"Helping Entrepreneurs to Succeed"

Working from home, or for yourself is so very different from just having a J.O.B. (just over broke). Now please don't take offense to that statement. If you have a J.O.B. and you like what you do, that's great. But let's face it, with the rising cost of fuel, commuting to work gets more costly by the day. Plus, you are working to line someone else's pockets, not your own, and usually all they care about is their bottom line.

A quick story here; an entrepreneur friend of mine was telling me how her sister was just laid off from a nice job she had as a promotional materials marketer. She bent over backwards for this "guy" who owned the business and took care of everything for the past 7+ years. Then one day, she went in, and after her work was done for the day, which included invoicing customers and collecting money, her boss told her he wouldn't need her anymore as he was downsizing. How do you like that! He let her do her work, for his benefit, and then let her go. I could write a few choice words about that guy, but as we've heard, "what goes around comes around." I'm sure he'll get what he has coming to him at some point.

As an entrepreneur, working for yourself, you don't have anyone standing over you making sure you do your job.

You don't have anyone to report to other than yourself and you're not busting your tail to make someone else rich, without one word of thanks.

Now I'll be the first to admit that it's very easy to become distracted if you are working from home. Especially if you are a woman; there's always the laundry and dishes that need tending to and other housecleaning duties along with fixing supper and then time with the kids and husband.

Some of us just need a bit more structured environment to keep it all together. Others need to have someone as a peer, or workmate, to help keep them going; someone to be accountable to in order to keep progressing and moving your business forward.

I've found that the most important thing necessary as an entrepreneur is to have the strongest possible reason to want to succeed at whatever it is you are doing. Another way to put it is to have a strong "why." Why are you building your business? Why do you do what you do? What made you look for something else in the first place?

Was it so you could stay home with your kids? Have more family time? Earn some extra money to make that car payment? Maybe you want to travel the world. Maybe you want to fund that retirement plan you've been lacking. Maybe you want to build a new house, or find a vacation home where it's warm during the winter months. Maybe you want to start a ministry.

Whatever it is, your reason for building a business must be so strong that it keeps you going during the flat spots in your business when you feel like quitting. This reason cannot be just about money. Yes, money is necessary, just like oxygen, but money comes and goes. You have to want more than money.

For me, it was initially about money. I was so excited about my new business too, that even though I really didn't fully grasp what I was doing, I was successful based solely on sheer excitement. After those initial few months though, it hit me that I really needed to have more than excitement, because excitement is hard to maintain on a daily basis. We all go through flat spots in our businesses, no matter what type of business it is. I realized that needing the extra money wasn't motivating me enough to press on.

Our reasons for building our businesses change and evolve over time. For me now, it is about our daughter, who aspires to be a country singer. She's only ten now, but she can sing! I know that it's going to take lots of time, lots of traveling, lots of voice coaching, and whatever else is necessary to help her succeed and get the education she will need for the music business, so that is why I am building my business. I want to be able to travel with her in the beginning stages of her career and be sure I don't ever have to say no because we cannot afford to do something that may be necessary.

So whatever your reasons are, they have to be so strong that the fear of failing and not achieving your dreams is stronger than the fear we sometimes have about our business; making those calls we need to make (oh, that phone can be so heavy at times, can't it?) or writing that blog to increase traffic to our websites, or whatever it happens to be. It's too easy to sit in front of the TV because a favorite show is on. It is important to stay focused and keep your eyes on your goals. It's OK to re-adjust those goals and deadlines from time to time, but not having dreams and goals will surely be a detriment to your business' progress. Like the saying goes, "Failing to plan is planning to fail."

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To Your Success!