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The journey to success in your home based business

by Diana Ennen

The journey to success in your home based business

Work at Home Success -- How do you measure the success in your life?  As a home-based working mom it’s so different than the outside corporate world. I know for me, one day it can be 

a call from Borders that they are accepting one of my books, where another day it can be that I finally got my 8-year-old to go on a field trip at school.  The last two she had missed being too scared to attend and instead spent the day home, sick.  Both days, I consider huge successes!  Both days, I felt a real winner.

Home based success can mean the little things such as a day we get all our work done while attending a sick child, or being one of the only parents able to attend a school function that your daughter so eagerly anticipated. That’s what we are trying to achieve in our home-based business, the best of both worlds.  And having worked at home since 1985 I can truly say, it can be done.  As president of Virtual Word Publishing, http://www.virtualwordpublishing.com, I've enjoyed working at home while watching my kids grow up and become just as motivated and determined to succeed in business and life as I am.  That’s one of the perks is they get to see what you do.

So how can you achieve this success for your business and family?  How can you make more good days than bad?  Here are some tips:

Start Early:  I find that by getting up an hour or so before everyone else, I can accomplish so much more. That allows me the extra 10 minutes of devotional time, a few minutes to enjoy my coffee alone, and then time to dig into my work.  I usually save my peak work for this time as this is truly when I’m at my best. 

Regroup and Rebalance:  So often home-based moms feel overwhelmed and unable to accomplish anything because of this.  Try breaking it all down. Take a day or two and write down your typical day. What can you change to make it better, to make it work?  Often when it’s down in writing, it’s clearer to see where changes can be made.  Try to lump together tasks and delegate any tasks you can. And above all else-avoid Guilt.

Eliminate time-robbers!  We still have to cook dinner, (I tried, it didn’t work!) but I don’t have to talk to my friend, who doesn’t work, for 45 minutes during my workday.  Say No! 

Also, with my kids I found some of the work I actually could take outside or in another room.  There’s no rule that says I have to work at my desk.  Perhaps you can create different workstations around the home.  Be creative.  One work-at-home mom Missy DePew, President and Founder of MomMe TV Entertainment, Inc. has a laptop she carries from room to room so she can be near her kids when she has to absolutely work on her computer.   Her new internet television web site, which was created for all moms, http://www.mommetv.com can be very demanding and trying to squeeze it all in can be difficult.  DePew states, "With kids, laundry, and a new company – I try but it’s very challenging.  You just do what you gotta do to make your ship run.”    

Shortcuts To Success: What can you do to make your business run smoother?  Constantly be thinking of ways to improve upon your business. Organization is naturally a big one.  The more organized you are, the better you’ll be at all things.  Spend the time to organize and you'll find you have more time than you ever thought possible.

Another shortcut for me was to create different books of materials that I frequently used so I didn’t have to reinvent the wheel each time and it was right in front of me.  Thus, I created different 3-ring binder books of marketing letters, press releases, etc.   Now when I want to write a marketing letter or a new press release, I can draw upon some of the quotes from my other letters and I find that often times I can use one of the letters I've already created.

Think about things that you can do for your business.  Things that you use often, that you could print out and possibly make a collection of, and then look to as a resource.  Or what other times savings tip could you think of that would help your business?  Write them down.  Now apply them to your business.

Another thing I do is buy paper that has 3 ring holes already in it.  When I print out a client’s e-mail, or client’s article, I’ll immediately put it into their binder categorized by topic. I’m now able to find things faster and also can see clearly all I’ve done with the clients.  I also color coordinate my clients files.  When Client A calls, I grab my red folder and automatically jump into his work mode.  It saves me so much "think time." 

Focus on Success:  Continue to see yourself as a success and focus on your goals.  Success is within your reach when you continually focus on your goals, both for your business and your family. 

Diana Ennen is the author of numerous books including Virtual Assistant: The Series, Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA.  She specializes in publicity and book marketing and is president of Virtual Word Publishing http://www.virtualwordpublishing.com/and http://www.publicity-va.com/.  She also is the publisher of the science fiction thriller, Sledgehammer, http://www.pauloreyes.com/ Articles are free to be reprinted as long as the author’s bio remains intact.

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