Starting a home-based business is an exciting venture. But before you begin, complete this self-assessment so you're prepared for what you're getting into.

The rewards of home-based business

What do you want out of your home-based business? Having a home-based business has many rewards: the freedom of being your own boss, the personal satisfaction of accomplishment, and the chance to earn an income that is only limited by your skill and determination.

The downside of home-based business

There's no arguing that having a home-based business is a wonderful way to make a living. I've done it for the past 20 years and wouldn't have it any other way.

However, having a home-based business takes a level of effort and energy that many people underestimate. It can place incredible demands on your time, your family relationships, and your money.

And the unfortunate fact is that the majority (estimated as high as 70 per cent) of all new businesses fail within three years. It's rare for a new business to provide any significant financial return to the owner in the first two or three years. Yes, you read that right. Even if your home-based business is successful, it may be three years or more before you are making the kind of income that you would like.

Do you have the personal qualities required?

Are you independent, ambitious, confident, hard working, a risk-taker and a problem solver? Do you enjoy working alone? Successful small business owners often have most of these traits.

Do you have the knowledge required?

Are you knowledgeable about the industry or type of business that you are considering? Are you really excited about your idea? Do you have business training in sales, marketing and production? Do you have the ability to put together a business plan?

Do you know your weak areas?

Are you willing to take training courses in your weak areas? Will you hire experts to do the things that you can't do? Do you have the money to pay for this assistance? Do you want to set up a partnership with someone who has the skills that you lack?

Do you have the family support required?

Do you have the full support of your family? When you work at home you are around family members a lot more hours of the day. You also will likely be working longer hours, at least to start. And the money situation will be iffy. What impact will this have on your relationships? Your prospects for success will improve when those close to you share your commitment.

Do you have enough money?

Starting a home-based business is often more costly than you think. And you won't have a regular pay cheque for quite a while. Are you prepared to spend the money required during the start-up phase? Be thorough and realistic about how much you need right from the start so your business isn't jeopardized after you've invested months of hard work.

And here's an excellent entrepreneurial self-assessment quiz that I think you might find interesting.

Today my Outlook got completely wiped out and I feel... well, not the way I thought I'd feel.

I pretty much run my home based business out of my Outlook inbox folders. It's my giant electronic filing cabinet, to-do list and template holder. Also my ideas file.

So how do I feel? Not devastated but... oddly relieved. There's this rush of "school's out" energy. FREEDOM.

Interesting! And yes, I do have an external back-up source so I can get them back. But I'm going to wait a few days and see what happens. If the sky doesn't fall I might just leave it and start over! Is this the new face of office productivity?

Update 8 hours later:

The first wave of panic has set in. What about my file that contains the confirmation emails of the 100+ forums, services, affilate products, and software downloads that I am subscribed to? Darn, maybe I will have to recover the email after all.

Update 24 hours later:

I've been thinking about it: Do I really need that information? How many of those 100 can I even remember? I made a list and could only come up with 15. What that tells me is that a lot of the things I've signed up for I don't use anymore (or maybe never used). So why am I keeping the information? It's like hanging on to anything - because "I might need it someday".

And part of it is that I sign up for stuff, throw it in that file, and then never get around to cleaning it out. So my "virtual home" gets cluttered. Sort of like all the stuff that starts to clutter up my "real home".

I remember my brother-in-law telling me about his decision to get rid of all the bubble-wrap he had been saving. He decided that when the time came that he needed some bubble wrap, he'd just go buy a package.

I'm wondering if that same principle could work with my file. The worst that could happen is that I'd have to sign up again, or ask to have my log-in info emailed to me.

So do I really need to recover that information?

Update 48 hours later

I caved. I kept wondering if there was something important in there that I was forgetting. But it's been an interesting experiment. My initial feeling of relief tells me that I have a yearning to reduce the amount of stuff in my life - whether that's email, household clutter or commitments. I'll keep you posted.

Most of us procrastinate at something. At the office the "f-word" (filing). Or maybe it’s the "c-word" (conflict resolution). At home, it might be holiday shopping, cleaning the garage, or exercising. When you work at home, the opportunities to procrastinate expand exponentially!

