Seattle Small Business Blog

Starting a home business has been one of the biggest growth industries in the last decade. There are thousands of new business owners entering the online arena everyday.

No matter what type of business product or service you choose to participate in, there is one and only one starting point.

The only place to be starting your new home business is, in your mind, more importantly your mindset.

It is imperative for you to know the Who, What, Where, When and Why’s when considering starting up a home based business. No matter what type of venture you may choose, if you cannot answer the five W’s you will greatly hinder your chances of success dramatically.

Let’s take a look at the five W’s individually.

WHO? Who are you doing this for? Is it for personal gain and notoriety, family obligations or maybe to help a friend in need. If you do not clearly know and understand who you are doing this for, you will have a very difficult time maintaining the motivation to achieve the level of success you desire.

WHAT? Do you clearly know what is you that want to achieve? Is it to attain financial independence? Contributing to your retirement plans? Is it to put a down payment on a new house? Do you want to be able to quit your job, or do you just want to be able to purchase those big ticket items you have always yearned for?

It is crucial to know exactly what it is you wish to achieve. You have to be able to close your eyes and picture in your mind, down to the finest detail, what your life would be like once you achieve success. If you don’t truly know what it is that you want, it is almost guaranteed that you are not going to get it.

Achieving success comes from knowing precisely what it is you want. Then next step is to set goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time based, better known as S.M.A.R.T. goals. To learn more about goal setting just do a quick search on your favorite search engine, there is a great deal of information available.

WHERE? Research is the key here. There are countless ways and places to set up a home business on the internet. What is most important here is to keep a level head and an open mind while doing your research to determine your chosen field.

Sales pages are finely tuned to trigger impulses and emotions to get you to buy now, this very second. Fight those urges to click that order button, step away from your computer for a moment if you have to.

Take the time to actually study what is being offered. How much is it going to cost you? Is it a one off, monthly or yearly cost? What is the actual product or service that you are receiving, and is there something else out there that may better serve your needs.

It is highly recommended that you never hit the order button on your first visit. Take a look around and do some comparison shopping, or window shopping if you will. If the original offer was the best you can always return and purchase at a later time.

A quick example. Let’s say you find that perfect ebook with resale rights and you just have to have it, and the cost is $97.00. Try this out first. Type the ebook’s title into your favorite search engine. You may be pleasantly surprised to find the exact same title for as little as $5.00 maybe even less with the same resale rights. Remember that the first offer you see may not always be the best in value for your dollar. The internet is extremely competitive.

WHEN? Knowing when to launch your business is where many marketers fall short. Ensure that your business is completely ready to go. Test everything before your launch. Check your webpages for loading time, grammar and spelling. Do all the pages and links work properly? Test your newsletter. Does your autoresponder send the messages when they are supposed to go out? Are the messages formatted correctly? Do those links work? Is the payment and delivery system perfect?

When setting up your business try to keep your mindset as if you were the customer. Would you purchase this product or service? Would you subscribe to this newsletter? Is there value being offered? What makes this product or service stand out from the rest? Until you can answer these questions with conclusive statements, you are not ready to launch.

Always keep in your mind, your name and reputation are always at stake. Online purchasers have very little tolerance when things go wrong.

Studies have shown that you usually have thirty seconds or less to grab your visitors attention. If there is nothing of great value, your potential customer will simply move on and probably never come back. Be completely ready when launch time comes. On the internet first impressions are paramount.

WHY? One of the most important questions to ask. Why am I building this business? Why will my customers buy from me? Why is this the best product? Why did I choose this web hosting company? Being able to answer any and every possible question about your business will give you the knowledge and the tools to build your website as well as your compelling sales pages to perfection.

Asking yourself why will clearly give you the right answers to provide your future subscribers and customers before they need to ask.

Keeping the five W’s in your mind throughout the planning, preparation, testing and launch phases of your business will provide you with the greatest chances for success. You owe it to yourself and to your potential subscribers and customers.

Your mindset is what is going to make or break your business, after all everything starts with an idea.

The pain and pleasure principle, also known as the pleasure principal, is universal. It guides us in virtually everything we do, whether we are aware of it or not. Simply put, the pleasure principle states that people are driven to seek pleasure and to avoid pain. In other words, we are willing to do things that will bring us pleasure and we are unwilling to do things that will cause us pain. Sounds pretty obvious doesn’t it?

It seems however that the two forces are out of balance. The avoidance of pain often wins over the desire to seek pleasure. Perhaps in the case of physical pain this seems logical, at least to a certain extent. But in most cases, we’re not talking about physical pain. Most often, people choose to do things — or rather not to do certain things — in order to avoid emotional pain, even at the expense of doing what it takes to gain pleasure.

