I am a super-fan of Google. I am also a fan of studying success so that I can learn from it. Here are a few key points that you, as a home based business entrepreneur, can learn from Google:

1) Capital Isn't Everything

It may be hard for newcomer to home based business scene to swallow this fact. After all, more capital investment would mean more money to spend on advertising and building a home business. Its tempting to think how your business would be right now if you had, say $100,000 to start with, instead of meager $1000 you scrambled to get from selling things around your home.

But here's one thing more important than capital - ingenuity. Ingenuity involves making best of resources available to you, making every advertising dollar count, and treating every customer or prospect invaluable to your business.

Capital in wrong hands, in hands of an inexperienced entrepreneur or marketer, is just a waste of money. Ingenuity, on other hand, can turn a $1000 capital into a thriving business. And yes, when you get ingenuity part right, then whatever extra capital you get would be worth so much more.

2) Differentiate and Win - Think Outside Box

Innovation, ability to think outside box and a willingness to test ideas and make mistakes is trademark of any truly successful company, especially in Google's case. Recently when Google's Gmail was launched, many ISPs and email providers were scrambling to offer more space to their free email accounts, simply because Google offered 1G of space. What they didn't get, however, was that Gmail was more that just about space.

So how did Google differentiate? They turned what would otherwise been just another email service into something much more. It is, as any user would be able to testify, best way to store, organize and find information contained in emails. Keeping track of business responses and follow-ups is a breeze with Gmail. Try it yourself if you cannot believe that statement.

Many home based business entrepreneurs, especially ones involved in network marketing, shiver at word "saturated". In a network marketing environment it may dawn upon every person, at one point or another, that there are many others with products and opportunities that are similar to theirs, and products that they are expected to sell may be in highly competitive industries. I felt that way once too, but here's real question - what can you offer?

Not too long ago a friend of mine, after completing her course on cosmetics, offered free facials and beauty consulting to promote cosmetic products sold by her network marketing company. By doing things most people were not doing at that time, she simple blew competition away.

So what can you contribute to your home based business to make it different, to make it stand out from crowd?

3) Give Your Customers Exactly What They Want

The success of Google's AdWords and AdSense is due to this simple fact - they gave advertisers exactly what they wanted. Marketers wanted a quick, results based, and dynamic advertising tool, and they got Adwords. Website owners wanted more advertising revenue, but did not want hassle of maintaining it over hundreds of pages that they have, and they got Adsense.

Its a pretty simple strategy - understand what your customers want and give it to them!

Job security has its merits, and a home business is, arguably, not for everyone. But for those who are interested in making this shift, a change in mentality is absolutely important. There are many bad habits that lie dormant in all of us. You need to change these bad habits and develop new good habits to survive as an entrepreneur. And in many cases these can be 'borrowed' from your existing or former corporate work environment.

Here are some new disciplines that you can borrow from your working life, to develop and to practice:

1) Ownership and Decision Making

In corporate culture, you are responsible only for what your job requires you to do. In most jobs however, you are hardly responsible for survival of company. Your contribution, as compared to whole, is only marginal. You can make mistakes and get away with it. Your job is easily replaceable.

As an entrepreneur, however, you may find world to be less forgiving. A mistake can cost you your entire business. It is vital for anyone who wants to start their own home based business to think about this fact. You have to realize that success in a home based venture is directly tied up to your actions, and you need to take responsibility for everything that happens.

In your own business, you need to go beyond your capacity at times, stretching yourself more than you would as an employee. Taking responsibility also means being able to make correct decisions as and when needed. When you work from home, YOUR decision is final. Although it may a little scary for an entrepreneur at first, these habits practiced over time becomes second nature.

It sure beats having to put up with corporate red-tape!

2) Developing a Creative Mindset & Taking Risks

Companies hardly, if ever, reward you for being creative. They do, however, reward you for showing up on time and completing your daily routines. You are rewarded not for being outstanding, but for being average.

As an entrepreneur, you need to shake off bad habit of doing things usual way, "way it's always been done" There is nothing wrong with using standard procedures and methods. In fact, sticking to 'rules' can help you make a decent living. But if you want big money, like I do, you need to start thinking "Outside Box". A little bit of ingenuity in your business can save you a lot of money and time.

Ingenuity involves finding solutions to a problem. You may, at any stage of your home business, realize that you just don't have an abundance of resources. Resources in this context can be money, time, expertise or just about everything else that you need, but just don't have...

As you might have figured, creativity comes with risk. Doing something new is more risky than doing it old way, but payoff is incredible. Thinking outside box might result in failure, just as well as it might lead to amazing success. But risk is not necessarily a bad thing, especially when it is studied, anticipated and even welcomed.

So what do you do?

Most home business challenges can be solved, even if you are not a genius or have thousands of dollars to spend. If you can just use your ingenuity, you can find a solution to these challenges.

Figure out how to make best of your advertising dollars. Figure out how to save time and automate your business. Figure out how to complement your skills using skills of others. Small steps like these can go a long way in determining just how successful you will be.

3) Making Your Own Rules & Organizing Time

Imagine you arrive at work one day and find that punch-card machine has been removed. The company also fired your boss, and new rules say that you can come in at any time you want, bring your wife and kids along, and take as many breaks as you want. Shorts and a T-shirts are now standard, accepted work attire.

What would you do?