Normally, at the beginning of each year everyone sets those unattainable goals that only tend to frustrate. Consequently, why should this year be any different, right? Not so fast!! This year you are going to set that one goal and give it everything that you have to reach it. Rather than trying to lose weight or quit smoking, this year you are going to research and find those legitimate home-based business opportunities that will enable you to quit your nine to five job and do something that you really want to do. Perhaps you just want to stay at home with your kids, or possibly you want to work in your pajama pants. It doesn’t matter what your goal is, what matters is that you start working toward it. During my research, I have found three legitimate home-based business opportunities that might interest you.The first is taking a passion and creating an online business. I am talking about taking the garage sale passion of so many people and turning that into a very lucrative business. This type of business can be online and/or brick and mortar. In the beginning, I would suggest purchasing your treasures and later selling them on eBay. As your business improves then you could start buying products wholesale subsequently selling them at a profit on either an eBay store or on your own site. Some Resellers can make a lot of money and some even a comfortable living off sales such as these. Setting up an e-commerce business like this can be fairly easy. Some of the decisions that you will have to make will be:
whether you want to operate as a used reseller or a bulk reseller
decide if you want your own online website, or if you want to continue with eBay
if you decide to continue your eBay relationship, then an auction account will need to be set up
do you feel that handling a single product will suffice or will you want to offer a combination of products
obtain your products through garage sales or bidding on defaulted storage units, (aka Storage Wars)
Additional investigation into legitimate home-based business opportunities has revealed the field of virtual assistant is growing very quickly. Virtual assistants are like secretaries were in the past. Normally virtual assistants are self-employed and work on a contract basis. They offer professional administrative support and other specialized services to businesses, entrepreneurs and others who do not have enough time to complete their work. Virtual assistants work remotely and receive their assignments by phone, fax, email or by instant message. Normally a virtual assistant will perform secretarial services. Although some specialize in IT support, graphic design, web design and marketing.Setting up your virtual assistant office is going to be similar to many other office arrangements. The list should include:
a room decorated so that you look forward to working in it each day
sizable desk or a regular computer desk and an additional table
comfortable chair
computer with at least a Pentium 4 processor and 2 GB of Ram
writable CD-ROM
17″ monitor
good printer with a scanner
online fax services
high-speed Internet
affordable long distance
a good backup system
consider a headset with microphone
This business is probably going to have several long days so don’t get it in your mind that your eight-hour days will continue after you start this endeavor. You will need to do a ‘bang up’ job for your clients. That way, your client list will grow, and consequently, your income will increase. You are an entrepreneur, and you are working hard to create and maintain a home-based business. So be ready to give it your all!As my research of legitimate home-based business opportunities came to a close the last enterprise, I found to be promising was blogging. This small business has the potential to bring some large profits.Normally, a blog is considered a personal journal and in truth most of them are, but today you can blog about anything. I have a couple of blogs that I maintain. One contains articles about starting your own home-based business. With each of the articles, I try to locate and research as many as three home-based businesses at a time. Then I describe each one and give my preferences. The other blog that I maintain gives tips and articles about customer service. I usually describe what I feel is good customer service and how businesses can offer incentives and train their associates to make their patrons feel at home, glad that they stopped by, and most importantly will return as a repeat purchaser.To help me maintain my blogs I have become affiliated with several companies. My favorite enterprise has several reasons that I promote it. Those include:
Low start-up costs: It is free to join, and you receive a free website.
Training is free: There are weekly webinars that you can replay if you miss. In addition, there is a set of 14 webinars that give you all of the information that you need to become a successful affiliate marketer.
Great Products: There are five different affiliate income streams for you to choose from. You can participate in one or all five.
Community Forum: A forum is available for you to go for answers or just for social fun.
Three tiered support: When there are problems, you have three different levels of support. The levels range in intensity from simple forum questions up to technical questions.
In conclusion finding your perfect fit from all of the legitimate home-based business opportunities will require research and time. However, it can be the best time you ever spent.

No matter what kind of home based business you are in or considering, we need to address the one single, most important role as a home based business owner… So what is the single most important part in growing a home based business?I bet the list would be long if we opened it up for discussion. Fact is that survival of your business requires profits, and profits come from sale. Yes, sale. Actually I would rather call it marketing; the term you use to describe the activity that generates you profit is up to you. The reason I state that it’s marketing and not sale, is because I don’t want to sell anybody anything.The way a salesman and a marketer get the sale is totally different:Salesman example:
A sale happens when you create the demand and then fill it with the supply (whatever you’re offering)Marketer example:
A sale happens when you find the demand and then fill it with the supply (whatever you’re offering)Which one will you rather be? Someone who try to create the demand and convince people that they need your product or service, or would you rather find people who already have an interest in your offerings?It doesn’t matter which approach you choose, the single most important part in growing a home based business is to get sales. So which did you choose? Are you a salesman or a marketer? If you want the quickest and easiest way, I suggest you become a marketer. Which leaves us with the fact that the single most important part in growing a home based business is marketing.Marketing, without doubt, is the most important thing you can and should be doing for your business.This is what keeps your business alive, if you do not market your business your business has no business being a business. This is what feeds you. It’s what keeps the lights on, puts the food on the table and pay the rent.You can have the best product or service in the world, but if nobody knows about it what good does it do your business that your products and services are outstanding. Without effective marketing in place everything else is unnecessary.If you are not moving your products, it’s totally irrelevant what kind of product you offer, even if it’s the best product in the world in that particular niche-market. If you’re not moving your products, generating sales – MARKETING, nothing else matters.So how does one become an incredible marketer? If you are in a network marketing business, your company has all these tools for you to put to use. But are they really effective? These marketing materials are created with the intention to market the company – not your business and no it’s not the same thing. Your business and your parent company are two separate entities.The single most important tool a home based business owner can ever learn to use is how to be a better marketer. When done correctly you, as a marketer, will have prospects approaching you, reaching out for more information from YOU. They want to know more about YOUR business. This is the key to growing a successful home based business.Now we have narrowed it down and the conclusion to building a successful home based business is, that it’s done so by mastering the one skill that will bring you hordes of prospects beating down your door or chasing you down the street, with their credit card in hand, begging you to charge their credit card and take their money. It becomes reality when mastering the single most important skill when growing a home based business: POSITIONING.

