Motivational Product Home Based Business
When we hear the terms ‘working from home’ or ‘work at home’ I think it is important to define our grasp of exactly what it means. Some people might think it means the cleaning and cooking, or jobs around the home, others may think it means doing your work from home while looking after the children instead of getting in child care. It can be a loose term to cover all possibilities or a specific meaning of running a company from home. It may be that one person in a partnership is the main breadwinner and the other stays at home and does the management and maintenance of the home and looks after any children. In my experience this is in fact a full time job, usually one that is unpaid and unrecognised as work.
Define Working at Home
For the purpose of this article let us assume that working from home means that any job done is for the purpose of generating an money, and that the home based space is where time is spent doing the business activity that will ultimately generate the income that you want. There are quite a few of success stories of people starting their businesses at the kitchen table and then being so successful they expand into vast organisations making millions.
Working in the Home
In today’s modern world, work at home opportunities exist in their thousands and hundreds of thousands. These opportunities range from lingerie parties, consultancy, creative writing, artworking or computer generated activities in fact the opportunities are far too many to list. If you already are an expert on a specific subject then you may find that working from home is ideal, particularly when you can work as a consultant. If you are computer literate there are many opportunities to set up an income stream for yourself within the area of freelancing. Using a room as an office in your home is particularly suited to freelance sales or programming based activities.
If you get weary of slogging to work every day, getting stuck in traffic, or paying large sums of money for the train each year then it might be time to consider the idea of working from home. You may feel you are the type of person who is better suited to home based work or you may have some ideas of how you can make income if you work from home. Whatever your motivation there are many opportunities and possibilities to create a new life style where you can work the hours that suit you, have a nice comfortable office and fit in family commitments.
Benefits of Working from Home
There are many benefits of working from home and usually they are the counter to the disadvantages of working in a large organisation. For each individual there will be different points of view of the benefits. From my own experience of running a home based business, I love not having to commute every day. I don’t have to deal with office politics and I work the hours that fit with my natural rhythms. This means I use my energy more effectively, have more motivation to do the work, and respond to the demands of customers. No more wasteful meetings which really don’t achieve very much. Instead I can focus on getting the job done without the interruptions you find in a bigger company. If you want the best of working at a job and being freelance combined with being your own boss, offering a service like freelance sales could be the perfect solution.
When a client of ours first decided to utilise freelance sales poeple as part of their business development strategy they were anxious it might not work, but now as a result of careful training they wouldn’t be without them, or the results they provide!
Hours to Suit
You might just like the idea of not having to commute to work every day but have you considered not only the saving on cost but also on time? By not having to commute every day, you can save up to 2 hours a day, 14 hours a week. That is more than a whole working day. Consider how much time office politics and unnecessary meetings waste.
Meetings are sometimes necessary in large companies to communicate and plan work schedules, but sometimes people set up meetings unnecessarily and they achieve very little. By working in the home you might be saving yourself anothertwelve or so hours a week. Think what you could do with the equivalent of an extra two to three days a week.
Working at home means that you can prioritise your tasks and work the hours to suit your natural energy levels. Some days I can work until 12 midnight, and other days I might go and have my haircut at 9:00am, or go to the supermarket, at the times when everyone else is working and the shops are quiet. Working the hours to suit yourself may mean you are far more productive and creative than if you did a ‘nine to five’ job with a boss and colleagues to accommodate. Being able to concentrate on the work without interruptions means there is greater energy and motivation to respond to the enquiries and needs of the customers.
When I first started my own business, I was able to integrate running the home with my new work. After a concentrated spell of brain work on the computer, I would hang out the washing to dry. The activity and fresh air would refresh my brain and I could return to work with some new ideas.
Tax
One of the enormous advantages of working from home running your own business is being able to offset valid expenses before paying tax. When you are earning a salary, your tax is deducted at source, before paying out anything. So in fact the money you have available for paying bills and living expenses is reduced. When you are self employed the savings can be significant because legitimate business expenses are taken from your revenue before you pay tax. Tax is calculated on the final profit and is slightly less than personal tax on a salary, at the time or writing. If you don’t have a dedicated business phone you will need to work out a percentage of household bills to be paid out of the business earnings. Lighting and heating and car costs are all legitimate business expenses as are accountancy fees, insurance and repairs and maintenance. The mileage you can claim is set down by the government, but it goes a long way towards the costs of using the family car for business. You can charge a rent per year for using a dedicated room in your home. The way our own business manages this is to include heat and light as part of the rent so there are less bills to worry about.
Some large large establishments encourage employees to work from home several days a week because it is a way of freeing up restricted office space. This was one of several new ideas to manage resources some 10 or 15 years ago. But even if that is not an option for you, it is still possible to set up a home computer and build a good income working part-time from home. Almost half of all self-employed workers, and more than sixty percent of those with home-based businesses, indicated the main reason for working from home was because their “business could be conducted from the home”.
One example of a small business that is run from home, is a customer of ours who operate the electricity price comparison website, which supplies a valuable service to homes and organisations due to increasing fuel rates today.
