You have passion. You have an idea! You have skill. You have talent. People have told you that you can do it, that THEY would buy your “stuff.”

But is a great idea and talent enough to succeed as a solopreneur?

If you have a vision of yourself falling out of bed, grabbing some coffee, making your way to your computer in your slippers, checking your email and counting all the money that’s rolling in … well let’s hold on a minute and see what it really takes to succeed in business all by yourself.

Your first checklist:

• Talent or skill in your chosen field. Check.
• Passion and drive. You really WANT to do this. Check.
• There’s a market for this. People WANT to buy what you’re selling. Check.

That first checklist is super important because without each of those items checked, you are doomed to fail. But talent, passion, and a market are not enough to succeed. There is much more that needs to happen.

I’ve seen it time and again.

“I’ll start a blog. Other people make money blogging. I will too.”

“I’m great at quilting. I’ll sell my quilts online.”

“I’ve been programming for this company for a decade. I could do this on my own and make all the money instead of just getting a small portion for my work.”

To succeed as a solopreneur, you must be able to effectively and successfully run all aspects of your business.

You might be great at writing, but do you know how to program?

You might be the best quilter in your sewing circle, but do you know how to ship heavy products around the world?

You might be the world’s greatest programmer, but can you handle the accounting associated with your new business?

When you work by yourself, for yourself, you have to wear many hats. It’s not just about your talent. It’s not just about your drive. You need to be good at everything or you will likely fail.

To use an analogy, you might be really good at picking curtains and paint, but that doesn’t mean you can build a house.

To succeed in running your own business you must be good at:

Planning and Strategizing
What will you offer? To whom? At what price? When? How long will it take to launch your business? Who is your demographic? How will you reach them? Will you ever have employees or will you be able to handle business growth on your own for years? Do you intend to do this for the rest of your life, or sell your company after you’ve made it a huge success? The more you can figure out now, the better your trajectory will be, and the easier it will be to make decisions because they will be aligned with your long term goals.

Creation
You have to create a service or product that works, and works well. This is likely what drew you to the idea in the first place so most people do fairly well with this piece. But if you’re wanting to invent something new, you need to figure out how to get it manufactured.

Sales, Marketing, and Advertising
Your product or service won’t just magically sell. You have to learn how to write good sales copy and you have to figure out where and how to market your business. Will you pay to advertise or use word of mouth? Will you create a Facebook fan page or your own website? Will you market on your own site or on other people’s?

Networking
You need to connect with other people in some way, shape or form. Either because you want or need them to sell your product or service when it’s ready, or because you want advice from others in the same field, or because you want to capitalize on opportunities to expand. So get ready to be social and ask for help.

Programming
In this day and age you will more than likely need a website for your company. Do you know how to create one? If you don’t, you need to learn, otherwise you’ll be paying someone to do it for you. If you’ve got the cash, great. But if you’re just starting out, you’ll need to learn how to manage a site including getting it hosted and setting up a merchant account and some form of shopping cart.

Accounting
You’ll have to manage and pay your own taxes. Sure, you can outsource this to an accountant, but that also costs money, and you still need to give your accountant accurate and complete information. So learn how to get your own business account, keep track of sales, pay your bills on time, and see where your money is coming and going.

Social Media
You’ll need to learn to master Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and a host of other social media outlets. If you don’t, you’ll be left behind.

Learning and Growing
You’ll need to stay abreast of what’s happening in your field. Is a competitor coming along who can take your market? Does your site need an upgrade? Is there a new way of shipping that could save you money? How do other people in your field save money? What are the upcoming trends? Do you need a fan page or just subscribers? Do you know how to make an audio program? Is your ebook compatible with Kindle? Do you have the latest equipment? Is there someone new out there who could help you? Is there a new company you could be doing business with? If you don’t continually learn and grow, you will eventually be left behind, outdated, used up, worthless. You don’t want that.

Other Things You’ll Need
You’ll need patience, because sometimes it will feel like you’ve worked super hard and have received nothing in return. Just keep going.

You’ll need to manage stress, because money will come in sporadically and unpredictably, and you’ll need to ride out the dry days or weeks or even months.

You’ll need a savings, because no matter how little you think it will cost you to get going, it will always cost more than you think it will. And you’ll need some savings to live off of while you’re creating your business.

You’ll need a sense of humor, because some days it will appear as if everything is against you and all you can do is smile and roll with the punches.

You’ll need discipline, because it’s just you, baby. If you don’t do it, it doesn’t get done. And if it doesn’t get done, you’re dead in the water. You don’t get paid. If you think you can work 3 hours a day and succeed before you run out of money, you’re dreaming. In the beginning, you’ll work very long hours. Still excited? Excellent.

Are you ready?

Working for yourself is powerful. It’s flexible. There is great freedom in it. But if you think you can take your talent and build an entire business by having mastered one aspect of it, you’ll soon find the house crumbling down around you. Oh the paint and the curtains will still look great, but they’ll be sitting atop a pile of bricks and cement.

