Do you dream of being your own boss and being able to work
at home running your own business? Many people who dream
of being able to work at home, overlook the degree of
isolation they will experience when working at home, and
don't stop to think about how well-equipped they are to
deal with it. Your ability to cope with isolation will
depend upon your personality. The degree of isolation you
are likely to experience, and the way you will be able to
cope with it should be given careful consideration before
you commit yourself to a work at home career.
There are two basic elements to consider before you choose
a home business: 1. how happy you are when you are alone
for long stretches of time; 2. how much time you will need
spend working on your own .
You need to be careful to decide how much time alone is
enjoyable and how much would seem unbearable to you. We
are all different in the way we react to being alone. Some
people are perfectly happy to live an almost reclusive
existence while others start yearning for company after an
hour or so alone. It is important to realistically assess
which of these types is nearest to your character before
looking closely into possible home business ideas.
The joy of being your own boss will not last long if you
are the type of person who needs prolonged daily
interaction with colleagues but have chosen a home business
which requires you to spend most of the day working alone.
Don't let yourself fall into the trap of thinking that it
will be different when you are working for yourself:
personalities do not change that dramatically. If you are
an extrovert who needs to be with other people for most of
your waking hours, you won't suddenly find yourself
overjoyed to be a hermit just because you are working for
yourself. Being your own boss brings many changes but a
complete personality change is not one of them.
Running your own business from home does not necessarily
mean you will have to spend all day, every day as a
prisoner in your own home. We often use the phrases
"working at home" and "working from home" as synonyms but
there are plenty of businesses that you can run "from home"
without actually spending much time "at home". In fact, as
a home based business owner, you might find you spend less
time at home than you would if you were working as an
employee at someone else's business premises.
Think of all the self-employed plumbers, electricians,
landscape gardeners, decorators, mobile nail technicians,
car valet services and repair services of all kinds. These
business owners do all their actual work outside their own
homes, the only part of the business that takes place "at
home" is their paperwork; even appointments are usually
booked via a mobile or messaging phone service.
At the opposite extreme are the people who use the Internet
to work at home. Their business is conducted entirely
online and usually in solitude. A person with a home based
Internet business can spend anything from a couple of hours
online each day up to (and sometimes over) a full twelve
hours. The time required depends upon the type of business
and the personality of the owner. If you work online as,
say, a virtual assistant, your business might involve
fulfilling orders at short notice and you will need to
choose whether to put in some extra hours of work or to
decline the job (and possibly risk losing a customer for
good).
In between these two extremes there are home based
businesses where you spend part of your working life at
home and part of it mixing with other people. For example,
if you have your own sewing business at home and specialise
in making garments to order, you will have contact with
your customers when fittings are needed. If you have a
home based craft business, you could spend up to half your
time travelling to craft fairs and selling your products
there. Working as a personal fitness trainer or providing
any sort of tutoring will involve a high level of contact
with clients.
There are endless ways to make money working at home, so
there is no need to rush into starting a home business
without carefully considering every aspect of what it takes
to run your own home business. Don't forget to include an
assessment of your isolation tolerance level.
----------------------------------------------------
Elaine Currie is the owner of the Free Work At Home
Directory at http://www.huntingvenus.com and author of the
book Ezine Article Writing - 10 Steps To Success. You can
download the book free of charge in pdf format at:
http://www.huntingvenus.com/free_ezine_articles_writing_eboo
k.shtml
No comments:
Post a Comment