Home Business Scam – or naivety on our part?

I made this short video this morning for 2 reasons.  One was to alert new people into the world of Internet Marketing that all may not be as it seems and secondly, my annoyance that someone who I know is a decent and hard working woman has lost everything she worked really hard for.

She hasn’t lost it, she has chosen to walk away rather than partake in something that goes against what she believes in.

I remember when this new product was being launched around November 2009 and I was being signposted to it by some credible people in the industry.  It was being hailed as the next best thing and the high paying commissions put it head and shoulders above anything else or so the marketing gurus would have us believe.

I couldn’t see what all the hype was about, wasn’t able really to get what I thought was tangible evidence of how it all worked so decided to opt in myself for the FREE trial.  As soon as I did this, everything started moving really fast – pressure to get payment details set up (dodgy move #1), pressure to take part in Skype discussions for hours (dodgy set up #2), call with CEO during which he tells me he loves me (really dodgy move #3) but quite funny.

You see, being a Glaswegian, the only time you tell someone you love them is when you have a belly full of vodka and you’re wanting someone to buy you a kebab from the van outside the pub at 2am on a Sunday morning LOL!

Anyway, I watched this business with interest, got into the back office and still was unable to find out EXACTLY what it was.  I looked around, watched others marketing it and making promises, but I just WAS NOT GETTING IT!

One woman in particular and whom I refer to in my video was a very active participant.  A bundle of fun, full of positivity, building teams right, left and centre and in general full of praise for this product.  When I say she was full of praise, I was still unable to glean what the heck it was.

2 weeks had gone by now and I was no further forward.  I knew that if I remained on there for another 2 weeks, I was going to be short changed by over $120 monthly.  One quick visit to Paypal and that problem was remedied.

So, in summary, unless you know exactly what you are buying, see actual proof that it works and know and absolutely trust the seller, then please exercise extreme caution and wariness.

There are lots of scammers out there, pouncing on new marketers, giving you their sob story of how they went from nothing to billionaire in a few short months – THIS CANNOT AND DOES NOT HAPPEN so please do not fall for it.

Enjoy your business for what it is, this industry is so amazing and can be so rewarding, as long as you stay in safe waters and swim around the sharks or take a harpoon and jab them out of your way!

Out with the Old and in with the New – Reflection of an Internet Marketer

As we get towards the end of 2009, I thought I’d take a bit of time to reflect on where I’m at personally in comparison to this time last year.

At the end of last year and having worked on an extremely demanding and mentally draining task in my corporate role, I was in work and thinking “I need another huge challenge similar to that, I need to be working pro-actively, making decisions, devising strategic plans and working alongside my fantastic team to deliver outstanding results.

It didn’t happen and much as I tried to be pro-active and forward thinking, proposing several suggestions based on sound business sense and customer service, others who needed to endorse the proposed changes were much more risk averse than I was.

Working in career guidance we teach a model called the alignment model and this basically outlines that your needs and wants have to be in alignment with the organisation you work for.  If you are out of alignment then you need to either find that motivator, that driver outside of work to feel fulfilled, or you need to look for another job.

I didn’t want to look for another job because I really love and believe in what I do, I work alongside a fantastic team who are well motivate, embrace change and constantly come up with new and exciting ideas that we discuss then implement.

So what did I do?  Well I found the challenge I was seeking by joining a Home Business opportunity with the full intention of making it a success and eventually working from home full-time.

I have to say however, I had absolutely no idea about internet marketing or how to make money online.  I knew how to surf the net and send email but that really was about the extent of it.  Now I have so much learning under my belt, I amaze myself sometimes by things I do know but thought I didn’t if that makes sense.

5 months down the road and I’m still working in my management role and running my business part-time.  That however is my choice.  Financially I could leave now but something inside of me is saying “don’t do it just yet”.

You see, I still have lots I want to do in my job, changes I want to see implemented, some of which I have personally proposed and many of these will happen in 2010.  I also don’t feel I’m ready to leave the team and sit at home on my own.  Although I love to work on my own at times, I also enjoy going to work in the morning, having a laugh with the others and seeing great results every day.

If you’re reading this blog post and you are working in a position that often leaves you unfulfilled, why not consider doing what I did and finding that challenge in something else.  You definitely won’t regret it, that’s for sure and may find like I did, that this is something I should have done years ago.

If you want to get started, just fill in your details at the top of this post and I’ll help you get started on your road to financial freedom (if that’s what you want) or get you to a point where YOU can sack YOUR BOSS!  How good would that feel?

As I sign off now with only 3 days left of this old year, I have to say it’s been fantastic, rewarding, challenging at times but just like any other year I have had, I wouldn’t have changed anything.  Everything I do and have done has been for a reason and it’s all been worthwhile.

Every day’s a school day and a day you haven’t learned something new, is a day wasted!

2010 – same as 2009 or will it be the Year ‘you did it’!

