Personal Development. When you start a home based business personal development becomes very important but sometimes that importance is not realized until several months have gone by. You may spend those first few months focusing only on learning the business, product and compensation plan. Or you could believe that by attending company conference calls and business presentations that you are gaining personal development. Most of the time this is not the case.

Most successful entrepreneurs will say to work more on yourself than you do your business. What does this mean? There are several ways to gain personal development. Books, DVDs, Cd’s, online courses, and seminars are just a few that you can use for your home based business. A new exercise program, dietary research, and personal hygiene can be used for physical personal development. You may go even further and decide to work on your spiritual development and can do that be attending your personal religions’ church or temple, reading spiritual books, and learning how to have a relationship with your God.

Let’s take a closer look at using your personal development for your home based business. You may want to sit down and write down your weaknesses pertaining to you business as well as your strengths and then systematically start creating situations where you are making both stronger. Weaknesses are important to improve upon, but strengths are going to carry you so improving your strengths is just as important.

Pick some mentors to mold yourself after. Each business that you are in will have several mentors available to you whether they are in your business or in your industry. Surrounding yourself with these leaders will make you become stronger, more confident, and focused in your business. Your most important mentors can be people that you have never even met. They are leaders whose material you follow and learn to create greatness within yourself. Call the leaders within your organization- interview them, take them to lunch if possible, and ask them how they got where they are at. I guarantee it was through personal development coupled with a determination and desire to succeed.

Set goals for yourself on a daily basis. Personal development should be twenty percent of your daily activities. So if you are working a five hour day in your home based business four hours should be spent on your business and one hour spent on your personal development. Decide what you are going to be doing and stick to it. Start small and work up to where you want to be. You definitely do not want to overwhelm yourself with too much information. Realize that everything that you read, see and hear may not be for you but take the key components that are and apply them to your home business and your life.

Make sure that the business that you choose has a way set up for you to gain personal development from within the business. Many businesses offer webinars or calls with industry personal development coaches, have recommendation site for reading, or provide referrals for seminars to attend. Having a business that promotes personal development as well as the business is key to your success.

Jennifer Patton has been a successful career woman/entreprenuer for over ten years. Her current focus is in network marketing and helping others to succeed in shortening thier learning curve.
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