Defining Your Happiness For Home Business Success

You might be saying now “Steve why are you writing an article on happiness? This is a Home Business Site!” The reason is that I estimate that at least 70%+ of you are making the switch to Home business due to lack of feelings of happiness and fulfillment in your life.

For this reason, it is important for you to understand what you really want to achieve from your home business.

Personally, I have been trying to define in my life what really makes me happy and how I can make money at it. What I am looking for is much more than money. I am looking for calm and a sense of peace in my life.
To find out if you are really ready to work for yourself from home? Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Do you have a hobby that you would do daily for free?

This is one of the keys to success and happiness in a home business. You must have drive and passion in order to succeed. Doing something you really enjoy will help smooth out the bumps in the road. Also, doing something you really enjoy will help you to tolerate the remaining time at your ‘other’ job. Please do not choose a home business based only on your perceived earning potential. If you do, the chances are you won’t have the long-term persistence needed to succeed.

2. Is it money that you really want or is it the freedom of choice you really want?

This is a critical question because, again, if it is solely money you are looking for you will not have the enthusiasm and passion needed for long-term success. Focus on doing what you love and the money will follow. People will see your enthusiasm and it will spread to your clients.

3. Are people you work with dragging you down emotionally and spiritually?

One thing I know for sure is that I no longer want to be around negative people. Mark Twain has a great saying “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.

Everyone knows a person like the character on Saturday Night Live “Debbie Downer.” Lets face it, some people are only happy if they are complaining about something or are raining on someone else’s parade. Avoid these people at all costs, remember it is better to be alone and focused and passionate about what you are doing.

4. Do you want to start off fresh where you are in control?

Starting your own home business is like having a clean tapestry for painting. You control your destiny. You control what “colors” to use. Think big, never small, and you can do it.

5. Do you enjoy helping others when you can?

Owning your own business provides you with an opportunity to give back to your community. This also provides an excellent Barter and Networking opportunity. Help as much as you can afford to and these good deeds will come back to help you in the future.

Have faith in the overall good in people but, at the same time, realize that some people might try to take advantage of your generosity. Use bartering in some of the situations to help lower your overall costs.

6. Do you believe in expanding your mind through research and networking?

If you enjoy research you will be well served by starting your own business. You will have to learn some Accounting basics and Marketing skills as well as some Tax basics. Network with people who can help you in these areas. Suggest bartering your services with them. This is a great grass roots way to get advertising for your home business. If you come across a dishonest person, break the relationship as quickly and tactfully as possible – they will only cause you harm and heartache.

7. Are you dedicated and disciplined?

Setting up a schedule and ‘things to do’ list will greatly help with your organizational and time management problems. You must be disciplined and stick to your schedule. Complete one task at a time and move to the next. MANY business have failed because of having to many’irons in the fire.’ This leads to lack of focus, which is one of the number one reasons that businesses fail.

8. Are you prepared to ignore the negative ‘nay sayers’?

Be prepared to have to ‘cull’ some of your friends, There will always be people who are jealous of your drive, passion and determination. Accept that fact and don’t let them take up any of your time. If the Nay Sayer is your spouse or another family member, sit them down and tell them how much your new business means to you and your future together. If they cannot be positive, ask them not to comment at all. Usually after family members see how hard you are working they will come around and begin to support you. Try getting them involved with smaller tasks that they can take off your plate.

9. Are you prepared to work at your other job until your Home Business takes off?

This is something that people don’t think enough about. You should be prepared to stay at your ‘other’ job for at least six months while building your home business. Many people have quit only to find the HB doesn’t provide enough immediate income so they have to crawl back to the old job, or worse find another lower-paying job. I personally made this mistake

10. Are you prepared to take an open and honest look at your behaviors?
This is something that I really had to be honest with myself about. For years I had grown a negative attitude, almost to the point that I had a chip on my shoulder. I sat down with an old friend and discussed my situation and he said “Steve your attitude stinks.” I was in shock. Upon really looking at my behavior I saw that I had created negative ‘anchors’ that were standing in the way of my success. When I looked at a job, all the negative feelings from my previous jobs flooded into me. Be conscious of what you are feeling, and be prepared to eliminate the negative and accentuate the positive. Remember, Bill Gates started in a dorm room, Michael Dell started in a garage. Do not be afraid. You CAN do it – it takes a plan, discipline, hard work and follow through.

In closing, let me say once again that you can do it. You deserve success and the happiness it brings. Franklin D. Roosevelt said “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Don’t be afraid – you deserve this success. We all do. Nelson Mandela put our ideas about self doubt and fear far better then I ever could:

“And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” – Nelson Mandella

Now get out there and kick butt. If you would like to contact me please see below.

We are always looking for positive, persistent people to partner with. If we can help you in your success we will be glad to do so.

The Benefits Of Helping People In Your Community

A home-based business can be a wonderful opportunity to reach out to others in your community and create a truly well-rounded life. The more you gain expertise in your own chosen field the more you have available for others and the greater your sense of satisfaction.

Are you learning, through your home-based business, about networking? Are you finding out what excites people and what people need to have a sense of safety and well-being? These are insights that can be used in community outreach as well as in your own business.

We keep talking about the necessity for planning when starting a home business. Here is yet another way in which good planning is essential. If you are interested in being an asset to your community and putting your newly-found expertise to work for good, you must make this a part of the balance in your work/leisure life. You don’t want to give away the expertise and talent that you are depending on to build your own business, but on the other hand there is nothing like networking to benefit any beginning business.

As with anything else, it is important in this aspect to be true and honest with yourself. If you take on a community project just for the purpose of building up a customer base for yourself, it won’t work. For one thing, people will see through it and you will not generate the good will that you thought you would. It is like the old joke about the Hollywood producer who set “The important thing is sincerity – if you can fake that, you’ve got it made!” No – people, especially those in your home community, will not be fooled for long. However, if you take a while to find out what community projects attract YOU and what ones can you honestly get excited about – you will find that giving of yourself and your talent will reap rewards you have not even thought of.

