There are two keys to any successful home business: willpower and discipline. Starting and maintaining a home-based business is not for everyone: it requires patience and dedication, but the payoff is huge. That's why willpower and discipline are so crucial to your business' success. They are the personal characteristics you bring to your business; they are the most personal contribution you will make to your job.

What Is Willpower?

Willpower is your own personal control over your thoughts and actions. Once you are focused on a goal, it will be the drive behind creating your own business. This is the impetus to get off the couch and create something while others are happy to sit idly by.

Willpower gives you the drive to make plans and put them in motion so you can reach your goal. For example, if you enjoy sewing, you may simply be content to sew as a hobby. It takes willpower to draft a business plan, obtain a loan, and begin advertising your dressmaking business in your community. Willpower will help you turn dreams into a reality.

What Is Discipline?

Discipline is the daily practice of willpower: the habits you form and the decisions you make that keep your business successful. You need discipline to be successful because being your own boss is difficult. It's much easier to have someone tell you what must be done that it is to make a decision and act upon it yourself.

Self-discipline will help you be your own boss. Using the dressmaking business as an example, discipline would guide you into putting together a presentation and samples for a local bridal showcase, which could bring in fresh clients and thousands in new business.

How Can They Work Together to Benefit Your Business?

Willpower and discipline will help you nurture your small business through its startup. According to conventional wisdom, you can hope to break even your first couple of years in business, and then begin turning a profit within five years. As you can imagine, it's very easy to get discouraged when you don't see instant results. And if you get discouraged, it's easy to give up on your business.

Willpower will help you articulate your original vision and your reasons for wanting to start your own business in the first place: flexible hours, being your own boss, and following your passion. Discipline helps you form those habits you need to keep on track.

It takes a special kind of person to start a home-based business and make it successful. Obviously, you have to be willing to think outside the box, and take risks. But without the willpower to articulate your goals, and the discipline to make decisions that benefit your business (even though the payoff seems a long way off in coming), making your own business a success would be difficult, if not impossible.

If you're reading this article, you must be considering owning your own business, which means you've made that first step. With a little willpower and some self-discipline, you have the keys to make your dream a reality.