Home Sweet Home Based Business, or Not?

Is starting a home based business right for you?

Are you right for starting a home business?

Since you are reading this, I would be willing to bet you want to start your own home based business, or you have tried to start one a time or two. Maybe it didn’t work out and you would like to try again. Maybe it was a modest success, but you wonder why your home business is not more successful.

It is no secret that I believe at least half of all adults, and some teenagers, should start their own home based business. Even if they have a good job. Everyone knows, especially lately, that a good job can be gone in an instant. So, start your home business in your spare time. Build it into a successful sideline as insurance against loss of that good job. Or, build it into a business that could provide you with as much income as you make at your job, or more. Wouldn’t you like to tell your boss someday “Goodbye, I’m quitting this job to concentrate on my home business. I make more with my business than what you pay me”?

But, I’m getting off track. To be honest, a home business is not right for everyone. And, not everyone is right for a home based business.

A home business, or any business for that matter, takes some degree of skill and knowledge, hard work, persistence, dedication, and focus. And a home business is different in many ways compared to a corporate job or a traditional retail or manufacturing business.

Is a home based business right for you?

Almost every home business has tons of distractions; kids, pets, home maintenance, the “honey do” list. Distractions make it hard to focus. Will these distractions make it so hard for you to focus that you can’t get done what needs to get done in your business?

Running a business from your home makes it hard to separate personal time from business time. The two will overlap a lot and you will either find your personal time eating into your business time, or your business time will take over and you will have little if any personal time for yourself or your family.

Many home businesses will result in loss of face-to-face social interaction with people. Nice chats with coworkers over cubicle walls, or at the water cooler, or over shared lunch breaks are replaced with emails, tweets, or phone calls.

If your home or apartment is fairly small, you may not have the space to set up a separate “office” where you can do your “work”. Your kitchen table might become your “office”.

Most home business entrepreneurs have no regular paycheck. Having a uncertain and irregular income creates its own problems and may require a much better job of budgeting, saving money during the good times, and strict control of expenses.

During the initial year or two of your home business efforts you may not have total family support. If that is the case for you, it may be difficult to keep going until you are as successful as you would like to be.

Are you right for a home based business?

Are you self-directed? – Are you willing and able to get things done with no boss telling you what to do?

Are you able to live with no structured job description? – Can you function and be comfortable without a specific job title or written outline of what you are supposed to do?