If you currently have a job and are considering leaving it to start a home-based business, you may be wondering how you will ever be able to afford to make the switch. After all, you are accustomed to your current level of income and have been for quite a while. While it is true that many home-based businesses take a while to get off the ground before they start making good money, you may not suffer as much as you think during the transition.
There are a few things that you may not have thought of that will help you to get through the economic transition from working outside of the home to working from home. The first of these is that unless your home-based business involves a lot of travel or driving around, you will no longer have a commute. When you give up your commute, you save money as well as time. How much of each you save depends upon what your commute is like and how long it takes. Expenses that are commonly associated with commuting to and from work are gas, tolls, bus or subway fares, and your morning coffee stop. They may not seem like huge expenses, but over time they add up. The time that you spent commuting to and from work is now yours to spend doing other things such as exercising, eating a home-cooked breakfast, or getting a jump-start on your work so that you can end your workday earlier. You will also decrease the amount of wear and tear on your vehicle by drastically reducing the amount of miles that you drive each year.
Lunch is another area in which you will most likely save money when you transition from office life to a home-based business. Unless you currently brown-bag it every day, chances are that you spend more money on lunches and snacks at work than you would like to admit. When you work from home, you will still have to spend some money on lunch because you will be buying more at the grocery store than you used to. However, the amount is most likely going to be a fraction of what you would spend eating at work every day. Why not also take this opportunity to make your lunches healthy and energizing, instead of the same old sandwich, chips and soda combination that you usually get at work.
Depending upon what your job is and what your home-based business will be, there are probably other ways that your transition from your job to your home-based business will be less painful than you think. Take some time to think about it, and write down all of the things that you can think of. If you have been holding back on pursuing your home-based business dreams, this exercise just may help you to gain the confidence that you need to take the leap.