IAHBE - The
Home Business Association That Changed My Life
by Gobala Krishnan
"I
want to own a home based business...... but I don't
know where to start." |
"I
want to learn.... but I am so confused on who I can
trust." |
"There
is so much information on the Internet....but none of
it tells me what I really want to know." |
"I
never knew having your own home business can be so expensive..." |
Yes, I too have said those words.
During my first 2 years as a struggling home business entrepreneur
dreaming of making big money and leading a free lifestyle,
I made many mistakes.
Some of those mistakes cost me money...
Others caused me heartache...
...and a few almost completely destroyed my faith that an
ordinary person like me could dream of extraordinary
things.
... and as if to make things worst, I came across some statistics
that really made me nervous and I began to doubt myself. Here's
what it said:
 FACT
1: Almost 70%
of all new businesses fail
within the first THREE years. A bit had to
swallow, isn't it? It's hard to imagine, especially
for new home based enterprise owners, that their business
may not even exist three years from now.
Why do these business fail?
The wrong product, the wrong marketing, the wrong management,
inefficient and costly marketing, improper cash flow
management, lack of resources, and the list goes on
and on.
Every serious entrepreneur will at some point ponder
about what they need to do to keep them from becoming
one of the businesses that fall in the 70% category. |
Yes, I have made stupid decisions, and I have made careless
mistakes...
But I have also made a handful of good decisions, and at
the top of that list is my decision to become a member of
the IAHBE.
The IAHBE (http://www.iahbe.org)
stands for International Association of Home Business
Entrepreneurs. In one sentence, it is simply:
"An Online University
with a collection of the best home business information,
reports, articles, seminars and other content put under
one roof." |
Being an exclusive paid membership resource, I was very half-hearted
at first at the thought of spending a good $29
for something as intangible as "information". As I once asked
myself, many people now ask me this question:
"Can't I get this information for
FREE on the Internet?
So why do I need to pay for it?"
I have to admit that this is a valid question.
And I have to agree that you CAN find similar
(but not exact) information for free, scattered around the
Internet. So why choose the IAHBE? How can it help you?
Let me tell you my story, from the point of view of an
entrepreneur living in Malaysia, while trying to
build a global business on the Internet.
This is how the IAHBE changed my life...
1) I Had Lost Faith in Home Business "Scams"
Not too long ago, I used to think that my ex-MLM upline leader
had my best interests at heart. I thought that the meetings
I went for and the methods they preached were the only way
to build and market a home based business.
That couldn't be any further from the truth. For example,
my upline thought me these lessons about prospecting:
- Go door-to-door and ask people to come
to the Opportunity Meeting...
- NEVER mention that it is a "business opportunity meeting"...
- Personally go to the prospect's home and bring them to
the opportunity meeting...
- Make a surprise visit to your prospect's home and show
them the compensation plan...
- Convince the prospect to join or buy the products
It's no wonder that my first year in a home business (network
marketing) became such a failure. I was running around equipped
with outdated knowledge of what worked in 1960...
... and I didn't even know it!
I could go on and on, but surely you get the point. At one
point of time, I sat down quietly at home, feeling very sad
and confused about this whole "home business" thing,
my dream of freedom fading away as I thought
to myself...
"Someone is not
telling me the truth. There's got to be a better way..."
A few weeks after I subscribed to the IAHBE, I came across
an article by Tom “Big Al” Schreiter about prospecting for
home business leads, and it changed my life forever. Here's
what the article said:
"Professionals sort,
amateurs convince"
I wish words could express how that simple sentence changed
my idea of prospecting forever. A light bulb went off in my
head and I realized that it's not IMPOSSIBLE to succeed
in a home business...it's just that I have been doing
it the wrong way.
You know the kind of feeling you get when you discovered
some secret... the kind of feeling that lifts your spirits
up, and gives you the "light" feeling all over your
body...
The kind of feeling that can immediately tell you "That's
it! That's the answer I was been looking for..."
My point is this: You can never rely on a single
source of information.
Was my ex-MLM leader lying to me?
No, not really. He was only teaching me what he knew. But
that doesn't me that it's the only way to do it...
Finally, I found a place where I can get so much high quality
information, compare them, and decide for myself which ideas
I want to follow. The IAHBE has so many good and qualified
authors, every one of them a success in their own rights.
If you’ve decided to climb the home business ladder to success,
and you want to REALLY make sure that it’s not leaning against
the wrong wall, you’ll need guidance from
people who have "been there and done that" before you start
your journey.
And the IAHBE, from my experience, is the best place to get
it...
