Don't think about how to run your business, just do...

I’ve had a hard time recently when it comes to understanding a lot of what is out there on the home business front.   I’m talking websites and forums.   While there is a lot of useful advice out there on how to start and maintain a home business, there is also a lot of mindless fluff that just seems to support the idea that there is only one way to make a business happen.   In other words, unless you have a highly detailed business plan, you will get nowhere.

This is, of course, utter rubbish.   There is still too much content out there that extolls the virtues of a ‘good’ business plan.   You know my thoughts on these things.   I’m not the world’s biggest fan of making a detailed plan regarding how you are going to run your business.   You don’t need a business marketing plan or a business plan or a small business plan or any of the other documents that the ‘experts’ recommend.

I have found that thinking about things too much stops you from doing them.   The best example I can think of right now about this problem concerns one of the biggest passions in my life, namely Taekwondo.

At the beginning of this year I achieved my black belt in Taekwondo.   This was an amazing feat for me.   I was in my thirties, I had a young family, and a job with tonnes of pressure.   Making classes was difficult at the best of times.   But I persevered, and made it to black belt.  

However, this has nothing to do with business plans, so I’ll cut to the chase.   Now I am facing black belt 2nd Dan.   This is a major achievement again.   Once again I am up against it.   But it isn’t the age thing, or the family, or a job that is making things difficult for me right now.   What is stopping me from making a great amount of progress is that I make the classic mistake when it comes to learning new stuff and new techniques.   I think too much.

There is this stick pattern I have to learn right now.   With a stick in my hand that is about 12 inches long, I have to put together a complex routine of moves, while looking confident, and ensuring that the technique looks flawless.   I am absolutley nowhere near getting it right yet, and the grading is only about a month away.

Nearly every time I practise the pattern I think about what I am doing.   I think about how it looks.   I think about the fact that my teacher is watching me.   And I think about the fact that I have only weeks to get it perfect.

Sometimes though, when I am at home and practising, it falls into place.   This is because all of the concerns I have, all the stuff I think about down at the Taekwondo school, is gone.   Instead I just do.

I go as fast as I can, knowing that any mistakes I make are just mistakes, and that no one is there to watch me.   I can screw up as much as I want and I don’t even think about it.   It is precisely because I don’t have this huge thinking problem that my practise at home is much more successful than it is at the school.

I don’t think at home, I just do.  I’m faster, more accurate, and stronger.   I have no pressure because I have total freedom.   My mind is empty of anything but the moment.   Because I am doing something, rather than analysing it to death, there is nothing going on in the room but action.

Transfer this stuff to business, and you could transform your results in minutes.   You could in fact create and start a business in a day if you wanted to. 

Let’s put it this way.   If you just decide to get online and start a website and/or blog, and then do it straightaway, you have taken action.   You have not wasted time worrying about it all.   You have not made yourself write a business plan.   You haven’t wasted your time trying to find business plan samples.    You haven’t tried to shop around a million hosting services to find the very best deal that will carry you through for ten years of web hosting.  

Instead you have found a decent web hosting service, and you have bought a host and a domain.   Done.

That takes about twenty minutes at the most.  Then you start writing content.   Then you optimise your site.   Then you get traffic.   Then you advertise products that you feel are worth investing in and you wait and see if your site visitors buy it.   You don’t wait too long before you decide whether or not to continue with that product.   Whatever happens, you either change the product or you keep it on because it is successful.   And then you keep moving.

If you think about the process too much, you will be sitting there after those twenty minutes, or those three days, or six months, with no business.  You might be very prepared for a business, but you won’t have a business.  

My message is quite simple really.   The reason I am so depressed about all of those business sites out there is because none of them tell their readers to take action, and just get on and make a business.   Just like I get a lot more achieved with Taekwondo by not thinking too much, your business will explode if you just take action rather than analyse.  

And you know why?   It is because action creates results.   It creates movement and consequences.   Turning your computer on and working creates results.   Good or bad, it makes things happen.  

Take action every day.   But don’t write that business plan.   Forget those experts who tell you to spend three weeks on a business plan, or to read this book or that book before you start making money.   Just do it, just make some business.   I absolutely guarantee that if you just take action every day when it comes to your business, you will succeed.

I guarantee that.

Until next time, work smart.

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Your home business just needs to be functional in that first week...

Okay, here is the second post in the series that looks at how you are going to survive the first week in the life of your home business.   And in this one we are going to look at the issue of office furniture for your home business.   While the subject is vast, and there are zillions of websites out there that cover home office furniture and organisation with high levels of detail, here we are talking about your first week.   Your home business needs to survive that short period, so this post is going to look at basic functionality, nothing more.

The most important thing you can do in those first seven days is separate your new home business from the rest of the house.   This means taking the clear decison to section part of your living space off, so that you effectively lose square footage to your home business.   Do not compromise on this, no matter what.   Either create space, or reduce the value of what you are trying to do.  

