Millions of people dream of “working” from home. I’m here to tell you that anything that makes you feel too comfortable is a giant red flag. The comfort that people have with working from home is dangerous and I’m warning you to not get so excited about the idea of working from home. Easy access to too many comforts is not a good thing.
“The amount of discipline it takes to work from home and get great results is higher than you think, and most people fail at home because of this.”
Your home is filled with constant distractions: spouse, kids, pets, and not to mention your favorite La-Z-Boy to take your afternoon nap. These things will throw you off your game. When the fridge is 12 steps away and the TV is on with the push of a remote, of course people are going to “enjoy” things better. Working from home is a bad idea and a bad business plan for almost all people. It’s basically seeking comfort.
Too many people go into business from home for the wrong reason.
Working from home means that nobody is looking over your shoulder. You can check Facebook and be in your underwear. I have run multiple businesses from a home office and each of these started out small and grew into something much bigger. I started my first business when I was 29 from home only because I couldn’t afford an office.
I figured out how to make my home business successful and then I was able to expand into multiple businesses with partners and employees. There are many other bloggers out there who push the concept of working at home as if it’s a perfect, permanent solution. This is small thinking. If you want to run your small consulting business from home and make 70K a year, you can do that, but if you ever want to expand, you are going to need to do more.
You should know the facts about why so many businesses fail. Knowing what the cause of failures is may be as valuable as knowing what the successful do. Did you know that 93% of all small businesses make less than $250k per year and over 51% make less than $25,000? When I saw this stat it changed my approach to business because I quickly did the math and figured it was impossible to grow and sustain any business with only 250,000 of pretax dollars.
In fact, of the 28 million small businesses in the US over 67% break even or lose money.
“The reality is you must learn to grow and scale your business or it will fail to be a business!”
Working from home should be seen as a temporary time where you can expand your business — and it’s only for the elite few who are disciplined enough to maintain strong boundaries. That means it’s not for the average person. The normal person will go to work from home because they like the idea of “comfort”, and they will stay small. Expansion will usually entail moving from your basement into an actual office space. This is not what most envision when they dream about working from home.
Five main reasons your home business will fail:
1) No one knows you
2) You’re too small
3) You don’t grow fast enough
4) You don’t spend/invest enough
5) You don’t make enough
If you do choose to work from home, make sure you have a work only space. Have a dedicated workspace where nothing else happens but work. You need very strict boundaries where there are no dogs, kids, and no spouses allowed. If you work with your spouse, they don’t need to be your spouse while in this space. No shoulder massages — their focus is fulfilling their role at work. The door needs to remain closed.
You have to switch your mindset because the main motivation for most people to work from home is flawed. The goal has to be producing more at work, not being more comfortable. This comfort mindset will eliminate any chance of a person reaching their full potential and possibly even to survive as an entrepreneur. It is vital that you understand you work for you and you have to manage yourself. You have to wear two hats for yourself — boss and employee.
I’d prepare at home as I would any public job, and that meant to get dressed, get shaved and be presentable as a professional as I would in a public office. Do not mix your personal computer with your business computer. Set things apart. One advantage of a home office is you can use it more than you would an office away from home. Once you spend time with your family, you could return to your office at all times during the night when inspired.
When you go to work from home, you still have to go to work to work. Make sure all decisions are goal-oriented and not comfort-oriented. Remember that it is easy to stay small — especially when you are just working from home. Keep your eye on expansion and remember that my biggest mistake in business was not going big enough fast enough. Get on my Playbook and I will teach you how to get wealthy, not just rich.
Be great,
GC
Grant Cardone is a New York Times bestselling author, the #1 sales trainer in the world, and an internationally renowned speaker on leadership, real estate investing, entrepreneurship, social media, and finance. His 5 privately held companies have annual revenues exceeding $100 million. Forbes named Mr. Cardone #1 of the "25 Marketing Influencers to Watch in 2017". Grant’s straight-shooting viewpoints on the economy, the middle class, and business have made him a valuable resource for media seeking commentary and insights on real topics that matter. He regularly appears on Fox News, Fox Business, CNBC, and MSNBC, and writes for Forbes, Success Magazine, Business Insider, Entrepreneur.com, and the Huffington Post. He urges his followers and clients to make success their duty, responsibility, and obligation. He currently resides in South Florida with his wife and two daughters.