Build Your Business The Way That I Did In 1995

Back in 1995 I wrote a business plan for a new Internet Business. The business plan outlined a wonderful Internet Service Provider (ISP) business that had the potential to grow into a huge company….

I had big plans – I presented my plan to local business owners, investors, friends and family. The initial startup cost was near $100,000.00 – which was a very conservative amount considering all of the hardware and network infustructure.

So many thought that the Internet was going to be a passing fad – I was told 'Like Pet Rocks!' Can you imagine?

After a while I sat down with my wife and got her to agree to let me purchase one server and some software to see if this was all I said it would be… she agreed! I formed the company as a 'C' Corporation – this would allow me to protect myself and more importantly, to offer stock to potential investors.

It wasn't long – just a couple of months, when I began to see the potential and I put plans into action to fund this venture privately… and to quit my job of 9 yrs – Sr Project Engineer in Research & Development.

(It all started here – click on the image to the left to see when I really started online with ARIN.)

So I cashed in my $40,000 – 401k, and used several credit cards to fund the startup. A total of about $100,000.

Within the first year or so I needed more money to grow the business. You see we were growing at a rate of about 140%/yr – it's near impossible to sustain a brick & mortar business at this rate…. but I had a plan – I started looking for investors to put some needed cash into the business. I was able to raise about $40,000 between 6 private investors. Not a lot, but it helped…

You see this business requires a lot of equipment. The equipment needed to be purchased before the customes came online. So I was investing $10k at a crack to put on new customes.

Eventually I needed almost $1 million to continue with this growth – this was in 2000. I had become friends with two guys who could put this kind of money together, and I set up a meeting with them. I will tell you that this isn't something that I would suggest just anyone undertake. The meeting got me about $200,000 – but I had to give up a good chunk of the company stock that I owned. I gave in and it all worked out…

I won't bore you with all of the details, but today my 31 yr old son runs this company and it does several million in sales each year.

So my point is that if you really want to make money there is a right way to do it… not everyone is able to handle this – today this company is approaching 15 yrs old. It is a wonderful accomplishment for me and for my son continuing on.

To your continued success…

Michael Hobach

Free money or the ATM syndrome

I did some searching with Google and Yahoo the other day for methods promising people that they can earn money for Free – no money out of their pocket…

I can't believe how many 'systems' there are!

These programs exist, and yes you can make money – but the money you have the ability to make is just peanuts. Seriously!

If this is what you are looking for – you won't find it here!

The thing about making money is that there is such thing as a free lunch! This really is true… and unless you are prepared to think about earning money as a business, you are doomed to fail – and it will really hurt! How do I know? I've watched dozens of people do it…

Here's the thing – in order to make money anywhere you will need to several things, and if someone is offering you a free lunch, then chances are that they are the ones who will profit and not you!

Think of it this way…

Most of these programs are captive – meaning that the creator of the product and marketing system owns everything. The only thing that they offer to you is a small commission for every sale that you generate. Usually you need to find people to send to their web site and they forbid you from setting up your own sites to market their products. They own the list(s), the product, and the whole system…

Say you send 100 people to this site who sign up to receive more information. You cannot market other products or services to these people because you do not have control of the list!

Actually you will put a lot of work into these programs and if you are successful and you do generate some income, great – you will have to keep active and keep producing to continue to receive an income from that program. Now what happens when you decide to do something else – you can't take any of those people with you – they are owned by the program producers.

As an example – the NM companies I worked for got the benefit of my labor when I left – They got to keep those thousands of people who I recruted, and the sales they are generating are now paying those who were above me!

Now if that were my own company – my list – I could market to them anything that I wanted and continue to make money from their purchases for as long as they stayed in my downline or on my customer list.

I would encourage you to think about this whole thing and maybe adjust your paradym – so many people are set up to fail because they want everything for nothing. They beleive that if they buy a $97course to show them how to make money, all that they have to do is buy the program – and the money will come spitting out like an ATM!

The only way to create real wealth is to have a business plan – it doesn't matter what you are going to sell or do, you need to have a plan.

I will tell you more as we go forward…

To your continued success,

Michael Hobach

MLM and Network Marketing Schemes

I thought I’d cover this early in our discussion – I have been involved with a number of Network Marketing Companies in the past. I have built a downline of several thousand people. I have earned thousands of dollars per month through Nework Marketing – years ago…

I have several really nice suits and cotton white shirts in my closet.

I’ve taken and written off many vacations.

I even purchased for cash a timeshare in Florida just outside of the Disney properties.

I never worked so hard in all of my life!

Some companies have really wonderful products and I still order Nuskin through my distributor account. Other companies have fizzled and all but gone away. Yet others keep going because they make so much money that they can stay alive.

I was a presenter – I had my laptop connected to a video projector and I stood up there talking to the groups that my downline ‘Invited’ to our presentations.

I did in-home demonstrations – I just can’t tell a woman that she has lines and wrinkles in her face that our product would help!

I told people that it was easy to make the money that I made – that I would show them exactly what to do.

Have you been here?

Pay attention to what I’m going to say for the rest of this post…

If a company has a product that is sold through a distribution channel that requires multiple people to earn a commission – no matter how good it is, it is going to be over priced. Remember that the company makes the biggest profit – then all of the ‘Distributors’ down the line to where the product actually gets to the customer. Whew… hard to imagine the whole $$ thing. You have a  $1.00 product that ends up costing the buyer $49.00 because of everyone in between that needs to get a cut.

