Reality

Everyone who begins down the road of working for themselves has certain things in common. The biggest of these is desire. But once warm fuzzy feeling of having struck out on your own fades the one thing that remains is that to be successful you'll have to work.

Those who succeed are the ones who face that fact and hold tight to the fact that even though they're working hard it's for themselves and the rewards that they reap will belong to them instead of lining their boss's pocket. They also have something else; the support of their loved ones. Home based business people need that support and they need to set certain ground rules.

When you go to work at a "regular" job, you actually physically remove yourself from its distractions. When you work at home, the lines between being at work and being at home will become very blurry. Not just to those who live with you but to yourself as well. Overcoming this lack of focus is one part of working at home that is ongoing, and imperative.

The easiest way for the worker to get into focus is to perform the normal morning "getting ready" functions that they did when working for someone else. It doesn't matter that you're only going down the hall or to the corner, get out of bed with an "I'm off to work" attitude. Don't even look over to your work area until you've done whatever it is that you normally did before leaving the house. Separation is the key to focus.

For those who live with you, it needs to be explained that you're at work and that you need that time to be alone with your work. It can be hard on them. When you're in the house it's as if you have the day off in their eyes. While you can and should be a bit less formal than if you were at work, you can't be expected to just drop everything and go shopping, watch TV, etc. The best way to achieve this separation for their benefit is to block your functions into groups with some available downtime in between. It's easier on your loved ones and they're more likely to let you be at work when you don't just sit in a room for eight straight hours typing and talking on the phone. The money is very real, but how you make it is less visually apparent unless they're working at it too. The obvious draw back to staggering your work day is that you have to impose a strict self-discipline and make sure that you return to work for the next block of activity. It's all well and good that you can work the hours you want to work as long a you actually work them.

If you were to offer your services to a company as a satellite office they will generally require that you have a private room, separate phone line with the ability to shut off the features like call waiting, no pet distractions, etc. You get the idea. And, if these things are important to these established businesses, they're worthy of review for your own success. But, the single most important thing of all is support. If you can't get your friends and family to recognize that you're at work then you never will be and your dreams will end up in the dust.

So, before you make the decision to go ahead, talk it out. Get everyone on board and then move forward. It'll go smoother for you and everyone involved if the idea is planted ahead of time. The issue may still come up, but the fact that it was discussed before hand will make it a great deal less abrasive when you point out invasions on your work time.