People may know very well that in order to achieve the results they desire, something needs to be done. They may even have a high degree of certainty that doing that particular “something” will indeed produce the desired result. But if that “something” makes them feel even slightly uncomfortable, they’re out. Of course, logically, this doesn’t make any sense. Rationally, we know that we can get to C if we just put A and B together. But the fact is, we are not as rational as we sometimes claim to be. Human beings are mainly emotional creatures. We make decisions emotionally and then we try to manipulate the logic to support those emotional decisions.

Most people would agree that the drive to avoid pain is stronger than the drive to seek pleasure. One of the reasons why this drive is so strong is because it is built into our biological survival system. Physical pain will cause people to automatically withdraw from what they perceive to be the source of their pain. Rationally, we know that physical and emotional pain are not the same, but since the human brain has difficulty distinguishing real pain from perceived pain, most people react to it in exactly the same way.

“So why is this relevant for my business?” you might say. Well, first of all, if this is true for most people, it’s probably true for you too. You may not realize it, but you’ve probably fallen into this trap more than once. More importantly, if you remain unaware of this, you will continue to do so. And regardless of what business you’re in, that will hurt your bottom line. If you’re in a business where you’re dealing with other people, you should be aware that they are subject to the same exact principle. Understanding this principle and applying it will prove to be crucial to your business success. Some of you may already be using it without even knowing it, as it is the foundation for many successful business books and coaching programs.

Many times, we try to move people into action by getting them to focus on the pleasure they can receive by purchasing our product or service. Although this can be very successful, there are many times when your prospect just doesn’t seem to get excited about the potential rewards. You may have banged your head against the wall a couple of times with people like these. Perhaps you have mentally labeled your prospect as one of those poor unfortunate folks that “just don’t get it”; one of those people that aren’t the least bit interested in improving the quality of their life. Over time, you will probably run into a couple of those, but the majority of people you meet will not fall into that category. Most people really do want a better quality of life; they want more free time, more money, more respect and more success. What’s holding them back is fear. They fear change and associate pain with taking the necessary actions to make it happen. Obviously, they perceive taking action as more painful than staying where they’re at right now. And thus, they choose not to take the necessary actions.

In order to successfully move people into action, you will have to apply the pain and pleasure principle on at least two levels. First, you must apply it to yourself. Look closely at the way you conduct your business and you will inevitably find that there are many things you should begin doing, or do differently. For example, you know you should be prospecting, presenting and duplicating and you also know that you have to be a strong leader to your people (employees and clients). But why aren’t you? Simple answer: You associate pain with either one of those steps. In order to change this, it will help if you start associating pain with not doing all those things. Think of how it will hurt you in the long run if you continue not taking action. You will find that when the pain of not doing it gets worse than the pain of doing it, you will decide to do whatever it is that needs to be done.

The second step is to apply this principle to your people. Help them become aware that it is their fear and perception that is holding them back. Help them see that they are simply trying to avoid pain and that they obviously perceive taking action as painful. Then help them associate even more pain to not taking action, and continue this up to the point where taking action becomes the only alternative.

Ultimately, if you master this concept yourself, you will become a role model for those around you. You will find that your people begin to follow your lead because they subconsciously want to be like you and attain the things you’ve attained. When you later discuss these concepts with them, in their eyes, you will be giving them a great gift — sharing the secrets of your success — not just adding another task to their to do list. They will see you “walking the walk,” and it is much easier to convince someone with action than with words alone.

Are you frustrated with your office space? Do you hunt for a pen every time you put one down? Is the search for documents a half-day event? Is your paper filed chronologically – working your way down the pile to “one week ago” and unable to pull out “four months ago” for fear of a paper flood catastrophe?

Every office deals with an excess of paper and whether large or small, your business is suffering when you aren’t operating in an organized space.

So, how do you clear the clutter and gain control?

SPACE IS ESSENTIAL

The biggest problem with staying organized in an office is that people set up a system and don’t give themselves enough room to grow.

If you have spent the better part of a day cleaning out a drawer and replacing the items in organized, labeled files, but you can’t squeeze a single extra sheet of paper you’ve wasted your time and the unfiled papers will grow again.

Be certain to have at least a quarter to a third (more if possible) of growing room when implementing a system. You may need to change over at some point, but having some extra space will encourage you to keep up with the organizing.

This also goes for items such as architectural drawings or other products or documents you may accumulate.

Set aside time to purge unnecessary documents. Not only will this provide more space but will save you time that would otherwise be wasted looking through worthless paperwork.

SIMPLE FILING SYSTEM

Do not make your system too complicated or it will be hard to follow through. Color coding can be the easiest if you do not have too many categories. This is effective for systems which only require “Income,” “Expense,” “Projects,” “Correspondence” or something similar.

For filing of large groups of clients, projects or invoices, use a single drawer for each group of related files. A tall filing cabinet can even be divided into alphabetical or chronological systems.

For items you refer to daily or even hourly you might consider a posting board near your desk. This is a great idea for phone number lists, to do lists and appointment calendars.

