But working from home has not always been an option for Russ. In fact, at times he was away from home 20 weeks out of the year making a living. But since his two Web sites are turning into his primary source of income, things are about to change.

Ever since Russ was young, he worked within the family business selling hair and beauty supplies. This upbringing instilled within him a desire to be self-employed-to be his own boss in charge of his own destiny. So in February 2004, when he received an invitation to a StoresOnline conference detailing Internet marketing strategies, he decided to attend.

"After all, if I learned only one thing [at the preview], wouldn't it be worth an afternoon of my time," Russ says.

At the conference, he was impressed by the tools and information presented by the guest speakers. Plus the seminar answered several questions Russ had.

"Like many people who get involved in Internet marketing, I believed that search engines were the end all, be all of Internet marketing," says Russ. "Through the seminar, I learned [the search engine] wasn't all there was. There was really a lot more out there."

Previously Russ had learned about different Internet marketing techniques, yet he wasn't clear about their details until after the seminar.
Since Russ had already built several retail hair and beauty supply Web sites on his own, he knew the StoresOnline software would be a great investment.

"It was clear to me that this was going to be an opportunity in which I was going to make a lot more money in a relatively short amount of time," Russ recalls thinking.

Accordingly, he bought a package of three website licenses from StoresOnline in an attempt to change his current business strategy and be home more often.

His success with the StoresOnline Web sites was immediate. After he created his first StoresOnline Web site, his sales increased by 50 percent. Because of the solid success of his first site, Russ quickly started on a second-one dedicated to his hobby: Judo martial arts.

Russ is an instructor in the sport and martial art of Judo, and as he thought about integrating his love for the sport with a retail site, he realized it would be a "labor of love."

"The idea of combining something I love so much with something that is going to make me money-it just doesn't get any more exciting than that!" he says.

In his excitement, Russ needed to "blaze some new trails," so he devoted his new and unique site to the marketing and distribution of Gis (martial arts uniforms). He began by setting up a drop-shipper.

"Based on some of the things I learned in the seminar, I had the tools, and I had the confidence to go to [my competitors] and outline a program-a partnership with [them]. And they are thrilled to do it."

After securing his suppliers, Russ developed his site and went live in May 2004.

Sales from the site, www.JudoGis.com, were quick to come in. In fact, his sales rapidly snowballed, sometimes doubling in size from one month to the next. It soon became clear to Russ that this new Web site was a good resource for earning an income.

Russ says one of the benefits of his second Web site is that, "I carry no inventory, all of the orders are filled from a fax, and I can literally run this business from anywhere. How cool is that?"

After achieving remarkable success with two online stores, Russ began to wish he had bought six Web site licenses instead of only three.

"I feel like I short-changed myself," Russ says. "I have had [opportunities for] partnerships with other companies, [and] I didn't follow up on those opportunities with these companies because I wanted to keep those sites for myself, and I wanted to get my own thing up and running before I worked on someone else's.  However, I have two sites up, a third site in the works, and next year I will be purchasing additional sites."

Although Russ did have some prior experience building retail sites, he explains, "The StoresOnline system is so simple to use. It is very, very rare that I consider coding HTML."

Best of all, Russ is fulfilling the needs of his family and his dreams, as he now has the ability to stay home with his wife and upcoming child. He highly encourages those who want to be in control of their own destiny to "Go for it, give it a shot!"

"The truth of the matter is, you can make this happen!" Russ says. "You have an opportunity that can take you places that you never believed possible.  Don't put limitations on your life.  You can make this happen; you can do this; you can be self-employed; you can make money for yourself and not for someone else.  I love being in charge of my own destiny and I think you will too."

Visit Russ' websites at
http://www.judogis.com
http://www.hairforsale.com
http://www.cyberperm.com

*Testimonial results are not typical and your individual results will vary. Your success depends on having the right price, product, and marketing efforts.