To be honest when starting any business it would help if you are among the ‘Live to Work’ group. You really have to more or less enjoy working to want what is possibly a second job. In any case you will likely be spending a lot of time just getting started and obviously you will need to devote as much quality time as possible to your online business.
From the perspective of having a way to survive while building a business, it is best to start developing your plan for a home business while you still have an income from another source. This is because it takes time to start-up a business; Time to learn, to implement, and to develop a business (maintenance).
It is ok of course if you consider yourself in the ‘Work to Live’ group, as long as you understand that you will need to work at starting your own business, and maybe work harder at it since there are some things about your job career that you may take for granted.
This is the structure. It is already there with a job. They have the office, the equipment, the procedures and processes and the customers — and all you need to do is learn how to use everything and then just do it. You know what time you are expected to be there and what time you can go on breaks and when you can leave for the day. You know how much money you will make and when you will be paid.
When you are in business for yourself none of the above is a given. You have to set it all up. Possibly the most difficult part is in staying motivated since you don’t have a boss to be accountable to. You are it. So if you feel like putting something off, or not doing something at all, you have nobody to answer to. Easy to procrastinate and slack off. Oh sure, I’ll do that never.
On using money as the main motivation to work, again with a job it is sure – you know how much you will make and by when. With your own business you may be working for some time before you see the money and you can’t really say for sure when you will see any. This is natural if you feel disoriented with regard to this, however you may have a psychological problem with it because there is a ‘fine line’ there. The purpose of a business is to make money. If you do not see any, well, you say, what is the point?
You are not likely to make much money at first until you get everything rolling, in particular your marketing and advertising to attract customers. Even then you have to give it more time and in this regard you need to continually build momentum by keeping the volume of your advertising and marketing to the maximum. You should never ‘rest on your laurels’.
This is because not everybody who sees your ads will respond – in fact the majority will not respond. So you have to ‘find the needle in the haystack’ and plow through to find the people who are interested and will take action. Further to this even when you start getting traffic that will not only respond but actually convert to sales, you still need to constantly be finding new business – so again it is about the momentum. You can never stop unless you don’t mind your business drying up.
If you are starting an online business, get ready to do some work. Look at making money as a hobby and try to have fun getting to the prize. “It’s a marathon, not a sprint”, so don’t expect instant results, miracles, magic or osmosis. It’a all about just plain old w-o-r-k that will get you wealthy (unless you expect to inherit money or win the lottery)!
