Here's a simple checklist you can use in startup phase of your home based business. Feel free to add additional checkpoints of your own!

1) Assess your personality. Are you entrepreneurial type that will do well with your own business? Are you self-motivated, disciplined, and willing and able to put forth effort, time, and money? Are you type that can get up after a failure and try again? There are many quizzes available to help you decide whether or not you're ready for a home business. Try http://quiz.ivillage.com/work ests/areyouready.htm

2) Appraise your skills, knowledge, and experience. Make a list of businesses you think you would be capable of building.

3) Know your interests. If you're doing something you love, you are more likely to work harder and enjoy yourself. A good place to find unique business ideas is here: http://homebasedwork.com/cgi-bin/a .cgi?bizideas

4) Figure out what type of business you want to run. Out of huge number of possibilities, select one that works well with your skills and your interests. An excellent manual with 16 different Internet 'business models' that you can copy is available at http://buildyourhomebiz.com/rd/senze.html

5) Do some market research. Is there a demand for product you plan to sell, and at price at which you want to sell it? After your (projected) expenses, will you be profitable?

6) Check out your competitors. How will you distinguish yourself from them? Why should customers come to you instead of to them? What are they doing right or wrong, and how can you improve upon them?

7) Select a business name. Make sure you don't infringe upon someone's trademark! You can research trademarks at http://www.marksonline.com/ . Consult with a qualified legal professional for more information.

8) Know zoning regulations in your area. Make sure that you are permitted to operate a business from your home. Some areas may also place restrictions on type of business that can be operated from your home.

To create a personal success system that never fails requires good habits. Without good habits, you will default to bad habits.

I say this all time....When you go after something don't come back till you get it. Let me illustrate. In sales profession, people are taught never ask a prospect for his time. Take it; they're taught.

Well, if you think about it, then success in anything you're doing can be boiled down to a scientific formula. Failure can also be boiled down to a formula. Apply one, avoid other. Sounds simple, right?

Then why do so darn many people fail when attempting something worthwhile? Why do so many find themselves sucking wind and always ending up tail instead of head? Michael Jordan said it best. "I have failed over and over again in my life, and THAT is why I succeed.

Then why do so few people achieve what Michael Jordan has? Fear of failure. No body likes to fail. But failure is only temporary as long as we take another stab at what we're doing.

You say though……..yea, but I'm one that's been stabbed. Ok, so what makes you so special? You think Elvis never failed? You think Henry Ford never failed? What causes failure anyway?

Timidity and Fear! Yuk! I knew you were going to say that.

Yea, that's right. Let me illustrate. I knew a guy a few years ago that was hard up for a job. He told me someone suggested he sell insurance. Yuk, he said, why don't I just slit my wrist? But he said, I can't even get a job driving a garbage truck, so, he did take a job selling insurance.

He said I was scared stiff. He had never sold anything in his life. So, his manager told him, "I'll give you five names everyday to call on. Just make sure to see these people very same day. He promised and went home to study his sales material.

Everyday for a week, he made several sales, and then, something interesting happened. His sales manager was in a meeting and could not give him his five names to call on.

He told him to go to yellow pages and find names of five owners and call on them. He said that's what I've been doing for last week. And his sales manager said these words to him. "Success is a matter of mental attitude." YOUR attitude. And, your entire career will depend on your attitude.

He said I went out there with same attitude with names I selected as I had with names that my sales manager had picked for me.