your decision.

We can tell you that having a home business can be a lot of work at times, but it can be the most rewarding experience (we don’t have children…yet ) and it can allow you to live whatever lifestyle you desire.

Good luck with your decision and congratulations on deciding to become an entrepreneur!

I’m always amazed how some people react when I mention acupuncture or chiropractic care.

These and other modalities have been around for hundreds or even thousands of years.

Yet taking a synthetic drug that was recently developed to treat the latest disease seems completely viable and doesn’t concern us at all?

We aren’t worried about the side effects, in spite of the fact that this form of “treatment” is still in it’s infancy when compared to some of the older “alternatives.”

So, why are we so afraid of these alternatives? Simple. We’ve been taught that we should be.

I truly believe that it is the conditioning of our society to believe that taking prescription drugs is how we get better from disease, illness or pain!

Now, I’m not suggesting that there isn’t a time and a place for certain medications, but the way we have come to depend on them and the amount in which they are consumed is, at least to me, disturbing.

If there is a crisis or trauma in which immediate medical attention and intervention is necessary, then by all means, I understand the use of certain life-saving procedures and drugs. However, we treat every cold as a reason to take an antibiotic half of the time!

Furthermore, we as a society, are prescribed medications for high blood pressure, diabetes, acid reflux, headaches, back pain…and the list goes on.

The truth is that many of these symptoms and diseases can be corrected/treated by a change in our lifestyle and a more natural holistic approach.  Often times these problems can also be helped by modalities that have been around for generations that don’t carry the potentially harmful side effects of prescription drugs.

I’m not a doctor and I’m not trying to come across as one. For those of you that know me, you know that I am passionate about sharing alternatives…in all areas of life. Unfortunately, the sad truth is things like massage and acupuncture which have been around for thousands of years are considered “alternatives” in western medicine.

This is probably one of the most frustrating things for me to swallow. I remember when I was getting fairly regular tension headaches and I was concerned so I went to the doctor. He basically prescribed me “prescription strength” ibuproren.

That was it.

After taking that among other OTC drugs for some time, I decided I didn’t want to be dependent on taking pills on a regular basis. So, I decided to seek out “alternatives”, like acupuncture for example. In addition, I assessed certain things about my lifestyle.

Wow.

No more headaches…seriously.

You see, we are led to believe that headaches are “normal” just because they are “common.” Not true. Something is causing your headaches and that root cause must be addressed. Taking OTC pills and prescriptions doesn’t address your headaches, it just alleviates the pain at the time of your headache.

The problem is ultimately still there and it is definitely not a result of an Advil or Tylenol deficiency!

Many things can cause headaches like dehydration, poor diet, lack of protein, your body being out of balance or many other things. I always recommend consulting a Naturopathic Doctor to address your concerns and determine a good course of action to take.

My personal experience with acupuncture, as well as staying hydrated and not allowing myself to get to that point of being “past the point of hunger” has helped me tremendously. I almost never get headaches, whereas I was having them regularly at one time just a few years ago.

Having headaches is just an example. My point is it is best to implement more natural approaches into our life to prevent headaches, colds, etc…rather that reacting to these things with prescription drugs.

We are all logical people and we all have the ability to think for ourselves and do our own research and due diligence. Just because we do not spend years in medical school does not mean we don’t understand our body and how it functions. If we listen to our bodies, it’s amazing how much we can learn and understand.

We need to start questioning every time we are handed a prescription for every ailment or symptom under the sun. We need to become advocates for ourselves and our own health because ultimately nobody cares about your health and well-being more than you do! We have to live in our bodies, so it is important that we understand, at least on some level, how they work.

We go to the doctor’s office when we are sick, so why don’t we focus on doing things to prevent illness and keep ourselves healthy, active and out of the doctor’s office! Of course I’m not implying that we can control everything that happens to us…some things are simply out of our control, but let’s try to control the things we can.

Let’s make positive changes and demand better health for ourselves and our loved ones so that we are not continually being poisoned by so many unnecessary drugs!

Let’s focus on being proactive, and prevent illness, rather than reacting to it.