MAINTENANCE

A filing system is only as good as the upkeep. You may find it easier to have a small system of files located on or near your desk and daily or weekly transfer the items into their permanent home.

This also works for items which you need close at hand such as current project information or price lists etc.

STYLE OF FILING

Consider if you can realistically maintain a filing system. Perhaps labeled boxes would suit you better (especially if you tend to pile papers). The key is to find something you will feel comfortable maintaining. If papers are sorted and occasionally purged, your system will work.

EVERYTHING NEEDS A HOME

Everything MUST be assigned a home. By giving each item a place you will not lose pens, cell phones, glasses and so on. Don’t crowd the items or you will get frustrated. Recognize that all of your efforts will help you run your business more efficiently, and thus productively. Reward yourself for keeping the system working!

A lot of people dream of owning their own home-based business. They dream of setting their own hours, working when they want to work and with whom. The reality is that very few of these people ever take the time to ensure that they have the right skill set – the right tools – to make the leap to a home-based enterprise.

The first major pitfall that most new home-based business owners face is a lack of scheduling discipline. They just don’t plan out their work days. This can cause problems in two ways, under-working and overworking.

Let’s look at the first one, “under-working.” It’s very easy to sit at home, on the ol’ PC surfing the web. You might intend on working on your new website or putting up auctions on eBay, but, before you know it, you’ve spent the entire day reading email and surfing for the latest news and gossip. Sure, you were online and you were doing something, but the things you were doing are not the things that will put a dime in your bank account.

Overworking is pretty easy to understand. Some people simply don’t know how to keep business hours. When they work from home, the temptation is there to “work ’til you drop.” That’s not good, especially if you are building your home-based business on the side and still work a day job. If you spend all your time working, you’ll soon feel that you’re never getting any “down time,” and burnout is sure to follow. Believe me, I know all about this one.

Here’s the solution. You must be very disciplined in planning your day. Write down what you need to accomplish every day and how long you will work on each item. Be sure to include downtime in your plan – time for your family, relaxation, exercise, whatever. This is important. after all, you’re building a home-based business to build a lifestyle, not to become the richest person in the cemetery!

Your daily plans and goals need to be very specific. It won’t do you any good to write something like, “work on project x.” What does that mean? How exactly do you “work on something?” Your plan needs to include a definite finishing point, such as “write a new article on dog grooming for page one of the website.” See the difference? You can “work on” a project for years and never reach a point where you’ve had any success. By contrast, when you “write an article on x,” you know you’re done as soon as you’ve typed the final period.

If you’re in a marketing business, try to farm out as much of the non-marketing related work as you can afford to do. For example, if you sell products or services, it might be beneficial for you to hire someone to help build and maintain your website. The money you’ll spend to have someone else do it will be more than offset by the amount of time it will free up. Other areas you can outsource might be bookkeeping, mailing, etc.

Be realistic when planning your day. If you’re still working your day job, schedule that from the time you get up in the morning until you get home from work. Don’t forget to include commute time. Then, plan out your evening accordingly. Don’t schedule a four hour task to be completed in one hour. It won’t happen. If you have huge tasks, break them up as much as possible and schedule your time accurately. This will allow you to have a feeling of accomplishment and you’ll get a lot more done in the long run.

Don’t multi-task. I know that this is the latest buzzword, but in reality, multi-taking is one of the leading killers of productivity for most people. Schedule only one project at a time. You can work on more than one project during the day, but you shouldn’t work on more than one project at a time. It’s very difficult, if not totally impossible, to do two things at the same time and do them both well. Give one task your undivided attention. Once you’ve completed that task, move on to another task in that project, or to a different project.

You should also be a little flexible in your scheduling. In any business, there are bound to be interruptions that you couldn’t possibly have planned for. In home-based businesses, the chance of distraction goes up exponentially. You’ll be working on that hot new project, only to have the toilet overflow or a neighbor ring the doorbell. Plan on it. There will be things that happen that you can’t plan for. That’s why your schedule needs to include a little cushion.

What I like to do is plan out the items I want to get done and overestimate the time it will take to do them, by say 10%. Then, I have other items which are “on deck.” These items aren’t quite on today’s schedule, but I want to do them soon. If I complete all of my scheduled tasks for the day, I simply look to see what’s on deck and start on one of them. It’s a bonus.

Sometimes, no matter how well you plan, you just won’t finish what you schedule. It happens to everyone. That’s when you simply revise your schedule for the next day to include the missed item(s). Don’t get hung up on the fact that an item or two didn’t get done as planned. Just take it in stride and keep on moving forward. Now, if you find yourself routinely missing your deadlines, you’ll need to reevaluate your scheduling. Are you being realistic in your time allotments? Probably not. Adjust accordingly.

These are just a few tips to help you maintain sanity and get your work done. With a little planning and effort, you can balance your home life with your home-based business and literally schedule your way to success.