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Choosing to work from home as an entrepreneur in the coaching and professional speaking business has been the single most freeing, and terrifying decision of my work career. At first, the “flight from cubicle” life seemed idyllic, I could wake up when I wanted to, pursue exactly what made me happy and move from the office to home in a matter of seconds. No more battling traffic on the freeway at rush-hour! Reality started to hit as time passed, along with the first and third of every month. Instead of a comforting pay-stub in the mail, all I saw were bills. The cubicle seemed like a prison when I worked at my last company, now it beckoned like a siren’s call. I had to make a choice; get active and engaged in my new career, or start looking for another six-by-eight cube to call home. By this time, early 2005 for me, I had far too much invested to go back to the cubes. Chances are you do too! A 2000 study* by the US Small Business Association reported that 46% of home based businesses use personal funds for start-up capital! I looked around for ideas on how to charge up my career and get “back in the game.” Problem was, in corporate life, I’d really never been in the game at all. The networks I’d established and the support groups I leveraged were within my company. Once I left, those groups broke apart like a Kleenex caught in the dryer. Oh yeah, working at home gives me time to do many, many loads of laundry. How could I avoid getting stuck in the lint basket of professional life? Like many answers, there were right in front of me, in the stories my coaching clients told me of their entrepreneurial successes and failures. Based on thousands of coaching sessions over a fifteen-year coaching career, here are the five key components of entrepreneurial business success. 1. Don’t wait for others to help you; help them. While working solo can feel like a lonely voyage, you are not alone! Challenges that crop up for the first, or hundredth time, have been faced and conquered by others. Share your insights with peers, and then ask for their help where you need it. Form a “mastermind” group to meet frequently; you can even do it over a pot-luck lunch or supper. Ask that each member bring one success to crow about, and one challenge that seems insurmountable. Brain-storm solutions with each other and be ready to take action. 2. Think Big! I coach a life insurance saleswoman and she’s considering whether to hire an assistant. The most successful agents in her company have full-time assistants, but she’s afraid of committing to pay someone else on her already thin budget. Instead of hiring someone full-time, our shared insight came up with starting an intern program in her practice, leveraging local college students majoring in business. That saves my client money and helps her contribute to a young person’s future success. 3. Break through plateaus. How often have you experienced some short-term success, and then decided that it was okay to “cruise” a bit? That’s like celebrating five days of healthy eating by going out on Saturday night and inhaling a large pizza pie yourself. Create a list of your five most productive business-building activities and post that list in the most prominent places you can think of. Doing these activities is non-negotiable; as integral to your business’ health as brushing your teeth and flossing is to your dental health. Here are the “top five” I’ve developed for my speaking and coaching career. • Write an article a week for publication. • Make five new or “renewed” (see Action #4) contacts a day. • Spend thirty minutes a day on marketing and Internet strategic updates. • Offer my support to one professional colleague per day. • Perform one act of gratitude per day. What’s on your list? Consistency of action is the key to success! Once you’ve determined your “top five”, get after them like a dog after a juicy steak. 4. Your best new clients may be your “old” clients. How often do you update your current clients on what’s new with you, your industry and your community? Start to view yourself as your existing customer’s lifeline to breaking information and the latest trends in your area of expertise. If you’ve immersed yourself in your career, then you are the expert in their eyes. Reach out to folks you’ve done business with before and “renew” their allegiance to you. Assess their current needs just like you did when they first purchased your product or service. Remember to ask for referrals! 5. Choose to be fearless. Before I embarked on my coaching career, I looked up the local life coaching professional organization on the Internet. Randomly, I chose to call a past president and asked to buy her coffee and hear her story. Laurie and I met at a bagel place in town, and for the price of coffee and a muffin, she shared priceless insight on what she loved and what frustrated her about coaching. Her generosity of spirit was always there, but had I not called a stranger out of the blue, I never would have known. You can choose to chart a professional course entirely on your own. If you do, I salute you and wish you well. What I have found is that leveraging a diverse group of people and ideas is the single most important factor in whether a home-based entrepreneur succeeds or fails. That, and your hard work and focus on the five key components of small business success, will keep you far away from the cubes! Mike Faber helps individuals develop more confidence as leaders; organizations bring in Mike to help their people be more focused and accountable on a daily basis. To learn about Mike’s work, and his two latest books 89 Seconds to Leadership Success™ and 89 Seconds to Sales Success™ please visit www.89Success.com Email: mike@mikefaber.com Phone: 877-262-2402. *http://www.sba.gov/ADVO/research/rs194.pdf
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