The Perils of Working From HomeWritten by Dawn Roberts
Working from home is absolutely fantastic! I love every second of it. However, before you begin you must be aware of what you're getting yourself into. It's not always sunshine and roses and it's not for everyone. If you are not a self-motivated individual steer clear of home based businesses. You must, and I do mean MUST, be able to motivate yourself to work (or be associated with individuals who can and will motivate you). It's far too easy to become lax about and put things off until tomorrow. Eventually, you have too many "tomorrow tasks" piled up, with little hope of completing them in next month. Disorganized or not willing to become organized? Forget it! You really do need to have a designated work area and filing system. Otherwise, that paper tiger may eat you alive! If you are a social individual, be sure to schedule adult social interaction into your day. This can be a designated date night with your spouse, weekly get together with friends or spending time at park with other parents while watching your children play. The possible downside is a feeling of isolation. One of benefits I love best about working from home is dress code. However, ability to wear jeans and a sweater (I'm in Canada) occasionally turns into wearing your pajamas all day. Personally, I'm okay with that and encourage anyone working from home to make themselves as comfortable as possible. Just don't feel surprised if you end up making dinner in your bunny slippers! No alarm clock! This is by far, best thing about working from home - for me! I am a night owl and work through quite often. However, you must make sure you don't get into that habit and mess up your internal clock. You run risk of sleeping all day to make up for night before. Doing so will most definitely assure your failure if your business requires you to speak with potential customers and clients during normal waking hours. For those that don't deal well with rejection - run! Luckily, this is something you get over quite quickly, if you are willing to. When I enroll someone onto my team that would like to build a business, one of first things I ask them to do is to get one hundred "No!" responses. I've yet to find someone who can accomplish that task. What that simple request does is take pressure off from beginning. There is enough internal pressure while working from home. The last thing you ever need is someone you don't know breathing down your neck to work harder or faster or more productive. To me, that's no different than having to deal with superiors at work outside of home. You should be able to work at your own pace, whatever that may be. Sorry - got a little off track there! If you think you're going to wake up next month, making $100,000 a month (legitimately), forget. There is no work at home fairy that will wave a magic money wand over your head. Get rich quick schemes are exactly that - schemes! They do not exist except for con artists who start them and convince unwitting individuals that they can be a millionaire overnight if they only fork over $10,000 to start up. I'm not saying there shouldn't be start up costs involved. There are always start up costs. You can't start any business for nothing. Just be sure to check with Better Business Bureau and Chamber of Commerce before handing your money over to anyone!
| | 7 Ways To Get Financing For Your Home BusinessWritten by Dean Phillips
Thinking about starting a home business? Do you already own a home business but need cash? Perhaps you can qualify for a small business loan.However, before you attempt to borrow any money, you first have to figure out how much money you need. The easiest way to do this is by putting together a business plan. A good business plan is critical to your business success. It can be a simple one page outline or it can be many pages, but it should spell out exactly how much money is needed and what it will be used for; your potential market and customers and potential for growth; what makes your business unique from others; and a rational and conservative projection of your business's cash flow. Your plan will also help you set business goals and define steps necessary to help you reach those goals. It is a guide for you to refer to on a regular basis to help evaluate your business progress and help keep you focused on your priorities. Besides, a business plan is almost always required when applying for a bank loan. If you need assistance in writing a business plan, your local library should have several books on subject. You can also try Amazon.com. In addition, you should be able to get help on writing a business plan from one or more of sources listed below: 1. The Small Business Administration (SBA) offers numerous loan programs to assist small businesses. It is important to note, however, that SBA is primarily a guarantor of loans made by private and other institutions. http://www.sba.gov 2. The Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) is a volunteer management assistance program of SBA that provides one-on-one counseling, workshops, and seminars. SCORE has chapters throughout country. Many work in conjunction with local Chambers of Commerce. SCORE and Visa have also joined forces to help home-based and small business owners. Contact your SBA office, local Chamber of Commerce, or following websites for more information:
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