So you think it’s your time. You’re tired of the drive, the 9 to 5 plus hours and everyone’s favorite, the office politics. I know you feel like you have what it takes to startup and run your own home based business. But, do you really? Before you leave that world with all of its glamour and (this is important) that steady paycheck, take a good look at yourself and determine if you have what it takes to make it as a home based entrepreneur. Below is a list of characteristics that I think are important to have if you wish to become a successful home business owner. Check them out and see if you have what it takes to cut it in this very special arena of opportunity.

• Courage: It is a huge risk to start your own home based business. It may be necessary to live without a paycheck for a period of time. If you have a family to support that increases the fear level 100 fold. Hopefully you have planned for this brave adventure and you won’t run out of money early on.

• Confidence: This trait goes hand in hand with courage. As a new home based business owner you will need confidence to pull through tough times. It will be necessary to go though many doorways and you will need to remain poised and truly believe that this venture will be successful.

• Discipline: This trait is so difficult for many. There will be times you have to work when you don’t want to and there is no one there to force you. That movie you have been dying to see is showing or possible a son’s baseball game. What if you have to meet with a prospective client and miss some of these special times? It may be necessary for you to choose work over something that is fun or family oriented. I believe that this characteristic needs to be one that all of your family needs to have because there may be times that you just cannot be with them and they must understand.

• Entrepreneurial spirit: This characteristic is normally noticed at a young age. Some examples might include a lemonade stand when you were 10 or maybe as a teenager you had a very successful babysitter service. The idea here is that you learned at a very young age that the harder you worked the more successful you are likely to be. Maybe your parents started paying $5 a week if your room stayed clean. By the time you were 14 you were cleaning the rest of your home (for a restructured fee) and some of the neighbors’ homes, too.

• The maverick way of thinking: This is the type of person who just cannot make it in the corporate world. These special people have a vision that gets bogged down while working a 9-5 job. This vision gives the maverick a different perspective when approaching their home based business and ultimately gaining a competitive edge over the rest of the small businesses in their chosen niche.

Can you see yourself as having any of the above characteristics? There are several more traits that could be included in this list and may be the ones that I will include in a future article. If I were to pick one of the above characteristics that a person has to have to be successful as a home based business owner it would be the ‘Maverick Mentality’. There have been only a few individuals that I have known in my life (my father included) who had this special quality. They seem to have an innate ability to look at a project and see the desired results. For the rest of us it is necessary to perfect some of the other characteristics mentioned above. So if you’re the type of person who possesses these unique qualities you should have what it takes to be successful at owning a home based business.