Running a Small Business From Home Without Going Bonkers in the Process
Want to know about running a small business from home before you invest a whole lot of time and money? Then you’ve got to read this…
So what do you really know about running a small business from home?
You may have heard horror stories from your friends…
And you may have heard of the great advantages from your other friends.
So where does the truth lie? What are the important things you’ve got to know about running a small business from home?
Well, I’m not gonna sugar coat this – this may or may not be what you’re expecting to read; however, this will save you a boat load of time, money, and energy if you understand these important concepts…
Running a Small Business From Home – The Good and the Bad
Having had businesses of some sort all my life, I can tell you there is no greater feeling knowing that you’re making your own money from your very own business.
Can you remember a time where you felt like you were really in charge?
That’s the feeling that a lot of hopeful entrepreneurs chase. What stops most people who want to work from home, is not understanding right from the get-go what it takes to run a business from home.
Although you have all the perks of being home, you also have all the distractions that come with it.
Let’s be real, you are within walking distance of your bed, your couch, and a TV – it’s no wonder that a lot of home business owners struggle to stay on task in their business. In fact, any one of those things can be a business-killer for sure.
So running a small business from home can be full of distractions that can put your business in a nose dive – but an online business can also be the fastest kind of business to turn a profit in the shortest amount of time.
So amid all the great benefits of having a home business, you’ve got to be able to stay focused and multi-task when you have to. Remember, if you’re a solo entrepreneur you’re gonna be wearing many hats – the customer service hat, the marketing hat, the website troubleshooting hat, and on and on it goes.
It can literally drive you a bit crazy unless you know how to structure your environment and your day.
Let’s break this down…
Successfully Running a Small Business From Home in 4 Easy Steps
After you read this section you will have a clear path as to what you’ve got to to do to get on the successful path of running a small business from home without succumbing to the many distractions that plaque most home businesses.
Let’s start with number one…it has to do with finding small at home business ideas…
1. Choose a Business That You Like – It’s no secret that if you’re in a business that you actually like you’ll look forward to working it day in and day out. You’ll also be less likely to give in to your favorite show at a time you should be working your business.
There are many, many businesses you can do from home. You can take your existing skills/hobbies and turn it into an online business – as long as you’ve identified your target buying audience online.
You can sell someone else’s products and services as in the case of affiliate marketing and network marketing.
For example, I like shopping online so it was an easy thing for me to join a company that rewards me for showing people how to save money online.
What are your interests that you can turn into a money-making venture? Would you want to sell someone else’s products or join a network marketing company?
2. Control Your Environment – Can you imagine detonating a bomb with a person in your ear telling you every few seconds that you’re a loser and that you’re terrible at detonating bombs?
How likely would it be that you would mess up and blow yourself up? How much confidence would you have in yourself if you had a negative person like this telling you how awful you were?
Well replace the scenario with that of a loved one who’s nagging you telling you that you’ll never succeed or those things never work, or you can’t make money from home?
How successful would you be running a small business from home?
In all likelihood you would really suck. If those around you don’t distill confidence in you, then you should limit your time with them or don’t be around them at all if possible.
Another thing you can do is to not tell your loved ones what you’re doing – no need to give them all the details. Lastly, you can give them the talk.
The Talk goes something along these lines…
I need your love and support at this time because it’s very hard and at times stressful to build a business. I know you have my best interest at heart when you tell me_____ but I have to make tough decisions and sometimes that may include making mistakes.
Without failures there can never be successes. I appreciate your words of wisdom, I just ask that at this time if you could hold your opinions and thoughts to yourself so I can focus on moving our lives ahead.
Now that you’ve chosen your business and you’ve controlled your environment as much as you can, now it’s time to work on getting a plan together.
3. Plan Your Life – Plan Your Business
I like to use Google Calendar, but you can use any kind of calendar system you want. What’s important is that if you have a busy family life that you plan your family’s activities and your business-building activities on a calendar.
You’ll have less wiggle room to get out of building your business or dodging a pre-planned family activity. You could even schedule in your favorite show as a reward for getting your business building activities done.
4. Get the Eyeballs on Your Products – When it comes to running a small business from home, this is the area that is neglected the most. You see, without traffic and leads your business is a goner.
There’s just no getting over this. The fastest way to get traffic to your products is to do paid marketing. That could be running Facebook Ads, pay per click on Google or Bing, etc…
Your goal should be to pick one traffic technique and get it down so that it’s producing results for you before you add on another marketing technique.
Running a Small Business From Home – In a Nutshell…
By now you’ve realized a lot of the pitfalls that you can fall into as a home based business entrepreneur. There are a lot of moving parts to being a business owner that at times it can get a little hectic and confusing especially when you’re wearing many different hats.
These four simple steps outlined here can help you combat these pitfalls so that you can have dynamic and enjoyable time running a small business from home successfully without going crazy in the process.
Step one is picking a business – see these recommended businesses section here if you don’t already have one picked out…
