You’ve read the ads or seen the infomercials. “Build a six or seven figure income while lounging in your pajamas in your work at home business.” For many people who hear this, their scam detector goes up and they become defensive. Why? Because they have heard countless horror stories of people who have lost their shirts trying to create a business from home. However, the truth is there are thousands of home based entrepreneurs around the globe who have cracked the code, created their place in the world and taken it to the bank. So how did they do it? Why do some people struggle and never ever break even, while others create outrageously successful home based careers?

There are certain habits which I believe are consistent with all of these enterprises. Here are seven habits or traits to insure an outrageously profitable home-based venture.

1. Find a hungry target market and look for a product or service to meet their needs. I am surprised how many frustrated entrepreneurs miss this. What often happens is someone gets excited, hit by an entrepreneurial seizure and tries to start a business with a product or service and feels it will sell simply because of their emotional attachment. Keep your mind open when looking at home based business income opportunities. However, make sure someone wants to buy whatever you have to sell before you jump in. Don’t get me wrong, you want to have a passion for what you do. However, if you love 8 track tapes it might be a problem. And depending on your age you might be thinking, “What’s an 8 track tape?” Get my point? However, if you find a group of people who are hungry for what you have it is like shooting fish in a bucket. When you find a group that has a problem they want solved they will pay you to do it.

2. Understand nothing happens until a sale is made. I am amazed at how many budding entrepreneurs say they hate sales. This is unfortunate because everything else in a business is an expense. If you don’t have sales coming in the door eventually the doors will close. Sales and marketing if done correctly is the engine to a company’s success. The key is to add value to the customer at every opportunity. One of the vital things to remember is the first time you obtain a client is the most expensive. But real wealth is built when you have the opportunity to sell to a customer over and over again. Some companies even take a loss to get the customer in the pipeline because they realize the real money is on the back end and the true profit is in the lifetime value of the customer.

3. Develop a strong team. One of the traits that will accelerate the success of any business is the leverage generated by the help of others. While you are building a home based business you don’t want to do it alone. There are only 24 hours a day and you can’t do everything. You want to look for opportunities to outsource all non revenue generating activities. Successful proprietors don’t waste a lot of time on filing and organizing.

4. Focus on the business, not just working in the business. What separates you from being able to create a company that provides you with great income and lifestyle versus one that you are chained to the doors is a matter of focus. Successful entrepreneurs focus on the big picture. I’m saddened when people say, “No one can do what I do.” This might be true however it presents a great challenge. You are now a slave to your business. The business no longer serves you. The goal must be to take “you” out of as much of your business as possible. Look for ways to remove you, automate and systemize the process. One of the ways to do this is to use the leverage of technology. You might want to use a website that allows people to order your product or service 24/7. Or you might write a book which can be sold while you are asleep. Get the picture.

5. A highly successful home based business has a central theme or mission. Many home based businesses never reach success because they are trying to do too many things at the same time. You might be saying, “But I want to create multiple streams of income.” The problem with multiple streams of income can be a nightmare if approached incorrectly. New entrepreneurs often make the mistake of trying to create several profit centers from non aligned businesses. For example, you will find people who try to start real estate, network marketing and internet marketing all at the same time.

The reason you will almost never have success with this strategy is you can not build momentum. Each business has a totally different business model and you can’t leverage the energy of one to another. However, the successful home based entrepreneur understands the law of momentum. For example, if you were an author one of your products would be the book. However, you could spin that product into an empire by leveraging it into an ebook, tape set, work-book, seminar, boot camp and coaching program. Do you see the power of having one central product or theme and how you can leapfrog to success? You want to be focused and committed to a central theme. Once you have success you can add another stream of income. This trait is one of the hidden keys to success.

6. Resilient and quick to adapt to change. This is one of the distinct advantages solo-entrepreneurs have over large companies. Oftentimes large corporations invest thousands of dollars in a project and even when they know it’s not working they are slow to change. In Corporate America this may not kill a business because one mistake is just a cog in the wheel. However, in small business your ability to change on a dime allows you to test things and when things work you do it with massive all out action. And when something is not working you simply let it go, test something else and move forward.

