The
Home Based Business
From
Board Room to Bedroom
by
MLM Consultant Michael L. Sheffield
MLM and Direct Sales Expert
As
the year 2004 approaches, home-based businesses throughout the United States
appear alive, well, and steadily expanding their sphere of influence.
In large part, this cozy scenario has been created by grim necessity; i.e.
the fact that millions of employees have lost their jobs through downsizing,
mergers, acquisitions, and plant closings during the last 10 years. Don't
look for a return to the prosperity of the 60's and 70's within the near future.
Economic forecasts predict that advanced technology will continue to make
many white collar jobs obsolete. White collar displacement has made the blue
collar shrinkage of the 1980s pale by comparison according to leading economist
Paul Zane Pilzer. Nor should one expect the new year to usher in any ready
solutions to the problem. More and more white-collar workers will be forced
into the contingent workforce. This corps of temps, part-time workers, consultants,
and the self-employed is expected to expand three times faster than the nation's
entire labor force.
Yes, one might say an underemployment crisis exists without fear of indulging
in hyperbole. However, as the old Chinese proverb points out, " Crisis
is composed of two words: one being danger while the other is opportunity."
Ironically, the same technology that caused widespread white collar displacement
has created the tools needed to implement and streamline practically any kind
of home-based business. "The computer appears to have been a major cause
of the increase in offices at home because it allowed the small business entrepreneur
and beginning professional to be a great deal more self-sufficient than was
ever before possible," said Herman Holtz, author of 1994's The Complete
Work-at-Home Companion. "The desktop computer has been a leveler in the
business world: ... even the smallest business today enjoys some advantages
that were formerly available only to larger organizations: computer capabilities
for automated mailing, accounting, inventory control, and many other important
business functions."
With the advent of sophisticated yet user-friendly technology such as today's
PC's, laser quality printers, fax machines, automated attendant, virtual electronic
office, virtual PBXl, cellular phones, etc. home-based business owners can
"get up to speed" with the rest of corporate America on a small
budget."The image of people who work out of their homes has changed radically
over the last ten years from hobbyists to creative professions," says
David Hanania, president of the Home Business Institute, a clearinghouse of
information, services, and benefits for those who work at home. This expert
ascribes much of home-based businesses' credibility to new office technology.
The typical Mom-and-Pop operation, working out of a basement armed with only
an answering machine and the "latest word " in electric typewriters,
has been consigned to the history books.
So today, practically anyone with a telephone, computer, and Internet connection
can go into business working from home. It is not uncommon today for businesses
to allow their employees to telecommute from home. While the telecommuter
is still an employee of the company doing, they work at home 1 or 2 days per
week. This is setting the stage for a new way of thinking about how business
will be done in the near future. I should also point out that these telecommuters
are prime for starting their own new business from home in the future adding
increased momentum to the army of people who seek freedom from the traditional
brick and business environment.
While these statistics certainly strengthen the credibility of home-based
workers, many rewards enjoyed by these entrepreneurs involve other lifestyle
issues. As might be expected, home-based businesses incorporate many advantages
for couples or single parents with children at home. Increases in child care
costs and commuting times are prompting families to seriously consider a home-based
business in terms of a primary or secondary source of income. Plus families
where both parents work outside the home are becoming increasingly concerned
about raising "latch-key children" with lowered levels of self-esteem
and achievement. Those seeking to improve the family environment as well as
their lifestyle have discovered that a home-based business is often the perfect
alternative to spending longer and longer business days (not to mention
weekends) on the employer's premises.
Michael L. Sheffield is the CEO of Sheffield Resource Network, a full-service direct sales and multi level marketing (MLM) consulting firm. He is a Co-Founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Multi Level Marketing International Association and in 2001 he was inducted into the MLMIA Hall of Fame. As an MLM Consultant, he and the Sheffield team have assisted in hundreds of national and international MLM corporate start-ups as well as offered a full line of services for established direct sales companies. As the most noted expert on compensation plans, he has been a guest lecturer on the subject for the DSA, University of Illinois, University of Texas, Berkeley and Harvard Alumni Association. Long considered the industry's top MLM Consultant , Michael Sheffield has helped launch over 500 new companies and 200 new products marketed by direct selling companies around the globe. He can be contacted at 480-968-6199, Sheffield Resource Network, 2239 N. Hayden Road, Suite 103, Scottsdale, AZ. 85257, website address: www.sheffieldnet.com.
