HOME BASED BUSINESS: THE PLUS AND MINUS

Thank you for your decision to join me. I suppose you greatly benefitted from the time you spent taking the quiz in my last article although you did not reveal the result to me then. So, do you have the required temperament and support necessary or will you line up all your ducks as advised? Well, I am sure home based business is for you else you will not meet me here for this trip. But, if you are yet to take the quiz or you want to be sure, take it here quickly before we set out.

However, before we ride I hope you know your objective of a home based business start up? Well, here are two objectives: First, some people do started with the intention that it will remain a home based business while the second sort of home based business is the one where people start their business from home with the intent to move it out as soon as it is economically feasible. So, Let us ride!

The Plus and Minus

Just as there are pros and cons associated with buying a franchise, setting up a factory, starting a flight ticketing agency and so on, there are plus and minus regarding the homebased business start up option.

The Plus:

1. Starting a home based business is practical and doable.
2. Running a home based business is not expensive. You may not pay for rent, little or nothing for utility bills, a few office furniture (often times, used ones) if necessary. As for cost of maintenance, zero bucks.
3. Finding the fund to buy an expensive food franchise, for example, is a very difficult task but, starting a small business from home (a recharge card business, catering, food vendor, estate agency, photocopier business, a car wash, etc) is very, very affordable. You do not pay for rent, you put less mileage on your car and where you do not have a car, you stand to spend less on transportation.
4. You will also have less need to wear out expensive clothes while you work
5. You stand to pay significantly reduced tax, if any at all
6. People who work at home tend to like working at home. They are a happy lot.

A magazine survey some years back found that home based businesspeople say they eat healthier, have more free time, exercise more often, and have a better sex life than when they were employees. The survey also found that those who work from home spend more time than before with family members.

Finally, working from home is a very flexible option. Because your office is just there, it is easy to make a work schedule that works for you. You can work when you want, and if that is at midnight when you cannot fall asleep, well, better for you.

The Minus:

Having said earlier that working from home requires discipline, a fact I know from personal and other people’s experience. Having worked both inside and outside the home extensively, I personally like working outside better, because the detriments of working from home are significant.

1. The first problem is that there are a lot of distractions when you work at home, distractions that are not present when you work at an office outside the house. If you have children, the good news is that when you work at home, you see your kids a lot. The bad news is that you see your kids a lot. Hustling to meet deadlines or taking important phone calls is more difficult at home because, frankly, those around you do not always realize that even though you are at home you are also at work. If you do not mind being interrupted, that is good, because you will be interrupted.
2. Home based businesses require a lot of self-discipline in many areas. If you want to sleep in, you can. If you want to work in your bathrobe, you can. It is easy to find yourself watching too much TV, or playing too much video game or surfing the Net (facebook.com) too often.
3. Sleeping off: Who would have thought that is a home based business hazard?
4. Conversely, instead of working too little, it is similarly easy to work too much when you work at home. Your office is after all your living room. Why not go put a couple of extra hours in and get that project out the door? Workaholics need self-discipline, too.

Finally, a nice thing about going to a regular office every day is there are people with whom to interact and socialize, and this simply does not happen when you work at home. Meeting new people, sharing ideas, hearing the latest joke—you give all of that up when you open your own home-based business. Yes, you may hire employees down the road, but when you start out at home, you’re usually alone.

I believe you have received insights to the Plus and Minus of HomeBased Businesses and you enjoyed our ride. Why don’t you keep a date with me in the next article in this home based businesses series? See you then.