Do you dream of getting out of the early morning traffic jam and eating your breakfast on the back porch as you watch the sunrise? Is the idea of rushing around in the morning to get everyone off to school and work depressing? Do you find yourself dreaming of setting up a home business of your own, every time you hear another one of the success stories? A home business might be exactly the right fit for your life, but it is important to look at both the advantages and the drawbacks. In this article we will look at the key employee of your business, or franchise, and that would be you. Consider whether you would hire yourself to run your home business. It may be a strange idea to consider, but it is very valuable in understanding your strengths and limitations.

1. Consider your natural ability to be organized. This is an important character trait and an obvious tell sign about ones self-discipline, to which many employers do not get a truthful answer. Look around your house, can you typically find things? You aren’t looking for neatness, but rather for an underlying organization in the way things are laid out, and how tasks are done. Do you have a regular routine for daily tasks? Do you have a reasonable idea of how much money you currently have in your checking account? Running a home business successfully is much easier if you have a regular schedule for your time, and a good grasp of basic financial practices.

2. Consider your enthusiasm for the job. If an employer has a choice between two potential employees, the one with the sparkle, the edge, the charisma, the ability communicate effectively is bound to get the position. Would that be you? Choose a home business that you will be glad to do for eight to ten hours a day. Even better, choose a home business that you already love, or can grow to love. Many of the most successful home businesses are viewed more as a marriage, in that the home business absorbs so much time, attention, and devotion it is part of who they are, and they are passionate about the work. Working at what you love, or even appreciate, makes you much more dedicated and a more successful representative of your business.

3. Are you realistic about your goals? Realize that most home businesses take time to be successful, and have seasons when it looks like the ship might sink. You have to be confident enough in yourself to weather these lulls in the business and keep going. Also, you should think about exit strategies when you might sell your successful business or call it quits to begin a new path. Which brings us to our next point…

4. Don’t be too realistic about your goals. This mantra that you have heard all your life about being realistic is taken out of context. Although one must look at potential bumps in the road and be aware, DO NOT BE TOO REALISTIC. Realistic is what has held you back to your current station in life. It has put you in a position of dissatisfaction with your life, and that is why you are out searching the internet for something better. Most potential entrepreneurs have not taken the appropriate calculated risks that would have moved them ahead in life, due to this false sense of realism. Expect great things in life and feel free to speak of them often and to anyone who will listen. Your words become thoughts, and thoughts become actions. Those actions become your life. So quit holding yourself back with a false sense of being realistic and take action to create the reality of your dreams. Wealth and success do not come to the masses, but the rare few. Is it not interesting that the masses will tell you to “be realistic”, yet look where it got them.

I am convinced, and my life experience has proven, that taking the wrong action is better than taking no action at all. Priceless lessons are learned from the biggest, ugliest, stupidest, misguided mistakes. If you can waste money on a calculated risk, that turned out to be a poor decision - but you learned from your poor decision, you are farther ahead than having not taken the action in the first place.

Starting a home business is an exciting and wonderful opportunity, so make sure you start with the best employee possible, and that employee is the best you, you can be.

Take Action, and Create a Life By Design.