Are you in control of yourself; your destiny; your business? There
are many warning signs that you might not be, but many times they
go unheeded. To be in control of anything, you must first be in control
of yourself.
If you are working from your home, it is easy to "loose control" and
slip into bad habits. You must exercise the same discipline that
would exist in an office, where you had to arrive at a certain time
in the morning, and work a full day.
While you can basically start your day, and end it when you wish if
you work from home, you must maintain some semblance of order in your
workday. Simply being there for a certain number of hours is not
the answer, if those hours are not productive. But the beauty of working
from home is that you do not have to have a regular schedule.
If your business is people oriented, you have to be available when
your prospective clients are available to you. If it is product oriented,
it really makes little difference when you work. Some people are
morning people and achieve their best productivity then - so do it
then. Others are "night owls" and that is their best time.
If you aren't in a situation where you have to be available during
certain hours, pick whatever works best for you. A better way is
to establish goals to meet. If you meet your goals each day, it doesn't
matter when you accomplish them. Personally, I prefer to meet all
of my daily goals in the morning when I'm fresh, and then, do what
I wish for the rest of the day.
You should establish your goals for each day. The best thing is to
write them down, and print them out so you can review them. Always
leave a bit of extra time for the unexpected. For example, you should
first check your email in the morning to resolve any problems that
might have "cropped up" over the night. Then, meet your goals established
for that day.
Does this mean that you must meet your goals every single day? No
- rather it is a guide. If there is a cook-out planned with company
coming over, should you ignore your guests just to meet your goals?
Of course not! But those goals have to be met under any circumstances.
While you can delay them for a day, the next day you will find yourself
with a double load. I prefer to try to meet goals that I know I won't
meet on a certain day in advance. That way, I can relax in the social
session without having that "Sword of Damocles" hanging over my head.
Let's take a real life example. Suppose you are in network marketing,
and of course one of your goals should be to enroll new recruits.
This can be done a number of ways, and making calls to new prospects
will be one of your daily chores. Set a goal of how many calls you
will make on any given day. Once you meet that goal, you can either
do other things to promote your business, or simply relax. If you
"goof off" however and don't meet that goal for whatever reason, you
are only hurting yourself if you don't make it up.
Personally I prefer working seven days a week. Granted, I don't work
a full work day, but by spreading the work out like this, it gives
me a lot of free time everyday. Others might prefer having definite
days off, but you have to adjust your goals accordingly. In other
words, if you are going to work at home, and have all of its benefits,
you have to be in control.
If you are "out of control" your home business will not prosper, and
you just might find you have to return to that regular job, from which
you so desperately tried to escape.
About the Author
Bob publishes the free weekly "Your Business" Newsletter
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Larry Dotson, when you visit http://www.ldpublishing.com