Is it possible to become an entrepreneur overnight? Becoming an entrepreneur is something that essentially happens overnight. And, it’s not something that happens by chance. It’s a consequence of choice. Whether you start young and keep trying until you succeed or whether you reach a point in life where you finally decide you’re ready to start out on your own, you flick that switch. Prior to writing this post, I had always been under the impression that “entrepreneurship” was hardwired into a person. You either had what it took to become one or you didn’t.
 
There are numerous benefits to being an entrepreneur who works from home, along with an equal amount of challenges...

Since some may people may look down at working from home, mostly because the idea is such a foreign concept, the phrase ‘home office’ will instantly change others perception of what you do and may even cause envy. Here are some tips for stay-at-home entrepreneurs that will help you be more productive, happy and successful.

Leverage your willpower

We have a finite amount of willpower to get things done. Use it to accomplish your most important and challenging tasks first thing in the morning.

Limit yourself to four to six items a day, placing your most challenging tasks first. Limiting yourself to this manageable amount will force you to only focus on the most important tasks on your list.

Small business administration

This first step is not a strict requirement but is definitely recommended. While entrepreneurs have built successful businesses while being less than financially stable - think of Mark Zuckerberg as a college student - having strong financial stability can only help an entrepreneur. This is due to the fact that strong personal finances allow an aspiring entrepreneur to increase his personal runway and give him more time to work on creating a successful business.

The big idea to startup

Please forget all of the terrible deluded nonsense you've heard about the value of ideas. Ideas are cheap, fleeting things; by itself a business idea is worth less than a half-eaten sandwich. At least you can eat the sandwich.

You do need an idea of course. But understand that even the most successful companies were not founded on wild or brilliant ideas. Starbucks chose the brazen path of selling coffee in Seattle. Facebook built a better MySpace. Google built a better Yahoo search. Microsoft copied Apple - who copied Xerox.

Original ideas are overrated. What isn't overrated is timing. Google chose the perfect time to build a better search engine - good luck trying to do that now *cough* Bing *cough*. What you want, therefore, is an astute awareness of a need that is currently underrepresented in the market. You want to spot a product or service that can go places - original or not. It's usually easier to refine an existing idea that isn't fully realized than to create a wholly original one.

People fear setting up a business wherever there's competition, but competition can be a good thing. The best place to setup a new restaurant is right next to another successful restaurant; they've kindly done the hard work for you of building an audience. Many a good business has ridden to success on the coattails of another - it is usually better to have some rivals over none. You just need to become 10% better.

I personally recommend trying to deliver something that you and your friends would buy in a heartbeat. You'll know more about your field, you'll understand your customers, and you'll be passionate about what you do. If you can make your company about a why - not a what - you'll inspire yourself and those around you. 

Obtain Financing

You may also need to obtain financing to get started. Financing options include dipping into personal savings or borrowing money from family and friends. Another alternative is to borrow the money from a bank or credit union. As a last resort, you can use personal credit cards to obtain necessary cash or purchase equipment. Small business grants may also be available.

Don’t wait for the perfect plan

If you are the type to worry about looking silly or making mistakes this may be tough for you.
You will learn a lot more from taking action then imagining and planning. If you are going to fear something happening, don’t fear it because of actions you take, fear not taking action.

Personally, I don’t regret the actions I take, I regret the actions I do not take. Taking action is rarely a bad thing - action leads to growth and profitability for your business.

Start Part-Time

Unless there is an ethical or legal reason for not doing so, take several months to start being your own boss on a part-time basis. Set aside an evening or two a week and a day out of the weekend to start building up your business. Why do this instead of jump right into it? Well, the simple truth is that it takes time to build up a client base big enough and regular enough to provide you with the income you need to live on. In the first several months of building up your own business, you may find that you don't have enough work to take up all the time you now have. So start part-time, hang on to that stable income and squeeze your "extra" work in on nights and weekends. Yes, it means you will be busy. That won't change once you quit your job and go at it full-time, so this will simply help you hone those time management skills.

Executing Upon Opportunities

Execution, or the ability to generate the most value out of an opportunity, requires a unique combination of creativity, passion, persistence, focus, responsibility, intelligence, planning and energy. The entrepreneur needs to know what tasks must be accomplished and be the main driver in seeing that these tasks are completed in an appropriate manner. Having an expertly written business plan will allow the entrepreneur to see the outline of the actions that must been taken to ensure success.

Understanding the seven steps to entrepreneurship enables entrepreneurs to better understand the path that they are embarking upon. It is a path filled with potential pitfalls, but also filled with tremendous excitement, satisfaction and potential to build enormous value. 

My advice to you: stop thinking of an entrepreneur as a Hollywood movie star. The reality is most entrepreneurs are not and will never be Mark Zuckerbergs. And, thank heavens for that! I for one don’t need another platform like Facebook. However, another coffee shop, gym, restaurant, hospital, or law firm? Bring it on.