Why do 97% of home based businesses fail within their first 3-6 months?

I read a statistic that 97% of home based internet business fail within the first few months? Why? Is it lack of education, coaching, experience, marketing capital? Any insights?

I started my websites about 5 years ago and so did 3 of my other friends. We were in the same boat - our company had gone bust and we needed to find other income sources. Anyway, out of the four of us, I am the only one making money online today. I don't think 97% can be considered an exact figure, but I am quite sure that it is well above 90%. Here's why I think home based internet businesses fail :

- I believe the primary reason is people have the misconception that an online business is EASY, that you can just pay for a website and let it run TOTALLY on autopilot. That is farthest from the truth.

I work very hard to make money online - writing content, web design, marketing and search engine optimization. With each pre-launch of my website, I put in long hours of work. After I launch a website, it doesn't require DAILY FIXED attention, but it DOES require attention nevertheless. Newbies don't understand that rankings on search engines and traffic are NOT automatic. Sure, you can pay an SEO company a couple hundred bucks to pump up your site to page #1 but your ranking may not last. You are competing against millions of other websites. You HAVE to build quality content and inbound links to your sites consistently. In addition to that, you need to interact with visitors to your site and ensure that development of your site is on going.

- Many people simply fall prey to savvy online marketers who write such convincing copy. They promise riches overnight. They paint images of you sitting sipping a leisurely cup of coffee by the beach while your website runs 24/7 making you thousands of bucks everyday. They use fake (or souped up) testimonials from non existent folks praising their product. People don't realize that many of the websites that proclaim instant online riches are cloned from the original (very smart and savvy) marketer. Imagine if you had one thousand underlings trying to catch fish for you? Very often, that's what people are to online marketers. ALL of them say their product or system IS the best.

- So what happens to the folks who believe these savvy marketers and plonk out good money? They're left with sub-standard products or cloned websites and NO IDEA what to do next. Every step is a steep learning curve. Every day they find out something new that they simply don't understand about web development, marketing and SEO. This causes discouragement, dissapointment and ultimately lack of drive. Everyday, the wake up and think of how much work it is going to take to drive their "money machine" and they just cannot muster the energy and passion to keep going. Procrastination then sets in. Eventually when one year goes by and the they get notice to renew their domain, they don't.

A home based internet business conjures up images of working from home, enjoying a leisurely stress free life and NO hard work. Yes, I do get to work from home and definitely working to my own deadlines is a lot less stressful than having a boss hounding me daily, but it is NOT without hard work.

Andrew
http://www.positivemoneyideas.com

insight? no.
guess? all of the above.

i'd guess that most start with either
(1) a product idea, OR
(2) a desire for any business at all.

Plan? Marketing? Capital? Education? Capital? Experience? me thinks you're asking way too much.

How about just pure laziness? It takes a ton of drive to get yourself to work from home. If you aren't the type to get motivated easily, it's no wonder they fail. So many are trying it because they want to work from home. Hell, everyone wants to work from home but you need to be dedicated and have that force inside to get you to do your work.

Trust me, I've been a part of that 97% percentile a couple times. Back then I could have made a million dollars with a T-shirt that said "Yes, I'm one of the 97 percent." But you know what, you live and you learn. And now I am able to look back and say, no, it wasn't a loss. It was a lesson.

To answer that question I think they fail because they have no support, they're not consistent and they don't know how to market....

Blessings and Abundance,
Melinda
www.BlessingsOfCash.com
770-853-3938

I only know about the 3% that don't. Read my profile if you will and contact me if interested. I will share my story and some advice for you.

Most people that I know that have tried to start their own business did not have a realistic plan. Oftentimes, they do not account for unexpected costs (every business has them), they are too optimistic about their potential, and they do not account for the amount of time that it takes to make a business work. After a couple of months, many people realize that their plan wasn't that great and that they could go back to a 9-5 job with the security that they need.

Also, they need a market and a medium to get the product to the consumer. People don't feel comfortable going to other people's homes to purchase something.

Note: Owning a business is awesome and I love it. It does require a risk threshold, thick skin, a realistic approach, and a positive outlook.

Many of these businesses fail because of lack of a proper business plan. Preparing a business plan takes a lot of effort - initial and ongoing - and winging it just because one is not looking for external financing seems to be easy enough, and often costly.

A well done business plan addresses questions about market, product/USP, competition, regulations, insurance, team, hiring, operations, growth and finances. It takes a lot of research effort to do a decent job. What's more, the business plan also needs to be kept updated - changes coming from market or from one's own tweaking of the business model.

That said, many budding businesses also fail because they fail to do conservative cash flow projections, and fail to account for owners' work (in $$ terms.)

There are many free or inexpensive community-oriented services that provide guidance to small businesses. SBA is one, local banks or chambers of commerce may provide additional references.

I would be happy to elaborate on why. Much of the reason is lack of due diligence. Many who start a home based business don't even know what that means specifically. Every one has a "why". Most tactics in recruiting fail to provide a how. It does lack the things you listed above in a "proper" sense. I could go on for days. There are ways to market any business including home based businesses. I have some links to valuable facts and tools in my profile here at Yahoo Answers. http://answers.yahoo.com/my/my;_ylt=AoxXoZJfzvIqyWci.lHGEOsazKIX;_ylv=3
There is also great info at this website http://www.vandruff.com/mlm.html

Please don't take me wrong. I am not against networking. I don't agree with blinding and hassling people on hype. I choose to use tactics that attract people to what I have to offer.

Best Regards!

It could be lack of coaching, support, effort, desire or any number of things.

Whenever anyone is looking to start a home based business they should ask themselves many many questions:

Are you looking for a home JOB or are you looking to start your own business?

Have you decided what kind of a business you'd like to have or work for, something that you might be passionate about? Without the passion you're off to a bad start.

You might also want to think about what you are willing or not willing to do such as home demo parties or not, direct sales or not, cold calls or not.....etc etc. If you're feeling forced into doing things that you don't want to do, how enthusiastic are you going to be?

Are you looking for something that involves having inventory or would you prefer that the inventory is dealt with for you as well as the paper work? If there is too much inventory as well as the cost associated with it or the paperwork is a killer, that won't help.

What kind of support does this company offer? Training? On going support? Group effort or cut throat?

What kind of a marketing system do they have in place that will help your business to grow?

Once you've narrowed that down, you can start looking closer at the options out there and when you do, be very thorough in your evaluation of the companies.....look inside and out and if you like what you see and it excites you then yes! Go for it!

If it's a "get rich quick" scheme....run! Unless you can afford risking a high start up cost....don't. Go with something that is reasonable. All businesses have a start up cost but it shouldn't be out of this world.

I wish you all the best in your choice....you really can work from home in the hours you choose and be successful!

Enter Your Message or Comment

User Name:
User Email:
Post a comment:

Archive: Forum -Forum -Finance - Links - 1 - 2 - RSS - All RSS Feeds
The Causes and the Results. 0.074
Copyright (c) 2011 Financial Crisis Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - Terms of use - Privacy Policy