There is a common belief that running your own business is too risky or difficult. But today with the advent of the internet, home run businesses are easier than ever to set up and manage. The accounts can be done on a computer which once mastered becomes very simple. Advertising is extremely effective and relatively cheap if done through a website. So if you are capable at what you do, and you build up a reputation for delivering what you promise, then there is no reason why you cannot be a successful business person running the business from your home office.
Success Stories from Home Workers
A friend of mine worked in local government as a planner. He is a qualified surveyor with a degree, but working in local government only paid a modest salary, although it was a secure position and a good pension on retirement at sixty five years of age. His wife was a teacher, and she earned slightly more than he did, so together they could just about get by on both salaries bringing up their two children.
One day he announced he was setting up in business on his own. He had had enough of the poor treatment, overwork and lack of respect he received in the department, as well as the low pay. He had some savings in the bank which gave him a bit of security. Since day one he has had lots of work, advising people on planning applications, the correct procedures for waste disposal, and what is or is not allowable in the planning world. He hasn’t looked back since and still he has not had to dip into his savings to top up his earnings. They have never been so well off and when his wife became ill and had to give up her teaching job, they were still able to manage comfortably. He started up in the small back bedroom of their town house although he has now recruited other members of staff and expanded into separate offices. Due to being a planning consultant, he decided he had to work from legitimate commercial premises, although he still works from home 2-3 days a week.
Britain was once a nation of cottage industries and to some extent that attitude is still part of our culture. Being independent, doing an honest day’s work for an honest day’s wage means that a person can respect themselves and live in harmony with their neighbour. Once industrialisation began, that independent way of life was swept away and in the process something crucial was lost. I think that in Britain as well as in many other countries, there is a yearning to return to a way of life that is ethical, sincere and honest. The fear of failure may prevent a lot of people from realising their dream of working from home, but if it is something you really want to do then take heart and take a good hard look at the possibility.
When looking for an idea or possibility of a home based business people often have many more skills than they realise. Sometimes they are passionate about a hobby for which they may have considerable abilities but may not be thought of as important in the context of work. There are many cases where hobbies are transformed into a lucrative business. We all have substantial transferable skills, but often we are blind to our own capabilities.
A work from home business that has gained in popularity over the last few year is ebay where you can sell products to a worldwide audience without needing to have your own website. We recently setup a website at www.londonjazzclub.com for a company that had started out doing exactly that until their business had grown to a point where they needed their own site.
Working at Home and Stress
Sometimes setting up a new company on your own can be stressful with not having the security of a regular wage and the question of it being a success. Once the business is underway, you will soon begin to get a feel of the lead time needed to finish projects and get paid. I know now from experience that as long as there are leads in the pipeline that about half will come to fruition and generate income. Regular customers, repeat orders and new work coming out of the blue is to be expected if your business is thriving. There is a rule of thumb that twenty percent of your customer base provides eighty percent of your revenue.
The counter to the type of stress outlined above is that a work from home lifestyle has bonuses in terms of family commitments, working environment, and motivation. Being able to optimise your work so that you maximise energy and resources, gives you a sense of well being that leaves you feeling happy and healthy and eventually wealthy.
Prepare
If you feel you have the urge to be working from home, then use your intellect to plan. You can project and budget for the future and get funding in place, even if it does mean missing the family holiday this year. Train for any required new skills by going to classes and set yourself up with the necessary equipment. Give your current workplace the appropriate notice to fit with your target. Finally have a clear picture in your head of how you will be in your new lifestyle, and picture in your mind how it feels.
Marketing
The next thing you will want to become skilled in is marketing. Setting up a website and marketing your home based business on the internet may be easier than you think and can be very effective way to achieve marketing success. Obviously, the more time you invest in marketing, the more your customer base is going to grow. There are also a lot of freelance work provider websites these days where they do the marketing for you in return for a small commission from every job you complete, these kinds of websites are revolutionising the work at home industry making it much more accessible for more and more people.
Conclusion
Working from home has many advantages and rewards. If you have the desire to become your own boss and it feels right to you, then there are plenty of opportunities for you to fulfil your potential. There are many success stories of men and women setting a business from the home and becoming much larger successful companies. All you have to do is to follow your path to a better life. Work towards your goals and pay attention to the steps along the way. I know it may sound obvious, but so many people do not do the obvious.
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Whether or not to start a home based business is probably one of the most important questions that you will ever have to answer. If you are even seriously pondering the question in the first place, then it probably means that there are circumstances in your life which are causing you to consider undertaking a venture which will have a significant and far reaching impact on your own life and on the lives of your immediate family memebers as well. Before you take a leap of faith into becoming a small business owner, there are a few areas of your life which will be impacted and which you should seriously consider before coming to any final decision as to whether or not a home based business is right for you.
FINANCIAL
Starting your own home based business can have many financial rewards and put you in control of your own financial future. However, there are a few things to consider before beginning your undertaking.