Why do you procrastinate?

Do you think it’s because you're lazy? Unorganized? Undisciplined? While that sometimes may be the case, there's another major reason why we procrastinate: fear.

It could be fear about your ability to do the job. Fear that if you take the time to do one task, you’ll fall behind on your other work. Fear that your efforts will be criticized. Fear that once started, the job will never end!

So what can you do about fear-based procrastination?

Some of the common tips you probably already know include breaking the task into chunks, setting aside a time every day to work on the task, rewarding yourself when it’s done, etc. I bet you know these tips and yet you still procrastinate. Welcome to the club. There’s a missing ingredient and it’s called your environment.

The key to overcoming procrastination

The key to overcoming procrastination is to set up your environment to automatically ensure that certain things get done. This is a paradigm shift for most people. Your environments can be designed to make things easier for you, to automate processes - whether it be actions, mental processes, or personal habits.

Here’s an example

If you are procrastinating on the filing, set up a recurring appointment with a colleague where they arrive at your desk at a certain time each week to help you with the filing (and maybe you can reciprocate the favor!).

Another example

If you’ve been meaning to use public transit more, but just can’t get into the habit…sell your car. You’ve now set up an environment where you don’t have to make the “car or bus?” decision every day – you have no choice but to take the bus. The same principle works for watching less TV (cancel the cable) or eating more veggies (get home delivery).

What about you, what do you procrastinate on?

What fear do you think might be behind that? What could you do to address that fear? Tell me about it in the comments section below.

After 17 years running my home-based business out of a cramped spare bedroom, I now have the luxury of a 500 square foot loft home office. Best of all, it's at home but not in my house! My new office is in the loft area above the separate garage. To get there, I walk out the front door of my house, cross the cobblestone terrace and go up the stairs to my home office hideaway. Ahhh...

I've been in my "new" dream home office for three years now and the novelty still hasn't worn off. I love the space, the windows looking out into the forest, and the warm fir floors.

Another thing I like is the wall of closets on the right. I have all my supplies and filing cabinets behind those white bifold doors, which helps to keep my working area free from clutter.

The part of the office that you can't see is the sitting area. I've got a cozy area with a sofa, area rug, coffee table, bookshelves and good lighting for when I want to read or meet with clients. You can't beat the sofa for those long conference calls either!

Do you think I have enough desk space? Yeah, maybe I did overdo it...the result of being cramped for space in my former home office. The desktop is blue laminate with bevelled fir edging. Altogether I have 23 feet of desk with three work stations.

The desk was custom made by a local cabinet company. The drawer units are stock cabinets, which act as pedestals to hold up the expanses of desktop.

As you can see, I still haven't found a good solution for the tangle of cables under my desk. And if you think that my home office is normally as neat as it appears in the photo above, well all I can say is HA!

Although I''ve learned the futility of making New Year's Resolutions, at this time of year I can't help but reflect on the passage of time.

I took this photo a year ago this evening. I remember sitting on the bank overlooking the ocean thinking about what the coming year might bring. Well, now 2006 is just about over and 2007 is on the way.

Since I don't do resolutions, let's call these New Year's Intentions instead.

New Year's Intention #1: Higher standards regarding work-life balance.

You know, if I was single this would not be an issue for me. I see nothing wrong with working on business till all hours of the night. I find it fun and as long as it's not harming anyone, who cares?

As long as it's not harming anyone...that's the catch. I'm married and my husband is semi-retired, and he'd like to spend time with his wife once in a while. Not too much to ask.

And yet, I know myself. I get distracted up in my office and hours can go by. This will be a hard one for me to change. Really hard.

So here's my first baby-step towards this goal: I will tell my husband how long I'll be up in the office, and I will honor that time. So if I say, "I'll be right back" then I'll do that. If he says "dinner's ready in 10 minutes" I'll make sure to be there with time to spare.

Rey Carr of Peer.ca recently reported that two Dutch psychologists have designed an online robot "life coach" they call MindMentor. The robot takes the user through a basic neurolinguistic programming (NLP) process to help "solve" their problem.