One of the biggest challenges faced by business owners is managing your most valuable asset (your time) effectively.

Let’s face it. The internet (and the world, for that matter) provides a constant series of distractions, tangents and diversions to take us off track. Combating the effects of those distractions is no easy task!

So how do business owners like us stay on track, in focus, and at our most productive?

Simple. Hold yourself accountable for your time. Organize it, structure it and stick to that structure. Basically, do like Santa Claus does: Make a list, check it twice.

Life Without A List

Think about the last time you sat down in front of your computer without a clear plan of what you were going to do. Not just what you were going to do first, but what you were going to do that day. First, second, third, fourth, and so on, until you plan on saying to yourself “Job well done. Time to relax.”

By the way… you should be saying things like that to yourself on a regular basis. If you aren’t, it means you are either selling yourself short and being way to hard on yourself, or you need to adjust your focus so you can start saying it. Either option is bad, and I honestly don’t think one is worse than the other – but I do believe that we are all victims of both from time to time.

Anyway, back on focus (what did I tell you about distractions? I just distracted myself right there, in the middle of a blog post!). We were talking about what happens when you don’t have your tasks mapped out in front of you.

If you have nothing specific set out for yourself, you’re bound to start wandering aimlessly about the web for who-knows-how-long. Check your email, read some tweets, respond to some comments on your Facebook page/YouTube channel/blog/forums… maybe even go through some or all of those twice.

Then, while you’re on YouTube, a funny video of a walrus playing checkers with a french speaking kitten wearing a sombrero sucks 47 seconds out of your life.

After that, you see something even more entertaining in that insidious “Related Videos” box. I really don’t like that box. It is the KING of distraction. Seriously. Related Videos = Work of the devil.

You’re only laughing because you know it’s true – and despite your most sincere promises to yourself to be more productive, it happens over and over again.

So what can you do?

The Power of a To-Do List

I remember an email I read once, from one of my greatest mentors in this industry. In this email, he announced that he would be sharing the single greatest tool he used in his business, every day, without fail.

The email went on to explain that this one tool – to which he attributes the majority of his success – was free for anyone to use.

As you can imagine, this seemed like a great deal! I couldn’t wait to find out what it was, so I read on feverishly. The answer that awaited was so simple – and yet powerful – that I couldn’t agree with him more. This WAS the most valuable tool for a business owner.

You ready? Notepad.

Yup. That free piece of software (or something similar) that comes on pretty much every computer. A simple program that allows you to enter, save and edit text – and that’s all it does.

The reason this is so powerful is because it makes it easy to do what so many of us fall short on: make a list for the tasks that we will complete each day.

Now, whether or not you choose to use notepad is up to you – but this example is so powerful because it is so simple. Before you end today, you should plan tomorrow.

Make a list of all the things that need to get done tomorrow and stick to it. Don’t forget though, the last thing on tomorrow’s list should be to make another list for the next day…

Don’t Just Make A List. Make A BIG List

Sometimes, size does matter. I’m not saying your list should be 50 items long – in fact I strongly advise against packing too much in.

Trying to take on too much at once will lead only to frustration, stress and doubt. Push yourself, but be reasonable. This philosophy applies to writing to-do lists, eating Thanksgiving dinner, and many other important parts of your life.

What I mean by a “BIG” list, is one that you can’t miss. If a notepad file on your desktop and on the taskbar of your computer is enough to remind you to stay on track, great! If you need something more aggressive, do it.

Whatever you do, make sure that list is visible. Tape it to the side of your monitor, hang it from the ceiling above your desk, or pin it to your shirtsleeve.

Personally, I write my list on a whiteboard by my desk. Every time I get up to stretch, or walk into the room on my way to the computer, it’s there. Watching me. Reminding me. Guiding me.

It’s kinda like the Force.

Turn Your List Into A Schedule

For me, this is the part that makes all the difference.

When I write my list, I go back through it and evaluate each task. Next to each item I’ll write down approximately how long it should take me.

Once that’s done, I can add all of the items up (the final number is usually pretty surprising!), so I know how long everything should take, how much work REALLY needs to be done.

