Planning Stage

It seems that most people are perpetually in this part of a home business, so
it’s time to start thinking like a business owner and less like an employee.
When you’re someone else’s employee, you can have a tendency to agree
with what the majority is saying, but that doesn’t fly when you’re the owner.
You have to direct yourself into great ideas.

It’s best to keep every idea on the table, so to speak, when you’re in the
initial planning stages. When you have an idea, write it down and try to find
the merits.

Fall in love with that one idea for five minutes. Imagine your self doing or
dealing with this idea every day. How does it feel? If you seem to dread it
or find that it isn’t as exciting, put it aside and try something else.
Are you going to love what you do? You should if you want to be successful
at it.

Keeping your mind absolutely open is crucial for your thinking pattern as
well. You can’t succeed if you’re just doing something because it was the
first thing that you thought of and someone else liked it too.

This is going to be your business—you need to be a little more thoughtful.
And if you start by holding back ideas or possibilities, you are training your
mind to hold back its natural creative ability. If you’re going to run your own
business, you will need to have every creative urge at your disposal.

Only you are able to stop you at this point of the planning. And if you toss
aside possible business ideas too early, you may be missing out on
something that you might really love.

You may want to start thinking about your thinking. Everything you do
affects something later on down the road. If you start off with a closed
mind, then in essence, you are closing yourself off to possibility and venues
and successes that you haven’t yet dreamed of—because you’ve stifled
yourself from doing so.

Get those hopes high and be silly when you’re starting off. If this isn’t fun,
why do it at all?

This is your business. What do you want to do today?

FINDING FOCUS

Although you may be brimming with hundreds of ideas, you will need to find
something that strikes you and focus on it.

Many times new businesses try to be ‘all things to all people’ and end up
scattering themselves in the process. You want to find a select group of
consumers and get to know them
What do they like? What are their dreams? How can you help make their
lives easier or more successful?

Not only is diversifying right off the bat make it difficult for people to
understand what your business really is, but it also make it harder on you.
You’ll need to deal with many more things than you would if you were
focused on what you know and what you want others to know.

Stick with what you are good at and have already mastered and your
customers will respond more favorably.

Starting smaller also helps you to realize what you want for this business as
it grows. You’ll hear responses from your customers and see what they still
want from you and what more that they want.

You may start off with a business that just breaks even, while setting your
self up for a highly profitable venture because you were patient to learn and
grow.

Pick your area of focus early and learn everything that you can. This may
mean that you do research at the library or with another business owner. Go
to trade shows for your product or similar products to see how others are
marketing and running their businesses.

Although you may not become an expert for your product, you want to try.
You need to know everything about your service or product so that you can
be confident in selling it to your consumer base.

Focus in on your business and be the best of everyone else, and as you
grow, you’ll naturally diversify without having to suffer in the process.
You won’t be spending money on ideas that aren’t fully structured or planned
when you narrow your field. Having too many balls in the air will certainly
guarantee burn out, overwork, and frustration.

And that’s what you were trying to avoid in the first place.