Starting a home based business can be one of the most rewarding ventures a person can make in life, but it can also drain you emotionally and physically. Moreover, if you head full-sprint into a new business opportunity without first having a solid plan, you may find yourself making some big mistakes early on that can take years to correct.As you start to think about a new home business, here are some big mistakes that you should take care to avoid.1.Think Big, But Not Too Big
Thinking big is essential to starting a new business. You need to have a large goal to aim for when starting your business, both to motivate you to succeed, but also to have something to measure your progress against. If your goal is to eventually make $10,000/month working from home, you can easily see that after a year, if you’re making $2,000/month, you’ve made it to 20% of your goal. Setting your sights too high, however, can have the opposite effect of discouraging you and stopping your business in it’s tracks. Hitting that $10,000/month figure can be a huge achievement, but if you’ve set your goal to make a million per month, that $10,000 will feel like a drop in the bucket.2.Good Is Good Enough.
French author Voltaire famously said “the perfect is the enemy of the good” and striving for perfection can stop any business in it’s tracks. Along the same lines of thinking big, but not too big, learning to be okay with good is the only way to launch a business and not beat yourself up when you meet small snags. Only a minute percentage of businesses will ever reach the multi-billion dollar status, but when your metric for success is a modest and achievable goal, you set yourself up for success in the long run.3.Fast Eats Slow
For so long, big business has had the power and girth to annihilate any small business that stood in it’s way. While in many industries this may still be true, the prevailing mantra for small businesses is that fast beats slow, not big beats small. Use your size to your advantage when you’re starting out. Think of the time and energy it would cost just to switch over to a new, more efficient, piece of software at a company of 100,000 employees, but at a company of 5 or 10 people, the cost is negligible, but the benefits can still be huge.

If you’re one of these people who believes that you just don’t have the time to spare to get your home business up and running then you need to be honest with yourself. You’re one of thousands, if not millions, who feel this way. I talk to lots of people who feel that their daily schedules are just too full and that they don’t have enough time to do it. They end up defeating themselves and their home business looses momentum and suffers before they even get it off the ground.Do you feel that your family responsibilities, full or part time job, maintaining your health and various other distraction are the primary reasons for not gaining momentum for your home business? Do you feel that your life is spent taking care of everybody else’s needs?I do have some great news for you though! It is possible to find and maximize time to build that home business that you’ve dreamed of. All that’s required is to uncover the time and commitment to use that time faithfully for your home business. By following the methods I’m about to reveal you should start to see your home business prosper.Your Daily Routine Needs to be Documented:1. The number one thing to take care of is to sit down in a quiet place and write down your day after day schedule. From the beginning of your day to the end time your events such as getting ready to go to work, getting the kids ready for and to school, your commute to your job, extracurricular activities and other weekly commitments that you have in your schedule. Include your weekends too along with family time because time with family is most important.Upon completing this job you’ll have a good idea of what your work week involves. Then you’ll be able to see open chunks of time in your week. To make your goal easy look for 2 hours that you can dedicate to your home business. You should be able to re-prioritize some of your time.Stay On Your Schedule & Then Re-Evaluate It:2. Next on your list is to stay on your new schedule. This might be difficult as you’re creating a brand new habit. When you’ve gotten the hang of your new routine you then need to re-evaluate your schedule to see if you can find additional time to spend building your home business.Discipline will be needed on your part to stay on your new schedule so this means that you’ll have to find a way after your work day is done, the kids are home from school, taking the kids to sports practice & games, dinner and getting the kids off to bed.Remember that Family is Most Important!:3. For me time with my family is very important. My daughter is a full time Criminal Justice Student, a work at home Mom, like me, and is Mom to 3 little ones. We all live together so my focus on my business is after the grandkids are in bed or in school during the day. For me these are the quietest times of the day.If you have to spend your family time working on your home business make sure to let them know why you need to do this. You might want to say something like “Mom is doing this so we can go on a nice family vacation next Summer.” Or “Dad wants to make sure we can pay for your football equipment next season.” But I would advise setting a time limit in order to spend the quality time with your family that you want to and to provide a nice balance in your life.
Don’t Fight Distractions:4. You all are aware of the fact that life gets in the way. It can easily throw us off our routines. Do your best not to fight distractions. If your little ones won’t get to sleep on time focus on quieting them down and getting them to go to sleep. Don’t fret over what you could be doing as your work is still going to be there when you have time to get back to it.If you are asked to stay late at your regular job, then you can always work your home business a bit late. Focusing on just one task at a time is the best route to go. It’ll help you work more effectively and efficiently. In order to be most productive at your home business you need to have a clear and guilt free mind.Keeping a voice recorder nearby while working to record new ideas that might pop into your mind will help to keep you from being distracted. Later on it’s easy to sit down and prioritize these new ideas. This method also keeps you from using up energy in not having to fight off distractions.This is some awesome news in finding spare time to work at your home business. There’s no need to feel overwhelmed or hopeless. Just keep in mind that you alone have total control over your time and you have complete control to change your habits and build momentum for your home business.