A successful home based business is a lot like raising a child, growing a prize winning garden or anything else that requires your time and passion. Growing a small business is a more like running a marathon than a 100-meter sprint.
Often it's easier to explain a concept through example. This following example is based on my own personal experience.
During the late 1970s I spent a lot of my free time training as a long distance runner. The first time I ran a 26-mile marathon I didn't understand the reason to pace myself. I figured the faster I ran the sooner I would finish.
After only 5 miles I found myself slowing down and several people floated on by me. A more experienced runner moved up from behind me. After he observed my stride and breathing for a few seconds. He could see that I was already getting stiff and running at a pace I wasn't capable of maintaining throughout the marathon. As he moved on passed me by he said; "You really need to pace yourself, you can't fake a marathon!" I fully understood the wisdom in his words at about mile 20.
Growing a business is like training to run a marathon; it requires sustained effort over time, energized with an act of will. In Business as well as in endurance sports you must develop a personalized and specific long-term strategy in order to improve. It doesn't matter if your goal is a faster time or making more money, the process remains the same
It's better developing your own strategy rather than follow someone else's plan. It's also better to sell a product you really like and even better if you create it yourself.
After that first marathon I started keeping a training journal to keep track of all kinds of variables. How many miles a week I ran, how fast. I also started tracking calories, body weight, resting heart rate and perceived workout intensity. I found that after a while I had collected a lot of information and I should do something with it.
I owned a small printing plant at the time so I developed my own "runner's log" book, I called it "Be Your Own Coach" because that's what I was doing. This logbook took the information tracking process one more step. Now I could measure and plot data in a graph or chart.
My First Product Was Born!
My father and I visited bookstores all over the Northwes USA with boxes of logbooks to sell. Selling the books paid our travel costs plus a small profit.
Long distance runners attend races and events all over the northwest. I found that attending running events afforded access to a highly targeted niche of runners to sell my log books. At these events I soon learned that it was really hard to get good information about these events. The events were usually localized so people outside of that specific area had great difficulty even learning about out the events. Runners want information about who to contact to get an application, the history of the event, the average temperatures on race day, the past winning times and the age groups and prizes offered. The list goes and so on.
I had identified another target market for my first product and second information product was born as well. I printed another book and called it "The Northwest Runners Guide". I was able to create that specific product because I had developed unique access to an identified targeted market. I had identified a narrow niche of people willing & able to spend money on hard to find information.
A Win-Win Relationship
This turned out to be a win-win for everyone involved. Runners could get access to information which was not available anywhere else, and the event directors which often included charities where attracting more runners resulted in potentially earning much more money for their charity.
Together the 2 products doubled my sales volume. I earned enough to attend the best regional events and I was developing a growing product line based on doing what I loved.
In 1983 the IBM PC was born. I found that I could use the computer to not only record data; I could use it to forecast future performance. I entered information the computer where I could combine it with other data and produce a customized reports and graphs. My third product was a computer program that could help anyone record data and produce complex reports. I named it "Be Your Own Coach" because that was the name of the logbook. The three products together allowed me freedom to train full time, which was exactly what I wanted most to do. Work isn't work if it's fun.
The most successful business ventures are ones you enjoy so much you would do for free. Nothing is more powerful than an act of will fueled with intention with desire. Look within your experience and your passion to create your own products. Who said it has to be work? Develop your own unique product or find a product you really like and would to tell others about it for free. Take your time developing YOUR OWN marketing strategy, especially in the beginning.
Today the Internet makes it so much easier to reach a much larger target market. This is why I am always suggesting understanding the market even before you consider which products to sell. If you do a good job understanding your market's preferences the customers will find you.
Think Like a Marathoner
If you want to be a marathon runner you need to think like one. The same principals that guide sport can be used to develop your own successful business. When you are training for a marathon you improve through many repeated workouts each with a specific purpose. The training effect is achieved gradually over months and even years.
Don't think like an employee, think like an employer. Don't start with the product, start by serving your identified market and the ideal product will find you. I started my Internet marketing business five years ago when there was still a NEED for good support, tools, and information about Internet marketing. I served this market 3 years before I started earning money.
Most people work for companies; they are paid from day one. Running a successful business requires understanding how to prime the pump. You give before you get.
People are always telling me that they want to start a business like my business. I usually discourage this approach because the market is so overloaded. In the last five years things have changed. It's not as easy as it was. Some of the best Internet marketing products and services are free now and are offered to develop traffic anyway.
One key to success at anything is moving from step to step applying the knowledge gained in the previous step. Success depends on successfully completing each small step.
Build your business in the same way a runner trains for the marathon. Don't focus on the finish line; focus on each and every step. The marathoner always moves forward leveraging each step to his advantage.
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