Stores are closing, prices are rising, long-time employees are being laid off by the thousands every day. What can a family do to protect itself and even thrive in a crazy economy like this?

It's simple. Have your own home business.

Not just a regular home business where you get to choose which 16 hours of your day you work, but an online business that provides passive residual income that will continue to provide for your family throughout the years.

That's the only way to be completely in charge of what you do, when you do it and how much money you will make. And with business going in the direction it's headed right now, you really don't have much of a choice.

If you are serious about living financially free, you HAVE to do something different from what the masses have been trained to do. You can no longer get by just being an employee, no matter how well paid. It's time to step out and do what you were called to do.

And because the Internet makes it so simple, it's not as hard as you think. In fact, the trend in business right now is to take offline business online. Big stores all have websites where you can order the very items you could drive down to the store and pick up.

You've seen it, you know it. You probably just don't know where to start, right? After all, there are tons of scam artists out there. There always have been. But that doesn't mean that everyone who sends you an email is a fraud.

Have you ever found a good price on milk at the store and gone home excited about sending a few emails to your friends, forums and groups telling them to go check it out? If you have, then you have participated in online business; you just didn't get paid for it.

And that's something that drives me crazy - people not getting paid for their work - but I won't get off track talking about that right now. I want you to see how easy it is to have an online business.

There is another trend that I've been amazed at in the past year. People who don't even know each other are talking online, then meeting offline. Social networks are notorious for hosting meetups and barcamps.

Taking their online relationships offline is a way to further the relationship to learn from each other and benefit socially, spiritually and in business.

Although I'm surprised at how common it is becoming, it's not the first time I've seen it.

Back in 2001, I invited the members of our Yahoo! Group over to my farm in Tennessee. 100 people came and four flew. The next year it happened again. Then we started hosting live conferences where I brought in Internet millionaires to teach our families how to make money on the Internet in a variety of ways.

My mentor encouraged me to start a mentoring group for the folks who wanted to learn more and that group is still going strong today.

So now we are following the trend of taking online projects offline by hosting our very first Protege Retreat only for our member families.

And I can invite a limited number of those who don't belong to our community so I want you to think about coming. Space is limited because we rented a small building and each family can bring 5 guest families, including their kids!

So it won't take long to fill the seats.

I've invited a few guest experts to interact with us and I'm encouraging some of our proteges to lead a few sessions too. So it's bound to be an exciting event.

The main purpose of it, besides giving our protege families a chance to meet each other in person, is to get inspiration, encouragement and direction for starting a home business.

If you see the seriousness of what's happening in our country right now and want to protect your family from potential financial failure, consider joining us.

And if you join our online community - Educating for Success.com for just $1 for the first month - you'll be part of the first folks to get the announcement.

You'll also be eligible for a discount on the family registration.

So if a home business interests you, plan to attend this event where you'll meet some very cool people and learn the basics of online business.

You'll also never be the same again.

Start here: http://www.EducatingforSuccess.com

My friend Andy Jenkins is a marketing genius. He's created a business building course that everyone needs whether they realize it or not.

It's called FormulaFive.

There are a limited number of spots in his program to learn how to get started generating a serious income online.

If you're ready for some serious online education, here's where to start:

www.EducatingforSuccess.com/f5.html

You'll be glad you did!

One of my Best Friends, Ellen McCullough, who will be at the Protege Retreat in April is in an online contest and needs your vote.

Here is Zach's blog with all the details:

http://tinyurl.com/6daughters

Make sure you tell him you voted for her when you see him in Huntsville!

So many books, so little time...

Rhea!
who loves to help you figure out what you want to be when you grow up!