Do You Have What It Takes To Work At Home?

Working at home ... it has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? Many see being able to set their own hours as a dream come true.

For those who have little or no self-discipline, that dream can quickly turn into a nightmare.

There may be times when a deadline is approaching as well as your favorite sports team on television. Without the discipline to set your priorities to your work, your home business will fail.

When you make the commitment to work from home, you are telling your clients or customers that you are ready to do whatever it takes to get the job done within the promised time. If fail to do that, you are telling them that you do not care about their needs and your time is more important to you than their project.

This also rings true if your work at home option is to start a home business, an internet marketing business or a online store. You need to dedicate time and resources to make it happen ... without distractions.

If there is no one around a majority of the day then there should be no distractions to keep you from getting your work done. But be careful. Those first weeks of freedom can lend more to procrastination than working. The first few days may be wasted as you get up in the mornings and think about not having to go anywhere. How nice it is that you can work whenever you feel like it .. and soon enough you find yourself not working at all and finding all kinds of busy work that keep your days full but not productive.

You might start struggling to hit deadlines and having trouble finding new projects. These are all serious danger signs for your new business venture.

Here are some tips to help you get started on the right foot.

1. While you can work in your pajamas, until you are settled into your routine of working at home, get up in the morning and get dressed for work.

2. Set a schedule. Plan to hit the office at a specified time and establish regular hours. Once acclimated to getting your work done on time, then you can play with your schedule and your dog during the day and finish your work in the evening.

3. Plan your priorities. There can be competing requests for your time so set a priority schedule and don't let distractions like phone calls or emails pull you away from those priorities.

4. Set aside time for business housekeeping, like invoicing, returning non urgent emails or phone calls and touching base with clients. If you set the time aside to do it, it will be less tempting to interrupt a priority task for these activities.

5. Celebrate successes. Working at home can be lonely if you let it. So connect with others, go out for networking lunches and celebrate your business achievements. It will make the work more enjoyable.

In addition to discipline, another key attribute for successful work at home entrepreneurs is organization. This ensures that little details, or big jobs, are not overlooked and forgotten. Nothing worse than missing a critical meeting or deadline because you forgot about it.

Once you are organized and disciplined, be prepared to work more hours than normal. It takes time to build a successful business and get yourself established, but in the long run, the effort is worth the reward. And, the reward for you is time freedom and more disposable cash.

One final tip for you: finish all the hard projects at the beginning so if you get behind, the easy ones can be done quickly.

About The Author-- Jennifer Lavoie is a home-based business coach. Using Robert Kiyosaki's teaching, she helping others to build passive income businesses and retire early and free. http://www.retirefree.ws

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