One of the most important things that a home-based professional can do to ensure the success of his or her business is making professional development an ongoing activity. No matter what type of home-based business you have, there is always something more that you can learn about it. By regularly taking time to read books or attend classes, you can keep current with the latest news and information about your industry while you learn skills that can help you with every area of your home-based business.
Personally, my favorite type of professional development activity is reading books. I like reading for leisure, but I also really enjoy reading about business. Although I have been working as a freelance writer for about a year now, I had not yet read any books about it until just recently. A couple of weeks ago, I read a book called “The Wealthy Freelancer”, by Steve Slaunwhite, Pete Savage, and Ed Gandia. I really enjoyed reading it, and I had to set a timer when I sat down to read so that I would only be able to read for a finite amount of time before getting up and moving on to doing things like actual work and household chores. If I had not set the timer, I would have sat there with my nose in the book for hours, intent on finishing it – it was that good.
The trio of gentlemen that wrote “The Wealthy Freelancer” certainly knows their stuff. Each of them has built a successful freelance writing practice, both in terms of earning good money and in terms of creating the type of life that they wanted for themselves and their families. I am pleased that they are generous enough to share their knowledge with other freelance writers such as myself. As I was reading the book, I saw quite a few wonderful suggestions that I could actually see myself implementing in my own writing business. I wrote them down as I went along, and once I had finished reading I organized them into a to-do list of sorts. Next, I took the items from that list and wrote out a schedule of when I plan to do them.
Even though I am just starting to work with the ideas that I got from the book, I have a feeling that my writing business is going to evolve quite a bit over the next few months.
It is my hope that you will find great books relevant to your business, books that will provide you with ideas that you can take from the pages and implement in the day-to-day operations of your business.