What to Expect When You Start a Home-Based Business

There are many advantages and disadvantages from starting your own business and working from home. Some the advantages are fairly obvious such as a very short commute time and the freedom to organize your work at times that suit you. This flexibility enables you to determine the amount of time that you're going to spend at work and how you are going to fit it in with your own family commitments. This means that if you are a parent that works at home, you can take your children to school and collect them at the end of the school day. If they are sick you can stay at home with them and if necessary take a day off from your work without having to answer to anyone. Probably the greatest advantage is that you are not bound by policies and practices that inhibit your freedom. Your start up capital for a home-based business is much less than a conventional one and your income is not limited by fixed salaries. Furthermore there are tax advantages that accrue from running a home-based business.There are disadvantages of working from home because it's necessary to have a high degree of planning and self-discipline. You will need the skill and planning to make the best use of your time because it is sometimes hard to manage the family interruptions when you are working. Self discipline is another factor that looms large for the person that works at home. It's very easy to spend a lot of time on the telephone because there is the social interaction that is available in the normal workplace. Working at home can sometimes be a lonely experience where you feel cut off from the rest of the world and spend too much time compensating by surfing the net.After working at home for 37 years, I have found that working in blocks of time suit me best. I will plan to work in a two-hour block and have a five minute break after each hour. Setting goals and targets is also an essential part of the home worker's regime. By setting goals and targets and milestones it is possible to be very productive if you are able to limit the interruptions that you create for yourself or occur through family members.No matter what type of work you do at home, you will need to understand how to market your products and services. This is the area where most new home workers struggle. The marketing of your products and services is an active rather than a passive process that continues relentlessly in times of high sales and low sales. The success of most people who work at home is a reflection on their ability to market their products. My advice to anybody contemplating a home-based business is to sharpen up your marketing skills so that you are in a position to promote your business from day one.