To date MindMentor has completed 1760 "coaching" sessions with people from several countries, and received a satisfaction rating of 47%. In other words, almost half the people who tried MindMentor said their problem was "solved" after just one session with the robot.

I'm impressed but not surprised by this statistic. After all, often we just need a structure to help us sort out a confusing problem. Other times just "talking it out" with someone (even a robot?) helps us identify some options for ourselves.

I don't know the specifics of how it works, but my guess is that the robot is designed with a pattern-matching algorithm that enables it to provide the most common solutions to different problem sets (sort of like an online search function).

Although the research is in its early days, I find it noteworthy that MindMentor's success rate is consistent with research about the efficacy of psychological counselling in general - that about half the time people get better "on their own".

Does the success of MindMentor undermine or diminish the value of human coaches? Not at all. I predict MindMentor will be a useful tool for certain types of clients (i.e. those that like technological approaches and are responsive to NLP techniques) to sort out thoughts and generate options. But I doubt it will be capable of the subtle communication necessary for masterful coaching. And as this research is new, there hasn't yet been follow-up to see how lasting the results were.

But think of the possibilities! What a great tool for people who can't afford to hire a life coach. Or as a tool for coaching clients to use between sessions. Or as a way to gather research on typical problems and responses.

I'm fascinated by this project, and look forward to reading the results of the researchers' analysis when available.

My friend and colleague Kerul Kassel is excited, and for good reason: she just received the first shipment of her new book Stop Procrastinating Now. And by coincidence, this happens to be National Procrastination Week. Talk about timing...Kerul's a pretty organized person but that's uncanny!

Kerul's book teaches a system for ending procrastination, and some of the elements might surprise you. Among other things, she covers:

- Why you need to drop your goals to get lots more of the right things done.

- The "secret pain" of people who do things immediately - and why you as a procrastinator are better off and much closer to getting things done than you think (what a refreshing thought).

- The difference between "want to" and "have to" projects - and how to focus on the right type.

And just to show that procrastination definitely has its funny side, Kerul provides these quotes:

"I like the word "indolence." It makes my laziness seem classy. " ~Bern Williams

"Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired." ~Jules Renard

"Only Robinson Crusoe had everything done by Friday." ~Author Unknown

"If it weren't for the last minute, I wouldn't get anything done." ~Author Unknown

"Anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn't the work he is supposed to be doing at that moment." ~Robert Benchley

"I do my work at the same time each day - the last minute." ~Author Unknown

"Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week." ~Spanish Proverb

"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." ~Douglas Adams

Here is an excerpt from Thomas Leonard's article Top Ten Ways to Simplify Your Life. It may seem shocking to the "people pleasers" among us (and I count myself in that group), but boy is it refreshing!

Wean away consuming people!

Part of simplifying is to simplify your personal Rolodex. I've found that it works to identify the 10 most important people in my life and focus on them instead of trying to juggle my very large Rolodex.

The first to 'go' were the people who were perhaps very nice and helpful but who needed me more than I wanted to be needed. Sometimes it's tricky to identify them because they are often very, very special in many ways, but if you're drained after spending time with them, and you can't fix the problem, it's probably time to wean them away. There ARE terrific people you'll be meeting who won't drain you. It's that important.

When Thomas wrote "it's that important", I can't imagine he knew how prescient those words would turn out to be. Thomas J. Leonard died an untimly death four years ago at the age of 47. He was my teacher and mentor, and I still dip into his writing regularly to be reminded of his uncommon wisdom.

Click here to read the entire Top Ten Ways to Simplify Your Life article.

Ah...the folly! I should know by now that nothing is every really finished. It's always evolving. Or at least, that's how it works for me. One project inevitably leads to another.

As Andrea Lee remarked this week "Remember the quote from the Godfather?" Oh yeah, that would be the one about making an offer you just can't refuse. Can't you just hear Andrea laughing gleefully in the background?

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Let's backup a couple of months. I had announced far and wide that I was leaving the coaching profession to become a full-time artist. I had already tried to sell my coaching practice but it didn't work out. So I announced in my newsletter that I was considering developing my materials into a self-study program.

