10 Commandments of Surefire Home Business Success!

Posted by Ben Jones on May 1, 2007

Traditional business owners have more than enough obstacles to overcome in order to become successful. “History” is one of the major ones as 50% of new businesses fail within the first year and 95% fail within the first 5 years. Home business owners, for obvious reasons, have even more obstacles to overcome. Therefore, their success rate, though it cannot be properly tracked, is much lower. So what can you do as a home business owner to help your business beat the odds? Well, keep the commandments(the ones in the Bible and these):)



1) Be Professional



The reason why this is the first on the list is because this is always a problem with home businesses. People usually find it difficult to maintain the same level of professionalism at home as they do at a 9-5. But believe me, professionalism is key to your success as a home business owner. Do not let the fact that you are at home, instead of at a storefront, cause you to run a bush league operation(like most people tend to do). You have to place yourself on the level of your competitors. If you are professional and thorough, your customer won’t even know that you are working from home and won’t care either. That’s the way it should be. So be sure to maintain a high standard for the work that you do. It’ll pay major dividends in the long run.



2) Separate Business from Pleasure



You have to be able to separate your business hours from your personal time. Take it from me, getting the two of these mixed up is both very easy and very costly. How many times have you been at home and had lots of things planned for the day but ended up not getting much done? You go to bed wondering where all your time went. I can tell you exactly what you did all day. Ready:

9:00AM-rise and shine

9:15AM-check email(with intentions to start working)

11:00AM-Realize that you’ve been surfing the web for an hour & haven’t done anything

12:00PM-Lunch Time (make a sandwich and watch TV)

12:15Pm-Shower(hopefully)
1:00PM-Back on the computer, ready to do business

1:30PM-A little tired, wanna take a 30 minute snooze

2:45PM-Wake Up, back to work

3:30PM-Kids Come Home from School

3:30-9PM- Making Dinner, lunches for tomorrow, helping with homework, breaking Up fights, and telling yourself that you will process that last order as soon as your done.

10:00PM-Fall asleep at the computer(dreaming about all the things you’ll accomplish tomorrow)

You can imagine how long your business will remain open if your days continue in this pattern. So be sure to set aside time when you are doing nothing but work. Preferably at a time when you are home alone, free from distractions. Make sure that anything else you need done, gets done before or after your business hours. Nuff said…

3) Location, Location, Location



Your business needs it own space. If you do not have an office in your home, I suggest that you at least get a computer desk and arrange all of your business valuables around that. This is important because it helps to keep you focused on your tasks. You can be a lot more professional if you are not constantly reminded that you are at home. Believe it or not, ambiance is major. I learned this valuable lesson while in college. For some reason, I got a lot more studying done while in the library rather than lounging in my bed. It will also help the other people in the house learn to identify when you are at work and when you are at home. After a while, they will learn to give you your space while in your little office. Then you can go to your desk every once in a while just to get a break!


4) Demand Respect

Don’t sell yourself short. The minute you pay your incorporation or DBA fees, you are officially a legitimate business in your industry. You must demand the respect of your competitors as well as your customers. If you present yourself as an incompetent small company, you will be treated as such. You must speak with authority like someone who knows what they are doing and who is fully capable of conducting business. Don’t be afraid to put your name out there with the larger companies, I guarantee you that they too will come to respect you if your businesses quality attracts customers.



5) Spend Less, Make More

This is a pretty self-explanatory tip but I will expound on it anyway. A lot of new owners are so excited to have a business that they go to Wal-Mart and buy out the whole office section. That’s absolutely not necessary and not very wise. I wouldn’t max out that Staples card just yet(There’s no easy button:)). Be frugal with your spending in the beginning. I guarantee you that hard times are coming and you will want to sell that $300 chair and $4,000 laptop when they arrive. It’s OK to buy things that are necessary to complete or enhance your core competences, but that’s where it should stop.



6) Build Relationships

Very, very important! You must build relationships with your competitors and key industry leaders o that you stay in the know about things that effect your business. Some of these individuals may like you and start to help send business your way or provide helpful hints about how to advance in the industry. Trust me, people are usually more loyal to people than they are to companies. Secondly, and most importantly, you want to be sure to build a relationship with your customers. This is the only way to ensure that you get repeat business and it keeps you in tune with the needs of your customers. As a small, home based business, this is one advantage that you have over the juggernauts. You should be able to identify with the customer a lot better than the corporation that has 50,000 employees. The execs of those companies will never be able to address the needs of each customer and customers want to do business with people who care about them personally. They can’t address their concerns with the CEO of the large companies but they should be able to address them with the President/Founder of your company.



7) Separate Accounting



Be sure to keep your personal funds and your business funds separate. It is very tempting to get your companies money mixed up with yours(especially when they are kept in the same account). I suggest that you open a business account and make sure that business funds go into that account. Only draw checks from the business account because they are easy to check and you are much more conscious of spending when you don’t have cash in hand all the time(women especially):). Your company needs to maintain financial stability even when you are not. Therefore, business funds must be kept separately. Set yourself a salary that you can live with and stick to it until your company can afford to give you a raise. If you constantly dip into your profit, you have nothing to grow your business with and nothing to carry it through hard times. Thus you will never reach the stage when your business can afford to increase your pay. Struggle now, Rest Later!



Monkey See, Money Do



Yup you guessed it! Success is duplicatible, so make sure that you don’t let your competitors leave you behind. Everyone copies everyone, so if you see a technique or practice that could work for you, copy it. Add it to what you are doing because I guarantee you that they will duplicate your next big breakthrough. Of course, you always want to maintain your own identity as a company but if you want to compete you have to at least make sure that you can offer what’s current. For instance, “What was the first fast-food restaurant with a $1 menu?” NOBODY CARES! All people want to know is, “does your restaurant have one?” If you do, they may be more inclined to choose you over another company. If you don’t, its an easy decision. Don’t make it an easy decision. Many home businesses fail because they fail to keep up with what the rest of the industry is doing. Being small as a company can’t be an excuse for being left behind.



9) Business is Business



Oftentimes friends and family, who are all well-intentioned, will hinder your business from being successful. It is OK to allow your friends and family to benefit from your labor. However, “free stuff all around” every time they enter your premises is not a good way to get this done. Believe me, all those freebies add up pretty quickly. So keep an eye on the “benefits by association”. Friends and/or family are usually your first employees also. This is another area where they can hurt your business more than they help it. You will find that some people will come to work late, leave early, and do absolutely nothing in between. They have no fear of being fired because of their personal relationship with you. You have to make sure that your acquaintances know that business is business and that you will protect the well being of your business like any good owner should. Even if it means releasing them from their duties with your company.



10) Visit “Ben Means Business”- The Entrepreneur Guide

This probably should have been #1:). Visit http://www.ben-means-business.com/ as often as possible to keep up with what’s new in the world of entrepreneurship. Also, go there to find motivation, get answers, or just do some leisurely reading. Subscribe for free and make sure that you don’t miss a single article.

home business, small business, entrepreneurship, work from home, internet entrepreneurship, startup