Structure is Important to the Success of a Home Business!

One of the biggest mistakes that home business owners make is that in the attempt to build a business they lose sight of the very thing they wanted when they started. Most people begin home businesses to either supplement their income or to be home with family. However, if a person is locked in at their computer desperately seeking to drive sales or spending more then they are earning, they have lost sight of the very thing they were seeking.
Structures in life are necessary. Without them the human, unless naturally the high structures type spoke of in a previous article, will wander aimlessly from task to task. This is easy to do when promoting online because one site will lead to another. Each offering to nickle and dime the business owner with small costs to promote their URL. Each one seems small but when added up over the month, can be a large chunk if not exceed the advertising budget set aside.

The first thing to do to structure a home business is figure out the working hours. Are they while the baby is napping? In the evening when the spouse is home? Pick a set number of hours a day and the times that they are normally set aside for. This is flexible of course, that is the attraction of a home business. But on the normal, no appointments, no business meetings day, when will the home business entrepreneur be working?

The second thing to do is figure out what needs done in that time. How much time is needed to return emails and phone calls? How much time will be spent marketing online? How much time will be used in presentations? Deliveries? What ever ythe business needs done, allocate a time amount for it for the week. Now looking at these two things. Figure out what days and how much time on that day will be devoted to each of the indentified tasks needing accomplished.

Another important part of structuring is organizing the business expenses. Get a basic accounting system. It is hard at the end of the year to show all those little expenditures unless the business owner have been keeping receipts (email ones too). Take the time up front to desiginate how income and expenses will be monitored.

The last thing that is important to structuring a home business is to plan a marketing strategy wisely. If there is a marketing budget, get with the sponsor or find a trusted marketing mentor and find out where their money was best spent. If there is no budget, learn how to market for free. There are tons of free things that can be done to promote a business online. The key is consistency. When marketing for free, it is not about quick returns, it is about diligence and patience. Make a weekly goal of whatever strategies the business owner is comfortable using. For example, posting ten free classifieds daily. Something along those lines but for each thing on the list of free marketing tools. Be prepared to not see results for at least 30 days. People need to see the advertising multiple times before they will follow up.

Structuring a home business is not only critical to success, but it allows for tracking what works and what is not working. Wandering aimlessly in hopes of stumbling onto the gold mine does not work. Structures in a home business also mean that the important component of time with family or freedom to ___________ (you fill in the blank) remain an important focus in the week to week life of the entrepreneur. Remember, Balance is the key component to finding happiness, abundance and freedom in life!

Have a Prosperous Day!
The Balance Guide