Your laptop or PC takes centre stage.   Give it a space that is uncluttered.   Give it a central position.   Respect the fact that this is the key tool in your home business.   This is the tool that makes you money.  

If you can afford an inexpensive desk (and if you have done any kind of planning for your business you will have factored this in) then place your laptop or PC on it and resolve, there and then, to keep it tidy.

Then hook up a telephone and place that on the desk too.   If you are going to go all techie and have telephone conversations over the Internet, good for you.   This is definitely the way of the future.   But for now, don’t assume that your clients have that technology.   Instead, buy a cheap phone, and get it hooked up.   The phone is almost as important as your computer.  

So far then, we have a desk, a computer, and a phone.   There are only two things that you now need to make sure that you have before you can confidently say that you are ready for your first week.   A desk lamp, and a pad of paper to jot down stuff on.

Make sure all of this stays tidy, and then get to work.   You can worry about adding more stuff to your home office later.   For now, focus on pure functionality.  You can work (with the computer), at all hours (with the lamp) and you can stay organised and contactable (the pad and the phone).   Everything else will fall into place.

As long as you have devoted some space in your flat/house/garage/Googleplex to your home business, you can’t go wrong.

Now get to work.

And until next time, work smart.

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Setting up a home business can be one of the most liberating experiences of your adult life.   Some people who have been particularly successful at it have described as the best thing they have ever done.   Others, who have come into it after working for many years on a salary, have described those previous years as ‘a different life’ or ‘a different me’.   Whatever people say about the whole experience of developing a home business, it does change lives, and it can be very lucrative and satisfying.

However, many home businesses fail after just a few months of being in operation.   The reason for this is that the owners of these businesses don’t pay attention to a few issues that surround the experience of starting a home business.  This article outlines five of those issues, and suggests how to deal with them.  

1.       First of all, discipline is the key to a great home business.   If you spend the day typing in your pyjamas, pretty soon you will find that your home business has gone down the tubes.   While you don’t necessarily have to wear a suit and tie, it is important to dress early and stick to a set of hours that are not too dissimilar to normal working hours.   So many businesses have come undone because people are lounging around in their nightwear when a telephone call comes through.   Their attitude is way too casual when they are wearing their stripy pyjamas, and clients, prospective or otherwise, can spot the difference between someone who is business like and someone who has just crawled out of bed.

2.       Make sure that you set up a clearly defined area in which you are going to work.   This is your office space, and while you don’t need to have a water cooler and a fire door, you do have to ensure that you and anyone who lives in your house knows that business takes place in that area.   Keep it clean and tidy and well-resourced, or you will soon feel that it is getting out of hand.

3.       If you have money in your budget (and this is not an expensive thing to do) then you should advertise.  If this scares you, set up a monthly budget and stick to it, monitoring the ROI (return on investment) that you receive.   If it doesn’t work after a month, add another $20, and so on, until you start to get results.   You will soon see how to work it.   Don’t forget that companies almost always ask where you saw their ad…

4.       And while we are on the subject of advertising, get on the Internet as soon as you can and start marketing your company.   There are two things you need to do, get a blog, and then a website.   If you don’t know how to do this, get on the Internet and find out.   ProBlogger is a great site that helps you set up a blog.   And there are millions of websites that can help.   One amazing one, that does a lot of stuff for free, is HubSpot.

5.       Once you have done all of that, do not get down when things don’t change overnight.   Companies take time to grow, and this needs to be borne in mind.  The most successful people in the world made mistakes first.    A study was done recently with some self-made millionaires, and they were millionaires in their thirties.   They were asked how many companies they had started before they made a million.   The average answer?   Seventeen.

So there we have it.  Keep these points in mind, stay focused, and pretty soon you will have a home business you can be proud of.

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Creating your home business (actually quitting your day job and starting to work from home) will feel great for about two days.   After this, consider the honeymoon to be over.   Your home business and you have to share a life together, and it is up to you to make it work.

Day one is always a good place to start.   This is when the enthusiasm is still there, and habits can be established.   One of the first things you should do is make yourself a solemn, hand-on-your-heart promise that you are going to be disciplined about time.

Your home business depends upon you, because you run it.   If you turn up for work ten minutes late because you wanted to get an extra ten minutes sleep, you’ve lost ten minutes work time.

The deal here is pretty straightforward.   You get in trouble if you are late for your day job, right?  

Why?

Time is money.   The time you spend in bed is time you could be investing in your business.   

The trick is to treat your home business and time as interlinked entities.   Set yourself a time to get up, and a time to start work by.   Then stick to it.

Then set yourself a couple of breaks, and a longer one for lunch, just like you would have in the ‘real’ world of work.   And stick to this arrangement.

If you need proof that lateness or general sloppiness on timekeeping affects the bottom line for businesses, check out this link, and then promise yourself that you are going to treat your home business like the real, grown-up business it is.

http://www.bytestart.co.uk/content/news/1_12/late-for-work.shtml

Consider this to be your first week one survival tip for your home business, and be on time.

Until next time, work smart.

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