From there I can evaluate the expectations I’ve laid out for myself. Too much? Should something be saved for tomorrow? Do I have time to take some of tomorrow’s items on today?

I can also figure in when I plan to start, so I know when I’m going to finish. I can figure in breaks when necessary – because they are necessary.

If you don’t schedule your downtime, you are much more likely to just take it whenever you start getting a little tired or worn out. This isn’t a break. It’s a distraction.

If you have a break planned in advance, you’ll know it’s coming, and look forward to it. When your mind starts to wander, you can use that break as a proverbial carrot to put yourself back on track.

The last part of the scheduling side of this is checking up on yourself. Throughout the day, make a point of evaluating how long each item actually takes.

Try to keep a log, either mentally or on paper, of how accurate your time estimates are turning out to be. The reason you want to do this is two fold:

1. It’s a great way to discover what types of jobs are taking longer than the should, and address the issue
2. You can start to evaluate how fair you are being with your estimates – allowing you to create a more accurate (and therefore more effective) list in the future

All of this talk about writing a list and holding yourself accountable may seem like common sense, but trust me: It’s the things we take for granted and say “yea, yea, I know…” that we are most likely to blow off.

You’re running your own business now. You are your own boss. There’s no one standing over you, making sure you’re doing what needs to be done.

That was probably the whole point of embarking on this journey in the first place, right?

The bottom line is, now that that “boss” is gone, and they aren’t there to “make” you get your work done, someone needs to step in and take their place.

And since this is YOUR business, guess who that “someone” is going to have to be?

We’d love to hear your tips on how you stay on track in your business, so feel free to leave comments below

Now, don’t get me wrong…I enjoy some “bad” foods and splurge sometimes when I’m eating, but for the most part, I eat to nourish myself and feel good. I feel like somewhere along the way this has gotten lost in our society.

We are such an advanced culture in so many ways, however we are such a “sick” society with new “diseases” and new synthetic drugs being developed all the time. We don’t eat well, don’t take care of our bodies, don’t nourish ourselves and then we go to the doctor because we “don’t feel well” and what happens? We get prescriptions for drugs or we get no answers and continue to feel bad.

How often do you have a conversation about your “diet” with your doctor and actually discuss the foods you eat and how they affect how you feel? Do you prepare your meals throughout the day or week based on good food choices or is it about grabbing something to eat so you don’t feel hungry?

Believe me, I think eating so that you don’t feel hungry is important, but I don’t think it is the most important part of meal planning. How many vegetables/fruits do you eat in a day? How much protein do you eat? Do you make meals prepared with whole foods that have been organically grown or do you make ready to eat packaged meals filled with preservatives?

I’m not writing this blog post to sound “preachy” at all, but rather to make you think about what you are putting in your body. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t always make the right food choices, but I’m a lifelong student of nutrition and will always be looking to improve my eating habits. More importantly, I think about what I eat and I think about how it affects me and I recognize that there is a direct correlation to what I eat and how I feel.

So many of us go through week after week feeling tired, sluggish and foggy. Maybe you are suffering with headaches, abdominal pains, and so many of us don’t even stop to recognize that one of the first things to try in order to resolve these problems/symptoms is change the way we eat!

I know, I know… “there isn’t enough time”  to cook from scratch, or at least that is the most common attitude towards eating a better diet and making better food choices. Well, in my experience we make time for what is most important to us.

Eating well doesn’t take hours and hours of preparation and endless slaving over a stove…you can have a healthy meal prepared in less than 30 minutes if you want which is less time than it takes to watch a sitcom…heck put the tv in the kitchen and you can do both!!

Sorry if this came on a little strong, but I just wanted to get this off my chest…so many suffer so needlessly!

Feel free to leave comments with healthy meal suggestions or tips on how to spend less time in the kitchen while still eating well

Working from home can be an incredible blessing, but choosing the right company isn’t always easy.

There are a lot of things to consider, which is why we’ve prepared this list of eleven important things to think about when deciding on a network marketing business.

1. Find A Product Line That You Are Passionate About

Don’t market something you wouldn’t purchase yourself. A good salesperson can sell just about anything – but if you want to be a salesperson, you should be applying for a job at a car dealership, not starting your own business.