No matter how good it is it takes a lot of ‘selling’ to convince the buyer that it’s worth it.

Don’t forget the ‘autoship’ product that you have to maintain – $100 of product produces commissions for all of that upline – doesn’t matter that YOU are buying it now does it!

Here is what I really didn’t like about Network Marketing…

My (BIG) income had nothing to do with my ability to sell or market the product(s) – it was directly dependent on how well I recruited, motivated and babied those in my downline.

I stopped counting how many times I heard – "I can’t find anyone to buy this stuff" or "I don’t have any friends who I can recruit"

But this is why I won’t do this ever again – no matter what the product or how close to the top I’m placed. Just never going to happen.

The difference with doing my own thing…

When I have my own company, products, services, etc – I can decide what I’m going to sell today. If wigs that make a woman look like beyonce are hot (look up ‘beyonce wigs’) then I will promote it… if it’s the beginning of the NFL season I want to be able to promote ‘NFL wear’ or Fantasy Football League web sites.

I want to choose what I’m going to sell… something that I know is hot and real people are really buying them!

I don’t want some company to tell me that their product is hot – because that’s what they produce and market – regardless of how cold the market is for their product. Just because they say that their products are needed – it’s the wanted products that I will be promoting!

IMPORTANT NOTE!

Please don’t comment about how the MLM or Network Company that you are with is different. I’ll delete your comment and ban you from this site.

We are not here to promote MLM / Network Marketing as the way to really make money.

To your continued success,

Michael Hobach 

How To Make Money Online

I’ve been trying to figure out just how to convey all of this information to you. If you’ve been following me for any length of time you know that I just write – what I feel and I really don’t hold much back!

So let me start with the obvious stuff you’ve been bombarded with and why you might be skeptical of the whole concept of making money online…

What’s being beat into our heads

I’m sure that you have heard a lot about affiliate marketing, or article marketing or a number of other concepts for making money online. I’m sure you have seen these new malls that are springing up online supposedly to sell things that everyone is buying anyway… and I’m sure you have seen the Internet version of so many MLM / NM companies…. Right?!

I’m here to tell you in simple terms how to make money on the Internet…

Are you ready to know the simple truth about making money?

I bet you are!

Before I come right out and say it I’m going to attempt to get you to think… I do believe that too many people are stuck – they can’t seem to think outside of what they already know to be true. In other words, if you talk to friends and family you will probably hear them talk about getting a raise… or getting a new job… or maybe a second or third job! That is because that is how they were raised to think – maybe you think the same way.

Ok – first let me tell you that anything and everything that YOU buy or pay for is available at a wholesale price – or it is available from someone / someplace (on the Internet) where they pay you a commission through their affiliate program when someone buys their product or service through your efforts.

You are thinking right now – yeah Mike I know that and next you are going to suggest that I buy something at wholesale or through an affiliate link and then try to sell it on my own web site… Nope! Not what I’m suggesting at all.

Actually I just want you to understand that pretty much anything you can think of has some way of making money from it’s sale.

Someone has to buy something before anyone makes money!

Here is a concept –

You can only make money when someone buys something…

Simple concept right?

So now I’m going to throw something at you again…

If you can only make money when someone buys something then wouldn’t you want to be involved in promoting something that a whole lot of people are spending their money on?

Ok – now you are thinking that I’m about to push to you some specific product that is in high demand…

The truth is that there is no one product or service that by itself can fulfill this need!

I’m confused Mike – what are we going to sell or promote? How are we going to make money online?

Well not so fast – we have a lot of things to talk about first…

For now I want you to think about something that you bought recently that you just had to have! Something that others are buying as well – maybe family or friends suggested this item or service – but the point is that you got online and did some research and then bought one.

Think about the process of finding it…

• How did you look for it?
• Where did you go?
• Did you use a search engine? Which one?
• Is it only available from one company or do many have it?

Start a journal of what you are doing – log search phrases, vendors, where they show up in the search results, etc.

Remember that there is no one product or service that is better than another to make money online.

Remember that there are trends – could you have made money selling rocks when Pet Rocks were the craze? You bet – without even trying!

Remember that what you have to sell may not be what people are buying – to make money on the Internet you must find a product that has people already looking for it – and in mass!

Remember that everything that people are buying has the possibility to make YOU money.

Ok – give me your thoughts on this – don’t ask me to explain this any more than I already have here! Please!

This site is setup to give you, or anyone, the opportunity to find something or some way to make money online.

IMPORTANT NOTE!

I am receiving Emails from those on my list here who think that they have the ultimate way to make money online. To be honest – I don’t want to hear about them. Most are MLM or Network Marketing um… schemes – been there, tried that – doesn’t… I’ll explain next time! Just don’t send these URL’s to me!

To your continued success,

Michael Hobach 

Welcome

Greetings!

I’ve been taking it easy for the last year plus now and I think it’s about time I start sharing with you the things that I’ve learned in my time online. Since 1994 there have been so many changes online and the Internet has evolved into a medium that is used by just about everyone…

What do you do to make money online? 

How can you earn a living online?

Well it doesn’t take a genious to know that there are opportunities around us everywhere – not just online! So sit back and watch as I share with you what I’ve learned…

BTW – take a look at the ‘About’ page here – it tells my story and hopefully you will get some inspiration from what I’ve been through…

To your success

Mike