By Kirk Bannerman



From what I have seen and experienced, to quit is the greatest
temptation during the first year of working at a home-based
business. If smoking was like working at a home-based business,
the occurence of lung cancer would be dramatically reduced.

It is a known fact that a majority of the people that undertake
a work at home business do not achieve real success. There are
several reasons for this, but one of the primary reasons is that
these people get frustrated and do not allow themselves enough
time to succeed.

In the early going, one of the most difficult things about
developing a new home based business is dealing with the emotional
roller coaster that can result from the highs (successes) and lows
(temporary setbacks) you are almost certain to experience. Once
you have done the research and decided on a particular home based
business opportunity, you really need to focus on persistence and
realize that any real business will not just automatically become
successful in a matter of days or weeks. You should be prepared to
give it your best sustained effort for at least 6 to 12 months in
order to begin to build a solid business base and begin to see
some good income.

Highs and lows were something that I began to notice when I first
started a home based business. I have many years of top level
management experience in "traditional" corporations and have
experienced lots of business cycles (corporate "ups and downs"),
but the natural "ups and downs" that occur in a home business
(particularly in the early stages) can be brutal from an
emotional standpoint if you don't prepare yourself in advance for
the fact that it is a basic law of nature...it will be a rocky
road until you have spent enough time and effort to build your
business to a level that sort of smoothes out the peaks and
valleys.

The impact of the highs and lows you will probably experience in
developing your home based business is amplified by the fact that
you are now in business on your own. You are the boss and get to
make all the decisions, but you are also on your own in dealing
with the frustrations that will occur along the way while you are
developing your business.

When working at home a person can, at times, experience a feeling
of isolation which is probably brought on by the lack of
interaction of a work force environment.

There can also be periods of doubt in the early going...gee, did
I pick a viable business opportunity?...am I doing the right
things to develop my business?...when will I start making a
profit?, and so on.

You are most likely going to experience the "two steps forward
and one step backward" syndrome and the ever-looming temptation
to become discouraged. However, keep in mind that as long
as you have more steps going forward than backward, you will
eventually get ahead! Simple, but often overlooked.

Relatively minor setbacks can seem huge in the early stages of
developing a work at home business and can really contribute to
some noticeable "mood swings". For example, if you are just
starting out and you have four customers/clients and you happen
to lose one...that's a 25% drop! However, if you fast-forward in
time to the point where you have hundreds of customers/clients
and you lose one...that's just a mere fraction of 1%! Exactly
the same event, just at a different point in time.

Hang in there and just keep on keepin' on. If you have chosen a
viable home business opportunity (one that has been around for
awhile and in which some other people are having success) you
will achieve success, but it takes time and there will be ups and
downs along the way. Remember the old saying..."it takes a long
time to become an overnight success".
About the author:

Kirk Bannerman operates a successful home based business and
coaches others seeking to start their own home based business.
Visit his website at
Legitimate Home Based Business for more details.