Characteristics Required for Success

Discover the characteristics needed to start a business from home.

William G. Hynes, the author of Start and Run a Profitable Craft Business, by the Self-Counsel Business Series says that: "Jewelry Designers are made, not born. In the past, they learned from their parents, and skills were often handed down from generation to generation. Today, most jewelry designers learn their skills through practice, by taking jewelry making courses, or from a friend. The level of skill required varies widely, but most jewelry skills can be easily acquired by a person of average intelligence and manual dexterity." Hynes also explains that "You don't have to be a creative genius to start a jewelry business. In fact, you don't even need to be particularly creative. Many successful jewelry designers produce all their work according to traditional designs. Others modify traditional designs to serve their own purposes. You can produce hundreds or thousands of "production line" jewelry of the same design. Or you can concentrate on making one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces, where each piece is a unique design."

When your hobby becomes a business, you still have to continue maintaining your home, caring for a spouse or family and running a business as well, can be a real challenge and requires a lot of hard work.

If you never manage your time well, procrastinate endlessly, and have real difficulty working alone, a home jewelry business may not be for you unless you make a serious effort to overcome such tendencies.

Loneliness

Once your hobby becomes a business you will be considered a home business and this can be a lonely business. Whether you are designing, producing, planning, marketing, keeping track of the paperwork, or maintaining your bookkeeping, you will for the most part be doing it alone.

You are also your own employee. Treat yourself well as a good employer should. Don't be a Bob Crachet working endless hours for a pittance. Value yourself and give yourself time off to relax and read or mix with others so you don't become a complete lonely little petunia in an onion patch, or servant to your ambitious boss.

Remember, when your hobby becomes a business, of course you can't just toddle off any old time and let the business take care of itself, but teach yourself to manage time or time will mange you.

Be organized in your work, your mind, and your workspace. Imagineer yourself an office/work area. How much room can you spare in your home to operate all facets of your jewelry business? How well can you use that space for the best advantage to make your workload lighter and less time consuming trying to find something you need or want? What preparations do you need to make in order to have a place for everything and everything in it's place — without crowding yourself or family out of living space so everyone has to crawl all over each other creating anger and frustrations you don't need. Plan and plan carefully, before you are ready to start.

Habit

Before you put a pen to paper memorize the following:

• I am with you every moment you are awake.
• I will help you or cause you many problems.
• You command me. Just turn half the things you do over to me and I will do them quickly for you. But you must be firm with me and show me exactly how to do something so I can learn to do it automatically. And do it properly.
• I a the servant of both greatness and of abject failure. I can make you successful or cause you to fail in your endeavors.
• I am not a machine but like a computer I am only as good as how you program me.
• Whether you profit or lose is inconsequential to me. Understand me, teach and train me and I will lighten your work-load.
• Ignore me and I can destroy all your plans.

Work hard but don't become a workaholic and wear yourself out. Relax occasionally and keep your sense of humor alive and well.