What do you care about? What excites you, or brings a tear to your eye? Once your business is as successful as you know it can be, and you don’t need to worry about a job, or bills, or anyone’s expectations but your own, what will you do every day?

What will you focus on when you have complete freedom?

That’s your passion. The products you market should fit that passion. If you don’t truly care about and believe in the products you are selling, your customers will sense it.

Once you have a product you truly believe in, your business really becomes more about sharing your passion than about selling a product – and that is what people trust and respond to.

Without it, you usually just come across as another marketer, pitching something to anyone who will listen.

2. Valuable and Unique Product Line

Another important thing to consider is the value and individuality of your prospective company’s product line. When looking into different opportunities, be sure to evaluate the products they offer, both in terms of their value, and how unique they appear to be.

If you can easily name or find half a dozen companies that appear to offer a similar product, then those products are effectively going to be competing against one another. If your future prospects learn about your product and feel like they’ve heard the same story from other companies in the past, they are much more likely to move on. You may want to consider looking for a product that is as unique as possible.

In addition to being unique, the product you intend to market should also provide real, identifiable value. If the only benefit to purchasing your product is that it carries a business opportunity with it, you may want to look for alternatives.

If the only reason people buy your product is to join your biz opp, then there is nothing really setting you apart from the other countless business opportunities that are available to them. Your product should be something that can stand alone, even without a business attached to it.

A product that can provide value, in and of itself, is much more likely to attract customers than one that feels like it’s only real purpose is to make your business seem legitimate.

3. Compensation Plan

When looking for a good company, you are obviously looking for a good compensation plan. That doesn’t mean the plan that appears to pay the most!

Make sure the compensation plan makes sense… you shouldn’t need a PhD to understand exactly how you are being paid!

You should also evaluate how effective this compensation plan will be in terms of the goals you’ve set for yourself. Based on the commission structure, how many sales will you need to make to meet those goals? How realistic is that number?

Don’t be afraid to look at companies that offer higher-priced items that carry larger commissions. There is a belief that it is easier to sell 100 fifty dollar products than it is to sell a single $5000 product – this is not necessarily true, if you market to the right audience.

Consider your comp plan, the price points and commission levels carefully before you join a company!

4. Built In Training Platform

Building a new business involves learning a lot of new information – more so than many new business owners realize. An important aspect of choosing a new network marketing company is finding one that will help you gain the knowledge you need.

Ultimately, this is your business, which means gaining the necessary skills is your responsibility. As you build your business, it will be up to you to perform your own due diligence on new marketing techniques and training materials, but it can be extremely helpful to align yourself with a company that helps you get the ball rolling.

This applies both to you, and to your developing team.

When selecting a network marketing business, it is important that a system is in place to streamline the process of mentoring new team members. You should be there to answer your team’s questions, and help them find the information they need, but you don’t want that to become your only focus! After all, you still have your own business to focus on!

When selecting a company, make sure there are tools in place to make it easy for your team to duplicate your success.

5. Access To Online AND Offline Marketing Strategies

The internet is a powerful tool, and leveraging it can be an incredible useful weapon in building your business. That doesn’t mean that online marketing is for everyone, or that it is the only way to succeed.

It is entirely possible that you, or some of your future team members, prefer to take an offline approach. Not everyone is comfortable on Twitter and Facebook. Not everyone wants to master Google Adwords and SEO!

Now, in today’s world, trying to build a business without at least SOME online presence is a guaranteed way to leave a lot of money on the table, but that doesn’t mean it needs to be everyone’s primary focus.

It’s important that your company provide avenues for marketing both online and offline – allowing you, and your team, to market in the way that they are most comfortable with, or even with both.

6. Marketing System/Sales Funnel

So you’re building a business. Meeting people, driving traffic to your website… then what?

Make sure there is a system in place to help you organize and deal with your prospects, leads and customers. Once someone comes to your website or meeting – how do you stay in touch with them? Is there a process in place for you to easily gather their contact information?

