This is the first in a series on helping people to answer the question as to a home business: why start, which one, are they any good, etc. So many start home businesses and fail, usually do to not full investigating the business and their willingness.
Before starting a business, one needs to understand why they would take on such a task. Beyond want more money or more time or more whatever, there needs to be an overpowering and all consuming purpose. Starting and running a home business is tough. There are many distractions and needs for your time. Discovering your why will aide in keeping perspective.
Once you have settled on your why, determine your time. How much time do you really have to spend on your business and yourself? Learning what you will be doing takes effort and time, how much do you have? Unless you are some super sales and marketing person, you are also going to need to learn about yourself and train your weaknesses. This also takes time. Starting some business that requires 10 hours a week to learn and needing 10 more hours a week to train yourself when you only have 5 hours a week to devote is a recipe for sure failure.
Know your time limitations before starting. Develop a schedule to make the necessary time available. Write down what your impediments are and seek solutions. If you have kids, will you need a sitter? Get your spouse to help take care of them? Get the time set aside BEFORE starting the business. Spend that time working on your mind set. Once you start your business, fill that time with training, learning, reviewing, developing. It is easier to accomplish this task before trying to start. That may, it becomes routine and the excepted norm.
Having your why, knowing where you need to learn and managing yourself in time are important first steps when starting a home business. You will be busy enough once you start, so set these down first. Then you will be ahead of everyone else who is just starting. It is a good way to get yourself set up to succeed instead of failing. Now get to it.