Working at home is really nice and has a lot of benefits but you need to get yourself in work mode even if your body feels "at home". Here are a few power tips that might help you with your home based business.

1. Create a Work Space

Having a separate workspace I believe is a must if you would like to "professionalize" your home business. Sure you can work in your bedroom or at the kitchen table but most home based business people get distracted in those areas.

What I do is I use a spare bedroom as my "home office". I program myself that if I'm in that room (or it could just be a small corner somewhere in your house), I must be in "work mode". While in there, my thoughts should be "What will I do today to grow my business?".

2. Set your work hours

People usually work well with schedules and habits. I mean, if you're mowing your lawn every Saturday morning at 10:00am for the last 6 months, by next Saturday at around 10:00am whatever it is that your doing, you will remember to mow the lawn. Or if you've been watching the morning news every day and suddenly, your cable service went dead one morning, you will feel a bit off because you're already programmed to watch the morning news every single day.

It's basically the same with setting your work hours. If you want to work from 9am to 11am and 1pm to 4pm, stick with that schedule. Drag yourself to your work area, do something (anything) related to your business. After a month or so, your body will be programmed to work during that time even if you feel like you just want to be lazy today and just watching TV.

Such schedules will help you with your work discipline.

3. Get dressed for work

For some people, #1 and #2 might not be enough to get them into the working rhythm. Getting dressed for work might do the trick. For some, it could be the whole office clothes. For others, just wearing shoes does the trick. You need to get out of those comfortable slippers or footwear you usually use at home.

If you are doing good with #1 and #2 without getting dressed for work, congratulations. You have great control of yourself.

4. A separate business line

If your home business requires people to call you, by all means get a separate telephone line for your business. With a separate line, you immediately know that it is a business call. Usually business calls starts with "ABC Consulting, Mary Speaking" or probably "ABC Consulting, this is Mary, how may I help you?" kind of script. Just imagine if you just have one phone line. Would you say "Hello" or your business phone script?

5. Get out and Meet People

Working at home does not mean you have to stay at home every day. Try attending events related to your business such as expos, forums, and conferences. Network with people in the same industry or potential clients and hand out business cards, but make sure you get their business cards in return.

You need clients and contacts. Be visible. Market yourself. Don't be rude and make sales pitches when meeting people for the first time. Get to know them, establish relationship. Get them to trust you first before making your sales pitches.

Lastly, be a solution provider for them. You are there to help them with their concerns and challenges, you are not there just to make a sale.