Tag Archives | Starting a Business

Don’t Forget to Do Your Work at Home

By Lowell on July 1, 2015 in Blog

There are several conceptual issues that seem to confuse people who try to build a business where they can work at home. Literally the word ‘w-o-r-k’ seems to confuse some people from different perspectives. While working at home is not a ‘j-o-b’ you still need to take it seriously and actually do the w-o-r-k.

Some will balk at a business plan the minute they realize that it does involve work. They want so to believe that they can get something for nothing, that there is a magic sauce, that they can just posture as a home business entrepreneur and thereby attract money.

While it is true we may have an aversion to work because of hostile work environments and the jobs we have all had to take in order to survive, there is never an excuse for laziness or slacking, and it really can be fatal to a new home business because it will never get off the ground.

At first we do need all the information we can get, but there comes a point where we need to put that information into action. Don’t use the excuse that you can’t actually do anything yet because you don’t know enough. Do what you can as soon as you can, you will learn more as you go. While you need a plan there is nothing better than taking action when it comes to starting a business.

While we do need to learn, we likely will not make money just from learning, but only from employing the information we acquire to promote and develop a business. That is why it is so important that we don’t get stuck at square one while we are learning. It is true that people get stage fright and they have a fear of failure. There is a great saying to keep in mind and that is that ‘the road to success is littered with failures’. Meaning, just pick yourself up, dust yourself off and keep moving forward, on to the next quest.

The key to success is not giving up. Keep trying. Try something different. Go about things in a different way. Check (and fix) your attitude if necessary. This might be the most difficult task you will have when you start a business at home. You must be determined so that you won’t be affected negatively when you do not see tangible results right away (which is the norm).

It takes time to develop business, and you need to be very aggressive about it. Never ‘rest on your laurels’. You have to stay motivated no matter if you are tired, dejected, busy or even not feeling well. While it may be more difficult to go to a job when we don’t feel good, we would have to be seriously ill not to be able to log on to our computers that are right there in our home office. Even if all you can squeeze out is an hour. Spend the time wisely.

Creating a Business Plan for your Home Business

By Lowell on June 12, 2015 in Blog

When you are first determining what all is involved with having a home business, you must have some kind of loose plan, even if it is just the desire to have a business. It does take a bit more organization and planning to make it happen vs. imagining. Compare what your plan is presently and project all the way out to what you believe it should be or will be ‘someday’.

Since you will be the primary practitioner it is all about your abilities, ranging from attitude to skill level. Your qualifications and skills that you have acquired in your lifetime are the core resources you have to work with. They represent the foundation that you will build upon to create a profitable business.

It is important from a few different perspectives that you be confident in what you can bring to the table – especially when you are in new territory. New like starting a business of your own, new like learning to use technology, and even being in a different ‘field’ or niche than you have ever been in before.

So it may help you to do some exercises at the planning stage of developing a business, for the purpose of a self-assessment. Like an inventory, listing what exactly you have to work with from the get-go.

At the same time you can feel confident because you know you will learn more as you go along if you have an open-mind and are willing to work. As well, you can identify areas where you might consider some basic training or coaching if you don’t feel ‘up to speed’. Whatever it is it is best to get it out of the way so that it doesn’t become a stumbling block to your progress.

Exercise: Consider if you would hire you? Apply for a job in your own home business and write a resume and cover letter about why you are qualified for the job and are confident you are the candidate that should be chosen for the position. Promote yourself without ‘convincing’ behavior or ‘selling’.

If you have powerful terminology to describe examples of your assets such as for example proactive, timely, accurate, dependable/ reliable, flexible, learn quickly, efficient, passionate, honest, desire to succeed and enjoy helping others.

Enumerate your skills – mainly pertaining to the work at hand, and also life skills as a qualification. For example you were on a committee or participated in a ‘workgroup’ for a project; if hobbies or interests have led to using business skills, for example as club president or church secretary, then they are definitely relevant.

You maybe wouldn’t think of sports as having anything of value to business; but learning to work as part of a team, and striving for perfection by consistent practice are very important skills for business. Don’t forget you can also consider skills used in your home – balancing the budget, reconciling your checking account, “running the house”.

Final Exercise: Submit actual statistics or factual information to demonstrate where you have had actual on-the-job experience using those skills. Give the title of the position, but more importantly define all the duties that you performed. Give length of experience and special recognition, promotions, and accomplishments.

Starting a New Business – Staying Positive

By Lowell on June 9, 2015 in Blog

It could be that one reason life presents challenges is that we would be easily bored if it didn’t. Another reason some believe is that overcoming difficulty builds character and makes us stronger. There is probably truth to both those beliefs. So certainly starting a new business, while not ‘rocket science’, is going to present some obstacles.

One major obstacle is mindset – whether it is your own negativity or those who are close to you – your spouse, family and/or friends. For some reason they are going to be the most critical, and where you might expect a supportive and affirming atmosphere, you are likely going to encounter negativity about your new venture.

Another real true theory that is relevant here is ‘fear of the unknown’, and maybe that is what scares people and makes them so wary of going out on a limb to try something new or different. Even an element of jealousy there perhaps in that they may never have acted on any of their dreams, assuming they were unrealistic; but you are – because you are brave enough and bright enough where maybe they don’t feel that they are.

The other way mindset can be an obstacle to a new business start-up is getting discouraged when you don’t make money right away as you thought you would. Still another related thought is having unrealistic expectations with regard to the amount of time it will take to develop a successful business. If you are not realistic you are going to set yourself up for self-imposed failure because you will end up quitting without giving it a fair chance.

We have to be logical because so much ‘hype’ makes it seem so effortless and as if you will earn a fortune just by joining a program and doing nothing. NOTHING could be further from the truth. In reality we EARN what money we make and in fact with your own business you may need to work TWICE as hard to earn money until you get the ‘well-oiled’ machine running at optimal levels to create your success on ‘autopilot’.

Because there is a learning curve and there are lots of obstacles to overcome, we need to guard against being discouraged at all times. Discouragement is the opposite of motivation. We need to stay motivated at all times and to refuse to be discouraged. We may have to do mental exercises as part of our process on an ongoing basis. Even talking to yourself to say how everything is great, how you are fine and doing a good job can really help to strengthen your resolve to succeed. No matter what negative thought or comment may come to mind, we have to counter that with something positive.

Since you are in new territory and have not yet built up your skill or expertise in the field, to give you confidence, you may need to rely on things you have done in the past that made you feel proud or strong. Think about all of your accomplishments no matter how small you think they are, and even write them down. Go all the way back to your childhood and remember everything you can about times where you were feeling good about yourself. Then keep those facts close at hand in your mind so that you can call on them when you start to feel like you are losing the battle against negativity. Believe you can succeed in starting a new business and that you will go far with it.

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