Hobbies don't pay !

How serious are you about your online or offline business? I meet people ALL the time who say they are serious, but when it comes time to actually get things done, they have something else to do.

Here is a simple truth. You will NOT make money simply by sitting back and hoping something happens. It's very simple.... if you want to run a business, you have to treat it like a business!

That doesn't mean you have to eat, sleep and breathe your business. I mean, the beauty of working from home, and the biggest "pull" for most people is flexibility and the ability to spend more time with friends and family. Many people who run home based businesses are juggling work, family and a multitude of other commitments. So how do they manage all of it, and still find success?
Very simply, time management!

Let's examine how the successful people in the industry get that way.

#1.First, write down on paper exactly what you want to accomplish over the short term, medium term and long term. This is a very important first step, because it helps you psycologically to commit to your business over the long term. You can call this "goal setting" if you want, but I just look at it as "a plan".

#2.Once you know what you want from your business, take a few moments to think about exactly what you have to do to accomplish this. this means, truly reflecting on what tasks you have to perform on a DAILY basis. If you are new to your particular business, and you are not exactly sure what you need to do, pick someone who has already done it, and ask them.

#3. Educate yourself, about your company, products, mission statement, success stories and take advantage of all the training your company offers. All successful companies have tools that will help you succeed. Doesn't it just make sense to take advantage of them?

#4. Learn while you earn. This is a hard one for some people. There are many people out there who think they have to know everything before they can actually get to work. Let me help you put this into perspective for a moment. Think back to the last time you started a new job. I will guess that there was an orientation, or training period. When you finished that orientation, did you know absolutely everything there was to know about your job? Of course not! It is impossible to learn about every possible scenario in a chosen career. You can't get experience by reading about it. Experience only comes by "doing it".

#5. Make a schedule, and stick to it no matter what! This is important. So many people allow themselves to become distracted by daily life crises. It takes a little discipline, and sometimes you need to educate your friends and family, in order to work successfully from home. If you are able to commit 2 hours a day to your business, then write it in your schedule, and plan to work those 2 hours, no matter what comes up!

#6. Do something for your business EVERY DAY! It is not what you do once that will bring you success, it is what you do daily. You need to do "money making tasks" every day in order to see success over time. Once it becomes routine, you will crave the activity. Motivation follows action not the other way around. Have you ever started an exercise program? If you have, you probably were like most people who started because they had a particular weight loss, or health related goal. It probably wasn't easy at the start. You had to force yourself to do it every day, but once you started to see results, you were motivated to continue.

#7. Take time every day for reflection. Evaluate your tasks, and ask yourself if what you did today brought you closer to your goal. Daily reflection is how you learn what works and what doesn't. If you never take the time to evaluate, you may find yourself doing unproductive tasks over and over, and getting nowhere.

#8. Celebrate your small successes. Realize that before you can make a million dollars, you have to make a hundred, and then a thousand. The smaller successes will help to keep you focussed, because your progress will be measurable. Understand that you need to commit to your business, and your daily tasks over a long period of time.

If you follow these steps, and be a student of your successes and failures, you will continue to grow, learn and earn.

Shelley Penney is a network marketing and internet marketing specialist with 7 years in the field. She is currently mentoring a small group of people to achieve financial freedom from home.