Get started books often tell business owners what needs to be done to get started, and even give them a basic outline of the business, but they rarely tell people how to turn their idea into money. Many business owners stare at their stores, or computers, for days wondering where all the customers are – where is the money.

The reality often hits in, too late, that it takes more than putting a product in-front of a customer to get them to buy a product or a service. The problem is that 'making money' is not step-one to starting a real work at home business. Whether the business is an ecommerce or a brick-and-mortar type of business, the are several things the business owner does that ruins their success before the first customer arrives

Attitude

One of the reasons why business owners are told to research their business and network with like minded business owners is to prepare their attitude. Most work at home professionals ruin their first sales because they don't believe in their product or service.

-I took a one weekend course and got certified, but I am not a real personal trainer.

-Joining the national association doesn't make me a real professional organizer.

-I have $50 000 and I took the training, but I am too afraid of buying my first property.

-I have my product, but no real store will want to sell it for me.

-No one buys online

These statements and a dozen others are excuses that keep business owners from success. There are very few scams. No matter what the reviews say about a work at home program, someone, somewhere turned it into a success.

Look at the Ezine Queen. Five years ago she was a work at home woman who started a newsletter. Now she is a spokesperson at national business conferences, and works with Fortune 500 companies teaching people how to create successful newsletters.

Another example is Sentient Media. Mark made a movie called Woodland Haunting for $1500 and sold it on Amazon.com. Two years later he owns Denton Rose Detective. Sony, www.gofish.com, and other large organizations have bought their two-minute shows for distribution on websites and cell phones.

These two people had something in common – a great attitude.

Work Space

No one can run a successful business from the dinning room table. It is impossible to work where you need to move your equipment, people are moving your papers, and the television or phone is always disrupting you.

A workspace must be away from the family area, and family must be taught to respect the workspace. The work-day must always be respected.

No one can run a successful full-time business if they are expected to throw a load of laundry in, pick up the kids after school, run errands, or take the kids to soccer practice. Work at home professionals must treat their workday the same as they would if they worked in an office. The day starts at 9 am and doesn't end before 5 pm.

"Failure to plan is a plan to fail." I've seen this a thousand times. When someone tells me that work at home doesn't work, I ask to see their plan. It is guaranteed that 99% of the time they will not have written out a set of short-term and long-term goals.

There should also be a strategy for success. Each day should have a to-do list. Just letting each day take care of itself wastes hours a day. I recently sat with a professional sales person and found that they only 'sell' one hour and twenty minutes each day. That means they contact two clients a day in an industry where they get 1:20 sales. The numbers alone told this salesperson that they would make one sale a month.

They set a goal of 2 sales a week, and then contacted 40 potential clients a week. They turned around their failure rate in three weeks.

Network

No one is an island. That is true in business. All business owners need to network in forums and newsletters with others who share the same goals. Some professionals even set a chat time each week where 5 – 10 professionals get together and share experiences and hold each other accountable for their successes and failures.

Success

Success is a habit. It is a state of mind. In most cases, the only way to fail is to quit. Maybe you don't have the skills needed to succeed at the moment. That doesn't mean that you can't learn those skills from other people and books. The important thing is to work a set number of hours every day of the workweek. This will teach you to 'work for success' and build the skills and attitude needed to succeed.