You really can’t make this stuff up. I’m going to tell you a brief story and then I’m going to get to the point of my article. You really DON’T want to skip this one.

I’m at the Warrior Forum and a member asks if it’s possible to get one on one coaching for $100. Now let that figure sink in a bit because what I’m going to do with it will totally blow your mind.

Let’s for argument sake say that the person asking this is actually serious and not just trolling, though I wouldn’t be surprised if he was. Assuming that much, let’s take a look at the dollar figure and analyze it.

If the person was expecting one on one coaching for, let’s say, a month, what would this translate to as an hourly rate? Oh, and the reason I picked a month was because that’s about the minimum amount of time one would need to make any significant progress.

Assuming that we take out weekends and it’s a 30 day month, we’re looking at about 22 work days. Let’s say the person is expecting his coach to spend about 4 hours a day with him. If you do the math, it comes out to 88 hours of coaching for the month.

If you divide $100 by 88 hours it comes out to about $1.14 per hour if you round up.

Now roll that figure around in your head for a while.

The minimum wage in The Bahamas is about $4 per hour.

Heck, you could work one-third of a month in Chile and make more money.

I think I’ve made my point. I really do hope this person was just trolling the forum and not really serious about wanting coaching for $100.

Okay, I took a very extreme example to make a point. Hopefully, the usual expectations of those looking to run their own home business aren’t quite as preposterous. However, my faith in mankind as it is, I’m just no so sure anymore.

So let’s really get down to brass tacks here.

Naturally, depending on where you live in the world, your needs are going to be different from somebody else’s. For example, the cost of living in New York is a heck of a lot more than the cost of living in Covington, KY.

And that actually brings us to a very valid point. Because running a home business is not dependent on geography, somebody living in KY can make the same amount as somebody living in NY and end up putting a lot more money in the bank for a rainy day. That is one of the BIGGEST advantages of running a home business. Geography, for the most part, just doesn’t matter.

Still, you want to set your expectations reasonably.

So the question is, what’s reasonable or realistic?

This is where having no frame of reference makes answering the question difficult if not impossible. So what I’m going to do is try to give you some frame of reference so that you can “realistically” set goals for your business for the near AND distant future.

One thing in your favor is startup costs. It costs a lot less to start a home business than it does a brick and mortar store. You don’t have to worry about rent or stocking inventory. And in most cases, you don’t have to worry about hiring employees … at least not right away.

But you do have to understand that JUST like with a brick and mortar store, the business isn’t going to come right away. You’re going to have to advertise that you even exist. Unlike a brick and mortar store, where at least the people driving down the street will see your “Grand Opening” sign, people on the Internet won’t have a clue that you’re even there unless you tell them.

This brings up the issue of advertising cost and speed. The more you spend, the faster you’ll be found. That’s just the nature of the Internet. Sure, there are exceptions. You can create a site that somebody with some clout just happens to love and sends viral, bringing you tons of visitors. More often than not, it doesn’t happen that way.

So you essentially have two ways to bring traffic to your site.

1. Pay for it.
2. Generate it over time.

The pay for it part is obvious. You buy ads. If you have the money to do this, you can see traffic and sales right away. If you don’t, you’re left with number 2.

This is where people run into problems beginning with lack of patience.

If you’re going to generate traffic over time, then you’re most likely looking at writing articles, creating videos and maybe doing a little SEO on your site. This is all great stuff but it doesn’t happen right away.

With a paid ad, you pay for the ad and that’s it. It goes up and the traffic either comes or it doesn’t come.

With the other methods, the amount of time required to do each part (write the content, record the video, wait for SEO to take root) is considerable. Some methods take weeks or even months. Plus, you will see results incrementally over time. You won’t get a big rush on day one like you will with a well placed paid ad.

If you’re expecting more than this or quicker than this, then your expectations are NOT realistic.

What I gave you is just ONE example. You can apply this to just about any aspect of running a home business including building a list (you won’t get a million subscribers in one day) or selling your first product. Most likely, sales will trickle in at first rather than gush their way through the storm portal.

So please, set your expectations realistically or you’re likely to be very disappointed in your results.

Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Either was any successful home business.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want to get your home business on the right track? Get my 4 Steps To Business Success and you’ll be on your way to a successful business in no time flat.