Once you have that information, what do you do with it? How do you organize it? What do you say or send to these people? What do you do if they aren’t interested in your product? How do you recoup some of the marketing expenses for all of the leads that don’t become customers?

These are important questions to ask before joining a company, and not all companies have all the answers. If this is the case, figuring out how you intend to handle these obstacles is an important step, and will save you a lot if time, energy, money and aggravation.

7. Ease Of Order Processing

One of the most important aspects of running a business is taking care of your customers and processing their orders. When choosing the perfect network marketing company, make sure you consider what you will be responsible for when a customer orders a product.

Do you process their payment? If so, how? Is it your responsibility to place their order? To ship the product? To handle any returns or refunds?

What kind of shipping fees, or transaction fees will you be responsible for? How much of this process is automated or handled by your company?

These may be some of the most important questions to ask when starting a new business!

8. How Strong Is The Leadership?

You are your business – to be successful, you must be the strong leader your business needs! This principle holds true for any company you consider joining.

Strong leadership is absolutely essential, and should be considered strongly when considering any new network marketing opportunity.

Who are this company’s leaders? What’s their story? Where did they come from? What got them into this business, and what did they do before?

How involved are these leaders? Are they someone you’ll hear on weekly training calls and talk to at events? Or are they just a face on a newsletter?

The leadership of your company will say a lot about it’s future – these leaders should be dedicated, passionate and involved.

9. Integrity

One definition of integrity is “Adherence to moral principals; honesty.” This is something you should look for in a company.

If the company you are evaluating isn’t completely transparent, if they aren’t open and honest about their products, their business plan and mission, or if they are unclear about their goals over the coming years, you may want to look a little closer.

Do the leaders we just discussed a moment ago act with the highest level of integrity at all times? Are there any conflicts of interest in the business model?

The integrity and ethics of any company should be a major factor in whether or not you feel comfortable aligning yourself with them.

10. Find A Good Mentor

A company is only as good as it’s people. When starting a network marketing business, you want to make sure you are aligning yourself with a good mentor – someone who is there to help and guide you.

Ensure you are joining your company under someone who is capable of guiding you and answering your questions as you learn and grow your business.

Ultimately, your success – in any company – is in your own hands. It’s up to you to learn the principles and strategies of effective marketing. It’s up to you to consistently implement those strategies. It’s up to you to put in the time and energy required to succeed.

Your mentor is there the help you along the way, or to guide you when the training materials at your disposal need clarification, to offer feedback on your marketing materials.

What you want to know is how dedicated your potential sponsor is, how passionate they are, both about the business you are joining, and about helping you learn.

You mentor should be professional, meaning they take their business, and yours, seriously! They aren’t just there to collect their commission when you join, but to help you learn and grow as a business owner.

11. Company History and Track Record

New companies get started all the time – meaning you’ll see a lot of pre-launches and chances to “get in at the ground floor!”

To many marketers, this is the best way to start a business: be there at the beginning, so you can “be at the top” as the company grows.

Other marketers believe it wiser to choose a company with an established track record. A company that has already demonstrated that it has a valuable product, successful business model and effective comp plan may be a better fit for you.

We certainly aren’t here to tell you which of these philosophies is right or wrong, but this is definitely a topic that is worth a little thought – consider carefully which option best suits your needs and risk tolerance.

Tying It All Together

Ultimately, the decision lies with you. The list we’ve provided here certainly doesn’t outline everything that goes into selecting a network marketing business, but it does share what we see as some of the most important ones, based on our experience in this industry.

It’s up to you to perform the research and due diligence into your own company before you get started, just as it is up to you to decide how important each of the items on this list is to you.

Deciding what company you want to be a part of is an important task – the last thing you want to do is get caught up in the cycle of joining company after company, always finding something that doesn’t feel right, or fit with your values. Jumping from one business to another is counterproductive and inefficient, which is why choosing the best company possible the first time around is so crucial!

We hope this list helps make your decision easier. We welcome any comments and feedback to add to this list below (as always, please keep it constructive ).

What has happened over the last 50 to 100 years that has led us to this point where we need to label natural, sustainable food that hasn’t been treated with dangerous chemicals and pesticides and such as organic?

