Character Traits You Need For a Home Business
1.)Organization – Working at home presents a new set of obstacles that you wouldn’t ordinarily have if you were in running a traditional business.
Primarily, your actual physical desk space or office space. Be sure you have a dedicated place to run your business, where you can go to get away and have some privacy. Keep all in it’s proper place. Keep your paper files neatly organized in a filing system, and make sure you keep everything clearly labeled. Keep your laptop free from confusion by deleting icons that you do not use daily or weekly into a sub folder. Clean up your internet favorites folder so that all the sites you use can be very easily found with 2-3 short points & clicks of your mouse. Make sure office area is free from distractions from anyone else you live with, spouse, children, or roommates. The preferred choice would be to alter one bedroom into your office area, since it would have a door that you could close for privacy. If that is not an option, at least locate a place that is away from the busy-ness of the primary living areas…away from the kitchen, away from the HDTV, and away from where the children play. A dining room table may work well. When I was visiting someone over the break, I set up my office area on their ironing board in their basement!
If you have young kids like I do, make sure you set clear boundaries so that when you’re in your office with the door closed, that they know that you are working and don’t want to be disturbed. One caveat here – I’ve always told my kids that if my door is shut and they just want a hug or kiss, that is okay! Just come on in and there is nothing more important than that! If you’re on the phone for business and your daughter wants a hug, don’t say you’re sorry to the person on the phone, just tell them that it is part of the benefits of working from home and that you’re not some corporate-type person who only sees their kids for an hour in the evening before bedtime. They will respect that.
2.)Discipline – You must create a DMO – or Daily Method of Operation. Essentially that is a schedule that you’ll keep on the days that you’re working the business. Make it detailed. Work out when you’re getting up, having breakfast and lunch, taking your breaks, making calls, doing marketing, learning, attending conference calls, doing administrative tasks, going to the bank/post office, shopping online, etc. Working from home makes you very suseptable to getting pulled in every direction. By having a DMO in place and being disciplined, it will lessen the chance for you to waste time when you could be earning profit. Working at home offers you the flexibility to take breaks or spend time with your hobbies when YOU want to, not when a boss tells you that you can. Make sure to schedule time in there for family time, quiet reading time, resting, trips to the gym, spending quality time with your children, making breakfast for the kids, or even time with your lover during the afternoon with the door locked. You got into business for yourself from home for these advantages, make sure you take advantage of them. Work when you’re working and play when you’re playing.
3.)Focus – Working independently from home will cause you to have many responsibilities. One day you’ll be a marketer, the next a customer service representative, the next a sales executive, the next a student, the next a admin assistant. You’ll basically have to do everything. Just promise me that you focus on one thing at a time and don’t try to do lots of things at once. Multitasking really makes you LESS effective, because the human mind can actually only focus on one item at a time and still be totally focused on that one thing. You’re mind cannot be 50/50 focused evenly on 2 things. One of them will get less attention and you’ll most likely lose time. Compartmentalize your to-dos, focusing fully on one thing until you get to the end and then picking up the next task. It may help to have a daily checklist of tasks you need to accomplish that would work in nicely to your DMO.
Keeping everything in mind that I have reported on, just because you work at home does not mean that you always have to WORK FROM YOUR ACTUAL HOME! Let me give explanation. Some of my most productive time has been when I take my notebook and wifi and head out to the lake and work on a bench out in nature for an hour or two, or grabbing a table at Starbucks or Panera Bread. Most people in business will greatly benefit by using a smart phone, which will allow you to send and receive emails on the go, change your Facebook Profile, Twitter profile, and other social networking websites. Don’t feel like you have to be ensnared in your home office, get out about 2-3 times per week to give yourself a new perspective. It will give you inspiration and get you out in public interacting with others. Go somewhere that will cause you to be operating in a energy and mindset that can be vibrated over the phone to those you may speak with while you’re out. What is FREEDOM all about if you’re still trapped in an office all day, even if it is your home office?
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