The 3 Critical Components of Building a Small or Home-Based Business – Part 2

In our previous post we talked about planning and budgeting and how critical it was to your business success. Today we will be discussing the other two elements you’ll need to really build a successful home-based business.

Component Two – Taking Action

This is critical.  As I hinted at above, no matter how much planning you do, no matter how great your plans are, unless you take the necessary action to implement those plans you won’t be making any money with your own business, online or off.

One of the greatest tragedies of all the hype about making money online and home-business opportunities is that it sells people on the idea that starting a busy is quick and easy, and won’t take a lot of effort on their part.  The problem is that, that’s just not true. Period. Starting and building a business takes time and effort.

And because people are being sold on the idea

that “work” is not needed and they can be making money overnight they are missing this critical element of success.   And so, it is more likely that their business will fail because they will give up or move on to the next “shiny thing” when they haven’t achieved success 15-30 days later.  When anyone tells you that you can build a successful money-making business online or off without doing any work on your part they’re just plain out lying to you and you should run, not walk in the other direction as fast as you can.

Component Three – Reassess and Adjust

Remember when I said “don’t worry your plans are not written in stone?” I meant that literally. It’s very important to plan and budget for the success of your business. It helps you put yourself in your best position for success.  But, life is not static, things change, stuff happens; your competition changes the game. . .

The point is you have to be testing, tracking and following what works and adjusting your position to remain in a place that gives you the best opportunity for success.

Let me give you a great example of this in real life –

The home movie rental industry currently has three primary players:

1. Block Buster Video*
2. Netflix
3. Cable Television Pay Per View

At one time cable TV’s pay per view was the only game in town. Then the local video store came into being and offered the ability to go get a movie and see it when you wanted too, rather than when the cable network scheduled. Plus, you could pause, fast forward and rewind. It gave the consumer complete control.

Suddenly, the video stores, like Block Buster begin to take over the home movie business. Then enter Netflix, they position themselves to compete by offering movies delivered to your door so you get all the control and benefits of the video store product without having to leave your home offering the convenience of the cable network and they begin to take over.

Many video stores were forced out of business. Block Buster adjusted its business model offering videos by mail and the store in one membership. Netflix is stuck only delivering by mail, a distinct disadvantage. It adjusts its business model by offering videos by mail and streaming video over the internet.

Cable TV not to be left out, introduces the DVR through licensing with TIVO, which allows users to pause, forward and rewind movies along with “movies on demand,” so users can watch movies on their own schedule and more importantly, they begin showing new movies before they were available for rental by any other outlet including Netflix and Block Buster.

The point I’m making here, is that, in each instance, the companies that survived and grew their business consistently were aware of the changes happening around them, the affect it had on their ability to compete and took action to adjust its business model to reposition themselves so they could successfully answer the challenge.

So, there you have it,  the three critical components of building a successful home based business.  If you can implement these three critical components in your business you will be much likely to achieve success.

* Blockbuster recently filed chapter 11 bankruptcy and might end up going out of business if it can’t figure out how to adjust its business model to compete effectively against redbox and its $1 per day rental kiosks. So it’s really important to keep on your toes and constantly think outside the box to make sure your business is always in the best position to compete in its field.