Shouldn’t that be the way we expect our food to be unless stated otherwise? It’s really amazing to think about what has happened to present day agriculture and our food supply.

Why and who has allowed this to happen and what can we do about it?

First of all, let’s take a step back for a moment and reflect…reflect on the fact that 150 years ago there weren’t big companies out there that controlled our food supply. There were farmers who produced good quality crops that our ancestors ate without worry about any effects from dangerous chemicals, pesticides or genetically modified foods.

Now, we have lost touch with our food supply, our land, nature and the true meaning of farming that we have to label food that isn’t “conventional” as “organic.” Conventional farming may include the use of pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics and growth hormones, all of which are dangerous to our well-being.

Just our common sense should tell us that ingesting synthetic chemicals used to kill bugs and weeds can’t be good for us. Do you have some type of ant or roach killer in your household? Would you spray it on your food and then eat it? I know, it might seem like an extreme example, but doesn’t it make you think for a minute?

We should all stop and think for a minute.

Why is something like organic farming, which is the way farming was done for centuries all of a sudden something out of the ordinary and different? Why have we allowed our food supply to become so corrupt?

Shouldn’t our food say “pesticide laden” apples instead of having to point out that they are “organic” apples for example. Or our meat and poultry…shouldn’t our meat say “treated with antibiotics and growth hormones and not allowed to graze” instead of “antibiotic free” , “free range”, “organic” or any other similar label.

I guess I’m just wondering if we are holding the right people accountable. We have allowed things to get so out of control that now if you want to be a “certified organic” farmer, it costs you more money and time to go through the process, which almost seems like they are being punished! Additionally conventional farming methods produce more crops for less money, which might sound good, but at what cost to our health and our planet?

So how can organic farmers compete?

Well, for starters, they can compete when we, the general public, begin to educate ourselves and take a little time to understand what we are putting in our bodies. They can compete when we choose organic products over conventional ones. Business is always about supply and demand, so let’s make the right decisions and when there is more demand for organic products, we will start to see more and more of them.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic. However, please don’t leave comments like “Organic food is expensive” because to me, there is nothing constructive about that. I will agree that overall it tends to be more expensive…but so are 60″ TVs and going out for coffee everyday, which most of us don’t bat an eyelash at.

I think we all have to make decisions as to what our priorities are and what sacrifices we are willing to make.

Maybe one day things will be the way I believe they should be and products that are not “organic” will have to be labeled as such and organic products will just be the “norm”.

Until then, it’s our job to become advocates for ourselves and become educated about the food we are eating.

I wish you all nothing but good health and well-being

It was a Friday night in April of 2005 and I had gone out to dinner with some friends. When I got home, I was feeling a little bit of heartburn, a little more than what seemed normal, but I went to sleep figuring I would feel better in the morning.

I woke up in the middle of the night with a more intense heartburn, nausea and overall discomfort in my chest and abdomen. I hesitated for a minute, but then knew I had to wake up Chad to take me to the emergency room. We got up and headed over to the hospital, checked in and then waited to be seen.

The doctor who saw me gave me some anti-nausea medication and then decided to “run some tests.” I rested for awhile with Chad right by my side, waiting for some answers from the doctor. The doctor came back to see me and basically told me that he didn’t have an answer for me, that the tests didn’t show that anything was “wrong” and I should follow up with my primary care physician.

I followed up with my doctor within a few days and she decided to send me for yet some more tests. A few days later, my doctor’s office called me with my diagnosis…Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease, more commonly known as GERD. So I needed to make an appointment to go back in to see my doctor to find out the treatment plan.

Well, my doctor told me not to eat spicy food and that I should take a prescription called Protonix which would help control my heartburn. So I began taking the medication as directed and began feeling better, right?

Nope.

I felt consistent abdominal pain, nausea from time to time, headaches and just overall discomfort. Also, I felt anxious a lot of the time and couldn’t seem to just relax and enjoy my day to day life. My heartburn seemed controlled at best, but overall I felt terrible.

