At the end of this module you will be able to:

Start a home- based business
To plan it, to grow it and turn it into a successful business, facing all the challenges

Develop a serious business behaviour
We will also focus on attitudes and actions that will support the main beneficiaries to have a clear image of a home- based business, with advantages and disadvantages

Become an expert
By specializing, you’ll assume the role of a presumed expert, even if you’ve just started your business..

Plans are not important, but planning is everything.

3 most important things to consider when starting a home business !!!

3.1 Preparing the location.
If everything is going to happen from home, you definitely need to make some changes or adjustments.

3.2 Setting the price for your product/service.
If your prices are too high, your clients will look for less expensive sources for the products and services you provide, and you’ll soon find yourself going out of business from lack of sales. If you set them too low, even if everyone loves a bargain, your profit margins will be too small to sustain your business to develop. The key is to find a compromise between these two extremes.

3.3 Finding your clients. Customers are the central element of any business.  What does your ideal customer look like?
Here are a few questions to ask in order create a profile.

• Are your best customers individuals or businesses?
• If they’re individuals, what do they and don’t they like?
• What are their needs and problems?
• How can you address those needs and problems?
• What’s most important to your best customers?
• What’s least important to them?
• How will you provide more of the former and less of the latter?

Plans are not important, but planning is everything.

Before starting your business or writing your business plan, it will be extremely useful to answer the following questions to get a clear picture of your future actions:

• What kind of product or service will I sell?
• What competition will I face?
• Can I generate demand for my product/service?
• How will I reach my potential clients? Will I advertise, rely on recommendations, open a website/online store?
• What skills and experience do I bring to the business?
• What is the most appropriate legal structure for my business?
• Do I need insurance? What type of insurance is best?
• What kind of raw materials/supplies do I need? Are there suppliers for them? Who are they?
• What own resources do I have?
• How much money do I need to start my home- based business?
• How much money do I assume to get from my weekly/monthly/annual business?
• How many employees do I need? What will be their profile?
• In which part of the house will I run my business?
• Do I need a lot of changes to make the space right for my business?
• Do I need the approval of my neighbours or special permits to carry out my work from home?
• Do I need equipment to carry out my work? What kind of equipment? Does it fit in the space I have?
• Will I be able to work from home?

 We all dream about the job that we would do if only we had the opportunity to do it. Unfortunately, for many of us, our current job is something we do because we have to pay the bills, not because we want to. What if you could do what you really love doing? Wouldn’t that be great?

It is, and it’s exactly the opportunity you get by starting your own business. Just have a serious business attitude !

2.1 You’re the one who decide
Your home-based business is no different from any other business.
This means your business is not:
- Something you do just every once in a while
- A get-rich-quick scheme. Focus on working hard to create a business where you can do what you love, serve your customers, and make money at the same time — for the long term, not overnight.
- A hobby
- Just amusement or having fun

Here are some spicy tips:

2.1.1  Be Organized

Keeping your work life and personal life separate - You have to draw a line between your home life and your work life.

• Don’t turn your bedroom into your office We have one word for you: Don’t!  Your bedroom  must be a refuge from the pressures of work and life where you relax.
• Use a separate room If you don’t have an extra room available for your office, reconfigure a larger space using separator panels.
• Use a separate entrance... if it's possible A separate entrance helps keep your work life separate from your home life.
• Set a work schedule  When you own your own business, you can work whenever you like. You may find it easier (and more productive) to establish a regular work schedule.
• Ask for help! The main thing to keep in mind is that you do have alternatives available to you if you feel overwhelmed.
• Dress for success You should dress one level higher than the client you’re meeting with.
• Get a dedicated phone line You’ll make a much better impression by having a dedicated phone line for your business, hooked up to a dedicated answering machine or voice-mail system.
• Avoiding distractions Remove the sources of distraction.

2.1.2  An Organized Home Office Is an Efficient Productive Home Office

Being organized, efficient, and effective can mean the difference between being successful in your home-based business and being less than successful.

Managing your time:

• Schedule appointments for yourself, friends, and family! 
• Review your priorities at the beginning of the day!  What’s a priority and what’s not? Priorities are actions that have a significant impact on achieving your goals.
• Is the action in response to a client emergency? Because clients in many ways are the heart and soul of any business, solving their problems is clearly a priority. Prioritizing “emergencies” gets easier with experience.
• Buy an appointment calendar, daily planner, or electronic organizer, and use it!
• Junk mail (and junk e-mail, also known as spam) is an incredible time-waster! 

2.2. Assume the role of an expert.
People respect those who know more than they do. By specializing, you assume the role of a presumed expert, even if you’ve just started your business. As time goes on, potential clients and customers will get in touch with you just to get the benefit of the expertise you’ve developed through experience and education.

2.2.1 Pomodoro technique The Pomodoro technique is a time management  method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. It uses a kitchen timer to break work into intervals, typically 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. The Original technique has six steps: Decide on the task to be done. Set the pomodoro timer (typically for 25 minutes). Work on the task. End work when the timer rings and take a short break (typically 5–10 minutes). If you have finished fewer than three pomodoros, go back to Step 2 and repeat until you go through all three pomodoros. After three pomodoros are done, take the fourth pomodoro and then take a long break (typically 20 to 30 minutes). Once the long break is finished, return to step 2. For the purposes of the technique, a pomodoro is an interval of work time. For more info, please visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique

OUR ADVICE IS TO ADAPT THIS TECHNIQUE TO YOUR NEEDS:

2.2. Assume the role of an expert. 

2.2.2 Production log
You can write in a special notebook the entire technological process of production, in case you produce goods.

This method is PDCA  CYCLE
The Plan – Do – Check – Act cycle is a four-phase (or four “steps”) model for quality control strategy and continuous quality improvement.:

1. Planning phase: Plan (P). In this phase, decisions are made on the objectives to be achieved and on the processes necessary to achieve results / products .
2. Performing phase: Do (D). The production or improvement plan developed during the planning phase (P) shall be tested, preferably on a small scale.
3. Check (C) or study phase: verification. Questions that can be asked at this stage: What can be learned from how the design of the product/service compares to what was expected, with the projections made? What went wrong?
4. Action phase: Act (A). If the results of the verification phase do not show significant improvements in meeting customer requirements, measures shall be established for a corrective action and another PDCA cycle shall be started. Sometimes it may be necessary to reconsider the entire technological process of production, establish other procedures, strategies to have the expected success.

People respect those who know more than they do!

It is used in the following situations: when developing a new and improved model of a process, product or service; when a repetitive work process is defined; when any kind of change is implemented.