© 2002 Elena Fawkner

Allow me to let you in on a little secret you're probably already wise to anyway. As often as not, inspiration for article topics comes from struggles with my own personal demons. Writing about them is my way of giving myself a good talking to (a.k.a. kick in rear end). And so it is with this one - personal discipline demon.

It wasn't always like this. There was a time when I could and would happily sit at my computer for hours at a stretch. Doing this, doing that. Reading email, reading e- books, doing research for articles, writing next issue of AHBBO. It used to be fun, something to do in my off-time. A break from grind, if you will. But now that it's my official job two or three days a week it's not so much fun as it is work.

So, what's changed? Quite simply, my online business has gone from something I always *wanted* to do to something I *have* to do. And that, alas, is my demon. As soon as I *have* to do something, I start playing same mind-games that I played back in school when I wouldn't start an assignment until absolute last minute. I told myself it was because I worked well on deadlines. What it really was, of course, was procrastination. With a capital P.

Does any of this sound familiar? If not, perhaps you're just one very focused, very self-disciplined individual. Good for you. Now go away.

Or maybe you just haven't been doing this for long enough yet. You can stay. Think it won't happen to you? Maybe not. But if you're reading this at work when you really should be doing something else, like what they pay you for, you may just want to entertain teensiest possibility that it might.

So, for those of us mere mortals with actual lives and who start businesses out of our homes for quality of life reasons, you'd better get a handle on this demon and quick about it too. Because if you don't, it will slowly but surely bring about end of life as you know it and you'll be back to 9 to 5 grind at your J.O.B. before you can even *think* about turning on The Young and Restless. (Just for background noise, of course.)

OK, so, enough about what can happen and why and on to what you can do to make sure you get to keep best of all possible worlds. Here are six tips for getting job done:

1. SET A SCHEDULE

If you approach your business with attitude that you can do whatever you want, whenever you want, guess what happens? You do whatever you want, whenever you want. And stuff that needs to be done but which you don't particularly feel like doing doesn't get done. Ever.

Lesson #1 - there's no such thing as being able to do what you want whenever you want all time. It's a fact of life that sometimes we have to do that which we would prefer not to do. The best you can hope for with your own business is to choose time for doing.

So, instead of seeing your days as a big, blank canvas, ready for you to paint as and when you feel like it, decide which hours of day you are going to allocate to working in your business. And stick to it. Of course, huge advantage you have in running your own business over working at your J.O.B. is that you get to choose what those hours shall be. Want to start at 6 am and finish at 2 pm? No problem. Want to start at noon and finish at 8? Go for it. But do it.

One of major problems is scam and waste of time because still too many people don't recognize it in time, before they lose either their money or credibility or even all business. It is crucial to tell hype, scam and waste of time, and protect yourself, your business, your time and your money. To protect your name, your business, your brand, and in first place your credibility is same important as to protect your money and your time.

First, let's try to clarify mysterious words 'scam' and 'hype': it is an activity aiming at getting other people's money using unethical tools. Purposely I don't say 'illegal' but 'unethical' because many of tools are legal. However, result is scam or waste of time anyway. And result decides.

It is also necessary to realise that there are basically two kinds of 'scam': intentional and unintentional. I consider latter even more dangerous. I will explain this in a minute.

Second, your credibility: All of us make mistakes. It's OK, but way you treat your mistakes decides about your success or failure. Once you are in business, you must care about your name and your credibility. Sometimes it may happen that you lose some money. It's 'fine' if you yourself lose money, but you can survive and no one knows. You at least know way wasn't right to take. You received your lesson, and will be more careful next time.

However, you must be extremely careful to lead people trusting you into such a loss. Even if you can survive financially, mentally, your business will not because your credibility is ruined. So, be very cautious before you recommend something to another person.

And in spite of this, we can see literally thousands of people claiming to be netpreneurs recommending scams and hype all over Net. If we suppose that most of them don't do it intentionally, then there are only two reasons: carelessness or inability to recognize scam. And both are absolutely unacceptable within an entrepreneur.

So, how to tell scam and not only on Net. The immediate signs:

1) unrealistic promises, one-time opportunities 2) upfront payment to join an opportunity 3) unprofessional behaviour 4) lack of proper communication 5) misleading information 6) hype advertising 7) fraudulent conduct

Now, you say you can't imagine much.

So, let's have a look at individual items:

ad 1) unrealistic promises, one-time opportunities - this says it all. If someone claims you can develop a steady income of thousands of dollars within a week without work, you must know it's a lie. If someone invites you to copy a one-time opportunity, he's either a liar or not a professional, business person able to recognize a one-time opportunity. Of course, you can sell scam, even be making some money on it though not for long, but definitely you can't successfully copy a one-time opportunity.

ad 2) upfront payment to join an opportunity - you should realize that once you join someone's opportunity, you help to build his business, you take up obligation to work for him, you endorse his business, so never pay for this. The other point is that it is an opportunity for you to build yours as well, a chance for a successful business relationship -what quality co-operation will be is up to both of you, and beyond scope of this short article.