Unfortunately most people put their hopes and dreams ON HOLD in return for a job. They SQUANDER their life by “renting” it to their employer for a few thousand dollars or pounds per month. They trade 8 to 10 hours of their lives each working day, perhaps working evenings and weekends as well, for a few thousand a month.

Most people accept that to make money they have to do what someone tells them to do and pays them to do it. They spend their lives making someone ELSE rich. They work for their employer’s best interests, rather than their own. They can’t have goals because they have no way of achieving them.

So they just have daydreams about the house they’d like to live in “if only”; the car they’d like to drive “if only”; the holidays they would like to have “if only”, etc, because they will NEVER earn enough to achieve them.

What do you dream of? What house would you like to live in? What car would you like to drive? What holidays would you like to take? What would you spend your time doing? (I bet it’s not working in your current job!) Who would you spend your days with? (I bet it’s not your boss and your work colleagues!) Can you achieve any of your dreams if you continue doing what you are doing now?

To earn REAL money and have the quality of life you desire you need to have your OWN business. Your daydreams CAN then become your goals because YOU are now IN CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE.

But there are many risks involved in setting up your own business. Most conventional businesses involve some investment of capital to get them started (to buy equipment, stock, etc) and high on-going costs such as renting a commercial property (such as a store or office), advertising, staff costs, etc. Lack of cash-flow to pay these bills causes many businesses to fail before they get a chance to succeed.

Most people are not prepared to take these risks. They perceive their employment as risk-free. But, unfortunately, in the current troubled economic climate, it is becoming more and more apparent that relying on someone else to provide you with a job is far from risk free.

As I write this, we are in the midst of a deep and worsening economic recession. The banks are being baled out by tax-payers’ money. Every day the news informs us that more and more businesses are going bust and more and more people are sadly losing their jobs.

But in these times of economic doom and gloom, the good news is that it is now MUCH easier and less risky for YOU to set up and run YOUR own business.

There are two reasons why it is now much easier and less risky for you to set up and run your own business. I’ll explain what they are in my next post …

Matyn Boaden

In theory I had unlimited earnings potential because the more I sold, the more I earned. But in reality there was a limit to how much money I could make because, to get paid, I had to make a sale – and to make a sale I had to talk to a customer. So I could only make money whilst I was talking to a customer.

So the amount of money I could make working from home was limited by the amount of time I spent working. And not every person that I spoke to bought from me. So even when I was working I wouldn’t necessarily make any money.

Furthermore, Finacial Services is very highly regulated. There is a lot of bureaucracy and paperwork to deal with which is very time consuming. If I dealt with it myself, I would waste time that I could have spent selling which reduced my earning potential.

So I had to employ someone to deal with the administration for me. So then I needed an office. I also needed professional indemnity insurance and there were many other regulatory fees and expenses I had to pay. In fact, I had to earn about £40,000 a year just to cover all my overheads and staff costs before I could pay myself a penny!

As I had my own work at home business, I could take as much time off as I wanted. But I couldn’t afford to take time off because if I did, I wasn’t earning anything. I became tied to being an entrepreneur.

So my time as a restaurant manager taught me that to make a lot of money I needed to do something that was low risk, that didn’t involve a lot of capital up front, that didn’t have massive overheads, and didn’t involve employing a lot of staff.

And my time as a financial adviser taught me that I needed to do something that had unlimited earning potential whereby the amount of money I made was NOT limited by the amount of time that I spent working. I should also avoid heavily regulated industries with all their bureaucracy and red tape, such as financial, legal or medical advice.

I now had a list of criteria that would enable me to MAXIMISE my income whilst MINIMISING my effort. I knew what the best work at home business idea looked like …

Martyn Boaden

When I left full time education, the LAST thing I wanted was a “boring” 9 to 5 office job where I had to conform by wearing a suit and tie. But having spent 3 years working long, hard, unsocialable, stressful, poorly-paid hours as a restaurant manger, ALL I wanted was an office job where I could wear a smart suit and only had to work 9 to 5 Monday to Friday instead of evenings and weekends.

I still wanted to be an entrepreneur and make loads of money and my time as a restaurant manager taught me that I needed to do something that was low risk, that didn’t involve a lot of capital up front, that didn’t have massive overheads, and didn’t involve employing a lot of staff.

I also knew that a “conventional” employed job would put a ceiling on my income. I would only get paid the going rate for that position. I might be able to work my way to the top – but that would probably involve many years of hard work, long hours and sucking up to the boss!

I knew that sales people could make money - a lot of money – if they received commission for each sale they made. The more they sold, the more money they made. In theory, there is no cap on the amount of money they could make.

So I became a commission-only Financial Adviser, selling financial products such as pensions, investments and life assurance. I started as an employee of a large company so I could get all the techinical and sales training I needed. My employer also provided me with an office and support staff. But as an employee, I only received a percentage of the commission I earned. My empoyer kept the rest.

So, when I felt that I was experienced enough, I took the plunge and set up my own business as a financial adviser working from home so I didn’t have to pay for an office and all the overheads that involves.

I was now an entrepreneur in an industry where, in theory, I could make a lot of money working from home. But as I will explain in my next post, this was not an ideal work at home business …

Martyn Boaden

When I was still at school, a friend of mine said that he wanted to be an “entrepreneur”. I didn’t know what that was. He explained that it was someone who worked for themselves, rather than being employed, and made loads of money. I was hooked! I didn’t like the idea of being bossed about by an employer and I definitely fancied having loads of money!

I had many jobs as a teenager, but mainly worked in catering. I started washing up in a restaurant, then became a waiter and barman. So when I left full time education and wanted my own business, the only business I knew anything about was catering. So I decided that I would have my own trendy cafe-bar.

Although I’d worked in catering as a teenager, I didn’t know anything about managing a restaurant, so I got a job as a trainee manager at a chain of restaurants.

Sure enough, I learned how to manage a restaurant. But I also learned that owning a restaurant was a VERY high risk business. The overheads are HUGE. You have to pay for your premises, ideally in a prime location, and you need to employ a lot of staff – which involves a lot of hassle and expense.

Much of the time, your restaurant is shut, i.e. at night, so it’s not making money. But you still have to pay overheads like rent, bills, etc. But even when the restaurant is open, if you are not busy, you will struggle to earn enough to pay your overheads, let alone make any profit.

It’s also VERY stressful. If there is a problem, it has to be resolved NOW – not tomorrow. Your customers want good service there and then or they won’t be your customers for long.

And of course the hours are very unsociable – you have to work when everyone else you know who isn’t in catering are enjoying their leisure time.

Of course, if you OWN a restaurant and employ someone to manage it for you, you don’t have the stress of the day to day running of the restaurant and you don’t have to work the unsociable hours. But I was NEVER going to earn enough as a restaurant manger to ever be able to afford my own restaurant. I would have to go cap in hand to a bank for a loan and I could see that I would probably spend the rest of my life working hard just to cover my overheads and pay back the bank.

I spent 3 years as a restaurant manager learning that owning a restaurant is NOT a good way to make money. It is high risk as you have to invest – or borrow – a lot of capital to get started and your overheads are very high. You are very dependent on other people – your staff. And you can only make money whilst your restaurant is open.

I realised that if I was going to be an entrepreneur and make a lot of money without working myself to death in the process, I needed something that was low risk, that didn’t involve a lot of capital up front, that didn’t have massive overheads, and didn’t involve employing a lot of staff.

Then I found a way to make money working from home …

Martyn Boaden