Let's be honest now. Have you ever tried to earn $2,000 a week stuffing envelopes? They say it's so simple. Some ads even offer to provide flyers and show you how to get free stamps and envelopes for $50.
What the glowing ads don't tell you is that you have to advertise to get those long, self-addressed stamped envelopes (LSASEs). Granted you can save money by joining groups that offer discount advertising (like penny-pinching Kathy does), but it's still going to require $50-100 a month as a start-up investment for several years.
You need to learn direct mail's lead-generating strategy--the two-step advertising method (placing ads encouraging people to send you a LSASE for more information). And--that takes time. As much time as it takes you to complete your learning curve.
Of course, you're going to have to develop a product line and you must write interesting sales letters that encourage people to buy from you. You will also have to do more than one mailing to each inquiry.
WHOOPS!
I just gave away the "secret" of mail order success and I didn't charge a dime. You now have the basic information you need to make $2,000 a week stuffing envelopes. Yes, stuffing envelopes is just another word for "direct mail."
You need to know what you are doing before you can actually show a profit with your home business. Even if you moonlighted at McDonalds, you would have a learning curve as you study company policies and methods. The problem you face as the boss is that there is no one to tell you what to do. You must create your own product lines, policies and procedures.
So, now that we've hit the responsibility ball back into your court, let me assure you that it is possible to make $2,000 a week (more than $100,000 per year) stuffing envelopes. I know because I'm almost doing it. I'm bouncing my head so hard against that ceiling it's black and blue.
But it has taken time--seven years. If you give up in three months or even one year, you're a has-been before you start. Time rears its slithery head again and again as you build your home business. You must consider several questions when creating your business plan. These include:
1) Are you willing to devote 10-15 hours a week to building a business? This means time spent week in and week out for years. Any successful dealer can tell you the "90-day riches" stories are a bunch of moldy baloney.
For the record, I'm currently spending more than 60 hours a week on my home business and I have a stable of part-time employees. granted I do take off a week here and there for family, but I then spend 80-hour weeks catching up.
The best way to make sure you put in your time is to set up blocks of time to perform specific tasks each week. For example, as you grow more successful, you'll find that you have to answer your mail every day or it gets away from you.
2) What do you do in the event of illness? You can definitely fall behind if you or a family member is sick. You must have an plan to cover such possibilities, in other words--a way to babysit your business when you can't take care of it.
3) Can you handle sudden growth? Becoming too big too fast is perhaps the worst thing that can happen. Somewhere someone spread a rumor that you can take care of a growing business with only 20 hours per week.
There may be people out there who only spend two/three hours per week on their networking opportunities, but so far, everyone I know who operates a business (networking or mail order or both) with a $3,000-4,000 monthly income works at it more than 10 hours per week. Of course, if you are looking for that extra $500 a month and want to be semi-retired, you can get away with spending only ten hours a week on your business.
But the bottom line is--building a home business takes a great deal of time. Ya gotta have an attractive product line. Ya gotta develop an effective advertising campaign. Ya gotta know how to close the sale.
In short, pilgrim, business is business. If ya wanna be the boss, ya gotta sweat the sweat.
Kathy Mathews is a freelance writer turned publisher. Her trade paper, the STEPPING STONES, has been helping people make money since 1990 and has been supporting MLM commissions since 1991.
Her no-nonsense approach to making mail-oriented money from home avoids the hype of easy riches and gets down to the brass-tack money-making, money-saving strategies that can help you build an independent income. The size of that income depends on you and how fast you learn the basics of direct mail.
If you like the ideas in this article, get the whole hog--ask for a FREE bulk mail sample of STEPPING STONES. You may write Kathy Mathews and order your sample at P.O. Box 270750, Fort Collins, CO 80527.
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