What is the key ingredient of ALL really successful businesses? Why does one local hamburger joint remain just that - a LOCAL hamburger joint with one store, when another hamburger store turns into McDonald's? Why does one local carpenter spend his life replacing shingles and siding, when the carpenter next door turns his business into a huge construction company, employing hundreds of construction workers and building 600 homes every year?

What do all SUCCESSFUL businesses have in common? I can answer that in one word: SYSTEMS!

The truth is, most local hamburger joints make a hamburger that tastes much better than McDonald's. But when Ray Croc designed his McDonald's empire, he developed a SYSTEM of building and marketing hamburgers. The end result? If you go into a local burger joint, you might get a better burger. Then again, you might not. But if you go into any McDonald's anywhere in the world, you will know exactly what to expect. Every McDonald's burger - worldwide – tastes the same. Because of the system. Ray Croc benefits from the system. Every local McDonald's franchise owner benefits from the system. And the customers benefit from the system.

It's the SYSTEM that makes the difference!

So, the hamburger entrepreneur has two options: he can open his own little local hamburger joint, or he can purchase a franchise – a SYSTEM - from McDonald's. Which do you think has a better chance of success? How many times have you seen a McDonald's restaurant go out of business?

Now, let's talk about online home businesses. There are literally thousands of businesses opportunities available online for you to get involved in. But here's the thing. Most of them do not have a system for you to plug into. Sure, they have a website, they have a few prewritten sales ads for you, and maybe a few banner ads. But they don't have a complete, thorough, well designed and AUTOMATED system for you to tap into (like McDonald's does). And they have very little, if any, training on how to use the few tools that they did give you. You are left to take the few tools they give you and then fill in the rest to build your own system of marketing and follow up. They give you SOME of the building blocks, but you must supply the rest and build your own system. It is crucial that you do so because the 96% of businesses that fail, do so for lack of a system. But do you even know how to build an effective system?

Here are a few things that a system for an e-business should include:

* An awesome product - one that is PROVEN to sell, not just one that you think might sell.

* Complete training for all business owners and affiliates.

* Thoroughly TESTED marketing campaigns using MANY different venues, both online and off line.

* A way to track every single ad to determine its effectiveness, eliminating the ones that don't work.

* A way to test the conversion rate of the website.

* A way to collect the email addresses of every visitor to the website.

* A way to follow up with every visitor using ongoing automated email campaigns. (This is where MOST of the sales come from.)

* A way to make additional back-end sales to current or previous customers.

* A way to collect the money and fulfill the order.

* A way to service the product after it is sold.

And every one of these things should be either automated or outsourced. That way, you can spend your time doing other things, instead of talking to customers or shipping products.

So in your search for the perfect home business to get involve with, looking for a company that supplies a good product should not be your only objective. You should also look for a company that has a SYSTEM that is COMPLETE and PROVEN - a franchise, if you will - that you can just plug into. You should look for a SYSTEM that is completely AUTOMATED and/or OUTSOURCED - a system that does the work FOR YOU. The more complete the system, the less work you will have to do to make it profitable. The more complete the system, the less chance there is that you will inadvertently leave out one of the essential ingredients that every successful business must have.

If you find a system like this, it will increase your chances of success tenfold! Instead of spending your time beating your head against the wall, trying to build an e-business that is not quite making a profit, finding the proper SYSTEM will allow you to live the life of leisure that I KNOW you have always dreamt about!