So you have seen a great opportunity and are about to get started. Where do you go from here? Before you dig in, I cannot stress enough importance of a well laid out business plan. You might then be asking, how do I plan and set goals if I don’t have a clue what I’m going to achieve and in what timeframe? This may be true, but your business must have a foundation on which to start from. You are going to start your home business because you see potential of this opportunity. Now, to realize this potential, you should plan on how you are going to turn this into success.

The coat hook was missing a screw and falling from wall; waiting room magazines were outdated; posted office hours were taped over with an index card and new hours written in marker; credenza was overflowing with mail and claim forms. There are plenty of dentists to choose from, and while he might be a competent one, why chance it?

It's same at work. Bosses choose which people to give a great assignment to, take a chance on or consider for a project. Customers choose which businesses to frequent. All those little things really aren't so little. They're impressions. And those impressions help others make decisions about you.

Does it matter if you don't spell check your email? It's only an email, right? Wrong. It's an impression about way you work. Does it matter if address label is crooked on letter you send a customer? Who looks at envelope anyway? It matters. It's an impression highlighting that company (or individual) has poor attention to detail.

Does it matter if you're habitually late for meetings or don't show up at all? I'd say so. It's an impression about what you think of other people's time. What about a voice mail message saying, "Your call is important to me. I'll get back to you as soon as I can." When it takes two weeks to call, that little thing is an impression about real importance of my call and your credibility.