It is common practice that on the internet persons will develop a course or training program that is intended to teach you how to make money from the latest trends, it could be how to become a forex trader, how to make money buying real estate, it could be how to sell products on eCommerce, or how to become a social media influencer.
As you can see all of these types of business opportunities can be legit, but unfortunately the snake oil salesman are going to sell you “the dream” of becoming a business owner, becoming your own boss, working for yourself, leaving the rat race, spending more time with your family and working at home in your pajamas.
Its best to learn a skill and then teach it to others to help them with growing a business or starting a new career. It will take time to reach the results that you want to achieve.
Beware of the Snake oil Salesman
You may have heard the phrase that “if it sounds too good to be true than it probably is.” well that saying holds true on the internet. You will encounter what is known as “Snake oil salesman” while you surf the web.
The dictionary definition is: Snake oil is something which is sold or presented as a cure or a solution to a problem but which, in fact, has no use or value. You may be familiar with the many “make money online” programs available to the public that fill your email box and consistently show up in your Facebook feed.
The problem with Joining Business Opportunities
The truth of the matter is that you are going to waste money and time on educational video training courses, mentorship calls, bootcamps, membership sites, ebooks, marketing tools, software apps, done for you systems which will lead to frustration and information overload.
Being consistent is important because I know from experience that the internet can make promises that it can’t keep. All the fancy talking salesman, special shiny salespages, psychological emotional stories will have you confused and stuck not knowing what to do.
Once you realize that there is no “easy” answers that it takes “work” most people get discouraged and disillusioned with all the so called internet gurus who hold the keys to the kingdom.
There is only a few ways that you can take control of your life and make a change for the better.
- First you must be clear on what you want to achieve. Do you want to quit your job? Do you want to start a business? Do you want to work from home? Do you want to earn more money?
- Once you decide what you want, then you must write down what steps you will need to take to get there. Do you have to get a business loan? Will you have business partners? Do you want to run a company yourself or outsource it to specialists?
- After you decide what you want and how you are going to get there. What are you willing to sacrifice to reach your goals? Will you need to learn a new skill?
You have two choices:
- You can either work for someone else as a consultant, independent contractor, employee or freelancer
- You can own a company where you sell a product or service and have employees.
Working from Home as a Contract Employee
Most people who make money online and work from home are employees for a company that allows telecommuting. You still receive a salary, being paid by contract or hourly.
These kinds of jobs require a skill or previous educational degrees such as working for a call center doing customer care answering phone calls, or data entry and transcription, computer programming, technical writing, website development or graphic design, teaching classes online. etc. You will need to have work experience and verifiable references.
Companies will hire remote workers and do virtual interviews. You will need to have access to the internet, headset, webcam, reliable computer software and hardware. With the ability to send and receive files, or collaborate with teams via Zoom or Google Meetings.
Working at home as a Freelancer or Consultant
If you have a background in sales, or business management you can hire yourself out to companies to provide consultation or provide training to leadership teams. As a client provider you set your own hours and can often set your own pay rate. These types of positions go to the most qualified person who can achieve results. It may require that you get recommended by clients who can use your services.
Working from home as a Business Owner
To start a business requires that you have a product or service that you can sell online to customers. You will need a website, domain name, autoresponder, blog content and a product that provides value to help others solve a problem or help them improve themselves.
You can sell physical products or you can sell virtual products. Such as becoming a book writer and self-publishing books on Amazon Kindle. Or you can set up a ecommerce store and find a dropshipping company to send customers items that they buy from your Shopify store.
The reality of being a business owner is that you will need to sacrifice your time and money. Depending on how much effort you want to put into growing your company it may be necessary to outsource tasks to a virtual assistant or office manager. It is important to have good team building and communication skills.
Working from home as an affiliate for brands
There is another type of self-employed activity and that is becoming an affiliate for big brands like Walmart, Bestbuy, Amazon, eBay, these are online stores that need help with getting customers, you get paid when you refer someone to the online store and they make a purchase. The brands will share revenue from each sale.
This is called referral marketing, companies will pay you if you are able to use social media to attract leads and referrals who become customers for big brands. You often see this on Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, they are called “influencers” because they are able to gain a following of subscribers who will buy from recommendations.
Although this can be a fun way to make money, it is highly competitive and requires lots of time uploading videos and reviewing products sent by companies that hope that by giving a positive review your followers will buy the product.
If you have been laid off your job and are looking for a second source of income, I would recommend that you do some research.
Find out which companies are hiring remote workers, look for which freelance websites need skilled jobseekers and just beware of ads that promise easy money.
Once you learn which industries need the most help with online marketing than you can start an agency that will help with areas of content development and visual promotions to reach the right target audience.
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