The purpose of this article is to share with you, my dear friend the home-based business owner, some rules that I try to live by when running my own home-based business that I think may be useful for you when running your own business from home. In many ways, these are rules for life that can help you live a life that is happier, healthier and more prosperous. You need to take my advice.Treat everyone they way you want to be treated- The golden rule is “do unto others as you would have then do unto you.” You should live your business life like this. Yes, you are going to have customers that annoy the hell out of you and you may have issues with staff or contractors. However, chances are that you are not perfect and you have made mistakes in your life. Forgive easily and treat everyone with respect. If you work hard to get along with people then you are more likely to have them return the favour to you.Act in the best interests of everybody- Don’t be selfish. You should not do something that will definitely end up with someone else being put down or disadvantaged. You can make decisions that benefit you but also benefit society in general. You need to make sure that you act in everyone’s interest not only your own interestAct in a way that farms and cultivates, not one that hunts and destroys- We all know the story of the greasy palmed networker who works in to an event, thrusts his business card into the hands of anyone that will take it and tries to sell his product to everyone. This is not going to be successful in the long term. Networking should be about developing relationships and fostering long term development of everybody’s businesses.Be thankful, but prepared to toot your own horn- If someone helps you, make sure that you acknowledge it. Conversely, don’t be humble. If you are good at what you do, tell people about it. Toot your own horn in case nobody else does.Push boundaries and challenge yourself- You need to make sure that you keep pushing boundaries in your home based business, constantly evolving your marketing and constantly looking at your product or service. There is no benefit to staying stale- In fact there is no quicker way to set your business up for failure.True success involves making sure that you follow the golden rules- those rules that I have mentioned above. If you constantly work to make sure that you live by these rules then I am confident you will see more success almost immediately.