So, you’re thinking of ditching your day job and working from home, are you? Before you do so, you might want to think long and hard about your decision.
To begin with, there is NO guarantee that you will actually receive a paycheck at the end of the month. Just to make sure you correctly understood this: ‘There is NO guarantee that you will actually receive a paycheck at the end of the month.’ For many, this is the biggest disincentive to going into business for yourself.
If you are still mulling the idea around in your head and haven’t yet decided what kind of business you’d like, or what form it will take, spend a few hours--or days--on the internet researching what others have to say about owning their own business. Simply Google ‘STARTING A BUSINESS’ and you’ll find a staggering 62,800,000 sites that discuss this topic; One especially helpful site is http://www.workingforyourself.com. Read every word!
Another equally useful source is the Small Business Administration. You will find a wealth of facts on planning and financing your business along with the nuts and bolts of its everyday operation. Be sure to check out opportunities that are provided by an organization called SCORE which provides free mentoring for prospective business owners. Visit their site at www.score.org.
Make sure that you have covered your bases when it comes to planning for your business.
Presumably, you’ll be starting out from home--at least in the initial phases and will therefore have to make some tough decisions about start up costs, what space you’ll need and how you will organize your time. This may require sacrifices from your family members, so be sure to consult them ahead of time before you get too far down the entrepreneurial road.
There’s no doubt about it: it takes a special breed of person to be successful to operate a business. Energy, motivation, determination and stubbornness are key qualities in becoming an entrepreneur—not to mention an undying sense of optimism when the world seems to be crashing in on you. (Not to despair, however, if you don’t have a network of your own, you can go on line and find one. Immediately. Put the word out on Facebook, Linked In, Twitter or any of the social networking sites you deem appropriate.)
Above all, don’t give up. Ever. If it looks as though things aren’t going as successfully as you had planned, call for temporary reinforcements from amongst your friends and family. Remember: you are only one person and you CAN”T do it all!
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