How to Ensure Work-At-Home Success

by Leslie Truex

Home Business / Other Business Opportunities

Published on this site: March 30th, 2011 - See more articles from this month

Some people have all the luck. They come up with a great idea, post it online and within months they're the next Internet sensation. The majority of people don't have it so "lucky" and some don't seem to have any success at all.

It's easy to attribute success to luck or a lack of success to having no luck. But the reality is that success is attainable and predictable ... at least when it comes to working at home. There are no secrets or missing keys.

There are many reasons why work-at-home success may be alluding you. Here are some tips to overcome the most common roadblocks to success.

1. Focus on your skills and passions instead of the money: It's easy to get sucked into the hype of fast easy money; however successful home-based workers know that the money is only part of the equation. You widgets may be a profitable product, but if you don’t know anything about widgets, don’t like widgets, or aren’t passionate about widgets, you won’t succeed in the long run. Your first step to success is to identify your skills, interests and passions.
   
   
2. Focus on what your market wants, not how great your product is: Whether you are in a home business, online venture or looking for telecommuting work, you have to sell yourself. But to sell effectively you have to be the solution for your market. Sell the solution not your product or service.
   
   
3. Develop a relationship-building marketing plan that you work daily: People can’t buy from you if they can’t find you. When they do find you, you need to keep their attention. Don't market for the sale on the first time out. Instead use marketing strategies that build relationships with your market. Once they know and trust you, then they will buy and refer other buyers. Marketing strategies that build rapport include newsletters, social networking and teleseminars.
   
   
4. Focus on activities that make money: Working at home, especially if you're running a one-person show, is a lot of busy work.  But not all busy work makes money. Social networking, researching websites for content to write about and keeping your desk clean are a part of the job, but they can waste time too. As you make up your to-do list for the day, pay attention to the activities that directly make you money. Do those first and the most. You can hire a virtual assistant for the rest.
   
   
5. Don't make excuses: There is no doubt that working at home is hard. In fact, it is the hardest in the beginning because you're working on faith and ignorance. When results don't happen as quickly as you want, it is easy to get discouraged. At this point many people come up with excuses... not enough time, not enough money, I'm not good at it, it only works for other people, the economy is bad, the weather is bad, I live in a small town, etc. The problem is, there is always someone who had it worse than you who found a way. Excuses allow you to feel okay about quitting. You can't do that. You may have only a little bit of time and no money, but there is always a way to make things work.

Work-at-home success is available to everyone who is willing to put in the time and effort to achieve it. It requires planning, evaluation and focusing on the tasks that create success over those that don't.

Leslie Truex is the author of The Work-At-Home Success Bible (Adams Media). She has been telecommuting and running home businesses for over 15 years and helping others to work at home since 1998. She conducts Work-At-Home Success University that includes courses in affiliate marketing. Get work-at-home jobs, money-making tips and other resources for free at http://www.WorkAtHomeSuccess.com.