The number of people now seeking a home based business opportunity is undoubtedly on the increase. A recent survey suggest that in the USA alone, some 70 million people intend to start a new business that is not only home based, but Internet based.

According to study by MSNBC, small businesses are responsible for over 75% of new jobs in the economy.

The US Census Bureau indicates that 49% of businesses in the US are home based businesses, with other industry analysts equating the number of Americans running a home based business at over 45 million.

In today’s Internet age, it is now easier than ever to set up a new business, with a survey of users by Yahoo!® indicating that over 75% of those surveyed attributed the Internet to the launch of their new businesses.

Indeed, despite the apparent risk of setting up a new business in the middle of one of the worst global recessions in history, it seems that there is a definite turn towards self-reliance amongst the population. As survival mode kicks in, people begin to realise that the only ‘rescue package’ that is going to save their own personal economic situation comes from themselves, and not the government or any other external body.

However, despite the rising interest in starting a new business, the failure of online & home based business owners to even make a living is still high at 97%.

A lack of knowledge and inability to market effectively has a direct effect on the number of leads and sales that a business will make, and sales equal revenue, the lifeblood of any business.

Without the right training and skills to market your business effectively, you are likely to fall into the same trap that many home based business owners fall into, where good money is thrown after bad lead generating techniques, and ultimately results in a financial drain on the business that cannot be sustained. It is at this point that many business owners call it quits, often with accusations of their particular business opportunity of choice being branded a ‘scam’.

There are two common denominators amongst businesses that are successful:

Marketing

Every business that has succeeded, has done so on the back of marketing. Even those businesses that claim not to engage in marketing activities, pointing to ‘word of mouth’ or referrals as their main source of sales, are in fact marketing through the quality of service or product that they provide.

By delivering value to the customer, a referral process that becomes viral, as one person tells another, quickly spreads the marketing message that this particular company or person is the place to go for whatever particular product or service is being provided. How many times have you recommended, or been recommended, a good car mechanic based on the experience of someone else? Which did you place more faith in; the word of the person making the recommendation, or the big flash advertisement placed by another competing company?

What I have just described, is a pretty accurate description of how social media marketing works. Taking full advantage of sites like Twitter, Facebook or Squidoo is enabling the new breed of Internet marketer to explode the profits of their home based business online.

Delivering value and subsequently attracting customers is one of the many simple yet powerful marketing techniques that should be at the disposal of every home based business owner. If not, the you should urgently get some online marketing training in how to truly leverage the power of the Internet and the latest trends online.

Without this, then at best your business will be left behind as others with those skills forge ahead, or at worst you face financial calamity as your business fails.

System

There are many businesses that have grown at an explosive rate over the years, and most of them have been Internet based. It wasn’t that long ago that Facebook®, Twitter®, YouTube® and even Google® were not even on the radar!

Even more established businesses, such as McDonald’s® or KFC® all have one other thing in common aside from the marketing:

A system!

How else would McDonald’s® be able to operate with only minimum wage staff if were not for a system that literally anyone can follow? Systems and standardised processes are used in all successful businesses, and if you want to be successful in marketing online, you need to employ a system too.

A system allows you to leverage your time, to free you from the mundane and tedious tasks, which have to be done, but would be better done by an automated system than by you.

A marketing system can automate all the repetitive tasks in your sales system, allowing you to drive up the numbers of prospects that you can push through your sales funnel. As any business knows, sales is a numbers game, and the more people you are in front of, the more sales you will make; it’s as simple as that.

If you haven’t got the marketing knowledge and know-how, then you need to get a marketing education, and without a system you’ll just be wasting your time.

Setting aside such as mindset and determination, a marketing system and education are essential to the success of your home based business. In fact, if you have the right entrepreneurial mindset, you may well have already recognised this fact.