“You Can Guarantee Your Success If You Do This One Thing in Your Home Business”

It’s something that just hit me while I was driving and thinking about the best ways to build a greeting card business and I happened to drive past the building where I used to work years ago – that was the place where I had the Boss that sacked me. Bad memories.

Anyway, it got me thinking…

…what is the one thing that differentiates the successful home based greeting card business owners from the people that just seem to struggle and never quite make it?

Hmmmmm…

I pondered this for some time then BAM! It hit me like baseball to the forehead.

Most people who start a home based greeting card business don’t have a system. Well not a good one anyway. Bare with me here because I’m sure you’ll agree with me on this.

When I was working for my old Boss – Yeah the one who sacked me, I was always amazed at how hard I worked and how much I could achieve in a day working for him. He got every bit of value out of me I tell you.

So why, when I went out on my own all those years ago, did I struggle to achieve the same results in my own business?

I had No ‘System of Habit’.

Think about it, if you’re currently working for a boss or have in the past, think about what you did from the moment you arrived at your work place. You had a routine of things you had to do plus what ever else was thrown across your desk. But you did it, you completed your tasks. Why is that?

Because there are consequences if you don’t, you can lose your job, get demoted or written up by your Boss – not very nice.

This is one of the main reasons home based greeting card businesses fail – because there are no real consequences if you don’t do the work that is required. You’re not answerable to a Boss who will yell at you.

Think about that.

I know some people have kids to look after, but work at home parents still need a system – one that revolves around the kids; but you still need a system.

Imagine if a parent put off feeding their Baby until tomorrow?

I don’t want to think about that too much, it’s a horrible thought, but the point I’m making is it would have dire consequences if feeding the baby was put off. You need to have consequences for your home business, ones that matter and will make you take action and complete your work.

At home you will find you’re a confronted with a whole lot of obstacles that will prevent you from getting your work done and because you only have yourself to answer to, it’s easy to get distracted and put your work aside – “I’ll do it tomorrow”.

This is a big trap. Can you imagine what would happen if you were working for a Boss and one of your friends just drops by the office for a chat and to show you some of her holiday  snaps and you just stop work to sit around chatting for the next hour?

Do I need to answer that one? You get what I’m saying here.

You must treat your home based greeting card business as a real job, a place of work that has rules. You even need to set an allocated amount of time for your lunch break too. If you start a new job what happens on your first day? The Boss or one of the co-workers takes you through the work place procedures and work flow processes so when you come in for work you know what to do, you don’t have to sit there thinking about where to start.

In any job there are a set of must do tasks for everyday for example:

I used to work in retail at one stage in my life and I managed the store, I didn’t own it only managed it.

Everyday I had a set of ‘Must Do’ tasks to complete or I would lose my job.

1. Arrive at the shop 1 hour prior to opening
2. Turn off the alarm
3. Turn on the registers
4. Turn on the coffee machine – had to fresh coffee for the staff when they arrived
5. Turn on the office computers
6. Open the safe
7. Settle the registers – if this wasn’t done and the store opens I can’t take any money
8. Count the last days takings etc, etc and list just goes on

But you get my point; if I didn’t do one of those tasks or was late doing one there would be hell to pay.

You need to establish a list of essential tasks like this for your home business and write next to each task the consequences for not completing it. Imagine that you actually have a Boss looking over your shoulder.

I’ll let you in on a little secret here. When I started to do this at home I would even call out to my imaginary Boss and tell him I will have the job done in 15 mins. I created this imaginary work place but it worked for me. No I’m not mad – or I don’t think I am 🙂

Even having a list, a system of everyday tasks to do allowed me to be far more productive because I didn’t have to waste time thinking about what I was going to do next I just did it.

You need to set up your own work place system so you can do the same at home. That’s right; you need to treat your home based greeting card business like a real business and I guarantee you will start seeing results.

I went as far as writing my own procedures manual.