Do you dream of working from home? Do you want to be able to stay home with your children and still contribute to your family’s income, or do you want to get rich quick? If your goal is to get rich quick, you better have a million dollar idea that no one else has already thought of, otherwise you are going to be quickly disappointed.
When you decide to work from home you have to determine why you want to do this, why is it important, is it really feasible with your family and lifestyle and how much money do you need to make to give up your day job.
Once you factor in the cost of commuting, daycare and other work related expenses, you may need to make less than you thought. Just don’t forget to figure in your taxes and any insurance you may have to pay for once you are no longer part of corporate America.
Make a plan to help achieve your goal. If you want to give up your day job and stay home with your kids, can you find time, now to get your business started? If not, is your family willing to make the sacrifice to save the amount of money you will need, once you quit your job, to support everyone until your home business is making money?
Lack of planning causes many business to fail, and not just home businesses. Working from home is a great idea! You are so excited! You are going to make this work! It will be great! You can raise your kids instead of sending them to daycare! The reality is, this is a lot of work and some people are not cut out for it.
Since I’ve started working on my own business I’ve talked to many talented people and I always ask why they are in a cubicle when they could be using their talents and most often I get the same answer. “I’d go nuts without other adults all day.” This is a very real problem if you thrive on social interaction from people older than five. It can also strain your marriage because your husband becomes your only connection with the “outside” world. You remember that world, where you didn’t have to cut anyone’s meat at lunch or wipe bums after a potty break.
So when you are thinking about starting a home based business think really hard about how much interaction you need with other adults to stay sane. The benefits of working at home won’t pay for all the therapy you may need while you try to have the best of both worlds.