In keeping track of your own home business finances are you finding out that you have a gift for numbers and a sound financial sense? You may find it rewarding to put this to use volunteering as the treasurer of the local food bank or church building project. Have you discovered areas of creativity within yourself that aren’t completely satisfied by the parameters of your business? Maybe these “left over ideas” are just what your local school needs to liven up their programs. The people you will meet under these circumstances can be the basis for associations which enrich you personally and, in the long run, build your business. When people come to know and trust you – and realize that you are not out only for the “almighty dollar” — they will be relieved and happy to refer their friends and family to you when they need what your business has to offer.

Remember – let this pro bono “for good” – work come out of your own personality and what you have discovered about the things that bring you satisfaction. Then you will never need to fake anything and the good you do will naturally flow back to you in many satisfying ways.

The Importance of Time Management

It may be that more money and energy has been spent on time management studies than on any other tool of management in business. It drives numbers-crunchers crazy to see what they view as “time wasting” activities, or inefficient use of time employed in their business. Sometimes, in an effort to cut these things short, management winds up requiring even more time-wasting paper work than before, insisting that employees keep detailed accounts of how they spend every minute. In addition to adding to wheel-spinning activity instead of reducing it, management winds up with disgruntled employees who will go to any lengths to sabotage the boss’ nit-picky ways.

Finally, managers become little more than petty overlords, spending hours of their own time policing minutes and seconds of their employees’ use of time. The classic example of this is the manager who stood every morning looking out a second story window and timing with a stopwatch how long it took his employees to get from their car to the door. That itself is an example of poor time management. Much better, instead, to give the employees some training in a variety of ways in which they can choose for themselves which time management techniques work better for them individually and then giving them incentives for getting their work done well and efficiently.

Time management IS very important to any successful enterprise. This is even truer in the case of a work-from-home business. Without someone else keeping track of your time wasting activity it may be difficult to realize how much of it you are doing. You wanted to be your own boss, so sometimes you must act like a boss and expect efficiency and good use of time from yourself. After all, if you waste time in a home based business, you are wasting not someone else’s money, but your own. And you didn’t get into a work at home business so that you could have no free time to enjoy yourself – that is the opposite of what you wanted.

Sometimes just taking a little time to plan will save you hours of time in the long run. Experiment, for instance, with what time of day you are most efficient. This is one of the great advantages of working from home. If you like to sleep late and then hit your stride during the early evening hours, put yourself on that schedule. If your biorhythms are cooking at full steam in the early morning hours, make the best use of that time. Whichever you choose, however, once you have chosen it and proved its efficiency, STICK TO IT!!

Sit down at your computer for whatever hours you have chosen and let everyone know that those are your working hours. Unless whatever they are contacting you about is business, it will have to wait for your free time. You would have to do this in someone else’s office, so do it in yours.

Set up your workspace so that you don’t have to spend time looking for the things you need once you start work. Do not think that you can juggle personal calls or other people’s priorities just because you are working at home. A successful home business is run just like any other business and you must take it seriously. Remember, the more efficiently you make use of your time the more time you will eventually have for yourself.

In part two we will explore programs that help you with your time management while running your home business.

You can do it.

In former years the search for security and job longevity caused people to look for jobs in big corporations. In this type of job a person could either find a niche that was in their comfort level and stay in that niche for an entire working life, or they could get a toe-hold on the corporate ladder and climb it in a pretty predictable manner. Yes, there was an illusion of security as long as one did one’s job with reasonable competence. What is wrong with that system? Or is anything wrong with it? How can a home-based business be better for you?

In the ’80s the first cracks began to appear in the corporate design. Before that, for a couple of generations, men (and it was an almost completely male-dominated system) had virtually sold themselves, body and soul, to corporations for the feeling of security mentioned above. Take, for example, a person who worked for IBM. Employees used to say that those letters stood for “I’ve Been Moved.” Families whose husbands and fathers worked for IBM could have no stability in terms of setting down roots in a community, having long standing friendships or associations, being close to family or providing continuity in their children’s education.

All of these things were sacrificed for the good of the corporation as families were moved across country at the whim of the corporate hierarchy. In fact, people began to understand that the purpose of some of these moves was to make families dependent on the corporation for everything in their lives and therefore to bind strong ties of loyalty. Corporate Big Daddy would provide everything they needed and all friendship and associations would be forged within that framework. Of course they would all be short-term relationships between people who were competing for the same promotions, but it was supposed to be worth it.

In the ’80s thousands of men understandably felt betrayed when, through corporate takeovers and “downsizing” they lost the jobs for which they, and their families, had given up everything that makes for a happy and stable family life. Men who had made slaves of themselves for the goal of a far-off pension found themselves turned out into the cold to look for other work late in their careers in a job market that had no place for their experience and skills. Many men never recovered from this shock. Others resolved never to depend on someone else for their livelihood again.

Can you see how having your own home business fits in to this scenario?

In building a home business you start with what YOU like to do, not with someone else’s idea. You are able to work from your permanent base and nurture your own roots in a community. You are able to fit your work into your family’s pattern instead of vice-versa. You are able to work mornings, evenings or noonday – whatever best suits your preferences and biorythyms. You can depend on your own competence and drive – not on “getting along” with those in a hierarchy above you. Your friends can be really your friends, not potential competitors for the approval of the bosses. You are limited only by your own potential, not by someone else’s “evaluation” of you.

Convinced? Then consider throwing off the shackles of working for someone else and put yourself in charge of your own destiny by taking advantage of the home based business opportunity now available to you!