Before you go solo, be sure you have everything you need, and be sure you’re willing to do everything and a wee bit more to ensure your success!

However, working from home takes even greater motivation, discipline, and dedication than clocking in at an office. When you work from home, it’s easy to get lazy, procrastinate, or be distracted. If you look back at your week and realize that all you’ve accomplished is a thorough grocery shop, 5 completed loads of laundry, and you’ve seen every episode of Battlestar Galactica on Netflix, you’re not going to succeed. No frakkin’ way.

To help you succeed where so many fail, I’m going to share my top 5 ways to be more effective working from home.

Tip 1: Set Work Hours
Your work isn’t going to get done on its own. When you work from home, you have to actually work. You can’t sit in front of the television or surf facebook for hours, look at the clock at 5pm and say, “Welp, jolly good. Great day. Can’t wait to do this again tomorrow.” You’re running a business, so run it.

Set some hours. Whether you want to work 20, 40, or 80 hours a week, decide and delineate what those hours are going to be, then put in the time. If you decide that you’re working 9am to 3pm then make sure you actually work during that time. Don’t chat for 30 minutes with your mother, take a 2 hour lunch, or a 3 hour nap. It might feel like you have that freedom and flexibility, but your business won’t succeed if you do that too much. There are plenty of other hours in the day for you to surf the internet or give Fluffy a bath. If you like having the house to yourself, then do some fun stuff during the day but make up the hours in the evening or on weekends.

Tip 2: Don’t Be the Maid
“Honey, since you work from home all day, would you mind putting in a few loads of laundry, mopping up that spill from breakfast, and picking up the dry cleaning?” If your partner is saying this to you while they hop in their car on their way to their office, you’ve got a problem. You need to put your foot down immediately. The proper response is, “Gosh honey, I’ve got a busy load at work today. I’ll be happy to help out with housework when I’m done working for the day.” If you don’t, you’re going to spend all day handling the house instead of getting your work done. By the end of the week, if all you’ve got to show for it is clean floors, clean clothes, and a stocked refrigerator, you’re not running a business. Set boundaries.

If you absolutely have to get those household errands done, do them outside of work hours, or plan to make up your work later when the family is home. If you’ve set your hours at 40 per week, make sure you’re actually working 40 hours per week, not just spending 40 hours a week thinking you’re working. It won’t work.

Tip 3: Show Some Dedication and Initiative
Don’t let yourself get distracted. When you work from home you don’t have a boss standing over you whipping you when you slack off. You have to whip yourself. Keep yourself on task. Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been doing this for decades, you need to always be working while you’re working. If you can’t think of something to do, you’re in trouble. If you’ve done all the tasks you can think of here are some things you could do to improve your chances of success:

• Read a book related to your field
• Make a list of new contacts you can hit up for new business
• Clean up your file cabinets
• Declutter your workspace
• Update your To Do list
• Make some long term plans
• Replenish your supplies
• Think of new products or services you can offer
• Find a conference or seminar
• Improve your skills (typing, writing, sales, etc.)
• See what your competitors are doing
• Have a staff meeting
• Investigate new technology that can help you with your business
• Redesign your website
• Improve your website
• Analyze your traffic
• Catch up on your business accounting
• Market yourself
• Find new customers
• Reconnect with your old customers
• Do a free session for someone to try out a new skill

If you’re sitting at your desk twiddling your thumbs because you think there’s nothing you can do right now, think again. Take the initiative. Improve your chances of success. Stay ahead of the game and skate where the puck is going. There is always some way you could be working.

Tip 4: Keep a To Do List
One way to make sure you always have something productive to do is to keep a To Do list. You can have a long term To Do list, a daily To Do list, or go by the project. A To Do list is like a map. If you keep following it, you’ll get to your destination. If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll probably never get there.

There are several ways to keep a strong and sturdy To Do list. One way is to sort items by urgency. Put your most urgent items at the top, or even list exactly what you need to do in the order it needs to get done. That way you can just go down the list and you don’t have to think about what to work on.

Another way to sort a To Do list is by categories. For example, my To Do list has categories for Marketing, Sales, Web Design, Writing, Readings, Events, Product Development, and Accounting. Under each category are the most important and urgent items so I know to do those first. Depending on my mood, I might pick an item from Marketing and 3 from Product Development. The next day it might be all Writing.

A To Do list can really help keep you on track, plus it feels productive to cross items off your list each day.

Tip 5: Leave the Office
I can’t stress this one enough. Sometimes people who work from home end up working a lot more hours than they would if they went to an office. The belief is, “I COULD be working so I SHOULD be working.” The dedication is admirable, but all work and no play will burn you out.

When it’s time to leave the office, leave your office. Whether that means shutting down your computer, or turning off your business phone, or locking your office door, do it. Your family needs you, and you need the downtime. You don’t want to become so obsessed with work that you don’t get time for yourself. Go out for a walk, meet up with friends, snuggle your wife, play with your kids, or take a long hot bath. Stop thinking about work. It will be there in the morning.

Bottom Line:
Respect your time, respect your business. And get to work!