Working from Home an Obstacle to Success?

After the filming for Home Business Brains was done, Alan Kaplan and I spent a couple hours at Cafe Ronda talking about life and business as rain drizzled down on the New York skyscrapers.

One of the insights Alan shared was how working from home can actually be an obstacle to success.

Here’s why:

If you work from home, you can achieve a certain level of success. You might earn six figures a year and enjoy a flexible schedule.

For many self-employed folks, this may be just fine.

But what Alan realized is that working from home — and staying inside that “home office bubble” — is really a self-centered perspective.

You see, there will come a point in your business where if you want to grow any more you will have to shift your focus away from you and toward other people.

Once you shift your focus and involve other people in your business, that’s when magic can happen. It’s about vision… sharing that vision… and

Making Other People’s Success Your Success.

This is not an easy transition to make — changing your focus from SELF (and personal profit) to PEOPLE (and how you can help them).

One way Alan is tackling it is by traveling more and actually meeting people face-to-face. So far, it’s been amazing for him. He’s formed business partnerships, gotten new ventures off the ground, and he feels more energized than ever before.

Like Alan, I love face-to-face meetings. There’s something about meeting in person that can’t be duplicated by email correspondence or phone calls.

Sure, it requires more effort. But often the pay-off can be huge.

Example #1: I’ve traced more than $60,000 in copywriting fees to a single seminar I attended in fall of 2005.

Example #2: I’ve traced more than $15,000 in profit to a small seminar where I met Michel Fortin, Ray Edwards, and John Anghelache. (Ken Calhoun and Rick Butts were also there.)

Example #3: I’ve established “pick up the phone and call ’em anytime you want” friendships with people like Dave Bernstein, Ray Edwards, and John Anghelache.

Are You a Real Person?

If you are a service professional, and you’re running your business 100% online, you can be easily mistrusted and ignored. That’s because so long as you’re online only, you’re a virtual person. You have no strong connections with your customers and promotional partners.

Furthermore, I don’t know if YOU are really YOU! Off the top of my head, I can think of at least three online businesses where the primary product spokesperson is not a real person.

On the other hand, if you get out there and meet your customers, clients, and promotional partners, you’ve now elevated your business a notch. You’re a real flesh-and-blood person! And, as such, easier to trust and much harder to ignore.

Here’s a secret: You can’t duplicate real life. And real life happens in four dimensions: heighth, width, depth, and time.

Every time I connect with another human being in the real world, we’ve got a real connection (instead of a virtual connection). There is a certain level of trust, shared experience, and friendship that happens automatically. These are things that are hard (if not impossible) to duplicate online.

Step into the Light

There are people out there who need you. People who would benefit from knowing you on a deeper level than online only. And those same people can benefit you as well.

So if you’ve been holed up in your home office — a self-imposed hermit — then step out into the light. Go participate in some meetings where you live. If you’re adventurous, register for a seminar, book a flight, and go meet people.

It may be a foreign experience for you… possibly a little intimidating at first… but I promise it will change your perspective and improve your business — if you let it.

Remember: Success is not about having the most “friends” on Facebook or the most followers on Twitter. It’s about forging deep and meaningful relationships with people — and finding ways to really help each other.

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. My friends Ray Edwards and “DJ Dave” Bernstein have built AMAZING businesses through the simple practice of going to seminars. And now they’ve created an audio training program called Seminar Strategy Secrets.

Originally, it was only available as a physical course for $297. But they just recently “digitized” it… AND lowered the price to $97.

If you’re planning to attend a seminar, I highly recommend this program. It walks you through what to do BEFORE, DURING, and AFTER the seminar to get the best results out of your investment.

Think about it: You’re already investing anywhere from $500 to $2,000 or more to attend a seminar. Don’t you think it’s worth an additional $97 to make sure you get the highest ROI possible?

You can learn more about Seminar Strategy Secrets here:

http://rhealy.hifiwebguy.hop.clickbank.net/ <======= My blatant affiliate link.

Now, if you’d rather not use my affiliate link, you can also go straight to the sales page here:

http://www.SeminarStrategySecrets.com <======= NOT my affiliate link.

Either way, check it out. ;-)