How Do I Start a Home Business?
>From time to time (at least once a day actually) I'll get animpossible-to-respond-to email that says something like, "Howcan I work from home?", or "I want to start my own homebusiness. Please send info." or even, "Please send free info.".Naturally such vague, generalized requests are not, for reasonsof time (among others), going to elicit a particularly helpfulresponse but it does exemplify the mindset of a proportion of mysite visitors - they think they want to start a hom...
...e businessbut where on earth do they start?HOW DO I START A HOME BUSINESS?The best advice I can give to someone who asks a question asvague as this is that they're asking the wrong question. Thefirst question they should be asking themselves is: "SHOULD Istart a home business?", not HOW do they do so. The person who asks how to start a home business has not givenmuch, if any, thought to what they might do as such a business(otherwise, their question would be "How do I start an errandservice home business?" or "How do I start a gourmet gift baskethome business?"). So, first things first. Why do you want to start a homebusiness? What are the advantages as you see them? What are thedisadvantages? What entrepreneurial qualities do you bring tothe table that make you think you could make a success of yourown business? What is your plan? What product or service willyou market? Who are your customers? When will you give up yourday job? Are you thinking about this because you just LOST yourday job (if so, warning bells should be ringing very loudly!)? Ahome business is most definitely NOT for everyone and it'scertainly not a solution to unemployment per se. There are financial considerations too, obviously. How will yousupport yourself until you generate a profit? Where will youobtain financing? For more thought starters, read "Look Before You Leap ... Is aHome-Based Business REALLY For You?" in the AHBBO ArticlesLibrary at http://www.ahbbo.com/lookb4uleap.html .Assuming you work your way through the above considerations andconclude that you do, indeed, want to start your own homebusiness, then, and only then, should you ask "HOW do I start ahome business?"There are as many answers to this question as there areindividuals who ask it. There is no one answer that fits allsizes. Generally speaking, however, the process of startingone's own home business can be broken down into seven broadsteps.=> IDENTIFY YOUR PASSIONSIf you're truly starting at ground zero and you don't already dosomething on the side that you'd kind of like to see if youcould make fly, your first step is to decide what it is you'dlike to do as your business.I'm a firm believer in following your passion, whether that befor gardening (start a herb and spice business or cultivatecuttings for distribution via mail order), lead- lighting(design and create stained glass lampshades), accounting (run ahome-based small business accountancy service) or websitedesign. It doesn't matter whether other people are equally aspassionate about what you're passionate about. It's YOUR passionthat counts and it's YOUR passion that will propel you towardssuccess. Do something you love to do in other words. Make yourwork your joy and you won't be able to help but succeed.=> IDENTIFY A NICHE MARKET FOR YOUR PASSIONNow, it's one thing to know what you're passionate about, it'squite another to identify an unmet need in that field. Butthat's what you must do if you want to turn your passion into atruly profitable business venture. Identifying your niche is apretty straightforward process:1. Identify your general category and sub-categoryLet's say your general passion is gardening. Gardening is yourgeneral category. Let's also say that you're particularlyinterested in growing herbs and how they can be used for cookingand medicinal purposes. Herb growing is your sub-category.2. Hang out with people interested in your sub-categoryIn order to identify unmet needs in your sub-category (step 3.),you must find out from people interested in your sub-categorywhat they're looking for that they can't find. A good way tofind out is to hang out where they hang out - offline and on.Offline, you may belong to a local gardening club or cookingclass at which you hear that so-and-so has been looking high andlow for a certain type of specialty herb that isn't commonlygrown in your country. Online, you may sign up for mailing listsand hang out in newsgroups to listen to what people are askingtime and again. 3. Identify unmet or under-met needs in your sub-categoryIf you follow step 2, chances are, if you hear the same thingsrepeatedly, you've found potential unmet needs or needs thataren't being adequately serviced by your competition. After all,if the need is being met, it won't be the subject of repeatedquestions.4. Inventory your experience, interests and competenciesIn order to decide what to focus on in particular out of a groupof potential unmet or under-met needs, take account of yourexperience, interests and competencies. People are generallygood at what they enjoy and are interested in, after all.5. Fill the unmet or under-met needOnce you've identified the unmet need(s) in your sub-category,you can start thinking about how your business can fill thatunmet need.=> SURVEY THE MARKET AND YOUR COMPETITIONAt this stage, you need to take your business idea and surveyyour niche market and your competition. If you have competition, can you be better? If your market isdominated by a few large, well-established players and youreally don't bring anything new or different to the table, thenthe competition is probably going to be too stiff. On the otherhand, if that competition is focused on the high end of themarket leaving the lower end largely uncatered for, then thiscould well be an excellent niche for you.The bottom line is to identify your best competition in yourniche and decide whether you can be better. Only if you believe you can be the best in your niche should youproceed. If not, keep looking until you find a niche perfectlysuited to your particular blend of experience, interests andcompetencies in which you can be the absolute best.=> BUSINESS PLANOnce you've identified your niche and surveyed your market andcompetition and are reasonably confident you can be at least asgood as your best competitor, it's time to get down to brasstacks.This is where you take your business idea and shape it into abattle plan. Formulating a business plan is goal-setting foryour business. For a more detailed treatment of writing abusiness plan, read "Putting the Plan Back Into Your BusinessPlan" at http://www.ahbbo.com/busplan.html .Once you've thought through and recorded your business plan youshould have an extremely thorough understanding of your industryand the challenges you must overcome to make a success of yourbusiness. Take your business plan and establish objectives,goals (which support attainment of the objectives) and tasks(which support attainment of the goals).Put your tasks and goals into action to achieve your objectives.Decide where you want your business to be in five years time andwork backwards until you have 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 year objectivesand goals to support them and tasks to support the goals. Theend result should be a daily to-do list of things that willdirectly lead you closer to the achievement of your goals andobjectives.=> ACTIONOnce you have your daily to-do list, DO IT! The best laid plansof mice and men are useless if not translated into action. It'saction that will propel you and your business towards success.Mere thoughts and plans are necessary but insufficient. Theymust be translated into activity.=> TRANSITIONIf possible, transition from whatever you're doing now into yourbusiness. Test the waters, in other words. If you're currentlyin a paid job, stay there and run your business part-time,taking the risk on someone else's nickel until you can beconfident this thing's going to float. Know when you're betteroff devoting your full time and attention to your business(i.e., know when an hour of your time is worth more when spentinvested in your business than your job) for that is the time toshift into full-time entrepreneurship.=> MAKING THE LEAPFinally, make the leap with faith and courage. Sure, you'll havemoments of self-doubt, thoughts of "can I do this?" when you'rewondering where the next order's going to come from and youthink back to the nice, safe, secure paycheck you used to beable to count on in your job. But recognize these insecuritiesfor what they are. They are your mind playing tricks on you. Youcan do anything you set your mind to. You just have to want itbadly enough. So, when the time comes to make the leap, do itand hold nothing back. Your success or failure is up to youalone. There are no excuses. So, in answer to the question "how do I start my own homebusiness?", it's quite simple really. You do what it takes.
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