Starting a home-based business for a little extra money is one thing, but becoming a leader in your business is another. Leaders must be willing to do what others will not do.
Leadership in your home-based business is no different. If you want to achieve the highest statuses or earn a significant income, you must be willing to do what many others won’t.
Perhaps you don’t have a team yet—that’s okay! It starts with yourself and being the kind of leader you would want to follow. Don’t wait to have a team to begin developing yourself as a leader. Instead, use this opportunity to grow and develop your leadership abilities along the way.
How to be a leader in your home-based business:
- Lead the way in everything
If you want your team to follow you and be successful, then you must demonstrate what that looks like. This includes your own personal activity in the business, how you schedule your time, how you prioritize your life, work ethic, and how you treat others around you.
- Be self-motivated & disciplined
When building a home-based business, and especially when growing a team, you have to be able to work unsupervised. No one is going to set your hours for you or tell you what time to “show up” at the office.
You must have an internal motivation, as well as discipline, to make this happen. To become a leader, you may need to create new habits. If you are transitioning from a traditional job with set work hours, you’ll need to learn how to schedule your day and treat your business seriously.
- Have a servant’s heart
As a leader, our job is to serve our team. True leadership requires caring about the people you are leading. In your home-based business, it’s important to take the time to get to know your team members and find out why they are investing their time into this business.
Discover ways that you can serve your team. It might be as simple as a phone call, or you might need to spend a day working with them and training them. By serving your team, you will gain their trust and help them accomplish their goals.
- Be goal and achievement driven
Leadership is not for the faint of heart. You must be someone who knows how to set goals and accomplish them. When you demonstrate this and teach this to your team, they will be able to follow you because you have done the work yourself.
If you are not sure what motivates you, do some research and discover what will work best. Some people like to have a financial reward when they reach a goal, others want a day off, and others enjoy verbal praise. If you know what motivates you, you can communicate this with your own mentors so they can help you accomplish your own goals. Then, you can do the same with your own team.
- Accept criticism
When you are a leader in your home-based business, it is inevitable that you will receive criticism. Even though it’s not fun, always be willing to listen to criticism. Take time to consider the criticism before responding. Once you’ve been able to evaluate and assess, you can determine whether you should make changes or ignore the criticism.
- Self-evaluate.
Speaking of evaluating, it’s important to take time on a regular basis to evaluate yourself as a leader. Are you leading well? Are you living in line with your values? Are you growing and changing as a leader? You may want to create some kind of self-check system that you use every 3 or 6 months to see how you are doing.
You can also ask the question: “If I were going to join a new team within my business, would I want it to be MY team?”
- Have accountability partners
Aside from evaluating yourself, you may also want to develop accountability partners. These are people who will help hold you accountable to your goals. You may find that someone at a similar level in your business is a good fit, or you might want something totally different. Either way, make sure that your accountability partner is someone who supports your success in the business, but will also be honest and push you.
- Be a coach and a cheerleader.
As a leader, there are times you must be a coach and times you need to be a cheerleader. As a coach, you will be the one directing your team, recommending the plays, and giving them the game plan. Often you might need to be a coach when someone is first getting started in their business, or when things are not going well.
Other times, you can simply be a cheerleader. As a cheerleader, you’ll be the one to encourage your team, spur them on towards success, and support them when they struggle. Both of these roles are vitally important as a leader, and it’s a good idea to evaluate the situation and determine what your team member needs.
Being a leader in your home-based business is hard work, but it’s not impossible. It takes time, dedication, and a true belief in your company and your product line. It also requires that you believe in yourself AND in your team.
As you take these principles above and apply them, you can become the type of leader that you would love to follow. And, you’ll experience the joy of watching your team grow both professionally and personally!