To be successful with any home business there are certain traits that you must possess or acquire. Despite what many people will tell you, running a business from home is not necessarily easy, especially if you have other commitments such as family or another job.

There will be some sacrifices to be made and you may also find that other people tend to consider that because you are working at home it isn't a 'proper' job and expect that you will drop work on your home business to suit their plans. So be prepared to take a stand; if you treat your home business seriously, others will be forced to do the same.

So what are the 7 essentials?

1. A burning desire - you need to have a clear picture in your mind of what you want to achieve, why you want to achieve it and in what time-frame. Your desire might be for yourself or your children, but it must be so strong that you are willing to get our of your comfort zone and make sacrifices to achieve it. If you keep doing what you are currently doing, then don't expect any great change to occur. Visualize what your life would be like when you have achieved your goals, know that you have the ability to get there and don't doubt.

2. Goals and plans - Once you know what you want to achieve, set goals to help you get there. A good guide for goal setting is to use SMART goals, meaning that they should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely.

A SMART goal has a much better chance of being achieved than a vague one, so instead of saying you want to earn more money, you might say you want to earn an extra $50 per week by the end of six months. This is specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely (if it isn't for you, then you would change the time, amount etc to something that was).

3. Self-discipline and routine - working at home means that you don't have tasks allocated to you or a boss to check on your progress. You are now the boss and it is up to you to keep up with the schedule you have set. Make lists of what you want to achieve each week and each day. If it suits your situation, schedule certain tasks for certain times every day. This is the best way as it establishes a habit of doing these things at certain times; human nature being what it is, it is easier to attend to habitual tasks that it is new ones. As much as you possibly can, don't let home life intrude on your work time.

4. Knowledge and time - you need to know some business essentials like registering a business, record keeping, any tax requirements and you need to understand how the Internet works, the different kind of Internet business you can have, how to register your domain name, how to get your work onto your web page, how to automate responses etc. If you don't know all these things already, it will take you time to learn. If you can afford coaching or mentoring you can speed the learning process up.

5. Persistence - don't give up! Most people fail with creating a home business because they don't persevere when the going gets tough or when they meet opposition. You might get a lot of support from your family initially but when you are no longer available to them as you may have been before, they may complain and try to get your attention or time back. Keep the dream alive for all of you, remind them of the benefits down the track and ask for their assistance and patience until that time comes. If you can involve them is some way so they feel part of the venture, it can be rewarding to do so.

6. Enthusiasm - choosing to base your business about something you are passionate about will help you when the going gets tough; it is always easier to work on something you like. As you will probably already know, when you are enthusiastic about something, your enthusiasm shines through, whether you are speaking or writing and people are more responsive and this will help you have more success with your business. That said, you still need to make sure that your business will meet a genuine need in the marketplace or solve some problem that people have because there must be demand for your business product or service if you are to succeed.

7. Treat your home business with respect. Try to have set work hours as much as possible and make yourself unavailable to others during that time, just as you would if you were working for a boss. It often helps to dress in business clothes, especially when you go out in your home business "work" time. Learn to say "no" to outside demands on your set work time.

If you can follow all of these 7 strategies in setting up your online home business, you will give yourself a very good chance of being one of the successes.