7. Commit to continual education. Now, I am not talking about another degree or certificate. There are plenty of people with plaques on their walls that aren’t able to create the income and lifestyle they want. However, I love the quote by one of the leading experts in self-development. Jim Rohn says, “Formal education will make you a living; self education will make you a fortune.” Personal development and specialized knowledge often is the difference between a fledgling operation and one that has an outrageously bottom line. Why? Because successful people know that the best investment they can make is in self. Make sure that you are always staying ahead of the curve and immerse yourself in your area of expertise. You can do this by attending seminars, tele-classes, boot camps or participating in coaching programs.

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Goal setting is the true secret to success in any area of life. But although setting a goal may seem simple, achieving it is usually another question altogether.

Why is that?

Because you will never achieve your goals unless you: (1) know exactly what you want, (2) are passionate about your goal, and (3) have a solid, realistic plan of action. This is what marks the difference between nebulous dreams and wishes – and truly achievable goals!

Many obstacles and challenges will fly right in your face when you’re going after a goal. Here are 5 time-tested methods that will help get the success you deserve.

1. Know exactly what your goal is- Your first job is to discover exactly what your goal is. What will achieving that goal really look like? Be as specific as possible about exactly what your desired end result is. Your success will be a measure of your clarity – since an achievable goal plan cannot be created around a nebulous “dream.” If your goal is to create a more successful business, what will that look like? Are you thinking in terms of simply hiring someone else to give you more free time? Are you looking for a very specific monthly profit? Or can your goal be best expressed in terms of a certain lifestyle? Regardless of what you want, the best way to get it is to first clarify exactly what you want in as much detail as possible. This can be hard work. But without a clear mental picture, you’ll never have the focus required to achieve your goal.

2. Be willing to pay the “entry fee”- Success takes dedicated planning and effort. In a way it’s like building a house. In the beginning all you have is a rough concept. Then you develop a complete set of plans – and you immediately move closer to success. The same is true of creating a better lifestyle, or a more successful business. But there’s always an *entry fee* to be paid for success. The entry fee? Creating more success in your business may mean less recreational time. Writing your own book may require less TV. Being closer to your children may require adjusting your work or social activities.

It’s the “full glass” deal. If your life (your time) is already full to the top, there’s no room for something new. The entry fee is carving out the time to create something new.

3. Focus on your goal every day- I’m sure you probably want to achieve your goal as fast as possible. That’s why clear mental focus is so very important. Consistent daily focus is absolutely necessary to “burn in” the new neural pathways you need to create your new goal. Without daily focus, the old mental habits that have kept you from your goal will continue to take over. This happens automatically – since these old habits replay 24/7 deep in your subconscious mind. The only way to override subconscious anti-success messages is to consciously focus on what you DO want – and build new neural networks! That’s why success is an every-day event. Recommit to your goal every day. Don’t let your goal take a back seat to the daily tasks and distractions that will try to take over. Life WILL try to get in your way. Just get, and stay, on course every day. Focus on your goal, and on success!

4. Get passionate- One of the most powerful tools in your “success tool box” is having real passion for your goal. Why passion? Because intense passionate desire for your goal will help you burn in those new neural pathways even faster. Many, many scientific studies have shown that intense emotion (passion) is a key success tool. PLUS (and this is really a *big* plus), intense passion will also help you rapidly override any inappropriate old “failure messages” stored in your subconscious mind.

5. Take consistent action- In many ways, actually taking action can be the most difficult step. Successful goal achievement is built by taking one small action after another. The word is ACTION! If you commit to take at least one small action each day, your actions WILL add up and make a difference. So avoid sitting back waiting for that big second when everything will magically “just happen.”

You CAN create whatever you want in life. The secret is to determine exactly what you want, then pursue it passionately. But remember — in the end, only action counts! You can’t just dream about it! You have to DO IT!

