Saturday, June 13, 2020

Since Covid-19 lockdown, there is an increase in business owners or employees who working from home is a great option.

Gary (my husband) has been working for himself since 1994 and I started mine in 2005. Gary is more organized than me so I get a lot of ideas and inspiration from him. I started the experience of working from home in 1998 as a contract accountant and running other businesses.

While running a home business sounds easy – no bosses to answer to, and no time clocks to punch, the truth is it is much harder to keep yourself accountable and actually do meaningful and productive work.

I’d like to share with you FIVE TIPS to help you run a successful business from home and achieve some serious goals…and enjoy the freedom or suffer the challenges that comes with it. Here I’ll give the example in running an accounting practice.

1.      You need a long-term vision

 Business owners can get so busy working in their business that they forget to work on their business. Simply put, you need to have a three to five year working plan or vision of where you want the business to be. Set yourself a goal and then break it down into chunks either monthly or weekly to see how you’re tracking. Have a long term view of your business instead of focusing on it month after month.

2.      Update your skills

 Part of owning your own business means you need to be skilled in marketing, sales, admin etc. Keep your skills current by attending training courses either at your local community college or those offered online. For example, affiliated organisations provide its members  with online training courses to teach essential skills needed to run your business successfully and provide you with 24/7 online business support.

3.      Know your legal obligations

 Many home business owners fail to know what their legal obligations are either because they find it too hard to understand legal jargon or simply don’t know where to start. There are lots of great government websites that help small business owners and offers advice on various legal aspects of running your business.

4.      You need to network

 Running a business from home is great fun but also extremely isolating. You need to get out and network with people to let them know about your business and also to make valuable connections. It can be tempting to sit at home and think you’re working from behind a computer but you also need to meet people who might be able to help you in your business. If mixed group networking is a little daunting; start small with local groups in your area or even networking events. Check out sites like Meetup for events happening in your area.

5.      You need to be accountable

 There’s no boss to keep you in line when you’re running your own business from home. In order to get work done, you need to set goals just like you would at work. If you’re a list maker, make a list of daily or weekly things you need to get done for your business – just 3 to 4 goals you need to achieve to move forward. If you’re a visual person, have a planner above your desk written with tasks you need to accomplish.

These tasks also need to connect to a long term goal for best results. For example, if your goal is to make X amount of income in 2020, you need to break it down into how many clients you’ll need e.g. 10, allocate marketing time to this say 10 minutes each day to approach businesses or network on social media. If you commit to a goal then you need to sit down at your computer and do it – that’s the only way you’ll see results.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Brenda Cacho-Bevin

13 June 2020

Saturday 1:30 AM

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