There are so many reasons why I work from home; I would like to cover a few in details. I started working from home because I'm going to college online and I wanted to make some extra money on the side. I didn't realize my online home business would turn out to be as successful as it is. When I first thought about the idea of working from home six months ago; I just didn't think it would turn into a full-time job. I now spend more time on my website then I do on my schoolwork. Don't worry!! I'm still on schedule to graduate in July of ?06 with over a 3.0 grade point average in Human Resource Management. I just never thought how fun it would be to start a website and find ways to make it profitable; believe me, it hasn't been easy.



The best part about owning your own home business is the sense of pride and gratification you get from something you have created. A lot of us have and are still working at a job we can't stand; we find ourselves not performing up to our capabilities for various reasons.

Before I decided to go back to school almost two years ago; I was working as a car salesman for one of the most successful Honda dealerships on the East Coast. The money was fantastic but I didn't like the atmosphere. I found myself coming to work everyday thinking about other things; when you're not focused on your job, your performance slips. Even if you're a great employee, not having focus will drop you performance output just enough to make you unhappy. I left that job to go back to school and it was the best move I've ever made. While going to school online I sat around and decided to think of ways to make money online. I knew it could be done; I just didn't know how hard it was going to be to find the right program. I researched quit a few programs and spent some money; let me rephrase that last statement; I wasted some money. There are so many home business scams out there promising whoever signs-up with them will get rich overnight; well, there's no such thing.

Another reason I work from home is the ability to learn from and meet new people; if you start your own home business; you better be prepared to work with others; the only way to make it in this business is by learning from those who are already successful. I've been in this business for only six months and I consider my self pretty good at this home business game; I say game because that's the way you should treat it. For Pete's sake, you're working from home, you don't have a boss who's nagging you, and you make your own hours, it doesn't get any better than that. You have to treat this like it's the greatest thing that has ever happened to you; if you don't, you'll get burned out. The online home business strategies are changing consistently; if you don't have fun with it, you're in for a hurting. Don't get upset if you have a bad month or get behind on your website maintenance; sometimes it's good to take a break and get reenergized. This business is a marathon; no one makes it happen over night. Like I said before; this is supposed to be fun. Once you find yourself loosing interest; take a step back and regroup. The more fun you have the more you'll want to work and learn. The more work and fun you put into your online business, the more successful you will be.

I mentioned before how important it's to learn from others; I got lucky because I found a great mentor within three months of my online home business research. Erich Winnecke is one of the leaders in the field of Online Home Businesses. I let him know my school situation, and how I wanted to make some extra cash. Erich got back to me with some unbelievable ideas and how to accomplish them. I can honestly say I wouldn't be where I am today without his help. When trying to find a mentor be sure to remember these people are not here to do the work for you. They make a lot of money because they work hard and spend a lot of time making their own websites more profitable. Just try to latch onto them and learn. They won't do the work for you, but if you show them you are hungry, they will feed you the information you need to get started or improve your home business.

When starting your own home based business be prepared to spend some time and money on your development. I said I started this business six months ago; in actuality I've been in the hunt for about three months. It took me three months to learn and the last three months implementing what I had learned; oh yeah, I'm still learning new things everyday. Once you become stagnant in this business, you'll be in trouble. What might be working today might not work tomorrow. I started out working about 8 to 10 hours a week and now I'm putting in about 40 hours a week on my website and advertisements. I can usually put in 5 hours a day during the week; I would like to put in more but my internship and schoolwork come first. The weekends are when I really put the pedal to the medal. On the weekends I usually put in 8 hours a day on my home business; yeah, I sacrifice some social activities, but I didn't start this to be average; I started my online home business so I could open more doors and have a bright future. The more you put in the more you'll get out of this.

If you're just starting a home business or are having trouble keeping one going, here's a few tips. Be sure to find a mentor, be prepared to spend at least $300 a month, put in at least 8 to 10 hours of work per week, read as much information as possible, join a forum that has to do with what you're trying to accomplish, exchange links with other high traffic websites, build up your rankings on major search engines like Google and Yahoo, write at least 20 article a month and get them published, and like I said before; PLEASE HAVE SOME FUN!!! Oh yeah, I almost forgot; stay away from those scam artists out there; they're still some of us truthful good people out there who are willing to help or listen to any ideas someone might have in order to better our businesses. I'm not a genius, I'm just someone who wants to be successful in whatever I do; if I can do it, you can do it!!