FUTURE LIVING

• Self-Employment or Stand-Alone Niche Business

You must offer either your own unique skills, perhaps as a consultant, or a unique product or service that meets a unique customer need. You can be very successful by filling an unmet need or niche, marketed over the Internet.

But there are few such opportunities and you also need a broad set of business skills to run your own business effectively. If you possess such skills, then you can easily generate a six-figure income for you and your family.

People who “go solo” tend to be “income producers” who want to work for themselves rather than work for a salary. They don’t want the burden of managing other people or the running of a complex company. However, they tend to hit an income ceiling that they can only rise above by expanding their business. In that case, they become a “business builder” and would perhaps be better to consider network marketing (below).


• Set up Shop on eBay or Amazon

You can become an affiliate for online companies such as Amazon or eBay. In Amazon’s case, you feed customers from your website to theirs, earning a commission on any subsequent sales made by Amazon to those click-through customers.

On both Amazon and eBay you can also open your own specialty niche online store or boutique that sells your own line of merchandise.

However, the income opportunities as an affiliate are limited and competition in the niche product market is fierce. So the number of people earning sizable incomes on eBay and Amazon is small.

• Become a Retail Store Franchisee

You could buy and manage a franchise outlet. Franchising is big business and the best franchise opportunities require a lot of upfront capital. The returns can be very high if you acquire a big outlet, and you can become very wealthy. But a McDonald’s franchise can cost $1 million for a single store. The market also is becoming saturated in North America and growth is slow except for new franchise concepts.

Many new franchises require a smaller investment, but you will need to work tirelessly for a relatively lower return. Still, if you prefer a defined structure that will help you succeed in a business about which you perhaps know little, then maybe franchising is just for you. Established companies provide a proven model which, if you follow it, should succeed. However, this is brick-and-mortar retailing, which is being challenged by e-commerce.


• Network Marketing

Network marketing is by far the best home-based business opportunity for the vast majority of people. It offers a proven model that needs little or no capital, you can decide how much time to invest, and yet you have a duplicable franchise-like business that you can grow. Running a network marketing e-business is not onerous. Start-up costs are low, you have no employees to manage or pay, you have no inventory to manage, and no office overhead – in fact the cost of your home office may be a tax deduction.

Network marketing is for “business builders” who see it as not just a source of passive income (commissions) but as a vehicle for accumulating true wealth. A true “business builder” will generate more income and wealth than a passive income producer. They do this by leveraging the time and energy of others on a team that focuses more on marketing and business building than simply on sales. All you need is a laptop and a dream.

As it grows, network marketing will become a larger and larger part of the overall economy, particularly as more and more people become “prosumers” and buy their products and services online – often from their own family-owned e-business.