If your home-based business calls for customers to visit your home, it's worth your while to evaluate your customer areas every now and again to ensure that they're sending the message you want. If you've never given the matter much thought, or if you've been too busy to take note of late, chances are you could be hurting your business.

It happens more often than you think.

Let me give you an example:

Several years ago, my husband and I were shopping in an antique store when he became smitten with a writing quill in a monogrammed, sterling silver ink well. When he asked the sales person how old it was, she laughed. “About two weeks. Those are made by a lady here in town. If you want a set with your own monogram, I can call and see when she's available.”

As luck would have it, the woman could do it that day and told us to come right over. When we arrived at her house, however, she greeted us at the door with wet hair, no makeup, and wearing a lounging robe. We apologized profusely for the intrusion and promised to come back when it was more convenient. Baffled, she said it was no intrusion, and insisted that we come right in.

We were led down a cluttered hall, through a kitchen filled with dirty dishes, to a workshop that obviously hadn't been cleaned in several years. Papers and feathers were everywhere, and every inch of table and chair space was filled with stuff. There was no place for us to sit. Her products, however, were beautiful.

My husband placed his order and asked when he could pick it up. “I'll do it while you wait!” she said proudly. It was then that Robert realized he'd left his checkbook at home. While he left to retrieve it, I spent the absolute longest hour of my life standing in that woman's workshop, hearing all about her female problems, her chronic back pain, her extensive training and all her famous clients—including The United States Congress. She had several old publicity photos to show me, attesting to her tales.

Admittedly, her work was excellent. How she could turn out such fine pieces amidst all that mess was beyond me, but the quill she carved and the inkwell she engraved for us has become a lovely conversation piece in our home.

Unfortunately, when people see it in and ask us where we got it, I tell them I can't remember—which is true. I put the woman's name completely out of my head the instant we were finally able to escape her house and incessant chatter. I would certainly never go back.

If this sounds like an extreme example, it's actually one of several tales that I could tell in my dealings with home-based businesses. While it may seem like common sense to clean your customer areas and dress appropriately when meeting with clients, a surprising number of people never seem to give it a second thought.

If you're one of them, I can tell you one thing right now: you're not making as much money as you could be.

Why not?

Because if your workspace and demeanor turn people off, they won't come back. And if they don't come back, you can't sell to them again. And if you can't sell to them again, you're spending all your time, money, and effort acquiring new customers...when you could be selling to the same people over and over with a lot less time and energy.

Think that running the vacuum and flicking a dust cloth every now again is a lot of bother? Just try panning the river of prospects indefinitely because you can't get any repeat business. Exhausting!

So don't try it. Instead, concentrate on making an amenable environment for your customers so they'll come back again and again and refer you to all of their friends. Here's how:

Also keep any walkways to your front door free of debris. You don't want a lawsuit on your hands because a client slipped on some ice or tripped on a toy.

(See “What To Wear When You Work From Home”, http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol59/wear.htm for more details on how to dress for your home-based business.)

The key to success is simple: treat others how you'd like to be treated. Clean your workspace, dress appropriately, offer refreshments, talk about their needs, and offer more solutions to their problems. In short, be professional. Your bottom line will swell with appreciation.