Avoiding The Home
Business Yo Yo
Kirk Bannerman
The psychological aspects of starting a home business are
multi-faceted. Among these are the immediate perceived pleasures
of being your own boss, setting your own working hours, and
avoiding a stressful commute (be it the freeways in Los Angeles,
riding the “L” in Chicago, or the subway in New York, or any of
the other major metropolitan areas of the world like Paris,
Rome, Athens, Madrid, etc).
However, there are also significant things on the other side of
the ledger…starting and building a home business is not just an
automatic trip to Valhalla. The need for self discipline is
important…since you don’t have a boss and a place to report for
work, it is now up to you to schedule your time and perform
productive tasks on your own.
Set actual work hours. Decide what hours you are going to work
each day and stick to it as much as possible. This is one of the
beautiful things about a home business…you get to make this
choice based upon your own personal situation (getting kids off
to school…playing golf in the morning, etc…whatever happens to
“float your boat”)
Make "to do" lists for each day. Then as you get them done,
check them off the list. You can transfer anything you don't get
done on a particular day to the next days list and make some
notation so that you can see that it is a carryover from the
previous day...hopefully, this will help you against just
pushing everything forward...pretty soon the broom will get too
heavy to push. This will help you to stay organized and on task.
In the early going, one of the most difficult things about
developing a new home based business is dealing with the “ups
and downs” (I call it the Yo-Yo). Once you have done the
research and decided on a proven work at home business
opportunity, you really need to focus on PERSISTENCE and realize
that any real business will not just automatically become
successful in days or weeks…you should be prepared to give it
your best for at least 6 to 12 months to begin to see real solid
income.
Highs and lows were something that I began to notice when I
first started a home business. I have many years of top level
management experience in “traditional” corporations and have
experienced lots of business cycles (corporate “ups and downs”),
but the natural “ups and downs” that occur in a home business
(particularly in the early stages) can be psychologically
punishing if you don’t prepare yourself in advance for the fact
that it is a basic law of nature…it will be a rocky road until
you have spent enough time and effort to build your business.
The impact of the “Yo-Yo” (ups and downs in developing your home
based business) is amplified by the fact that you are now in
business on your own…I guess you could say that it is the
sweet/sour or the yin/yang of work at home businesses. You get
to call all of the shots, but you are also standing there alone
(the emperor has no clothes).
In closing, I would leave you with two thoughts:
1). Pick your opportunity carefully and then be prepared to
stick with it through the inevitable ups and downs that you
experience.
2). Once you decide on a program, work it consistently for at
least 6 to 12 months and try not to pay much attention to the
early month-to-month results (avoid the “Yo-Yo”)
About the author:
Kirk Bannerman operates a successful home based business and
resides in California. For more details, visit his website at
http://business-at-home.us
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