When you start your own business, it is important to do a lot of thinking about many different things. One very important thing that you must consider when you design a business plan for your home-based business is what exactly it is that you really want. This may sound overly simplistic, but it really isn’t if you think about it.
How many of us know a friend who got what you (and they) thought was a spectacular job – a job for a prestigious company with a high salary and great benefits? Maybe it wasn’t a friend, maybe it was your spouse, a cousin, or even you yourself. Anyways, a few months or a few years later you see this person with the supposedly fabulous job and they look terrible. They seem tired, lifeless, and dull. You can’t help but ask them what’s wrong. The problem is most likely that while the job seemed like “everybody’s dream job” on its face, it was not a good fit for that particular person.
There are many things that can make a job a poor fit, from work environment and corporate culture to things like schedules and job responsibilities. Working at a job that is a poor fit is a real-life example of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. It just does not work, and the longer the person tries to stay at a job that does not fit who they are, the more miserable they become. Eventually, most people that feel this way end up taking a different job that suits them better. Even if they take a pay cut when they move to their new job, their life improves dramatically because their new job fits who they are.
What does all of this mean for people who are thinking of starting their own business? For one thing, it is a lot harder to walk away from a business that you created than it is to walk away from a job that someone else hired you to do. If you are going to create a business, it is essential that you think about whether and how your business fits who you are. This will mean different things for different people, but that does not matter. What matters is that you have that thought, that conversation with yourself about who you are and how you can create a home-based business that works for you. Your business is yours to create and you are free to set it up in a way that meets your unique needs.
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