This is a guest post by Annie Wallace.

Finally you’ve done it, you’ve thought of a way to escape the drudgery of your 9-5 job and make real money working from home. Maybe you’ve discovered a new talent, maybe you uncovered some amazing retail opportunity that no one else in your area has acted on before. Whatever it is that’s got you ready to take control of your own destiny, just remember that in order to succeed long term, you need to lay a solid foundation on which to build your future business.

The first step in building a successful home business is coming up with a solid plan of action. You don’t necessarily have to develop an actual business plan in the traditional sense (though it would probably help), but it is very important that you have your goals, promotional strategy and costs mapped out clearly for use as a personal reference. At this stage you should also check what the legal requirements are for operating your particular business model, as you will most likely need to register your business or acquire a license of some sorts in order to operate.

There needs to be absolutely no unresolved details left to figure out once you start trading. If this is your first business, it may well prove helpful to find someone more experienced to mentor you. A mentor doesn’t necessarily need to be someone who has worked in the same exact market you’re planing on entering, but it should be someone who has a record of running a successful home business, who can at least give you the basic advise you need to succeed.

If you don’t know anyone locally who can act as your mentor, then it can be well worthwhile looking for someone online. A good place to look is SCORE, a website dedicated to supplying advice and support to small business start-ups. SCORE can also help put people in contact with other similar businesses both locally and nationally which they can lean on for advise. If you can’t find a mentor through Score, try looking on forums that relate to your specific area of interest, as there’s bound to be at least on or two out there that will cover the things you need to know.

Use the time before you launch your business to reach out to as many successful businesses, government agencies, trade associations and communities related to your niche as you can. Ask plenty of questions and learn everything you can about the industry you’re about to step into.

Finally before throwing yourself full time into any new business, make sure you’ve got enough money stored away to see you through at least six months of bare essential house hold bills. It takes time for businesses to start generating a reliable income , whilst poverty and desperation is one way of staying motivated, being able to pay your bills without having to worry about it, will lead to much greater success.

Once the business is off the ground, make sure to take every opportunity you come across to promote your brand. This means staying competitive and delivering excellent levels of customer satisfaction. A lot of new businesses will rely on referrals to help them grow, so make sure to always prompt happy customers to spread the word, perhaps offer incentives in the form of discounts or rewards for new referrals.

Make sure to always keep on top of your market. Visit trade shows, network with other business owners and thoroughly analyze not only the competition, but your own business as well. Is it possible for you to be more competitive in pricing? Do you have an area in which you excel over your rivals that can be exploited for profit? Is there a service you can provide your new contacts that you hadn’t thought of before? By regularly asking yourself these questions (and others like them), you should be able to find ways to continuously grow your business from strength to strength.

Finally, don’t ever make the mistake of putting all your eggs in one basket. Whilst it can be tempting to snap up a nice juicy contract from a well paying client, sit back and focus all your attention solely on them, if you do that your entire income could disappear at a moments notice. For your own protection it is always advisable to try and secure several different clients, so that if one project comes to an end, or if something goes wrong for a particular contact, you still have other sources of income to fall back on.

Setting up a successful home business does take a lot of planning and hard work. However, if you are willing to put in the time and effort to make it happen, then there is absolutely no reason why you can’t join the thousands of people working happily from the comfort of their own homes.

This is a guest post by Annie Wallace, a mom blogger, who loves social media and cooking.

Post image by MSVG