One of the things that people do, or at least they should do, when starting a home business is try to figure out some kind of a timetable for generating an income. The problem is, most people have unrealistic expectations. You've heard the saying, "I want it all and I want it now" right? Well, running a home business doesn't quite work that way. In this article, I'm going to give you a realistic time table for generating your income. If you can hit these goals, you'll do just fine. My thanks to my friend Stan for supplying me with the data for this article. I've modified it slightly to coincide with my own findings.
First thing you have to understand is that a regular off line brick and mortar business takes over two years to see a profit. So why anybody in the online world would expect things to be any different is beyond me. Heck, I only made $28 my first 5 months. Things take time. Having said that, here is my realistic timetable for achieving your income goals.
Your first goal should be just to break even. That's right... spending no more money than you're making. That should happen in the span of about three months. If you can break even in that time period, you're doing okay.
Your next goal should be to make a profit of about $250 per month. This should be achievable in about three to six months. Why $250? Because this is a significant figure. It's enough to pay a bill or even put away some money for a vacation in the summer.
Next is where I deviate slightly from Stan's data. I believe that within the next six months to one year, there is no reason why you can't be generating an income of about $3,000 a month. Why $3,000? That comes out to exactly $100 per day for a 30 day month. Where do I get the $100 per day? This is an easily achievable figure doing some very simple things like freelancing... a subset of IM. It's something to consider in addition to your regular marketing.
My next stepping stone is $5,000 a month. This is something you should be able to achieve in your second year. Why? Because after I stopped messing around and got serious, that's how long it took me to reach this income level. If I can do it...YOU can do it. I'm no rocket scientist. Yes, it will take a considerable amount of work but it is possible.
My last goal is $10,000 per month. Stan says $8,333 because that's what you need to reach 6 figures a year. I say heck with that. I'd rather make 5 figures a month and get me well over that hump to allow for income tax. If I make JUST 6 figures a year, after taxes I'm below it. At $10,000 per month, after taxes you're just over it...depending on your overall tax bracket and where you live. You should be able to achieve this figure in your third year.
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