Work from home and travel?
. . . Richard
by Alan J. Zell, Ambassador of Selling

Q. I am very much interested to work from home and I love traveling especially in other countries. I am looking for a web-based home business to give me regular income with freedom to travel. I know selling information is the best web business but I do not know what sort of information to sell and how to set up automatic web business which I can operate from any where in the world. If possible

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A. Richard, There is no one who can tell you what the BEST type of business to go into whether it's on or off line. To be successful in any business it is having knowledge and experience in some a field.Ask yourself, would you want to buy, i.e., pay money to someone who knows nothing about what they're selling or doing? I think not.

It takes money to make money and, it takes time to make money. No business starts off profitably because it as start-up expenses and, once open, on-going expenses that will eat up whatever money is coming in and then more. So, how long can you support yourself without taking any salary or profit out of the business? This is reality. Almost no on-line only business is making a profit -- sales? Yes, after a time; Profit, NO, not for a long time.

It matters not whether you wish to travel or not. It matters that people want what you have to offer no matter where you are and that you can deliver what you're offering.

Operating an on-line only business is not less costly than operating a store or office. The costs are only spread among different categories. Where you don't have rent, you have hosting service and site update charges and your marketing expenses are many times more than if you had a store or office. With 7.5 million active sites and over 700+ search engines that reach less than 40% of those sites, the cost of getting someone to your site is very, very expensive. Just because you are there does not mean someone will find you.

So, I suggest, first, look for a business idea that calls for your experience, knowledge and skills. When you decide what that business is, build a business plan . . . failing to plan is planning to fail . . . stay home, get the business up and going and when it is, hire some good people, pay them well and then do your traveling.

Then you can travel without worrying about the business.

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