Ask Doug Jones

Perhaps like you, my wife Nancy and I stumbled across the idea of a home based business by accident…or, considering what has happened in the economy,  maybe it was by Divine Intervention.

We live in Orange County, California with Molly, our black lab.

In 2010 we celebrated our 33rd anniversary, and our two adult children, Jen and Keith are still our pride and joy and our best friends.

I am a Certified Mortgage Planner, a licensed life insurance agent, and now,
a home based online marketer.   Nancy is the former Director of Women’s Ministries at our church and she is now actively engaged in mentoring younger women.

God has blessed us and life is good.  But  it wasn’t always that way…

After serving as a Navy pilot during the Vietnam War, I got an MBA and entered the business world and eventually owed two traditional businesses… a manufacturer of high performance engines for ski boats, and a mortgage brokerage.

I discovered that being the boss just means that you have a job that you can’t quit.   The income was good, but the price was too high… sleepless nights wondering how I would cover payroll when 64 families depended on us doing that… up to $160,000 per month in overhead expenses to be covered BEFORE I could take a paycheck… ligitgation… pushy clients… long  hours… stress…  enormous personal liability and risk… and worst of all, too many nights and weekends either physically or emotionally away from my family.

Nancy and I knew there HAD to be a better way.   We were sick and tired of the fact that I was living to work.  We wanted to find a way to provide a great lifestyle for our family that would allow us to enjoy that lifestyle TOGETHER.

Fortunately, we discovered that we could earn more working from home with no overhead and none of the stress and hassles of a traditional business, and we just fell in love with that idea.

What I personally love about a home based business is all the “NOs”:     NO boss, NO employees, NO pushy clients,  NO significant overhead expenses, NO accounts receivable, NO personal guarantees, NO government regulatory problems, NO huge investment,  NO litigation, NO hassles,  NO stress, and NO limit on how much money we can earn.

We didn’t do well financially at first, but we learned a lot about working with people and about marketing, and that helped us in every area of our lives… I was more effective in my job and we were more connected as a family as a direct result of the skills we learned in our first venture in the home based business arena.   (And yes, the name of that company began with an “A”)

We later came back and did well enough in another company that we discovered true freedom for the first time in our lives.  Our income was no longer dependent on my day to day activities.   We were able to create a residual income that paid the bills whether I went to work that month or not.
We didn’t make a fortune at first, but we made enough to be free.

And now that the economy is so bad, our home based business has become our financial lifeboat… or perhaps more like a financial cruise ship.

What I discovered along the way is that PROFESSIONAL TRAINING, MARKETING SYSTEMS, TEAMWORK,  and ACCOUNTABILITY make all the difference.

I didn’t do very well in the mortgage business until I had put all three in place.

Until then I worked hard but didn’t get very far.  Once I had a chance to learn from the best, I quickly become one of the top producing loan officers in Southern California and was a founding partner in one of the largest mortgage brokerages in our area.

I was the same person and the market was pretty much the same.  What made the difference for me was the skill, knowledge and confidence that I gained from the TRAINING; the MARKETING SYSTEMS we developed from the knowledge that we had gained; the TEAM SUPPORT, and the DAILY ACCOUNTABILITY to do what I was supposed to do.

The thing that I am MOST grateful for right now is that we have found an online community of like-minded individuals who have applied those same concepts of PROFESSIONAL TRAINING,  MARKETING SYSTEMS,  and ACCOUNTABILITY in the home based business arena… and those principles work here too!

If you’re looking for an easy ride to riches, forget it NOW!  There isn’t one.  If there was, everyone would be rich.

But if you are willing to invest time and energy and a little money, then the right home based business can set you free.  That makes it a PERFECT retirement business… because retirement is about CASH FLOW… it’s not about age  (And as you can see from the picture at the top of this page, retirement is becoming more important to me with each passing year).

If you’re willing to learn and grow and follow a very simple and specific plan of action, you CAN achieve your goals in this wonderful and unlimited industry!

And the Internet makes that a reality for anyone who’s willing to pay the price.   You don’t have to be good at it to start, but you do have to START in order to become good at it.

All the key elements are in place if you’re ready to take control.   In this blog I’ll point you toward excellent resources for developing your skill and knowledge.    If you’re willing to learn and grow and let go of your perceived limitations, then you can accomplish whatever you set your mind to.   The opportunity in this wild new frontier called The Internet is limitless.

Are you ready for a better quality of life?  If you would like to have an honest conversation about the good, the bad, and the ugly of the home based business industry, I invite you to call.   I’d be honored to have that conversation with you.

Thanks for reading our story.

God Bless,

DOUG

714-544-6357