While listening to the radio today, I heard this one bit on a morning talk show, one of the DJs was talking about the concept of humility. What he was saying was that leaders take full responsibility for everything that goes wrong in a business, but does not hesitate to give credit away when things go right. It got me thinking about home based businesses and how that relates. As a matter of fact, one of the biggest struggles in a home based business is…CONSISTENT ACCOUNTABILITY IN YOUR HOME BASED BUSINESS!Clearly, these two ladies are working the opposite angle of what we’re talking about! However, all fun aside, it is a very important component that I believe most home based business owners are missing in their repertoire of skills. Why do I say that? Because most home based business owners are formerly employees and are used to being HELD ACCOUNTABLE but not necessarily involved with BEING ACCOUNTABLE.There’s a big difference between these two simple differences in wording. Being held accountable means someone else is always following up with you to make sure you are getting your task items, goals, or action lists completed. It means someone else is taking the initiative to make sure you are taking the steps necessary to succeed in your home based business.However, being accountable means that you are taking the initiative to make sure you are getting your own action items completed, AS WELL AS making sure your organization is doing the same. We are our own worst enemies when it comes to a home based business, because we are tasked with the journey of seeking to become an entrepreneur. That means that we need to take success on by ourselves, on our own (making our own schedule, organizing our days, being diligent in self-motivation and self-learning).Again, the employee bit is to blame. When you work for someone else, little things are “out of sight, out of mind” because someone else is responsible for handling it. However, in your own home business, you need to be aware and knowledgeable of all the “ins and outs” of your craft, whether you are ready or not. As one of the great entrepreneurs of home based businesses put it, “you don’t know what you don’t know because you never knew that you needed to know it!”So how do you implement an efficient system of accountability?The first step is to have a list of daily goals that you need to accomplish. If you don’t have goals, then you should find out why they are so integral to success. You can visit my blog to find entries on that if you wish. The next step is easy: complete your list every day! Make it a habit to accomplish those goals every day and you will witness firsthand your business EXPLODE! However, what business owners struggle with is consistency.I find it so funny that people say that they are their own worst critics and their own worst enemy, but when it comes to doing things that will set them up for the future, they go easy on themselves. WHY GIVE YOURSELF AN EASY EXIT BY SUCCUMBING TO EXCUSES? The best of the best make it happen, regardless of what stands in their way. That is why they are where they are. They don’t allow themselves to have excuses because they know that every day they fail to accomplish their daily action plan is another day further that they have pushed away their dreams and aspirations. How does that make you feel? Hopefully, that makes you feel sad… be driven!What are some methods to stay accountable?- Accountability buddiesFind someone of like mind who is interested in success, and grab on to one another and help each other take your businesses to the top. Driven people should always associate with other driven people, and a great accountability method is to have you and your partner call each other a couple times a week to make sure you are both staying on task.- Failure statementsA self-motivation method to psyche yourself up could be to create a failure statement to read to yourself every day that you don’t accomplish your daily tasks. It can go something like “I did not accomplish what I set out to do. I guess (insert your “why” here) just wasn’t important enough to me today.” For visual and emotional people, this works wonders.- Point systemThis is something to implement in a group setting in your home based business. It’s almost like a game of friendly competition to see who can succeed more and faster. You create a series of result-producing activities and you assign point values to them. Every time you or a teammate completes the task, you get that point value. You add up your points daily and report either your daily or weekly scores on a group conference call. This method is to directly squeeze the inherent pride inside you to motivate you to take action, lest you be embarrassed in front of your group.
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