People who quit their jobs to start a home-based business believe that their newfound independence and convenience will also provide them with increased productivity.
The everyday reality of starting your business at home, however, overshadow and even negate such perceived advantages if you are not prepared for the unique demands faced by every home-based entrepreneur.
There are at least six basic things you must keep in mind when starting your new home-based business.
1. ORGANIZE YOUR DAY MERCILESSLY
An entrepreneur working at home can easily get distracted by the television, the kids or even by the neighbor’s daily hysterics. Since there is no boss to spy on what you are doing or where you go, there’s always that increased tendency to drift, procrastinate and underachieve. One way to prevent this is by deliberately structuring your day based on your pre-determined goals and priorities. Such a structure must work both ways. It should help prevent the entrepreneur from working too hard especially on activities that prove to be a waste of time.
2. MANAGE YOUR FAMILY TIME
Being at home most of the time is always a welcome news for the family. If you do not deliberately allot time to spend with your family, however, two bad things can happen. Either your work suffers because your family eats up your time or your family suffers because your work eats up their time. One way to do this is to convert your time off from work into family time. Set a time limit and let everyone in the family know your schedule and strictly observe it yourself.
3. ORGANIZE YOUR SPACE
No matter what business you plan to start at home, you will benefit from using a homeoffice. Set aside even a small room in your house to serve as your executive “headquarters”. You might even want to insulate it from noise if you find it hard to avoid getting distracted by domestic activities.
4. MANAGE YOUR INFORMATION
A home-based entrepreneur never stays at home all the time. Often you have to visit clients or suppliers or attending trade meetings. It would therefore be wise to have all your information well organized and handy. Using a standard tablet equipped with personal information management apps will usually be enough. Make sure the apps you use have “sync” features so you won't have to manually backup manually in the cloud. Still, apply the redundancy rule. Keep separate copies of your digital file elsewhere, such as an email account, just in case.
5. NETWORK WITH OTHER HOME ENTREPS
Make friends with other home-based entrepreneurs. Not only will you build strategic business partnerships, they could come in handy with specific practical advice in dealing with business and domestic problems as they arise. Their success could even serve as your inspiration and some might even be thoughtful enough to encourage you when the going gets tough.
6. MOTIVATE AND REWARD YOURSELF
Being your own boss means you must be self-motivated. A word of encouragement from your spouse would be nice but you must take it upon yourself as your own chief motivator. Reward yourself appropriately for every good work just as you would any hardworking employee working for you.
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