Many people like to think that working from home and owning your own home based business means that you don’t have to work very hard or very much. You join this program and they set up everything and its all automated and you in a couple of weeks or months you’ll be making thousands of dollars a month and be able to quit your job.

That sure would be nice, but I haven’t seen a program yet that even comes close.

The fact of the matter is, if you want to have your own business working from home, and you want to make more than just part-time income with it, then you really need to follow what I’m about to say.

The first step I always like to recommend to people about starting a work from home business is to forget about the business all together. Don’t think about what kind of business you want or what you want from it or anything like that. Once you’ve done that, go to your computer and pull up a text editor of some kind, or grab a pen and paper, whatever suits you best. Next, write down your life. What have you accomplished in your lifetime so far? What things have you not done that you thought you would have done by now. What things would you like to accomplish or do in the years that follow?

Look at your answers and write down goals for yourself. What would you like to achieve and when would you like to achieve them by. What will it take to achieve these goals? Are you in a position now that you will be able to achieve your goals? If not, why not? I always like to see peoples answer to that question.

These answers and goals should be your motivation for whatever you decide to do. I always recommend placing them somewhere where you will see them and be forced to look at them every day.

So now you hopefully know what you want out of life, if not I hope you figure it out soon. Getting what you want in life usually involves knowing what you want first. If you get what you want before you even know you wanted it, consider yourself lucky, and I hope you don’t throw it away before you realize it’s what you wanted.

The next step is to now go back to thinking about your business. This can be the hardest part. It took me years to figure this step out, even though I had seen it many places, and thought I knew it, I really didn’t. I only knew it existed, but never knew how to believe it.

And belief is exactly what this next step is. Whether you come up with an idea for your own business, or you find a MLM, franchise, or any other type of business out their. You need to believe in it 100% before you invest too much time into it. This means research the business as much as you can. If a program doesn’t give you enough information without you buying into it first, move onto the next one. It probably isn’t worth your time.

And once you believe in your business, that belief needs to be able to grow until you love your business. If you want to be successful, you need to love your business, love your products, and love what you do in your business.

Some things you’ll want to look at is the business or company itself, and its products. If you’re selling products, how good are the products, who makes them, where are they made, what kind of guarantees do they come with, how do they compare with similar products.

Whatever you’re suppose to be selling, make sure you do your research, and make sure they’re products or services you feel confident about. If you can’t recommend a product to someone you love because you don’t believe in it, chances are you aren’t going to do very good with those products.

I also always recommend looking at the support structure for companies, especially MLM companies. Who’s going to be there to help you starting and running your business? Are there people you can call or email to talk to and ask questions, and how successful are they in this venture? Are they living their dream or just doing this part time as they work 9 to 5 down the street at Joe Bob’s? Just because you’re going to be in business for yourself, doesn’t mean you have to be by yourself.

And one thing that can sometimes be really great, is being able to call or email someone who is in this business, and only this business, and having great success. These are the people you want to learn from. Copying success will lead you their a lot faster than just copying good ideas.

Ok, so you’ve found a solid business that you really like. It’s got great websites, a great program, great products, and a solid support team to help you the whole way. So what’s next?

Next is to set up a business plan. This is the step that can scare a lot of people. A lot of times because people don’t know how to start a business plan or even what one is exactly. Well it doesn’t have to be that hard.

I used Business Plan Pro for mine, but I realize most people may not be able to afford the software. That’s ok, you can still make your own, but I do recommend getting some sort of business plan software if you can.