First, will you start your home based business on a part time basis and keep your day job until you are making enough profit to enable you to quit and devote your full attention to your business? Or would you rather quit your day job now so you can devote your full time and energy to building your business? There are pros and cons to both approaches and only you can decide which one you will feel most confortable with in the long run. If you have enough savings to meet your living expenses for a good six months to a year then it might be worthwhile to quit your day job to focus on growing your business. You’ll see results a lot faster and that will give you the momentum you need to keep going. Starting a home based business requires a lot of up front work and if you are doing it on a part time basis it is easier to get discouraged when the results don’t materialize as quickly as you had originally planned. On the other hand, having a full time income will enable you to spend more on your business without having to worry about meeting monthly living expenses.
You will also have to set a start up budget for your business as well. Any home based business will require some start up costs, even if they are only minimal at first. For example, if you are going to be doing business on the internet, you will need to register your domain name and pay a monthly fee to have your website hosted. Domain names can be registered for as little as $7.00 and monthly hosting can be obtained for a minimum of about $25.00. You’ll also need to determine how much money you are going to devote to advertising your new venture. While there are some very good ways to advertise your business for free, eventually you are going to have to lay out some money to advertise if you hope to see the kind of profits that will make your online business worthwhile. While we are not talking about massive amounts of money here, a few hundred dollars would be a reasonable sum to get some quality advertising to promote your business and allow you to start making some sales which will generate even more cashflow to reinvest in your business.
PERSONAL
Most people who are interested in starting their own home based business cite personal reasons as one of their primary motivations. It seems that more and more people are getting fed up with corporate America these days and it’s no secret that the average workday continues to get longer and longer, lunch hours become nonexistent, and the financial security that once came with retirement is no longer a reality for most people. Not only does having your own home based business put you in charge of your own financial future, it also allows you to start spending real quality time with your family. Most people are so exhausted at the end of a typical workday that just getting through dinner without nodding off is a real challenge. With a home based business, you control the hours you work and you automatically add at least one or two additional hours to your day that you would otherwise spend commuting to and from work.
Of course, getting your family adjusted to having you working from home may take some effort in the beginning. If you have very small children at home it can be a challenge to keep them out of your office while you are trying to get work done. If you are the primary caretaker, you will need to work in small spurts throughout the day while the kids are napping or watching a video and then put in a few hours after they go to bed for the night. Once they are in school, the routine becomes a lot easier because you can adjust your schedule around their schoolday and have most of your daily work completed by the time they get home from school.
Life can sometimes be a series of tradeoffs, so spending all that quality time with your family also means that you’ll no longer have the social interaction that was once a part of your 9 to 5 routine. Now that you have a home based business, you will have to go out of your way to gain some of that same social interaction. Joining local small business organizations is a great way to make new friends, network and have your business become known in your local community. Alot of these organizations have weekly or monthly meetings with guest speakers at either a breakfast or afer work social event. In any case, socializing will now become a great way to network and spread word of mouth about your new business venture.
MOTIVATION
You have to be motivated to start any home based business. This motivation is twofold. I am talking here about both the internal drive to take action and get your business off the ground, as well as the vision you have in your head of what your business will eventually look like once it is established and what it is you want to accomplish with your business.
A home based business can bring many financial rewards, but alot of people will get discouraged with the up front work that is required to get any business off the ground. I have often heard an analogy used by folks who do business on the internet that I like a lot because I think it is so accurate. The analogy is that starting a home based internet business is like a rocket taking off. For those who are not NASA afficionados, a rocket apparently uses something like 80% of the energy that it will use during it’s entire mission just during those first few minutes of liftoff. That momentum then helps carry it throughout the rest of it’s journey. It’s a lot like that with a home based business. It takes alot of up front energy, but one day you realize that the hardest part is over and you’ve created enough momentum to help make it easier from now on in. You have to have the motivation to get through those early days, otherwise you’ll never create the kind of momentum that you need to see yourself through.
You’re also going to need to identify your motivation in terms of what it is you want to accomplish with this business of yours anyway. Do you have a great idea or product that you want to promote? Most people actually don’t, and that’s okay. Selling your own product is often thought of as the most lucrative way to make money on the internet, but you can still make quite a bit of money by finding other people’s products and promoting those as an affiliate. That means for every sale you make, you get a commission. And you can also generate residual income for yourself by recruiting other people to become affiliates under you. But no matter which way you go, you have to like what you’re doing and what you’re promoting. Starting a home based business will not bring the financial rewards you are hoping for if you are not doing something that makes you feel energized, excited, challenged and, perhaps most importantly, that you are providing a worthwhile benefit to those people who are buying your product or service.
Well, I certainly hope those few points have given you enough to ponder as you go through the process of deciding whether or not a home based business is right for you. I hope you come to the conclusion that it is, because there is no better way that I know of to take control of your own financial future. If you don’t take the bull by the horns and do it for yourself, nobody else will. But don’t forget to have fun along the way. Pick a home based business that you’ll look forward to tending to day in and day out and that benefits other people in some way, and I promise you that the financial rewards will follow……
Author: Andrea Hayhurst
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