Keep Your at Home Based Business Running Like a Fine Tuned Machine!
Chances are if you’re just starting your new at home based business you’ve found that there are some things about it you absolutely love. Like there’s no boss breathing down your neck, your commute is seconds instead of many long minutes (maybe hours), the dress code is whatever you want it to be for the day — some prefer pj’s, I’m into sweats — and you’re pretty much calling the shots on your schedule. Sweet!After a couple of weeks though, you might think you’ve suddenly developed a case of Adult onset Attention Deficit Disorder — or AADD for short. It happens — suddenly you’re the boss and you decide you need to get a load of laundry done, or pay some personal bills, or mow the lawn, or run to the grocery store, or do your email, or work on your business plan, or get the marketing strategy put together, or update your website, or take the kids to soccer. Whew!Here are a couple of my very most critical hints to keep our work from home life running smoothly:First and foremost – get some structure into your day. You need to figure out what is going to work best for you. If you’ve decided to work from home so that you can have the flexibility to “multi-task” with home tasks and work tasks, that’s just fine! Just figure out what needs to get done during the week, prioritize it, then plan your week accordingly.Maybe you can plan your mornings to be all work and no play or outside chores. You get yourself to your home office — wherever that is, and you work. Do NOT start your day answering emails. The only reason to check email is to see if any new orders have come in overnight that need to be dealt with. You should be able to tell which are orders and which are other things — all other things wait!If morning is the time of day that’s best to connect with your clients, do it then. Get the important things out of the way first. An use some kind of contact management software or other calendaring software to so you can keep track of what you’ve done throughout the day and can get a feeling of accomplishment when you check off the items on your to-do-list at the end of the day. (You do have a to-do-list don’t you? If not, that’s the first tip for getting your at home based business running like a finely tuned machine.)The next thing I recommend is to grow your network and keep growing it. This might be a little more difficult if you’ve starting work from home and you’ve started to get in the grove of staying at home. It can be tough to get out and meet people, to schmooze, to build those relationships, but that is so critical to the success of your business. Whether you’re an in a home based internet business, or you’ve got an online home based business opportunity, or if you’re in a preschool business from your home, you’ve got to develop relationships with people who you can help and who can help you.Finally – celebrate small successes! You’ve got to take some time to a.) recognize your successes and they could be very small and b.)celebrate them. Perhaps you’ll have been stumped over some problem and spent an inordinate amount of time to find the right fix. When you do, recognize your accomplishment and celebrate it! Your celebrations don’t have to be big, but they do have to be recognizable as celebrations. Treat yourself to some small token of appreciation if the job was small and some larger token, if the job was larger. Include your family in the celebrations.If you just keep these three tips in mind as you start you At Home Based Business, you will surely have your business running smooth as a top!