Ok, so I’ll make the assumption here that as you’re reading this article, you’re at the very least considering you options, and a home based business is one of them.
I find that all too many people jump into a home based business without fully considering what it is that they’re getting themselves into, and so I’d like to address over a few articles some of the areas that you should consider when looking at setting up a home based business.
Personal reasons are one of the primary reasons for people looking to get out of the corporate environment and spend more time with their friends and families. There comes a point, where even the most successful and well paid job becomes meaningless when set against the impact on your family and social life. The looming threat of redundancy often drives people to bury themselves in their career, in some misguided belief that this may safeguard them from, or at least improve their chances of not being the next victims of, corporate cut backs. This of course will mean working through lunch-hours in order to shoulder a greater workload, and even extending the working day for the same reasons.
It’s no secret that job security is now non-existent, and with that also comes a lack of financial security both for the present and the future, particularly the spectre of a pensions crisis looming on the horizon. Owning your own business, certainly puts you in control of your financial future, and if that business is home based, you can also add at least a couple of hours per day to your quality family time that would otherwise have been spent commuting.
Actually working from home may not be an issue for those that already have a home office. When in gainful employment, I used to work from home quite a lot anyway, so my set-up for running a home based business was already there. However, this is not always the case for a lot of people, and proper consideration to the working environment needs to be made. Working from the kitchen or dining room table may well mean being disturbed by all the other activity going on at home, which can be a negative distraction. Consider setting aside either a whole room, or a corner of your bedroom as your ‘home office’ which is dedicated to you running your business.
If you have small children, as I do, you will also have to get them used to your being at home, but not always being accessible or available. This will become easier over time, as they get used to the fact that when you’re in your office, you are working and cannot be disturbed. Only one of my children are under school age, so this is a little easier to handle, and the fact that my Wife stays at home too means I can dedicate all of the working day to my business.
However, not everyone will have this kind of arrangement, and for single parents or parents who previously stayed at home providing the child-care, some major adjustments will need to be made. Think carefully about the routine of your children, and try to plan times of the day, when perhaps very small children are sleeping or watching TV, in which you can get some work done. Of course, after bed time is always a good time to do this, but this will mean sacrifices if you previously spent your evenings relaxing once the kids have gone to bed, and many favourite TV shows may just have to be missed in favour of you building for the security of your financial future.
If you are used to working 9-5 from an office, you will also be used to the face-to-face interaction and social connections that you will have made through the workplace. The relative isolation of working from home will need to be replaced with more networking through local business clubs, and perhaps finding yourself a ‘running buddy’ that you can talk to regularly who is in the same business that you are in.
At the very least I hope that I have given you something to think about, and some things to think about when trying to start your own home based business. Running your own home based business is one of the best ways to take control of your financial future, and avoid the uncertainty and insecurity of the job market.
