Of all the mistakes made by new Home Business Owners, 7 seem to come up again and again. With a few minor changes however, these can be avoided and as a result your home business will begin to prosper.
No. 1.) Bad Time Management.
This is a big one. Many people who make the transition from employee to home business owner suddenly find that things have drastically changed. No longer do they have to wake up at a certain time. No longer do they have deadlines. No longer do they have a boss. But what they do have is day time television, a pet to play with, DVDs to watch, and a local park to visit.
They suddenly find that they have all of these tempting distractions in front of them, and their home business often becomes a second priority. Like any business, you can’t expect to get results unless you’re putting in the work.
The easiest way to get past this is to break up your day into manageable chunks of time– perhaps 1 hour segments. Then aim to focus on one task at a time for that hour. Give it your full undivided attention. There are going to be distractions that attempt to lure you away- (believe me, these day time soap operas can be quite addictive!). But pay no attention. Your financial future is more important.
At the end of each time segment, take a 5 minute rest- perhaps go and grab a snack, or walk outside for a minute or two. But then come straight back and start the next 1 hour segment on time. By breaking your day up like this, those seemingly large tasks become a series of smaller tasks. At first this will take some discipline, but over time it will become natural and you’ll get a lot more done.
No. 2) No Goals.
Why is it that we hear so often how important it is to set goals, yet so few of us get around to doing it? Goal setting has got to be the most overlooked tool we have available to getting things done. When starting a home based business, your ability to set goals and follow through with them will ultimately be what determines your success. Without having daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly goals, your home business will have no direction.
Many new Home Business owners begin work with a general idea of what they’d like to accomplish each day, but don’t have specific targets. By actually writing down your goals for the day, (preferably the night before) you will find that productivity will increase and at the end of each day, you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment.
No. 3) No Mentor
Information has been said to be the ‘most valuable commodity in the world.’ And this is no truer than in the home business industry, especially with the recent flood of self proclaimed ‘gurus’ giving out second grade advice. When it comes to online marketing, setting up websites, calling prospects, setting up email auto responders and other common home business activities, there are the right ways of doing things, and there are the wrong ways. Many new home business owners fall victim to services that take advantage of their naievity. For example, there are search engine submission services that advertise that they’ll submit your new website to 300 different search engines for a small fee, when in fact this is completely pointless- Google, Yahoo, and Ask have such a large share of the search engine market that other search engines really don’t matter (especially when your paying). Submitting your site to either of these search engines can be done manually in under 5 minutes anyway.
It’s best to have a mentor who is getting results, and who has a track record in his or her area to teach you directly. And preferably one who has a vested interest in seeing you succeed, like in the network marketing or direct sales home business industry. And the best mentors in these industries are usually the top income earners, who with a little research shouldn’t be too hard to find.
No. 4) Work Environment
Its best to separate your living space from your work environment. For example, if you are working in the same living space as the TV or kitchen, then focusing on the task at hand will be harder. The temptation to do something else will often be too strong for most to exist, so its best to create an office like environment, with everything you need in the one space- stationary, your computer, and business phone.
No. 5) Trying to handle every task- not delegating, and therefore not focusing on the key profit drivers.
In most businesses, there are only several core activities that bring in profit– these are your key profit drivers. For example, in running a direct sales home business, the only two key profit drivers are gathering leads (or potential business partners) through marketing, and then calling those leads to determine whether they are right for the business. Once the marketing systems have been set up, and your email inbox is being constantly replenished with new leads, then calling becomes the key profit driver. All other tasks become a second priority, as they don’t give the financial return that calling does, and should therefore be delegated to outside parties. For example, trying to learn search engine optimization (SEO) will be a waste of a direct sales home business owners time, as it takes too long, and can easily be delegated to a service that specializes in that area for a reasonable fee.
No. 6.) Limiting promotion to the internet- not telling enough people, hiding behind your computer
Leads are the lifeblood of any online business– without new leads coming in, business soon dries up, unless what your selling has continuity -eg. a subscription based members only newsletter. But even with continuity programs, members will often unsubscribe over time, and so its important for any home business to always be filling ‘the pipeline’ with new business. Strangely enough, most home business owners have limited their marketing efforts to online options, like pay per click (Google AdWords) without a second thought to offline marketing. The ‘old fashioned’ marketing strategies, like placing ads in newspapers and magazines still can be profitable, and as marketers flock to crowd the online world, there is increasingly less competition in the offline world. So keep this in mind the next time Google sends you another large bill.
No. 7) Expecting overnight results, and then giving up too early.
Time and time again we hear about the high failure rate amongst home business owners, and this can be very discouraging to those thinking about taking the plunge. But is it any wonder that so few make it when most give up in their first month of business. Take the direct sales industry for instance, that many home business owners are entering. There are several direct sales companies out there that offer people the opportunity to promote their products in exchange for a profit. Many new home business owners buy into these direct sales companies after hearing about the high income testimonials (the record in Australia is $232,000 in a month!) and then become disillusioned when their own results fail to reach the high levels they anticipated.
But in reality, building up a sales organization in your own Home Business is going to take time– to expect to become a top income earner in your first few months is unrealistic. Unless of course you have a top income earner to teach you their methods….
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Matt Lloyd is a successful home business mentor and internet marketing coach. He is the founder of the Home Business Builders system, which offers step- by- step training for his own LifePath Home Business team. To find out how you can receive 1- on- 1 mentoring from Matt visit http://www.HomeBusinessBuilders.com.au and take the tour. And to keep up with the latest news in the home business market, visit Matt Lloyds online blog at http://www.YourLifeOurPath.com