It takes a certain amount of discipline and organization to work for yourself. It is likely you are used to having a manager or supervisor to whom you are accountable for your time and for the volume of work that you are able to produce. This requires a certain amount of efficiency, and naturally your work needs to be accurate. With you as your own boss, will you be able to commit to the often long hours and hard work that is required to run any business?
Also relevant to this is how you will take care of your survival needs during the period of development where you are learning and planning. Do you have substantial savings to cover your expenses for possibly 6 months to a year? Do you have any source of income, for example from unemployment insurance or severance pay? Would it be possible to have at least a part-time job to help you get by while you are developing your plan for an online business at home?
Credit or loans are definitely not the same as cash. It makes no sense to go bankrupt trying to earn money. While working from home on the Internet you can do the necessary tasks much more inexpensively than with a ‘brick and mortar’ business, it still helps to have a little ‘operating’ cash; if only to ‘automate’ some of the necessary tasks such as advertising and marketing. You can actually learn how to do many of the things yourself for free and this is key to your success unless you have lots of money for everything.
However in the beginning, any help that you are able to afford to give yourself will be a benefit. Because of the nature of marketing and advertising, it is important to begin to do these tasks as soon as possible and to consistently keep them up. If you have any money at all then it may be helpful to invest in some paid advertising just to get started. You may want to learn the techniques as you see them done and figure out how to do them yourself the next time.
One important thing to understand going in, is what ‘autopilot’ really means to you. It very definitely does not mean ‘set and forget’. You have to be fully engaged in promoting any business and commit to a certain number of hours each day. Autopilot where the Internet is concerned usually means the website is accessible to prospects 24/7 – always open. It may mean that the company(s) or product distributors you represent may handle your sales and accounting for you as with affiliate programs.
However it is important to understand that unless you specifically work with a company that promises to promote your business for you, that you need to be involved in this step. In fact it may be your only ‘job’ so it should be easy enough to focus only on marketing and advertising.
There is much you can learn from the search engines for free. Just by running a query you will get several links and as you visit each one, you will start learning what you need to do and how you can do it.
Most important in this regard is to use the information you get to take action as soon as possible. Believe that you can do it. It is really nothing that is very difficult or requires a university course. It is just basic communications done on the Internet. Don’t be intimidated by strange terminology – again, you can just ‘look it up’ in a search engine and you will begin to grow and flourish in no time!
