Top Home Businesses: Exercise Some Self Discipline

Most home businesses fail before the end of their first year, due to a lack of preparation, Market Research, but most commonly because of a lack of self-discipline.

In reality, a very common cause of failure is simply a lack of self-discipline. Most business owners leave some form of employment before embarking on their dream of self-employment, and a possible motivation might well be to escape from the perceived injustice of a former boss. It is only human, having left permanent employment, to slip into a too relaxed mode.

This reaction could easily be the cause of downfall! We have discussed in an earlier series of articles the vital importance of clarifying one's motivation for embarking on a home business. A tough boss is seldom very popular, but at least he provides some motivation to get the work done. If there is no driving-force or motivation, the result could easily be failure.

Be clear in your own mind why you are going it alone, and understand how important it is to you personally to succeed. Thus when the temptation is to "take the day off" be sure that this is for a good reason and make a personal decision to make up the time lost.

Some ideas which may be helpful to you in establishing your business on a sound footing as soon as possible:

- Try to make it a habit to work regular hours. Make a set time every morning to read and respond to e-mails and other correspondence. You should check again later in the day to deal with anything urgent that needs your attention.

- Try also to respond promptly to queries.

- Don't even have your television turned on during your "working hours." It's too easy to be distracted by a sports programme or other interesting item.

- Remind family members and friends that although you're working from home, you're still working! Long personal telephone calls can break your concentration and waste your time. Suggest tactfully that the best time to contact you is between certain hours when you're not busy at your computer.

- It is extremely difficult to handle the demands of small children at home, whilst you are trying to run a business. There is another article coming soon, aimed at helping the "home-biz Mum" to find ways around this very real problem.

Until a more lasting solution is available, try at least to reduce the amount of noise and distraction. A solution might be to tackle your most technical tasks, when the children are temporarily in someone else's care.

In essence, it's vital to treat your business with commitment and determination. Your personal circumstances will have a significant influence on the success or otherwise of your home business. Should you be able only to devote limited time and effort to it, you must expect your results to reflect this.

It is most unlikely that you will be able to enjoy a full-time income from a part-time business, at least until you have been able to develop your business to a stage where many functions operate "on auto-pilot." Some highly successful owners of top home businesses are eventually able to make huge incomes while working part-time, but this takes considerable time and skill to achieve.

In our next article in this series we look at how to set, and manage some business targets.