Working at home, being your own boss, planning your own schedule, making as much money as you want to – it sounds like a dream come true, doesn’t it? And it can be exactly that – as long as you keep in mind the work-at-home, four-letter words!
Don’t worry – these aren’t four-letter words that you’ll want to be careful not to say in front your kids! (You might even think it’s a good idea for the kids to learn and practice them.)
Here they are – the work-at-home, four-letter words: idea, time, goal, plan, work, file, and tink (OK, think!). These concepts will be explained in a series of three articles. You are now reading the first one of those three articles.
For what we’re talking about here, it doesn’t matter what your home business is. It could be child care, a computer business, pet sitting, etc. The same four-letter words are crucial. I happen to run a home computer business, so a lot of my examples are based on that experience.
First: Idea. Obviously, you are not going to be starting a home business without an idea. And it had better be a really good idea for you, because you are going to be investing a fair amount of your own time and energy in making it work. You will probably also wind up investing at least a little bit of money in making your new home business work.
So what is a good home business idea? A lot of that depends on you, your interests, your skills, and your willingness to learn new things. What do you like to do? Do you love kids? Maybe a day-care business is for you. Love animals? What about taking care of other people’s pets when they go away? How much money can you (or will you) invest in starting your home business? Do you have any health issues that limit what you can do? Do you like to work alone? Is setting your own work schedule important to you? How important is flexibility for you? All of these issues, and more, affect what would be the perfect home business for you.
For me, starting a home computer business was exactly what I needed. I have been disabled by cancer treatments, and I just can’t count on when I’m going to feel good, and when I’m going to be feeling not so great – so having people counting on my schedule (day care, etc.) just wasn’t an option. I also didn’t have much money to invest in my home business, but I had a computer, and I’m willing to learn new things, so a home computer business was just perfect for me. You need to think about what would be best for you.
Time is also important to your home business success in another way. Once you have chosen your home business, you will need to put time into making it happen. This may seem so obvious that you wonder why I’m even mentioning it, but the internet these days seems to be flooded with offers to tell you the “secret” for making thousands of dollars with no effort. Please do not fall for those empty promises of instant riches.
Even with the power of the internet (which is truly amazing), there still are no free rides (unless you think you will win the lottery or inherit a huge amount of money!). Anyone who tries to sell you a product that will let you become rich with no time, effort, or learning on your part is just not being honest with you. You certainly can earn big money with a home business, but be realistic, and expect to have to spend some of your time making it happen.
That covers two four-letter words that are important in starting a home business. The others will be discussed in Parts 2 and 3 of this article series.
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CindyAnn Williams is a self-taught, successful home computer business owner who began her internet business with absolutely no technical knowledge of computers or the internet. She has built her business by trial and error, always trying again after every dead end, and learning from every mistake. CindyAnn’s goal is to share what she has learned to help other people who want to become successful home computer business owners avoid the many mistakes she made along the bumpy and often detour-filled road to home computer business success.