If You Are a Homemaker Looking to Make a Change, Read On

The local job market today is very thin.  There are many skilled and motivated people looking for jobs.  Perhaps you should be looking to put your skills to work in your own business.

This is a very good time to take stock of where you are and where you would like to be. Your past work experiences have given you knowledge and skills that are marketable.  Take a sheet of paper and first make a list of all the things that you enjoy doing. The very things that you enjoy can be the foundation for setting up your own business.  List everything, big and small.  Don’t rush through this excursive, make it as inclusive as possible.

Now make a list of all the skills that you have acquired so far.  These skills may include activities outside of your present or past work experience. As an example, you might be the budget manager for your household.  Or you might be the one that does most of the shopping for the family. These skills can translate into being involved in the accounting function for small businesses:  posting income (Accounts Receivable) or paying the expenses (Accounts Payable).  Balancing and reconciling the bank statements for small businesses is a function that many small business owners don’t like doing.  You could provide that service.

The shopping functions you presently do for your family could translate into maintaining inventories of parts or finished products for small businesses. Many small businesses need someone part time to perform these functions thereby freeing up the owner to spend more time marketing or managing his business. You could provide these services to many small businesses as an outsourced vendor.  There are many variations possible.  You just have to think a bit more creatively.

Perhaps you enjoy gardening. You could develop a landscape design and maintenance business or even start up or purchase a nursery business. Anything that you can conceive, you can achieve with the proper preparation, planning and continuing education.  The choices are all up to you.  Are you willing to make the personal effort and pay the price to change your life for the better?

Sometimes you can not wait for someone else to solve your financial problems.  You have to take stock of your situation and solve your situation yourself.

You may be currently on unemployment benefits and looking for work.  While you are on benefits, why not use that time to rethink your options?  Think about starting your own business.  Become your own boss.

The same goes for newly graduated high school and college graduates. There is no reason why you have to wait for someone to decide to hire you when you can start your own business and hire yourself.

This website can be your coach and your information source. Start with the basics.  Know yourself, your strengths and your weaknesses.  To help you better analyze your personal and financial assets, the website has a FREE Self Evaluation Questionnaire. Please take advantage of this valuable tool before you do anything further.

You first need to assess your own personal characteristics.  The Free Self Evaluation Questionnaire will help dig into the details, but let’s hit the main points here and now.

Your Passions

You need to have something that you are passionate about that could become the basis for a business. Perhaps a current hobby or activity that you are fairly good at, something that other people are also interested in and spend money and time on.

Passion is important because it will give you the determination and the confidence to stick it out as you encounter setbacks and challenges. Those who lack passion about what they are attempting to do will easily give up and quit before they really get started.

Energy

Entrepreneurs are not lazy or lethargic.  They tend to be high energy and hard workers. Starting and operating a successful business is not easy, but it is fun. That is how you tell if what you are doing is productive.  If you are not having fun, you are doing it wrong.

This website’s objective is to help you operate your business from start to finish properly and profitably.  Making money is fun. Losing money is not fun.

Energy provides you with the momentum you need to press through the tough spots and carry on toward your ultimate goal; a successful rewarding business.

Organized

Successful entrepreneurs are organized and focused.  They have a plan and they work that plan faithfully.  They do not “wing it”. They know exactly what they need to get done everyday.  They make lists.  They keep their surroundings neat and orderly.  They strive to waste nothing.  Not their time nor their money.  They have a clear picture of where they are and where they are going.  They do not get easily distracted.

At the end of each day they are able answer the question,” Did my efforts today take me toward my objective or away from it?”  Did what you accomplished today meet that test?

Money

You don’t need a lot of it to get started.  You do need to manage what you have well.

Do you know where your money is going down to the last penny each month? Do you have and stick to a written budget?

How well you manage money will make or break any business enterprise. You must know what comes in, from where and where it goes in detail. To be successful and build wealth you must learn to think and act as a successful wealth building person thinks and acts. This does not mean “fake it till you make it”.

This website will walk you through the skills that you will need to build your business correctly and in such a way that you will not take on risks that you can not handle.

Impressions

You only get one chance to make a good first impression.

What goes through your mind when you first meet someone or enter a place of business?  Do you not form an impression and an expectation about that person or business? This first impression or reaction sets the stage for how things will go in the first few minutes of the encounter.

Find a full length mirror.  Stand in front of it and pretend you are meeting that person you see reflected for the first time.  Do you see a friendly welcoming person in the mirror or do you see a person that you are not eager to get near?  What message are you projecting to the world by your personal appearance and demeanor?

Whatever you are trying to accomplish, you must look the part.  You must present yourself and your business as worthy and reliable. Other people are critical to your success.  Everyone you come into contact with can either help you reach your goals or they can not.  How they respond to you is largely up to how you are perceived by them. Think about this for a moment.

You can’t always judge a book by its cover, but everyone does most of the time.  That is a fact of life. In business this is called “packaging”. Are you packaging yourself to your best advantage?  Check that image staring back at you in the mirror.

 

Skills

That FREE Personal Evaluation Questionnaire mentioned previously will dig into this subject much more deeply.  Please do yourself a big favor and take full advantage of this valuable tool before you embark on your business venture.  It will save you a lot grief.

You absolutely must know what skills you have now and what skills you are going to need if your venture is to have any chance of success.

Many self improvement trainers who work with businesses large and small all agree, one way or another, nothing is going to happen until somebody sells something. This is the marketing function that is critical in every business.  You have to find buyers.  No buyers, no business.

Once you have buyers, you have to deliver the goods or services. This requires management of processes and procedures.  To do that you need controls. Go back and reread the section on being organized.

Everyone has strengths and weaknesses.  This is normal. The trick is to know what yours really are.  Admit it to yourself.  Once you do that you can begin to find ways to improve.

This website is a straight forward source of educational material presented in plain English for that person who is determined to take charge of their own destiny.  You will learn how to enhance what you have and fill in what is missing.  You will learn how to take it one step at a time and measure your progress all along the way from start-up to retirement.

The next move is yours.  Please take the FREE Self Evaluation Questionnaire as your first determined step to a better and more rewarding future.