Starting, running, and turning a profit out of a home
business does not have to be the tall task that most people
make it out to be. While it certainly isn't easy, it
doesn't have to be overly difficult either. With a little
bit of forethought and planning, even the hardest, most
complex of things can become relatively simple.
There are three golden laws in running a home business. If
followed, these laws will help you create a dynamic home
business, one that allows you make a decent living. If
ignored, these laws will ensure that your home business
does not rise above average operating results.
First, plan all the way to the end. You must have a
concrete vision for the business. Where will it be five,
ten, twenty years from now? What sort of scale will it
have? What will it be doing differently, and what things
will remain the same? Try to envision all the obstacles
that may come up and prepare plans to meet them. To be
sure, you will be unable to foresee all the crises that
will occur. But mentally, you must be prepared for them as
they come. Circumstances should not catch you completely
off-guard; you should have a measure of preparation against
ever-changing situations.
Second, work hard – and make your people work hard as well.
With your home business, everything will start with you.
You must work to become the greatest, most capable
individual that you can become. Spare no expense in your
education, within reason, as long as such education is
helping you prepare for the future. Then, be sure that you
work as hard as you can, learning all the ins and outs of
the trade of which you are in. A good work ethic is
important to success, and you should not neglect it. A
corollary to this is that you should hire people who are
just as hard-working as you are. Be sure to set targets
for both yourself and others, and measure what gets done.
Give reward liberally to those who achieve.
Third, utilize the power of personal networks. There is an
old adage that says "It is not what you know, but whom you
know." While we may rebel against what this truism may
imply, the fact remains that worldly success depends on a
high degree to the number and quality of people who are
kindly disposed towards you. Your personal network, as well
as the networks of the people who work for you, should be
utilized to their full potential, in terms of advertising
and sales efforts. Treat those in your personal network
well, provide the necessary services, and they in turn may
promote your business to those in their networks.
Some people engage in a certain home business out of whim.
It is uncommon for people to start a home business simply
because they feel that this business is right for them.
Unfortunately, in business, gut feel may not be enough to
keep you going. More often than not, your gut feel does not
really turn into reality. To really stay in business, you
need to study your profit angle closely. You need to ask
yourself "is this business going to be profitable?" and
"how will this business become profitable?" "What will it
take to make this business profitable?" If you can honestly
answer these questions, then, you are closer to your dreams
of making your home business a success.
Projecting future profit
To be able to make a sound projection of profits, you will
need to formulate a sound business plan. In your business
plan, you must make a realistic projection. You must be
able to identify the expenses that you will mostly incur in
the course of your business and then determine how much
goods and services you will need to sell to be able to
recover your cost and earn some profits. You can do your
comparison by making a projected income statement.
Now, if you have no idea how to make a projected income
statement or a projected financial statement for that
matter, don't start fretting about it. Making a project
income or financial statement is not exactly rocket
science. It is just a projection of how much money you need
to earn in order to be able to pay for your business
expenses and at the same time earn enough money as profit.
If you are not familiar with accounting methods and
process, make a research on how these things are done. Yes
of course you can formulate your own methods of computing
things but then your methods of computing might not really
be the right way to do things. Besides, it is always easier
to follow an established method of computing for profit
making up something of your own.
If you do not have any spare time to learn how to make a
project financial statement, you better buy a simplified
computer accounting program that will allow you to create
projected financial statements. The good thing about these
types of simplified computer accounting programs is that
you only need to input some values into the questionnaire
and the program will run on its own. If you want to change
your projections, you simply change the values in the
questionnaire and the program will automatically adjust the
figures in your projected financial statement. Most
programs will allow you to change the figures as many times
as you would like. This means that by spending a few
dollars on a computer program, you get the work done in
just a fraction of the time it would have required you to
perform it had you done things manually.
Vadim Kirienko: Owns the home business
resource directory where you can find everything you need
to start, run and grow a home based business. For further
information, go to http://www.newautomaticbuilder.com/pips.html
