Avoiding The Home Business Yo Yo
By Kirk Bannerman
Posted Monday, December 20, 2004
The psychological aspects of starting a home business are multi-faceted. Among these are the immediate perceived pleasures of being your own boss, setting your own working hours, and avoiding a stressful commute (be it the freeways in Los Angeles, riding the “L” in Chicago, or the subway in New York, or any of the other major metropolitan areas of the world like Paris, Rome, Athens, Madrid, etc).
However, there are also significant things on the other side of the ledger…starting and building a home business is not just an automatic trip to Valhalla. The need for self discipline is important…since you don’t have a boss and a place to report for work, it is now up to you to schedule your time and perform productive tasks on your own.
Set actual work hours. Decide what hours you are going to work each day and stick to it as much as possible. This is one of the beautiful things about a home business…you get to make this choice based upon your own personal situation (getting kids off to school…playing golf in the morning, etc…whatever happens to “float your boat”)
Make "to do" lists for each day. Then as you get them done, check them off the list. You can transfer anything you don't get done on a particular day to the next days list and make some notation so that you can see that it is a carryover from the previous day...hopefully, this will help you against just pushing everything forward...pretty soon the broom will get too heavy to push. This will help you to stay organized and on task.
In the early going, one of the most difficult things about developing a new home based business is dealing with the “ups and downs” (I call it the Yo-Yo). Once you have done the research and decided on a proven work at home business opportunity, you really need to focus on PERSISTENCE and realize that any real business will not just automatically become successful in days or weeks…you should be prepared to give it your best for at least 6 to 12 months to begin to see real solid income.
Highs and lows were something that I began to notice when I first started a home business. I have many years of top level management experience in “traditional” corporations and have experienced lots of business cycles (corporate “ups and downs”), but the natural “ups and downs” that occur in a home business (particularly in the early stages) can be psychologically punishing if you don’t prepare yourself in advance for the fact that it is a basic law of nature…it will be a rocky road until you have spent enough time and effort to build your business.
The impact of the “Yo-Yo” (ups and downs in developing your home based business) is amplified by the fact that you are now in business on your own…I guess you could say that it is the sweet/sour or the yin/yang of work at home businesses. You get to call all of the shots, but you are also standing there alone (the emperor has no clothes).
In closing, I would leave you with two thoughts:
1). Pick your opportunity carefully and then be prepared to stick with it through the inevitable ups and downs that you experience.
2). Once you decide on a program, work it consistently for at least 6 to 12 months and try not to pay much attention to the early month-to-month results (avoid the “Yo-Yo”)
About the Author
Kirk Bannerman operates a successful home based business and resides in California. For more details, visit his website at (http://business-at-home.us)
