How to make money for free!

You are going to see this kind of headline a lot - in fact, you probably already have. Someone, somewhere offering to 'tell you all of their secrets' for free! Someone giving you "all you need to start a new business for free!". When i began researching my own online business, I actually believed that there was enough around for free that I could fool EVERYONE, get as many of these secrets as I could, and fund my entire venture without spending a penny of my money!!
I wasn't the only one, either. There is no such thing as Free.

Why would someone else offer to do that? Why are they taking money-making ideas that they use, and giving them away to you?
Remember that you found these offers online, and there are millions of users on there at all times. Out of those Thousands, if not hundreds of thousands are looking at these kind of ads. So it may feel as if this entrepreneur is offering this 'once in a lifetime opportunity' directly to you, but he isn't - he's doing it for everyone. His advertising is so good, though, that it hits you where you live: it is personal, it is aimed at you specifically, and it offers you a benefit that you cannot do without at this time. THAT"S the perfect ad, and we will talk about this in another post when we talk about marketing your business.

This isn't to say that these free offers are totally useless - they may be marketing vehicles for someone ele's busines, but they still have value. I was signed up for four of these free offers (on marketing an online business), and received masses of e-mails instructing me on various methods to expand my business. When the stream of e-mails finally quit, I unsubscribed from the sender's e-mails and eventually stopped receiving them. I also had enough raw material to re-write them into an e-book that was almost 100 pages long. I then re-sold these ideas as part of a marketing hook for my own business. Of course, it was basically the same facts that are being re-worded and offered by everyone else, but at least I knew that what I was offering was a real system that would work.

The point of this, though, is that any freebie you are given has a cost to it - either in time, or a sign up vehicle for more outgoings to get more value for your business, and this is what you have to prepare yourself for: Everything costs something in some form or another. Plan ahead to make these sacrifices. Have you ever wondered why your Boss is so unhappy all of the time? it's because he is responsible for more expenses and for more company production than you are. When you go to him and ask him for money, you are the fifth person that day to do so - everyone has their own reasons for doing it, and everyone's reason is the most important. He sees that there is just money going OUT of the company, with no guarantee of earning it back. This is what your business will look like for the first year, so plan ahead in marketing, sales, and any other expense you are going to come across. If you go to a bank or a freind for a loan, they are going to ask why you need it, and you will have to come up with an answer - so face that question with your self first. if you are going to commit $10,000 for your business in the first year, what are you going to spend it on, and what results are you going to get back.

In the mythical plastics factory that will become the analogy for your business, it;s not good continually manufacturing widgets out of lumps of plastic, if you aren't going to have the funds to advertise and market the widget once it's made. If you are going to market a product or service, it has to be made before you sell it. The same is true of an online business. Before you know that you are going to receive money, can you still afford the money to continually advertise it?

It IS all about the money. Over 90% of businesses fail, because they do not have a viable financial plan to get them through the times when they aren't bringing anything in. For start ups, whether online or bricks-and-mortar, those times are in your first year. Make a plan, get some budgeting done, and get ready to spend - because nothing is for free.