Working From Home - The Initial Stages

Watching

Look at the business world around you. It's everywhere. When you're next in your current workplace, the supermarket, having lunch, watch how and why the business operates the way it does. Get hints on how or why they sell what they do. How they provided you a reason to come to them.

Learning

Take what you see and give yourself a greater understanding for what they are trying to achieve by thinking about how you would improve things if you were in charge. Would you increase the numbers of staff? Add different furniture? Add a new product line?

You may just end up being a competitor of their's very soon, or in the very least you will start to critically evaluate a business model.

Industry Idea Gathering

This is the crucial step. Once you have the industry, you can expand on it to develop the idea, and from there you can make anything happen.

You need to take the knowledge you have gathered by watching and learning, and find a product or service that you can provide, and that you would be good at providing. You may have existing experience in an industry, or use your critical evaluation skills to assess which industry would you like to be in?

You need to evaluate yourself.

What special skills do you have? What is it you love doing? While these these questions were first asked of you in high school, they are vital to think about now because soon you could be doing exactly that full-time. Work out a list of particular industries, interests, or hobbies you could push into commercially.

Product Idea Gathering

So you've established your interests, and begun to hone your skills evaluating businesses already in the market. Now you need to be on the lookout for something serious. This is a never ending step, because a mind-set where considering new products and services will become an everyday occurrence.

Take the industries considered in your industry idea gathering, and begin to evaluate how you could provide a component of that industry to it's customer base.

If one of the industries revolves around a sporting hobby, start thinking about services such as:

• Supplying the sporting equipment
• Supplying products or services that enhance player performance. Maybe coaching or personal training?
• Selling sporting collectibles and memorabilia

Remember that no matter how large the market you can break into it. Small businesses, and especially home businesses, do have some advantages over the bigger chains. One major one is easy storage. What costs you the use of your spare room or shed costs established businesses rent, and there is your immediate price advantage to break into the market.

Delivery Idea Gathering

Take your product ideas and consider how you would deliver them to the customer. While this does depend on the product itself, generally delivery would be fulfilled by one or a combination of the following:

• The customer comes to you
• You deliver, post, or courier the product or service
• The product is delivered via electronic means

Consider primarily what would be most convenient and popular with your clientele, but also the feasibility and costs associated with each deliver method.

From here formal plans start to take shape. Continue forward to Starting Your Own Business - The Business Model to see your plans come together.

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