I remember sitting around this time last year thinking to myself  “I am going to do something different with my life in 2009″.  I thought of the usual New Year resolutions we all make, sign up for gym membership, lose weight, exercise at least 3 times a week and what happens – yes, you start the year off with great intentions that quickly evaporate and it’s back to the same old, same old.

I did decide though that I wanted a new challenge and I knew I wanted to work for myself.  I didn’t know how I was going to do it, but that was my goal.

January, February, March came and went and I had browsed occasionally on the internet looking for home businesses but it was only a half-hearted approach.  You see, I’m quite an impulsive person and always follow my gut instinct because it never lets me down.  Nothing I was reading or watching was having much of an effect on me, hence my half-hearted approach.  I was thinking about franchises (really, really expensive most of them) and it’s never really YOUR business.

What was attracting me to the franchise element of self employment was the umbrella, or safety net of knowing there was support, that people would help me in the early days and I wouldn’t be totally going it alone, although totally going it alone was my ultimate goal.

Around April time, I came across YourNetBiz and started watching the many videos on the business, read and watched all the testimonials and although I looked at several similar internet marketing businesses, something inside of me was telling me this is what I’ve been searching for.

I asked loads of questions from my mentor and also the Personal Business Assistants who do all the selling in the business and received honest, upfront and direct answers to all my questions.  I also liked the values of the people in the business as they were similar to my own.

What I can say now as we reach the end of 2009, I achieved what I set out to do 12 months ago, I am running my own business and have no regrets whatsoever.  Even now, as I receive endless emails daily about other opportunities, nothing in my eyes matches the opportunity I have with YourNetBiz.

It’s not only the first class training I received and continue to receive twice weekly through our webinars, here I learn from the very best in the business, the big hitters, those millionaires and billionaires who are not threatened by sharing with us the strategies that they still use to this day.  No, it’s a combination of everything, it’s the hundreds of hours of video, audio and e training I have sitting there in my back office and can confidently learn how to do anything on the internet, because there will be a product in the back office to teach me.

I cannot believe that 12 months ago I knew nothing about internet marketing and I mean nothing!!  I actually thought a domain name was the whole website and a blog was just where someone ranted and raved about something they didn’t like.

I’m pleasantly surprised at how much I now know after only a few months in the business.  I can turn my hand to most things, love passing on my knowledge now and can engage in internet marketing conversations with ease and confidence.

If you’re sitting where I was 12 months ago, know you want to get more out of life, realise that the true value of time rests in spending time with family and friends, then do what I did and I promise you will not regret it.  Well, you won’t providing you choose the opportunity that is right for you and don’t get too caught up in all the hype out there.

There’s absolutely nothing to be afraid of except the fear itself, it’s a step worth taking and it will change your whole life FOREVER.

2010 – Get Out of the Pen!  Leave the Rat Race – into the high earning Pace!  More time for You – you know what to Do!

Home business reviews – an honest perspective on some home business reviews out there

This blog post is written for 2 main reasons.  One because the author spent many months researching and reading hundreds of home business reviews before opting for the internet business she works in today.  Second reason was as a topic for an article and blog post that would go some way to educating and informing others who are at the research phase at the moment, so in effect this article is written with the potential home business opportunity buyer in mind.

What exactly are home business reviews?

Home business reviews come in many shapes and sizes and are written for many reasons, some best known to the authors themselves.  What I found when doing my research was it is very difficult to ascertain the genuine reviewers and those who are writing just to get an article published.  I now have internet marketing knowledge under my belt, so I thought I would revisit those home business reviews and just see if my perspective on them has changed in any way.

In my very early days of research I found it very easy to be sucked into a lot of the hype that is out there and what I did in those instances was take a note of the home business opportunity then immediately go to Ezine Articles and look for all the reviews on that actual business.  This helped me greatly as I was able to quickly gauge what would and would not work for me.

Another source I went to for home business reviews was You Tube.  Here again you can find several internet business reviews and home business scam videos and it too was an invaluable source to me.  One word of caution though, again you need to question some people’s motives for putting the video out there.  Are they doing it as a way of self-promotion or is it a genuine review posted there in order to help others?  It is amazing how one very straightforward video or article heading can quickly digress to self promotion and this is something all reviewers need to be mindful of.

How do you determine the genuine business from the scammers in the home business reviews?

The first thing I would suggest is following all the steps I took that are outlined earlier in this article.  Find all the locations that offer home business reviews and study every one.  If there are no contact details there on the website and they just want you to click through and get put on a mailing list, then I would urge you to consider carefully.  Genuine businesses will hide nothing from you, if they are real people, promoting a real opportunity, they will gladly give out their phone number and/or email address on their website.

Summary

Home business reviews can be written by anyone, they do not even have to know much about the actual business to write a review on it.  Many people are paid just to write reviews so this too is something to be mindful of.  You may also find them under headings such as Small Business Reviews, Internet Business Reviews or Business Scams.  I would advise you to read them all before committing to what could be a life changing future for you or financial disaster – please do your due diligence just like I did and you will not regret it.