If you tried to think of people involved in product creation, who would come to mind? You may think of Edison, Franklin, or maybe Henry Ford. Would you ever think of yourself as someone who can create a quality product? Product creation is actually relatively easy and product launching is not that tough either! If you follow a few easy to understand steps, you could be starting the product creation and product launching process sooner than you think.

The first step in creating your information product is to know and understand your market. This can be very time-consuming, especially if you are unsure of what to do or where to look to know your market. Studying your niche market and understanding the buzz words and buying patterns can ease the process dramatically. Personally, I would recommend networking with someone who has had success in the niche market you are considering and learn from their results. If they are into product creation and not very business savvy expect some hesitation. If they only sell products and have nothing to do with product launching or product creation you may your first affiliate (sales person)! Something else you can use to find hot trends is with the Google Trends tool.

The second step is the product creation process. Take your niche market and brainstorm ideas and topics relating to it. There are a lot of product launching contests going on recently relating to a newly created internet marketing tool. There are so many aspects to the mentioned niche that literally, and unfortunately, anything can be considered an Internet Marketing tool. The reason that anyone can basically create an Internet Marketing tool is because of something called Private Label Rights products.

What I use private label rights products for, and highly recommend them in this specific manner, is to cure writer’s block especially when it is lingering. Many people base their entire product creation and product launching on a private label rights product. This is where you can start to shine and build a strong brand for yourself. If you set goals for yourself, short-term goals to be exact, you can see your product creation come into being much faster and there is a good chance with less revision needed. If you keep hitting time restraint road blocks; however there is nothing wrong with a slow and steady approach, you can consider outsourcing portions of your project. Outsourcing can be an extremely huge benefit or just as great of a disaster.

You can find someone to outsource work to at a freelance site such as Guru.com or eLance.com. When reviewing proposals it is almost mandatory you perform a background check on them as you are in essence hiring them. Doing a background check on freelancers is as easy as asking for samples of their work and reviewing feedback on the freelance site from previous customers. Depending on the size and requirements of your project this can add up to a decent sized investment, so caution is very important. One tip I always recommend to people looking to hire an individual is to ask them what they can provide you that no one else can. This simple question gives them a chance to “toot their own horn” and acknowledge where they feel most competent as far as their skill set.

The final portion of the product creation and product launching formula is the launch. This can literally make or break the effort, time, and maybe (if you invested) money you put in to your project. There are numerous aspects to product launching and although their relevance is debated in terms to their effect, experts agree all must be followed. The person in your field who you asked for product advice from can help you substantially if you have kept in touch. If not, the first thing you need to do is to create a visually appealing website with flawless design work.

I also mentioned outsourcing before, this is one aspect of product launching I have little strength in and I always outsource this portion. The website does not have to be large however the content (ad copy in Internet Marketing) must be stellar and as perfect as possible. This is where advertising knowledge or experience is beneficial. When the site is set up you now put a lead capture form on your website.

I put two lead capture pages on all products I create on the internet and is one of the best methods of getting a solid start when you are in the product launching stage. When you gain information from a prospect or someone looking to get paid for referring sales you are able to provide them updates or specials. Many people abuse their prospect or affiliate lists by in turn emailing them with a new product daily and I find the recommendations to be totally unrelated to their original need, problem, or interest.

Another stage in the product launching stage is creating a free report or demo version of your product to entice the product to sign up to your email list. Using proper follow up with this can help generate numerous sales for you. One thing you need to ensure is that your free product completely relates to your main product that you are looking to sell.

You are now ready to advertise your product launching to customers as well as the opportunity to sell for affiliates. This is the single aspect that many product creations and launches fail on. It is actually not entirely difficult. One thing you can do is write articles (and a good amount of them) on topics relating to your product. I am a huge advocate of giving a solution in forums. When you join a forum you are normally offered the opportunity to create a signature. In your signature, you should enter the link to your opt-in or lead capture page. When you respond to posts, you are advertising your opportunity.

It is not impossible to create a product and it does not have to take a long time. You need to setup a plan and stick to it. If you get stuck, look at similar and successful products to your own and try and see how they did it. When you sit down and brainstorm you will be surprised with what you can imagine.