How to work from home
Menu
How to start a Business
Find New Customers for your Business
Working from Home
There are several types of people who decide to work from home : employees
who are able to work from home for an employer, homeworkers who are
self-employed and those who decide to run their own business from home.
To work from home for yourself needs planning and information; there
is no employer to take responsibility - your working hours are in your
control.
The first step to working from home is to ask yourself - are
you the right personality to be self-employed?
We are not all destined to be bosses, some people are more happier doing
a job and leaving any worries behind them when they go home. Instead
of starting your own business you may just need to find the right job.
Being self-employed successfully is not an easy path to take if you
are merely unhappy with your work. To run a profitable business you
need to really believe in what you are doing, and your ability to make
a success of it.
Working from home - starting your own business
Check out the following list and be honest with yourself - do you tick the boxes necessary to be your own boss?- Are you able to work under your own initiative, without somebody telling
you what to do?
- Does your business idea motivate you to put in the hours?
- How do you feel about personally taking responsibility for decisions?
- Are you prepared to sometimes take risks?
- Do you perform well under pressure, or do you get stressed easily?
- Are you a positive personality, or do you see the negative side to
things more often?
- Could you dust yourself off and bounce back from any setbacks?
- Would you be happy to learn new skills?
- Are you confident meeting new people and 'networking' to get your
business noticed?
- Can you avoid getting distracted in your home, and taking too many
breaks?
- Do you have support from your family and friends?
- If you are planning on working from home, do you have a place where
you will be able to work undisturbed?
Running
your own business can be full of rewards but you need plenty of confidence,
an ability to deal with pressure and stress, and self-reliance. There
are times you will need to be resilient - when things go wrong, or you
fail to achieve what you wanted - but we all learn from our mistakes,
and you'll be ready for such a situation next time.
“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
Winston Churchill
You need to see every glass as half full not half empty, an optimist has far more chance of achieving success in running their own business, than somebody who looks at situations pessimistically. Motivation is vital, even purely to get you out of bed every morning! You have to be organised and focused - such as with what you need to achieve daily, and also to cope with all the paperwork being self-employed brings with it.
Reasons to work from home
- No more commuting to and from work - you can save time and money.
- There are tax benefits from working from home - you may be able to claim part of the costs of the rental, or mortgage fee, and other expenses such as heating, lighting and telephone.
- Flexibility of working hours can be particularly helpful to parents of young children, you may find you can spend more quality time with them when you can rearrange your work hours to suit.
- Nobody telling you what to do - all your effort will be making you the profit, not somebody else. This is a great incentive to work hard!
So you've decided that becoming your own boss is for you - congratulations! This can be a life changing moment, but it is only the beginning. You need to prepare carefully when you have decided to work from home. Once you have chosen your line of work, then you will need to do market research to identify your market and assess the customer you are aiming at. This will be useful for the next all important step of sorting out your finances.
Writing a business plan is useful preparation for yourself, and also necessary if you are going to apply for financial assistance, such as a business loan or grant.