For example, a computer training instructor might answer above questions in following way.

Why Should The Business Exist? To provide computer instruction to those unemployed, those looking to improve their skills, to provide companies with ability to re-educate, or update their employees.

Who will be its customers and how will it benefit them? Customers will come from employment agencies, small to mid-size companies utilizing certain computer programs, and state agencies.

Why will they be better off? We will provide one-on-one instruction, with notes and follow-up calls for a six month period after class. We will walk them through a problem they might have at work.

Now you've got concept of a mission statement. You need to apply it to business your interested in running, and see if that business passes test. Many times, a great idea dies because there is no real need for business to exist. Don't let that happen to you.

Copyright DeFiore Enterprises 2000

And then, when your site is *finally* indexed by search engines, it doesn't appear in first three pages of search results for your keywords. In fact, it doesn't appear in first *thirty* pages. So you learn about importance of high-profitability keywords and you create new web pages just for those keywords. And submit them to search engines. And then wait until they're indexed. And then check again.

In meantime, four months have passed, you now have over five hundred subscribers to your ezine and you're starting to see maybe fifty site visitors a day. And not a one of them is buying anything.

You've been working hard, long hours in your business but, quite frankly, you consider it a good month if you can (just) cover your web hosting fees with what you're bringing in.

So you start feeling like it's just not worth time and effort and sacrifice. You're spending at least half your waking time on this thing and you're not getting anywhere.

A few more weeks pass with no results and you start getting seriously dejected. You're disillusioned and disappointed. You're frustrated and generally P.O.'d that everyone else seems to be able to do this but you.

Your day job, which you detest with a passion, starts to feel like not such a bad way to spend 8 hours. Hey, it beats sitting before a computer screen day in day out trying to market to a bunch of ingrates with nothing to show for it.

So you petulantly start watching TV in evenings after work instead of tending your garden. You completely miss tender young shoots that suddenly appear in corn patch. You don't see that birds are picking off strawberries and that carrots and broadbeans need watering. You don't notice you have a whole field of potatoes that are ready for harvesting or that soil needs to be turned where silverbeet was planted six months ago.

Finally, corn is ready to harvest but half-formed cabbages and asparagus are rotting because you didn't notice it was time to water and protect them from parasites. Soon corn will join them.

You don't see any of it because you're busy watching TV. If you'd just hung on a little bit longer, you'd be starting to reap a healthy crop from your efforts by now. But you didn't hang in there. You gave up too soon.

Don't let this happen to you. Don't let your business die on vine. Continue to feed, water and protect it. Even when you don't feel like it. *Especially* when you don't feel like it. Success in this business has as much to do with patience and perseverence as it does about creativity and talent.

Success could be just around next corner. Just wait and see what's waiting for you before you flip switch.

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Elena Fawkner is editor of A Home-Based Business Online ... practical business ideas, opportunities and solutions for work-from-home entrepreneur. http://www.ahbbo.com Also, visit Elena's newest site, Web Work From Home http://www.web-work-from-home.com