2 Secret Keys for a Successful Home-Based Business

by Gary D. Collier

Type “Home Based Business,” “Work at Home,” or “Work from Home” in any search engine and you’ll get a million options. Six million, actually. Finding just the right business to work from home can be daunting; wading through the hype of internet ads can be discouraging.

But here’s something that might help. There’s a little test you can give to any work-at-home business proposal to help clear away the fluff. It’s called the Home Based Business HBB Test: It allows you to evaluate the Heart and Back-Bone of any business. It is a basic truth. If a proposal fails this test, just say, “Next.”

Despite the common mantra on the internet about easy money, the backbone of any viable Home Based Business is hard work. It is a staple in stories of success, turning paupers into independent, self-sufficient people. It stands behind every good idea, every job done well, every service rendered rightly.

The problem is, we all know people who worked hard and went nowhere. So we all want to “work smarter and not harder.” The idea is catchy and has its place. But when it appeals to our laziness and turns “hard work” into a dirty word, it is actually counter-productive. Working smarter is meant to increases our productivity, not make us lazy. Working smarter is obviously better than working dumber. But who said smart work is easy?

When a business proposal promises easy money, you should be leery. Any Home Based Business that needs to hype itself, is merely trying to hide itself. There’s nothing wrong with presenting glamour, if it also has substance. But a solid Home Based Business will require hard work and will not hide from that fact.

If hard work is the backbone of a good Home Based Business, the ability to dream and to believe beyond what others can see will be its heart and soul. You may think I’ve just changed the subject, but I haven’t at all. Because the most important keys to any business are not really in the business at all – they are in you.

If you think this is hype, you just don't get it. You have to want something more than you are getting now. Not just money, but a better quality of life -- more time with your family, a more secure future, a safer car, a home you’ve dreamed of having, a college fund for your kids, a retirement fund for later, that garage with a lift to work on your car, that exercise room in your house, the freedom to travel anywhere you like, the ability to contribute to your church or a good cause -- whatever it is you don’t have or are not able to do if you stay where you are.

This is not about greed, it's about quality of life. A good Home Based Business can be a vehicle for those dreams, but that’s all it is. And you have to ask yourself, will this business allow me to achieve my dreams? Will it provide the income needed, the freedom required, the foundation, the format, or whatever else is required by your dreams. In essence, you need to know whether the business is big enough for you.

When you have a clear vision of who you are and where you want to go, finding an appropriate business becomes so much more an adventure than a chore. The Home Based Business HBB Test can help you put things in perspective.

The bottom line to all of this is simple: No business in the world can give you the secret keys for success. The secret is within you. When you actually get that straight, you can be successful in just about any legitimate business system there is. Put your heart in touch with your backbone, and there is no limit to what you can do.