Working a home business requires an independent spirit, a willingness to learn new techniques and business abilities, and a determination to succeed. It also demands discipline, a sense of entrepreneurship, and the ability to stick to your established policies and procedures. Finally, the entrepreneur must maintain the home business not as a substitute for day care or personal comfort, but to utilize the business to ensure that enough money is made to keep a personal and business life separate, not equal.

1. Do Not Re-Invent the Wheel

If you maintained your office a certain way when you had a job and it worked for you, duplicate it at home. If you arrived at work by a definite time and left by a specific time, keep those hours until you establish a routine that works for your home environment. If you filed your paperwork on a certain day, keep that day sacred. If someone else filed for you, establish your own system and day to file.

2. Demand Respect

Your family will be ecstatic to have you at home. This way, you can be at their beck and call whenever they choose. Friends will also call you, many times from their own jobs because they think you have free time to kill. Clients will attempt to abuse your time once they know you own a home business. They will call whenever an idea enters their head, and attempt to discuss it with you at the most inopportune moments.

Establish up front to everyone that you have office hours that you expect to be honored. Your family and friends can speak with you during your lunch hour, and after work. Give clients a good time to call you, or set up a weekly meeting day and time for them to review their reports and your progress.

3. Maintain Your Books

There is no corporate bookkeeper to keep track of your payables and receivables. You must establish a day and time to do your own financials each week. Those with a home business are expected to stay on top of their money more than a company with a bookkeeping department. Hire an accountant to review your books on a quarterly basis, and make corrections as needed.

Remember to keep separate your home expenses and business income expenses. Open a bank account for your home business, and write checks and deposits from your business into that account. Establish an annual budget of anticipated income and expenses for the year. Review monthly to find out whether you are making or losing money.

4. Manage Your Expenses

Do not get into the trap of running in

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