Creating A Business From Scratch

Business ownership offers freedom, control, and flexibility that working for someone else cannot provide. There were 27.9 million small businesses in the U.S. as of 2010 and 52 percent of these were home-based businesses. While these entrepreneurs live the American Dream, others provide excuses not to join them. Objections range from not knowing how or where to start to not having the money needed. If people spent less time coming up with excuses and more time taking action, they could improve their lives.

There is no single stereotypical business owner. Some people start businesses because they must earn money and cannot do it another way. They may have been laid off and are unable to find work or health issues may prevent them from working a traditional job. Others love their current jobs but are not earning enough money so they start their own businesses on the side. Many people desire the freedom that working from home provides, allowing them to work wherever their travels take them.  

Wanting to start a business is not the same as doing it. There will always be excuses that prevent getting started even if you have a strong desire to run a business. However, these objections should not stop anyone from becoming an entrepreneur. Time, skills, and effort are the only things needed to create a business from scratch. A huge amount of money is not necessary. Many successful entrepreneurs used only the tools and resources they already had.

Creating a work at home business from nothing may seem frightening or overwhelming. Merely thinking about developing something that could become successful scares some people. The key is to stop thinking about obstacles and start thinking about possibilities. Doing so reveals that there is no valid excuse against entrepreneurship. The possibilities are almost endless, including everything from cleaning houses or mowing lawns to starting a home-based skin care or travel business.

The opportunities are already there. Do not waste time looking for one that is the best fit. Doing that now only prolongs the road to success. If many successful entrepreneurs waited to discover their perfect opportunities, they would still be broke and unknown.  Find something in front of you and get started. After attaining a level of success, you can explore other opportunities to find the perfect one.

Helping others to succeed can make an entrepreneur more successful so bring friends, family, and co-workers along on the journey. Simply sharing inspirational ideas may be enough. If the situation permits, start a business as a group or have others come on board as independent contractors. Sharing the positive aspects of entrepreneurship with others benefits everyone involved.

Spring is a season renewal and replenishment. Why not take that perspective with your future? There is no better time to start a business than today. Look around and recognize the opportunities that exist, then grab one of them and get started. Learn, polish skills, and continue to develop a business into something to be proud of for years to come.

You May Be a Barrier to the Success of Others

In a recent post on her website, Dani Johnson Secret Millionaire star and lifestyle coach recently discussed an interesting topic. She noted that sometimes we are the barriers to the change we want. Many of us know others who are not achieving their potential and we devote our lives to helping them. Unfortunately, we may not realize that we are the problem. Until we do, their situations will not improve and we may even jeopardize our relationships with them.

We do things for our own reasons and others cannot force us to live according to their rules. Each of us sees things in unique ways, causing us to react differently. Some people are stuck in a rut and feel comfortable there. Dani admits that she once fell into this category by allowing herself to remain homeless for 30 days before launching the work at home business that made her a millionaire. Some people settle for what they believe they deserve from life. They may not be happy about this, causing them to blame everyone but themselves for their situations.

Too often, we focus on disseminating advice from experts to others and spend little time worrying about ourselves. Dani recommends that instead of thinking about who else would benefit from this information, we should think about how we can utilize it. Nagging and other methods of convincing people to get motivated consume time and energy that is better spent on our own lives. As we channel our efforts toward techniques that provide results, we increase our likelihood of achieving success. In addition, we reduce the tension in our relationships because we are not always harping on others to do something.

Listening is an excellent way to spend our down time. By listening to friends and family members who are “stuck,” we learn more about their interests, strengths, and goals. We spend less time trying to tell others what we think would be best for them and more time discovering what they want from life. Everyone is motivated by something different and listening to others helps us determine what this is. We can use this information to provide support and encouragement that will motivate them to change their lives for the better.

People are happiest and most successful when they realize their own dreams not the dreams we have for them. We should use the advice of experts to better ourselves and then listen to learn what our acquaintances want from life. Some of that expert advice may be applicable to them and there is no better way to prove its effectiveness than to show others how it has worked for us.

By focusing on ourselves, we improve our relationships with others and reduce our stress levels. We worry only about things we can control and with tips from experts, we spend much less time worrying overall. The sooner we begin this approach, the better off we and everyone around us will be. Others may see our success and want to imitate it, no influence necessary. 

Creating A Team-Based Work At Home Business

The best home based business leverages the power of numbers. In this context, “numbers” refers to people, not income. An entrepreneur can only make it so far alone. Developing a team of committed individuals enhances the results that any person can achieve individually. Team synergy has enabled many entrepreneurs to earn more income than they ever thought possible, achieving their dreams and helping others to do the same.

A group of people is just a collection of individuals but a team is much more. Teams work together toward a common goal and when they are comprised of high-performing individuals, they are very effective. Building the best teams requires a supportive environment that is nurtured over time. It is not enough to gather people together, tell them what to do, and unleash them on the world. Each member of the team must be educated and buy into the vision and mission of the business and how he or she fits into this larger picture.

The entrepreneur must explain how the role of each team member is essential to organizational goal achievement. Involving team members in brainstorming ideas and establishing priorities is part of this process. Each person brings unique skills and experiences to the team and these can be used to achieve corporate objectives. People enjoy doing things that relate to their competencies and with which they feel confident. Once individual roles are determined, the entrepreneur must clarify these and the expected outcomes at both individual and team levels.