No sooner had I pushed SEND on that message, than I received a immediate reply from Andrea Lee (she of Multiple Streams of Coaching Income fame, among many other things).

Barbra,

Re your project to home-study-ize the BACC materials. I wonder if you would be interested in a collaboration? I could offer to help in any way useful to moving the product creation part along...

What I envision is that having collaborated and perhaps cobranded the product, I could then very easily and on a continual active basis promote it at our online store, due to launch later this spring. I could also see continually finding opportunities to sell it, at events, exhibits, build affiliate relationships, etc. Might you be interested in discussing it further?

In today's fast-paced world, many people find they have trouble feeling grounded and on top of things. Work is often filled with a sense of urgency leading to stress, fatigue, and even burn-out. Get some help prioritizing, by taking the Urgency Index test.

Used by Robert Gass in his Art of Leadership training at Hollyhock, this tool may help you find the right balance between what needs to be done now, and what can be reassigned or completed at a later date.

The Urgency Index test helps you determine the difference between things that are urgent and things that are important. And contrary to popular belief, you should not necessarily do the urgent things first. Why not? Because you could spend your whole life doing the urgent things (which are usually just self-imposed or putting out fires) without doing the important things.

via the Hollyhock newsletter. Hollyhock is an educational retreat centre located on Cortes Island, B.C. Hollyhock's mission is to inspire, nourish and support people who are making the world better.

On January 1, 2007 I wrote five "New Year's Intentions". Since today we are officially half-way through the year, I thought it would be interesting to check in on my progress (yikes!)

#1: Higher standards regarding work-life balance.

Goal: When I tell my husband how long I'll be up in the office, I will honor that time.

Progress: Good start, but still room for improvement.

#2: Change all my passwords and write them down.

Progress: Not done. Keep waiting for a quiet afternoon to do it (HA!)

#3: Streamline the things I am subscribed to.

Goal: Pare it down to about 25%.

Progress: Achieved and then some! I now subscribe to only 2 newsletters (used to be dozens) and have also unsubscribed from a multitude of other services. It feels great.

#4: Start several new blogs.

Progress: Achieved. And more importantly, I am posting regularly in those blogs as well.

#5: Devote more time to social justice initiatives.

Goal: Expand my reach to help others who don't have the economic advantages that western business people do.

Progress: Minimal. I did add the Kiva.org banner to all my websites.

Interesting that this is certainly the most important goal, but the one I did the least on. Hmmm.... what does that say about my priorities in relation to my values? To be fair, this is also a much larger goal than the others.

Revised goal: break original goal down into smaller, more manageable steps.

What about you?

Would checking in on your New Year's goals / intentions / resolutions mid-way through the year be a useful exercise for you? If so, please post a comment below. I'm interested to hear about your progress. And if you have any ideas about how to achieve my revised #5 goal, I welcome your suggestions.

Cartoon by Dave Walker.

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

In this interview, life coach Daina Puodziunas shares the story of how she took a five year "creative sabbatical" and the benefits it brought her.

How old were you when you started your creative sabbatical?

Daina Puodziunas: 44 or 45. My illness started when I was 40. It took 4 or 5 years before I got to the point where I realized I had to take time out.

What were your living circumstances?

Daina: I was self employed doing workshops. Also had a small housecleaning business. I was a very social person. But I didn’t know if that was really my nature or if I had just been socialized to please by being social. I didn’t know! So I did a thought experiment. I thought “let’s test it out”. And I found out that I am actually a very social person. That I really like people.

It sounds like you wanted to bring yourself down to zero so that you could see what bubbled up naturally for you.

Daina: yes, and wait to see what emerges

How did you tell people that you would not be available to them?

Daina: it was hard. I said different things to different people - whatever I could to get people to accept it. I wasn’t always completely honest when it was someone that I just didn’t want to be friends with anymore. I had a few women friends who were quite controlling. Even still, I could see that some people were hurt. And lots of people couldn’t understand. I’d say “-----“ and they’d say “well, I’ll just drop by sometime” and I’d have to say “no, I’ll have the gate up”