This went on for some time and continued on into 2006 while Chad and I were planning our wedding.  I spent many months not going out very much and feeling bad about staying in a lot, but I didn’t want to risk going out and then start feeling terrible out of nowhere (at least it seemed out of nowhere!)

I continued taking my medication and was expecting that I would be feeling better over time, but that was not the case. Finally, by the end of 2006 just a couple of months after our wedding, I decided to seek out some other options and look for some answers.

After all, just a couple of years before, I was very healthy and living a relatively normal life.  Now I was feeling terrible no matter what I ate or did, it seemed, and I was frustrated and not feeling any real relief from the medication. Not to mention, that I was 31 at the time (funny how I’m only 29 now ) and didn’t really want to be on “reflux medication” for the rest of my life!

This is the beginning of when things started to really change in my life. This is when I started to change. This is when I started to look for answers, become an advocate and take some responsibility and ownership over my health.

I decided to go see a Naturopathic Doctor for the first time and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. First of all, she was the first doctor to really spend time with me and really listen to what I was telling her and all of the symptoms I had been having. As she listened, she thought about the big picture.

Why was I having heartburn?

What was causing it?

Why was I having so much abdominal pain?

Why did it seem no matter what I ate I didn’t feel well?

Instead of just saying “You have reflux ‘disease’”, she explored  why I was having all of those symptoms and helped me to figure out what the underlying cause of those symptoms were. You see, my reflux was a symptom, not a “disease” as my conventional doctors led me to believe.

She had me tested for food allergies and what do you know…I’m allergic to soy! Well, I guess technically it’s more of an intolerance. I’m not going to die or have to be rushed to the hospital if I eat it, but after consuming it, I will not feel well at all…and after consuming it in unknown quantities for an extended period of time it’s going to cause me quite a bit of discomfort. For example, perhaps heartburn and abdominal pain among other things.

Sound familiar?

By the way, if you’re thinking “What’s soy in anyway?” then may I suggest you take a look at the ingredients of some products at your local grocery store! I was ingesting it day in and day out to the point where my body couldn’t handle it. It was like a toxin wreaking all sorts of havoc on my body thus causing the abdominal pain, heartburn, nausea and other symptoms I was experiencing.

You see, the Protonix that I was taking was only alleviating my heartburn at best, but it wasn’t curing anything or solving the underlying problem so that is why I wasn’t getting better. Once my Naturopathic Doctor helped me to find my soy allergy, and I was aware of it and able to change my diet and eliminate it from my diet, it was just a very short time before I was feeling much better.

Shortly after that, I stopped taking my medication and have never taken it since. Furthermore, I get heartburn about once every 3 months at most! I literally went from feeling terrible almost all of the time back to my old self with my active lifestyle.

I literally feel as though that experience not only saved me from the day to day discomfort that I was feeling then, but it has forever opened my eyes to wanting to understand my body and become an advocate for my own health. I strive everyday to improve my health and continue to learn on a daily basis.

I am sharing this experience with you so that you can understand why I am so passionate about holistic health, about learning and growing, and about sharing my knowledge and experiences with you so that you too can live a happier and healthier life.

Well, another year is upon us and it’s time to decide how we are going to prosper in the New Year. Have you thought about the following year yet and what you want to accomplish…where you want to be?

So many of us approach the New Year with a whole bunch of resolutions, most of which are things we don’t want to do in the following year or bad habits we want to eliminate.

For example:

• “I’m going to quit smoking.”
• “I’m going to stop drinking.”
• “I’m not going to eat so many sweets.”
• “I’m going to stop watching so much TV.”
• “I’m not going to eat so much fast food.”

…I could go on

So, what’s my point?

Well, my point is that in order to prosper in the future, we must focus on what we want to accomplish and the good habits we want to form.

Remember, what we focus on, we attract into our lives. If we only focus on eliminating bad habits, we are still focusing on those bad habits (even if we are trying to remove them from our lives).

Instead, why not focus on what we want in our lives. Why not focus on the habits we want to form, rather than habits we want to break?

Why not put some goals down on paper that we can hold ourselves accountable to, rather than saying we are going to “stop doing this or that.”

