Why Home Business: The Untold Benefits

Why Home Business: The Untold Benefits

More people are jumping on the home business bandwagon in recent years. What are the benefits of doing home business besides being convenient and cost saving?

1. Personal freedom

Working at home requires no dress code, no rigid work schedules and no company cultures. Instead, you can work and earn money at your own pace, at the comfort of your home. This allows you to gain control of your personal life while not losing a source of income – the best of both worlds! It is necessary however for a home business owner to be self-disciplined and motivated to maintain the momentum at work.

2. Experience enrichment

Home business owners need to play many roles at once, from being the CEO, the financial planner, the researcher, the marketing manager and the sales manager. This is especially true for those solo owners who have to learn how to do everything on their own. While this also means greater workload, you get to see the whole picture of your home business and make better plans to achieve your goals.

3. Increased competitiveness

As the overhead cost of a home business is low, you can now offer quality products or services at a lower cost, making your products and services more competitive in the market. In addition, small home business is more able to provide clients with personalised services that cater to their specific needs compared to large commercialised businesses.

4. Lower risk

Home business frequently requires low capital to start up and is also cheaper to maintain. This protects the home business owners from their life-time savings should the business idea fails. It also allows business owners to test out new business ideas before deciding to invest large amount of money in it.

5. Reduced stress

Being able to work from home allows you to plan for both your work and your family. This is especially true for parents of school-age children as they do not need to juggle between work and taking care of their children.

Related post: How to start a home business, Home business success stories 



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How to Start a Home Business

How to Start a Home Business

How do you start a successful home-based business? What needs to be in your consideration?

Below is a 6-step guide:

1.       Assess your skills and knowledge

 You need to know what you are good at and what you are not so good at. Identify your strong points and your weaknesses. This can help you gauge if you are suitable for embark on a home business. As a home business owner, you will need to run a lot of tasks on your own, from planning, business management to the field work. Make sure you can carry out the tasks needed.

2.       Generate business ideas

Start brainstorming from your interest and passion. Get your family to involve as you will be using part of their space for your business.

3.       Test the market

Shortlist your ideas so that it contains only those ideas that can work for a home business. Be practical. Think whether people will want to spend money on the kind of products or services that you can offer, how much and whether this will generate sufficient income proportional to your effort.  If no, get back to Step 2 for more ideas. Being persistent is important at this stage because many people gave up after facing the obstacles.

4.       Understand the legal barriers.

Check if there are any rules or regulations controlling the starting up of a home business in your state or country. If yes, figure out how you want to get around them.

5.       Determine your capital.

Calculate the amount of money you need to start up your home business. The cost should include the purchase of any instruments, hire of any professionals (e.g. lawyers) and insurance. You might not be familiar with all these so take your time to do some price checking and bargain.

6.       Plan your business – break even points.

Once you have obtained a clear picture from Step 1 – 5, it is time to lay down your business plan. Find out your break-even point and how many products you need to sell in order to get back your investments. 

Related post: Home business success stories

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Home Business Success Stories

Home Business Success Stories

Want to be a successful home business entrepreneur but don’t know how? One of the easiest ways is by modelling other people’s success stories. There are many entrepreneurs who are willingly sharing how they start up and develop their home business on the internet. 

Sam, a 21-year-old undergraduate from the United States started his own company from his dorm offering advertisement-free electronic invitation cards for formal events. Read Sam’s story here.

 http://www.womenhomebusiness.com/startup/sam-franklin-going-green-with-an-electronic-invitation-business.htm

Kate and Tamala were working in hospital as occupational therapists before they started their own home business providing occupational therapy to needy clients at their homes. Read their stories here http://www.homebasedbusiness.sbdc.com.au/10_01_casestudies.asp

Andrea, a former online inventory manager, started off her Take My Mac service to help Apple device owners to sell and recycle their gadgets, instead of throwing them into the bins. Read Andrea’s  story here http://www.womenhomebusiness.com/startup/andrea-bebirian-recycle-and-sell-apple-devices.htm

Some common things among these successful home business entrepreneurs above are:

1. They worked on something they are passionate about.

Sam’s idea of an electronic invitation cards is in line with his belief in going green and saving the trees. Both Kate and Tamala have 25 years of experience working as occupational therapists in hospital offered their services to the community through their home business. Andrea wished to provide a solution for Apple devices owners to get rid of their old gadgets while helping the needy (e.g. schools, etc) to have their own Apple devices.

2.  They worked on a niche market.

Sam’s advertisement-free electronic card received good response because most e-Cards come with many advertisements which are sometimes unwelcoming. Kate and Tamala saw the demand for occupational therapies at a community level and hence decided to quit their jobs at hospitals. Meanwhile Andrea’s Take My Mac made it easier for Apple gadget owners to sell their devices as more and more people are using the Apple devices.

3. Things were never easy at the beginning.

All of them have their own shares of challenges and difficulties when they first started their business. However with preserverence and hardwork, their efforts have born fruits.

Plenty of such success stories are available on the internet to serve as a source of inspiration for all aspiring home business entrepreneurs. Learning from their successes and failures will definitely help in building up a successful home business!

Related post: How to start a home business

All the best!

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