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ans Serif">People start businesses from home for many reasons. For some, working by themselves in self-imposed isolation, it's a means of earning an income without the hassle of commuting, bosses, workplace politics or prescribed working hours. All they want is to earn an income from home. Others however, hope it will be the start of something much bigger - a fully-fledged business enterprise.

ans Serif">Any business, whether started from home or not, should begin with a vision of what it will be like at the end, when the owner doesn't want to work any more. The business can then be shaped in a way that the owner's dreams can be realised.

ans Serif">Whether or not your business starts or is run from your home, every business is based on three basic functions - marketing, sales and operations. Let's look at each of these.

ans Serif">Marketing
This is perhaps the least understood area in small business. Marketing is about identifying target customers and understanding their needs so the business can design its production, delivery and customer service activities to meet those needs. No matter what product or service your business brings to the market, unless it meets the functional and emotional needs of enough people, it will struggle to survive. Few small business owners seem to understand this basic law of business. They appear to think that provided they have a better physical product (or service) to offer in the marketplace, people will flock to buy it. That will only be true if the product meets the needs of an identified target group in the market, it is promoted with messages that appeal to their emotional and functional needs, and the channels for both promotion and distribution are appropriate to the targeted customers. In order to attract their attention, you need to understand the demographics of your target market customers and understand their functional and emotional needs, as well as how they go about making their purchase decisions. You build your business around this understanding.

ans Serif">Sales
As everyone knows, a business without sales is no business at all. But, what is a sale? It's no more than a promise to deliver your product or service at a specified time, place, quantity, quality and price. The sales process starts with making the prospective target customer aware of your offer and ends with an agreed order for delivery. If your marketing activities have been successful at creating awareness about your product of service and a motivation to do something about it, your sales activities need to concentrate on obtaining your customer's acceptance of your offer and an understanding that your brand (the whole experience of dealing with your business) will provide fulfilment to them. The sales process is about providing fulfilment not only for the customer, but for your business as well. It's not about arm bending, false promises and sales at any cost. If the latter is the case, the process is wrongly focused on you and not the customer, where it should be.