The Main Problem Facing Home Business Owners Today

What is the main problem facing home business owners today? No one has any clue how to market or sell their product. See the one great advantage of starting a home business, is also the one disadvantage. The one great advantage of starting a home business is you do not need much capital or experience to start. Now with those facts in mind, home businesses let everyday people start and run a business, which is great. But it also has it's drawbacks with some companies over promising and under delivering, what's more these companies offer no solutions for the average person to market their product. If you have a business background then you will understand the ups and downs of starting a home business. Some people are starting a business for the first time and this is where the problem lies. People starting a home business for the first time may have been promised the world just to join the company and then once they start their business they have no training to help them out. Or maybe they expect to strike it rich in one month and when they don't, they quit and leave with a bad taste in their mouth.

Now it is not entirely the companies fault. Some people just have a get rich quick mentality and are just lazy plain and simple. I think people have not come to fully recognize what a home business is. It is your business you are responsible for running it not the main company. Many companies expect you to already know how to fully market and run a business. All the companies are giving you is an opportunity to sell their products and they handle all of the major parts of running a business for you. Now the companies are not entirely off the hook. Why? Many companies are claiming things they should not be claiming, like we will build your down line for you. Work only 10 minutes a day, which is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. If you owned a casino in Vegas would you only keep it open for 10 minutes and then shut down for the day? I highly doubt it. You must use common sense when looking at different home businesses to start.

Now most people starting a home business have no experience running a business ever. So there are many factors they will have to face. For example not wanting to make sales calls over the phone, not knowing how to generate leads, overcoming the fear of rejection, not knowing how to market online, not knowing how to market period and the list goes on.Now you may or you may not have a big bank account to advertise with, either way it really doesn't matter. Why? What good is having the money to advertise with if you have no clue on how to properly spend it. See in the business realm there are more crooks and scam artists cleverly disguised as legit businessmen. If you have no experience in business you will not be able to tell who is who, and I've seen people taken to the cleaners by paying these crooks and scam artists. And if you think Pay Per Click gets any better you are horribly mistaken. If you do not know what you are doing with Pay Per Click you will first be ineffective in your efforts and then you can lose a lot of money learning the hard way.

So what is the solution to all of this? First you must humble yourself and be willing to learn. Next you must look for a company or mentor to help teach you the in's and out's of properly running a home business. You want a company or person who is going to give you straight out answers, no hype or gimmicks. Once you have that you are ready to start your home business.

Barriers to Advancement Facing Women in Business

Copyright 2006 Red Ladder, Inc.

Women continue to enter the workforce in record numbers. In fact, almost 47% of the workforce is comprised of women. Yet, despite this fact, very few women hold the top slots.

Take one stroll past the executive suite in your organization and there will probably be a noticeable lack of women to be found, particularly if you exclude the support staff. Perhaps you never took the time to consider this or to even ask the question, but given the number of women in the workforce, does it seem rather odd that there aren't more women ensconced in the executive suites in business? I think so.

I've talked with many women leaders to try to identify the barriers that preclude more women from reaching the corner office. Here's what I've learned.

First, life-balance and family tradeoffs continue to plague women who want to build successful careers. As has long been the case, the bulk of family and household responsibilities still fall on women's shoulders. How each woman, her family, and her place of employment choose to manage and negotiate around this issue will clearly have an impact on a woman's ability to take advantage of those business opportunities that lead to long-term personal and professional success.

Another surprising deterrent is the perception that women lack key business credentials. As a woman with an MBA and MA under her belt, this one makes me chafe a little. However, having the right business credentials means more than having the right degree. Rather, it means being able to demonstrate in measurable ways a clear understanding of those business practices and the financial aspects that are important for an organizations success. This is what is commonly referred to as business acumen. Women don't lack key business credentials, they just need to do a better job of getting the credit and recognition for using them.

Finally, women continue to lack representation at senior levels simply because they just don't have visible positions. Many women typically follow career paths that lead them into the more traditional female roles such as marketing or operations. The lack of coveted profit and loss responsibility will often preclude them from consideration when the top jobs do become available.

Corporations need to make the case for developing women leaders within their organizations. They must stop overlooking the fact that women have good instincts about business and that they are good managers, delegators, collaborators, and team players. Since most businesses are built on relationships, these are crucial assets to an organizations long-term success.

While there are other reasons why organizations should focus on developing more women leaders, the primary reason, simply put, is that it just makes good business sense. Those organizations that want to reap the kind of financial returns so critical to their long-term success, should begin seeking out and supporting executive women leaders. Over the long haul, that's something that we can all bank on. Don't you agree?