Notice it’s illusions about starting an online home business, not delusions. That is, it’s not your fault if you misunderstand the implications of starting such a business because these illusions are fed out to you all day and every day, on the internet, television, in books and magazines.
1 It’s easy. If it were that easy, everybody would be doing it. For instance, think about putting up a website (which is not the first thing you should think about anyway). You need to have some knowledge of, and some ability in, using an HTML editor, even if it is WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) to lay out the site, perhaps use graphics, put in a sign-up form linked to an autoresponder, and writing for your visitors. All this is learnable and best done by taking action but it’s only one small part of what you need to do.
2 It’s a way of getting rich fast. This is highly unlikely – the odds are stacked against you. Most businesses don’t last past 5 years. Let’s take a figure of $100,000. To get near to this, you’d already need to know exactly what to do. In fact, have some experience in how to go about it. If you wanted to be an Olympic athlete or a world-class boxer in one year, the likelihood of doing it would not be great. Think of the dedication needed, the knowledge needed, how much guidance is required. Rather than fast, think of building a business over a period of years. If you get past 5 years and are still going and succeeding, then you’ve done well.
3 Everything is automatic. A lot of online home business opportunities push this aspect. Yes, you can automate much of your business – the more the better as it frees up time and energy. But you still have to work on your business both to maintain it and to make it grow. Things change fast on the internet so you have to be aware of what’s going on in your marketing area. You could easily be overtaken and you wouldn’t even notice. You need a relationship with your customers and be able to constantly analyse your business to keep improving.
4 Once you have a website up, you’ll have lots of visitors. Unfortunately, your website is not even a dot on the web. Imagine being light years away in the universe and looking back to the earth – you wouldn’t even see it. That means your site has to be set up to attract search engine traffic. Not only set up actually on your website, but there’s also off-site work to do, advertising it in various ways. This is a whole subject in itself.
5 You don’t have to deal with people. This is true to the extent you may not see people face to face. However, the basis of having a log-term online business is having long-term professional relationships with customers, subscribers and visitors. These are the people who will and could pay you money. You develop relationships through your various kinds of sites, your newsletter and emails, and perhaps a forum.
An online home business requires work, organisation, vision, planning and providing valuable products your customers want. All of this is possible if the illusions are left behind.
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