Personal Business Journal

This article is about what it takes to succeed if you want to set up business working from home. More and more people are looking at this form of work as it has many advantages to it. There are however many pitfalls and you can easily fall into negative traps which ultimately can end in failure for your small business.

I now work from home and have been self-employed for around ten years. I had previously worked in a large office environment and although the pay was quite good, I soon became annoyed at my long commute to work and also with some of the people I was working with. I have always wanted to be my own boss, set my own hours and be able to take holidays when ever I wanted to. Working from home seemed the perfect answer for me.

I run a small business and do not employ anybody, it is just me. Now you may think that this is great and I have to say for the most part it is. For the business to succeed, I need to work very hard and I need to keep coming up with new ideas to keep myself motivated and to keep the business alive. I have to admit, I am not a Monday person and in the early days I found it very hard to actually do any work on this particular day. Working on my own and not having anyone to answer to made it very easy for me to just go back to bed for example. This of course did not help my business and was something I had to get out of doing.

The first tip therefore, is that you need to have self-discipline to make your home based business work. Each week set yourself business goals of what you want to achieve. Treat working from home like you are working in an office, do not be tempted by watching the television or by any other distraction. You have to ensure you put in the required hours to make the business the success you want it to be.

The second bit of advice is to be careful what you eat. I fell into a trap of eating a lot of snack type foods, and did not ever feel that I had the time to cook myself a meal for lunch. I soon started to put on weight and this caused me to lose some of my self-confidence. I needed all of my self-confidence to keep up my belief that I could succeed at working from home. I now make sure that I give myself an hour break for lunch and to re-charge my batteries. I am also careful not to snack in between meals.

Thirdly you are likely to experience good months and bad months, financially. It is important therefore that you start saving so that when you are having a bad period, you have the cashflow to keep the business going. Also keep some money aside to pay the taxman. When I first became self-employed I loved the fact that I did not need to pay tax each month. When I received my yearly tax bill it was quite a shock however and I have since started to put an amount aside each month to cover it.

Most businesses have these peaks and troughs. When business is not going so well, it is very easy to become downhearted and even depressed. I found this working by myself, I had nobody to pick me up from these lows. I have since realised that feeling sorry for myself is not going to help the situation, therefore I have to work even harder during these periods and that I have to keep thinking positive.

So, you’ve decided to start a home based business. Congratulations! and welcome to the fast-paced world of entrepreneurship. While there is a lot to learn, your effort will be worth it. The thrill of growing your business, the freedom and flexibility to set your own hours, and the possibilities of ever-increasing financial rewards are all wonderful reasons to start your home based business.

Now that you’ve decided to start your business, you might be wondering “How can I get it off to the strongest possible start?” These seven tips will help:

1) Set up a separate working space in your home. It doesn’t matter if this is a small bedroom, one part of the garage, or a corner of the living room. The important thing is to have some space that you can designate as your working area. This will give you the space and room you need to craft your dream.

2) Stock your working space with materials. This sounds basic, perhaps, but one underlying element of success is that you have easy access to the tools, materials, and other resources you need. Gathering everything close by also keeps you from wasting time searching for it, so this step can be considered a time management strategy, too.

3) Speaking of time management, your third step is to define the parameters of your business. What days and hours will you work? When will you market? When will you provide services or products to clients? How will you keep all of this straight?

4) Balance action with planning. One of the most common pitfalls to successful entrepreneurship is getting too caught up in action without enough planning. Stated another way, this means that you confuse “being busy” with “working on important projects.” The best approach is to plan your next couple of goals and then work backwards to create step by step action plans to reach them. Once you have the plan, then it’s time to take the action.

5) Network like crazy. One of the fastest ways to grow any business is to make connections with other people. Be sure to share your passion and enthusiasm with others at every opportunity. Let people know who you are and what you offer. Remember, people can’t buy if they don’t know you’re selling.

6) Present a professional image. If you want to be treated professionally, present a professional image. Set up a separate bank account for your business. Install a separate phone and fax line. Create professional marketing materials. Be courteous and pleasant in all your customer facing interactions. Basically, be someone people want to do business with.

7) Automate your business as much as possible. Granted, you are just one person (right now) and might have a lot of extra time to take care of all the details. This might work for now, but won’t work into the future as you get busier and busier. It’s best to set up automatic systems and processes right from the start to free up your time to concentrate on the most profitable activities.