I started my company as a small home-based business, so I’d like to give out some advice as to how to maximize your potential while you are working towards achieving your goals for your company. More and more people are working from home, so I hope this comes in handy!
No pajamas at this office! Even if you are working from home, dress the part of a business owner. Staying in your pajamas or dressing too casual will affect your behavior, trust me. It’s much more motivating to be dressed up well and feeling good. This is your business, your creation, so treat it with as much respect as possible. If you are dressed like success, your mind will follow soon enough 🙂
Cut down on the IM or chatting. Instant messaging has really hit on the productivity of employees in offices around the world. Don’t fall into that trap! Only chat when you have no work to do. Chatting with your friends all day does not provide you with revenue nor does it make your business grow. Since no one is looking over you, it is up to you to take the initiative and make sure that you are not wasting your time.
Set ground rules for friends or family. I remember when I first started working from home…friends and family don’t really see it as “having a job” so they feel the right to call you or visit you whenever they want. This takes you away from working, something that if you were to work in an office with a boss, wouldn’t happen. So make sure you tell everyone that you are BUSY, and unless it is absolutely necessary, not to bother you while you are working.
Have a schedule. Set yourself times when you should be working, and organize everything else in your life around it. When you have a job, and a boss, you are expected to be there and working between certain hours. Part of being your own boss is to look at yourself as a boss would and expecting yourself to follow through with what you (the boss) intends to be done. As well, wake up and start early. It is very easy to think that you can sleep an extra hour or so because no one will be coming down on you. Make sure that you are as disciplined, if not more, than if you actually had a boss. After all, a business you OWN, should be more important than any job and thus treated as such.
Enjoy! There is so much to learn about yourself when you are left to your own devices running your own home based business. Enjoy these times and make the most out of it. Be confident in your eventual success and let nothing, absolutely nothing, stand in your way to being all that you are capable of being. As it is often said, sometimes the journey is more rewarding than the destination 😉