2) I Was Running Around in Circles
Before I joined the IAHBE, I was scouting around the Internet
for free home business tips and ideas. I found many, but the
problem was that I now had to ask myself:
- Which Internet "guru" you should I listen
to?
- What should I invest in?
- Which resources will help me achieve profitability
and which ones won't?
- What steps should I take to get where I
want without busting my budget?
As I sat around cracking my head with these questions, I realized
another undeniable factor to home business success...
TIME!
...yes, time.
FACT 2 : Time IS Money
There's only so many hours in a day, and most
entrepreneurs today simply don't have the time (or the
money) to read and analyze EVERYTHING they come across,
let alone try to decide if it's from a good, credible
source.
Ok, maybe you are committed to the success
of your home business, but time is always a
limiting constraint! After all, everyone could be successful
if they had all the time in the world! |
The fact is that there are only so many hours in a day, and
why was I wasting time trying to wade through the sea of information
called the Internet?
Information on the Internet, I learned, can never be fully
trusted, especially if it's FREE. There are
so many "Fake Experts" out there pitching
ideas they have not tried themselves, which can lead the new
guy astray.
With the IAHBE on the other hand, I can be assured that I
am getting only top quality information. All writers are screened
and evaluated before their material is accepted by the IAHBE.
You don't get the fake ones here, and that's a real relief.
3) I Was Spending More Than I Earned
As a budding home business entrepreneur, my survival depended
on how well I controlled my meager finances and small capital.
And yet, every business owner knows the costs associated when
starting your business. For example, I had to spend on:
a) My personal growth - books, ebooks, reports
b) Advertising - ezine ads, PPC, leads and
print media ads
c) Operations - PC software, productivity
tools
I had, at that time, spent close to $3000 just getting started.
Most that was spent on useless website traffic schemes, so
called "targeted" home business leads, books, software and
PPC advertising.
But in my second month as a member of the IAHBE, I realized
that I actually have hundreds of unused coupons,
discounts and special offers for the same products and services
that I paid the full price for elsewhere. How can the IAHBE
do this?
It's a question of simple economics:
"What you cannot
achieve as an individual, you can easily achieve as a group."
Since the IAHBE has thousands of members, they can easily
negotiate for special bulk discounts, free trials, and even
free gifts from various suppliers, manufacturers and retailers.
4) I Had to Make a Decision
Many of my downline affiliates ask; is the IAHBE
suitable for me? To this question I always ask them
back:
"Do you want to spend time finding information,
or do you want to spend time building a business?"
The reason is this;
If you're perfectly happy running around chasing information,
instead of actually building a business, you don't need the
IAHBE. If you want to learn only from truly successful people,
and get the information delivered to your doorstep, there
is no smarter choice.
After all, it only costs you around a dollar a day. Heck,
even useless 'lifestyle' magazines cost more :)
5) My Journey Makes a Full Circle
The only apparent weakness of the IAHBE was that it did not
provide information specific to Malaysia, where I live and
run my Internet business. Sure, the articles and tips were
great, but when I needed information that applies to me as
a Malaysian, I dreaded the thought of going back to the world
of offline information retrieval.
In an email, I told them that they should be more "International"
as their name suggests...
To my honest surprise, three months down the road, they did
indeed become truly "International". And they were looking
for writers to complement their search for information on
Asia, especially in home business hotspots like India,
Malaysia, Singapore, China, Japan and the Philippines.
Let me ask you...
Do you believe that good things happen to those who
persist?
Not only did I get what I want, I was also appointed as
a writer for topics related to Asia. Now I had to give back,
and I could not be happier doing so.
So even if you are based in far corners of Asia, the International
Association of Home Business Entrepreneurs could be the smartest
choice you make this year to help you improve as an entrepreneur,
as a marketer, and as a human being.
Take it form a guy who learned the hard way...
Take it from a guy who is a member, writer
and 100% believer
in the IAHBE, and how it can change your life.
This is a popular saying, and I want you to understand it's
meaning:
"When the Student
is Ready, the Teacher Will Appear"
In the story of my life as an entrepreneur, the teacher did
appear indeed, but only after I was ready; only after I DECIDED
that I was going to succeed, no matter what the cost, and
no matter how long it took...
And I found not one, not two, but dozens of teachers, all
of them experts in their own chosen field.
So the question is really this : Are YOU Ready?
- Are you ready to get serious in your home based business?
- Are you ready to stop wasting time and money?
- Are you ready to get REAL home business advice from REAL
experts?
If you are, then the IAHBE will change your life too. Trust
me on this...
Sign up for the IAHBE now!
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