Starting a home business sure sounds "sexy" and the idea of working when you want, how long you want and wherever you want is what draws most people into it in the first place. The fact of the matter is that running a home business is tough. It takes a lot of determination, patience and persistence to make it.

If you want to succeed with any home business you obviously need the technical skill. Knowing what to do, when to do it and how to manage the business is vitally important, but many small business experts agree that success is only 20% "mechanical". More than 80% of your success relies on your mindset and on these "other" skills. So, what are they? Here are three of the most important ones:

1. Time Management

The ability to manage your time is probably the most important skill you need to learn. The demand for your time will be great of you run a home business and trying to juggle home life with your business and family is a real challenge. Proper time management allows you to have more time; to be more productive and to have more free time for yourself and your family.

2. Communication

Regardless of the business you are in, you will have to deal with people. You'll have customers, suppliers, service providers and a host of people that will rely on you and whom you will rely on to keep your business running smoothly. The ability to communicate clearly, accurately and effectively is vitally important. In the internet era, communicating via email and VOIP is becoming more and more important and that's why you need to work on this skill.

3. Motivation

We tend to think of motivation as something we either have or don't have, but motivation is a verb. Its something we practice and having the ability to motivate yourself is crucial. You need to be able to motivate yourself to do the things you don't want to do. You need to be able to motivate yourself to keep going if all else seems to fail. This and only this will "keep" you in business.

In the end building and growing a home based business requires much more than just talent or technical know-how. You need the right mindset and life skills. Because this business is so closely tied to your life and your family you need to go the extra mile and develop these skills.