I personally don’t make New Year’s resolutions, at least not in the traditional sense. Chad and I sit down before the end of the year and first reflect on the previous year. Then we decide where we want to be one year from now, both personally and professionally.

We write down our business goals and our personal goals. We write them down because just saying them isn’t enough. We need to physically put them on paper so we can look at them and as we progress over the coming months, hold ourselves accountable.

We are very specific as well. We write down specific numbers for our business, not just “We want to make more money in our business next year.” If we aren’t specific, then how will we know where we are going and how will we know when we get there?

How will we know what steps to take in order to ensure that we will accomplish those goals?

So what’s the difference between this type of planning and a New Year’s Resolution? A “traditional” resolution is an arbitrary change in your life effective on January 1st, nothing more.

By comparison, a solid plan based on recent history and future goals is something you can continuously work towards and hold yourself accountable to.

It’s the same personally as well. Here are a couple of examples of the New Year’s Resolutions from above and alternate goals you could set instead.

Resolution: “I’m going to stop watching so much TV.”

Goal: “I’m going to read one book a week.”

Resolution: “I’m going to stop eating so much fast food.”

Goal: “I’m going to learn to cook at least 5 new dishes a month.”

Resolution: “I’m not going to eat so many sweets.”

Goal: “I’m going to learn to make fruit smoothies and have one at least 3 times a week.”

You get the idea

Changing our mindset from what we will stop doing in our lives and focusing on our bad habits to specific things we can start doing in our lives and focusing on forming good habits can change the entire direction of our lives.

Let’s stop making “New Year’s Resolutions” and start making some solid plans and setting some goals so that we can accomplish anything and everything that we want and deserve both in our professional and personal lives!!

“The only difference between a rich person and poor person is how they use their time”
~ Robert Kiyosaki

What do we all hear over and over again?

“I just don’t have enough time.”

or…

“If only I had more time.”

People using “a lack of time” as an excuse to why they can’t get things done. We’ve all done it or said it at one point or another in our lives.

It’s when we realize that we can control how we spend our time that we begin to prosper in life.

Chad and I always joke around and call our TV a Time Vacuum because if you let it, it will suck you in and you will end up wasting so much time watching so much unnecessary garbage.

Now, we are not saying that it is all bad or that we never watch TV…cough, cough…24...but we don’t allow our time to be monopolized by it. When we first started our own home based business, we made it a rule to watch zero television (luckily 24 wasn’t in season…phew).

We did this because we wanted to make sure we were 100% focused on our business and we knew one show would lead to another, then another and so on.

Also, when we started our business, we were going through such a learning curve that we needed to spend the time acquiring the skills necessary to be successful that nothing else seemed all that important at the time.

We knew the potential for our business so focusing our energy on the things we needed to in order to be successful wasn’t difficult for us.

We were so passionate about achieving our goals and so inspired by what we knew we would accomplish that we found we couldn’t even sit through a show, even if we wanted to.

It’s amazing how much time you have when you decide you want something bad enough. To be honest, once we allowed ourselves to watch TV again, it didn’t seem all that important…well, except for 24 of course!

Every day our lives are filled with choices and the decisions we all make will shape our future.

Instead of watching that “quick” 30 minute sitcom, why not learn a new marketing skill, or listen to a personal development CD, or spend some time writing an article and providing value to the marketplace?

Maybe going out to dinner and “bar hopping” every weekend with friends, week after week won’t be on your agenda, at least not every week…

…but I bet you’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish if you make those types of decisions. If you make the choice to spend your time and energy on the things that you want most out of your life.

How much time do you spend reading? How about learning a new skill set? It’s easy to complain about how our lives are so miserable, but it’s truly up to each one of us to make our circumstances different.

There will be times when you will have to make sacrifices and maybe you will have to miss a TV show from time to time, or a night out on occasion, but it’s these types of decisions that separate the rich from the poor.

Let’s all remember next time we catch ourselves saying…

“…if I only had more time”…

…that we are all in control of our lives and must take control over our actions and the decisions we make every day or else we will spend our lives reacting to things instead of making things happen.