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Life is full of ups and downs and sometimes has a few sideways thrown in too. When things go wrong or don’t go as planned, or when something happens to throw us off balance and doubt ourselves it can be tough to deal with. After all, we all want things to go well and to end up as ‘winners’. But life will always throw challenges at us, and we can’t control everything. Nor should we try. It’s not what happens to you but what you do with what happens to you that makes the difference. Here are three easy ways that you can always come out on top.

1. Focus on Your Strengths- We’re a bunch of contradictions – sorry to break it to you. Sometimes happy, sometimes sad; sometimes hopeful, sometimes pessimistic; sometimes childish and sometimes mature. We also have a whole load of strengths and weaknesses that affect what we do and how we do it, but tend to put more focus on our weaknesses and not our strengths.

A strength is something that you do consistently well or at a near-perfect level of performance – it’s something you’re just able to do, you’re hard-wired to do it well and you get an inherent satisfaction from doing it. It could be tackling and solving complex problems, empathizing with people, having a lively imagination or being able to make the perfect omelet.

Focusing on what you do well rather than what you’re not so good at makes all kinds of sense. When you look at what you’re not good at you feel bad about yourself and your ability, but when you focus on and play to your strengths you’re guaranteed to get results, and can even eliminate any negative effect your weaknesses might have.
There was a guy I worked with who hated public speaking and recognized that it was one of his weaknesses. He worked as an advertising executive and as he climbed the ladder he found he had to do more and more presentations – he’d stutter, freeze, forget his point and not perform at his best at all. But when we focused on his strengths we found that he had amazing social skills, an ability to establish great rapport with people in no time at all and had a fantastic sense of humor. Using those strengths he was able to connect easily with each person in his audience, enjoy himself a whole lot more and to deliver presentations that had fun, humor and warmth in them. He used his strengths to overwhelm his weaknesses and went from strength to strength himself.

 
2. Set Things Up Ahead Of Time- Sure, there will be times when you can just head into something, do brilliantly at it and get the result you were hoping for (normally if you’re playing to your strengths), but other times you might blunder forwards, wing it and not get the result you wanted. Whatever challenges or opportunities you’re facing you’ll stand a much better chance of getting a great result if you set things up to succeed ahead of time.

So what exactly do you want to happen? What solution, outcome or result would be great? Get really clear on the outcome you want from what’s facing you and how it would feel to get the outcome you’re looking for. Then start breaking it down – what can you do to set things up so that your desired outcome happens? What needs to be put in place? What will help to make what you want to happen, happen? And to ensure the best outcome, what are you willing to do?

Whatever faces you, it’s possible to get the result you want by being crystal clear about the kind of result you want and by putting effort into setting things up so that it happens. Look at this way – you’re infinitely more likely to get your most wanted result by putting time or effort into setting things up ahead of time than if you don’t. Your choice.

3. There’s No Such Thing as Losing Anyway- What’s life all about, really? Getting a good job, getting married, feeling valued, having fun? It’s about different things to different people, but to boil it down I think it’s about doing the best we can to have, do and be the best for ourselves and those we care about. Sometimes it’s a struggle and sometimes it’s a joy, but what is constant through it all is our capacity to learn, develop and grow. Humans have an unparalleled ability to learn and adapt, which is exactly why we’re able to do the best we can and find ways to have, do and be more.

That’s why everything you do takes you one step forward and it’s only by doing one thing, then another and another that the most astounding things in our world come about. As Thomas Edison said while he was on his 207th prototype for the electric light bulb – ‘I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.’ He’s absolutely right – everything you do that doesn’t work out is another tick in another box and another step forwards, because you know one more way not to do something and what not to do next time. You’ll never get to 100% without going from 1% to 99% first.

In all that you do, whether it turns out how you wanted it to or not, there’s the capacity for learning. That means that it’s all part of the process and everything that you do and learn is an important step forward.

There’s no such thing as losing, only learning and growing. So here’s to your continued success!”

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