Am I Operating A Real Home Based Business?

For many, working from home is a whole new way of life. I've done it for over twenty years. It is now clear that how we perceive our work and how we project what we do will determine how efficient it is for each of us.

Your perception will dictate how you "see" the management of the business and how important it is to you to run it like the business it is. This significance you place on the efficient management of your business will then project to others in your home and those who visit your office. Am I really serious about operating my real home based business or is this more like a hobby.

Some years ago at a writers conference, Dennis Hensley, one of the speakers, told a story about working from home with a humorous illustration: I asked Sally (one of the well known and successful writers at this conference) how she deals with this issue of working at home. I explained to her there are times I just don't feel like working and I don't feel as though I'm really at work. She then told me she understood this and it was a problem for her early on but now she explained, "I learned that I must treat my position just as if I were not at home" She went on to explain that she does this by getting up early and making herself up real nice, right down to her choice of an exquisite perfume. She explained further, "I choose one of my prettiest dresses and put on my high heels and when I walk down the hall to my office, I know why I'm there and I get right at it." Several months later I met Sally again and she asked me, "How are you doing working out of your home?" I then thanked her again for the advice she had given me about the self perception we must maintain when operating from our homes. I commented that the real challenge is walking in those high heels."

Our own perception of how important our work is will be evidenced by how efficiently we work from the home. Am I building a real home based business or just playing games?

You must recognize the importance of scheduling your time and accomplishing everything you have purposed for the day. When you do this, your family members or visitors to your office will tend to do the same.

You may not be focused enough to keep the hourly interruptions that may occur from destroying your day. Then what happens is that others will collude with you to do it over and over again! You need to set the tone for your real home based business. You're the one who will be communicating the importance of your time to others who come into your office setting.

Now, I don't believe this requires us to be harsh or show no tolerance for our daughter running in to show off a picture that is her proud handiwork. It does, though, mean she will know this is something that is okay to do from time to time, (when it is a really special picture) but generally she will realize that Mommy or Daddy are at the office now and it is off limits for the most part.

Each family must find their own balance in this respect, but the balance must be weighted towards the concept that, "He or She isn't home right now but has gone to the office."

I now have grandchildren around the house and even at 30 months they understand this. Now, frankly I always stop and set him on my lap when he enters the office but he knows it is a very short visit and he doesn't linger, he respects the office as a special place.

Real Home Based Businesses Require Focus

Don't get distracted by the side issues that may seem at the moment to be urgent. It all happens too easily to the home based business person. Decide that you are going to make this thing work and that what you are doing is important and significant or go back to the corporate world and hope they have a place for you there. But don't hang out in between.

Be totally committed to building your real home based businesses. The fact you have decided to work out of your home should have no bearing on your potential or your ability to succeed. But it does require that you see it as it really is - a business you have chosen to develop and nurture to create the income, satisfaction and freedom you desire so that you can be all you were created to be.

Building your real home based businesses to the point that you are building a significant income will ultimately become the evidence that you were serious about starting and building your own real home based business.