Before I became a home imrpovement professional, I was a regular working mom, slaving away at a 9-to-5. Of course, 9-to-5 often turns into 8-to-6, and then there are crazy deadlines that keep you later than you magine. I missed my kids like crazy and knew that a change was necessary.

So what did I do? I took on more work. It might seem counterintuitive, but I knew that if I didn't make a move I'd only grow more miserable. One weekend I sat down with my husband and mapped it all out. For the next 12 weeks I'd use essentially all of my free time to start and grow my home improvement business. If I failed to gain customers by then, I'd give it up. But if I succeeded, I'd be closer to leaving my 9-to-5.

As you can tell from my bio, it went as well as I could have imagined. Here are some lessons I've learned on the how-to end of creating a business.

Break it down

While I jumped into my project with enthusiasm, I soon found myself burning the candles at both ends working my 9-to-5 and setting up my business. I didn't think I could make it to even the end of my 12-week trial period. Clearly I had to get more organized. I accomplished this by breaking down tasks into smaller, more actionable steps. So, inspired by David Allen's Getting Things Done, I created projects with may subtasks.

The ability to work on just a few of those subtasks at night after work, and then tackle the larger ones on the weekends, kept me sane throughout the setup period. I was even able to squeeze in some quality time with the kids on Saturday nights before we sent them off to bed. Had I kept plugging away without a solid plan like this, I never would have gotten my business off the ground. 

Set firm deadlines

My business wouldn't have worked, I don't think, if I were allowed to toil forever. When you don't have deadlines, there is no urgency to get things done. Most of us have the natural tendency to prioritize the urgent, even over the important. But if we keep plugging away only at urgent tasks, we'll never get to what's important.

For me, that meant setting hard deadlines for those little parts of the project. I wouldn't just work on them willy nilly. I'd set deadlines for a project, and then set deadlines for those subtasks I'd created. And, of course, I set the 12-week deadline on the entire project. That kept the sense of urgency high, which kept me plugging away all the time.

Find qualified leads

When my husband and I sat down to work out the plan for starting the business, he made a point I hadn't considered. In fact, at first I thought it was silly. He said that I should start hunting down leads wherever I could find them, before I really started offering services. Why would I do that, I asked. Don't I need everything in place before I can start soliciting for new business?

My husband works in the software indistry, where they often deal with vaporware. He explained this concept to me, and it made sense. So many companies fail, because they spend lots of time and effort creating a product without knowing whether there is any consumer interest in it. The idea behind vaporware is to get people interested in the idea of a product -- a concept, in other words -- and then move forward based on feedback. 

I accomplished this through an email list. It started with friends who gave me permission to email them. At the end of the email I asked that people forward it to anyone whom they think might be interested. That started a chain that led me to a fairly large distribution list, one that I felt was qualified enough. That was such a huge key to success.

Make it easy to pay

Another aspect I wanted to knock out ahead of launch was payments. I remember when my parents needed work done, they paid the contractor a certain amount up front, and he'd invoice them periodically. Contractors who came by routinely complained about customers who had work done, but hadn't paid. In this industry there are a lot of shady people, so it can be difficult to collect anything resembling full payment up front. 

Most people today prefer to pay by credit card. I don't know why; my husband and I have always preferred to pay with money that we have. But you can't succeed in business if you think that everything thinks the same way you do. Thankfully, a modern credit card machine can be attached to a smartphone, making it easier than ever to accept credit card payments. I knew from the start that I would have no problem collecting payments. Heck, I didn't have to leave the house to receive payment. 

There are plenty more lessons I learned in the process of starting a business, but these are the main ones. If I hadn't broken down my larger projects, set deadlines, found leads, or set up a payment system, I don't think I'd be where I am today.