Many have set sail into the wild blue yonder in search of Paradise. This Paradise is defined as the “I am my own boss” world of home based business ownership. The landscape is dotted with the left-over carcasses of men and women who have tried and failed in this endeavor.Studies and statistics show that nearly 97% of all home based business fail. These 3 simple must haves will help you to avoid the traps and navigate your ship through the often stormy waters of home based business ownership.1) A Game Plan! This is probably something that falls into the “no brainer” category, but far too often we see and hear of people who are starting their home business but haven’t got a clue as to where or how to start. Not only do we need to know where we want to go but it would be wise for us to examine the details of how to get there. We should also carefully consider the costs associated with our new venture as well.2) The second thing every successful home based business owner must have is a DMO or Daily Method of Operation. Without this vital daily action plan we, will find ourselves wasting time and effort doing things that are non productive. Even small home business owners would do well to examine what some large production and or manufacturing companies do on a daily basis. Many have processes in place that help to drive results and eliminate unnecessary wasted effort. Remember, you’re in business to make money and not waste time and energy.3) The third thing that every home business owner must have is a good computer and at least a general working knowledge of how to use it. The days of paper applications and processes are long gone. Many files and old paper processes have been replaced with computers and various computer programs. No longer is the standard letter typed on a typewriter and mailed. Much of our communication is handled through email. The person who does not have a computer and have it in use is far behind the competition. This may seem basic to many, but there are still some people with an entrepreneurial spirit burning within that are not using the tools that can help them to be successful. A good computer in today’s business environment is as much a necessary tool as a good set of wrenches to a mechanic. Not only does the good mechanic have a functional set of wrenches but even the mechanic is using the computer to find valuable information for his trade on the internet.a) In addition to a good computer it would be good advice to get an internet connection and have the world at your fingertips through the world wide web.While there are an infinite number of things that the successful home based business owner should have, just paying attention to some of the basics will give you a foundation with which to build upon.

One of the keys to succeeding in information product creation is to break the process up into discrete steps. This frequently isn’t an instinctive reaction for the typical information marketer. Especially on the internet where small sized learning products are the norm.

However, it is extremely important to your ultimate success. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if you don’t do this you probably won’t succeed… even when you are starting out let alone as you move forward.

Your product creation system should do this for you if only to help you to understand the overall task.

But why?

In this article, I’m going to ignore chunking and focus on the practical aspects. That’s not to say that chunking isn’t important. It is. It’s important to understanding and to learning the process. But while you can use the same chunks as you move forward, long term your focus needs to be on the operation of the system not the understanding of it. Unless of course you are constantly training new people!

So why is chunking important to long term use of the product creation process? (Yes, I know systems design uses a different term for this process but I’m not teaching you systems design. So I’m going to use the word learning content designers use.)

The first reason that having individual discrete tasks is important is one of schedule estimation. Frequently it is very difficult to estimate how long the total task of creating a product will take. After all, the size and type of the products matters as does the number of products in your product funnel. And those are just the most obvious elements. However, estimating a discrete task is often much easier. The total can then be estimated as the total of the discrete tasks.

Secondly, scheduling a large task can be problematic. However, by segmenting the task into a number of discrete tasks, you gain a much greater flexibility in scheduling. Not only that but as your business begins to add people you are able to schedule multiple people to the product creation.

Finally, segmenting a large task into smaller discrete tasks allows you to have much better control over the product creation. This affects two different areas — status and quality.

By segmenting your process into discrete tasks you are able to schedule and record the progress at much more detailed level. As a result you are more in control of the status of the product creation. You know what everyone is doing. When they should complete it. And how much it should cost. You also know exactly what has been done.

You also improve your overall quality. Instead of waiting until everything is done you can check quality as you go. This allows you to immediate react to low quality products without absorbing their costs. This means that you have less rework and your rework costs less. And if the product is not going to meet its quality requirement you will know about it in time to stop the development, change the requirement or fix the product.