Many people work for much more than their paychecks or even bonuses. They do it for the intrinsic satisfaction that the job and their achievements provide. When team members do excellent work, they should be praised. As the team reaches milestones, this should be recognized. Praise and other forms of non-monetary recognition are powerful incentives. Leaders should also encourage peers to recognize each other for a job well done because this increases team cohesiveness.

Team members can take things a step further by coaching and mentoring each other. Coaching helps team members grow professionally. They learn how to examine themselves and their needs and engage in critical thinking that guides their behaviors toward goal achievement. Mentoring uses the expertise of one team member to benefit another. Many of the most successful home business owners would not be where they are without a coach or mentor.

While some traditional workplace environments still treat workers as cogs in a wheel, a home work environment is naturally more conducive to an interpersonal approach. Leaders encourage team members to become well-rounded by encouraging these contributors to balance work and personal lives. They stress the importance of taking care of oneself physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Leaders should model the behavior and thinking they expect of their team members. This develops high-performers who are committed to the business. When the team possesses a common understanding and is working toward the same goals, it can achieve almost anything. By creating this type of team, the home-based entrepreneur increases the likelihood of success for everyone involved.

Overcoming Your Fear of Failing

Most of us dream of what we want to become and our dreams range in size. Many people would be content with being good parents to healthy children while others want to act or go into politics. Dreams of all sizes face one large obstacle. They are intimidating, causing us to experience fear. Though most people know they have something to offer the world, they also fear they do not have the knowledge or tools required to do it successfully.

Overcoming the fear of failing may seem like an impossible task but it is actually quite simple. It involves exploring the root of the fear before embarking on the road to success. Addressing the issue at the beginning prevents it from becoming buried only to reappear in the future, stifling success. Fear is simply a biological reaction to an unfamiliar situation but it can have a very real basis. Discover the root of your fear and address this problem so it cannot not affect your future.

Having no goals is the easiest way to ensure an unsuccessful life. The presence of a dream, no matter how small it may seem, is better than lack of one. Every career or field of interest can benefit from additional influential leaders. Commit the dream to writing and create a list of what must be accomplished in order to achieve it. Every dream becomes more feasible when it is broken into small components. This process identifies the steps and resources required on the path to success.

Use this plan as a roadmap and enlist experts to help along the way because there is nothing more beneficial to goal achievement than a mentor. The person most qualified to serve in a mentoring role is someone who has achieved the same dream. Mentoring may sound like a big undertaking but something as simple as advice from an expert can be sufficient.

As one example, if you want to create a home business that expands your sphere of influence and provides lucrative income, purchase a Dani Johnson script book. Dani is a lifestyle improvement expert who made her first million dollars working from home and built upon her success with other business endeavors. She now runs multiple companies, has written several influential books, and speaks to large, public audiences around the world.

Dreaming is contagious so as you do it others will join in. Encourage this, bringing them into the fold so they can realize just as much success. If you embark on a self-directed career, ask friends, family, and former co-workers to join you on the adventure. Helping each other become more successful creates a winning situation for all involved.

Take a few moments today to dream, recognizing fear of failure when it arises and addressing the problem that lies beneath the surface. Commit the goals to writing and create a plan that supports their achievement. Find someone who successfully achieved the dream and listen to what this person has to say. Then, gather the troops and take them along on this journey to success!

Working from Home Becoming Commonplace

According to a recent study by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., working from home has become a popular arrangement. Approximately 80 percent of the 120 employers surveyed offered an option for employees to telecommute. This arrangement will not be falling out of favor in the near future, as 97 percent said they did not plan to eliminate what has become a popular employee benefit. Companies like Yahoo!, which recently discarded its telecommuting policy, seem to be in the minority.

Though the study found that most employers do not offer a blanket policy for telecommuting, these companies do provide this convenient option to at least some employees on a formal or informal basis. The CEO of the staffing firm that conducted the study explained that not all employees posses what it takes to work at home regularly. Working from home requires self-motivation and discipline and managers should make telecommuting decisions on an individual basis.

What is driving employers to permit their workers to work at home? Promotion of work-life balance, improved morale, and increased productivity are major factors. Also important is the cost-savings that working from home represents to the employer. Companies reduce their needs for office space, equipment, and supplies when some staff work at home permanently. They may provide stipends for some associated costs but overall, they realize substantial savings.

Employers should think carefully before implementing telecommuting policies that do not cover all employees. Increased animosity can result when some, but not all, employees are allowed to work at home. Even blanket policies are not always successful, with some companies experiencing decreased collaboration that forces them to rethink or eliminate the option of working from home. On the heels of the Yahoo! elimination of telecommuting, Best Buy added a restriction to its policy, requiring that employees obtain permission from their supervisors before working from home.

What does it take to work at home? In addition to the aforesaid intrinsic motivation, a high level of self-discipline and excellent organizational skills. People who are used to well-defined job descriptions, close supervision, or a team of staff may have trouble making the transition to work at home business owners. However, those who work relatively independently and can handle the freedom that working at home provides may easily make the change.

People who work at home tend to be jacks-of-all-trades, handling everything from fixing printers to performing bookkeeping. Though many people are drawn to the freedom of a work at home job, most secretly crave routine, making it important to establish a daily schedule. Though unexpected issues may throw this plan off course, having structure provides a task to return to when things calm down.

One of the biggest challenges of a work at home job is knowing when to end the day. With the office just a few steps away, many people have trouble resisting the temptation to check emails, return business calls, or work on projects into the wee hours. Remembering that work-life balance is one goal of working from home shut make it easier to call it a day.