As the new year approaches, some of you may be wondering whether 2012 will be the year in which you start a home – based business. The idea of starting something new at the beginning of a new year is certainly appealing, and as you know I am a huge proponent of home – based businesses. However, there are certainly many different places that a person can be in between when they start thinking about starting a home – based business and when they decide whether or not it is the right thing for them to do.
To help you along, I have compiled a list of a few things that you can reflect on which will help you to decide whether you want to continue down the path towards becoming a home – based professional. The first thing to think about is whether you have the time and energy that you will need to get your new business through the start – up phase. If you can answer that in the affirmative, that is wonderful.
Another extremely important question to ask yourself is whether you and your family have the financial resources available to get through your home – based business’s startup phase. This will depend upon many things, including your current income, whether you are part of a family and what other family members’ incomes are, the costs that are associated with starting the particular type of business that you wish to start, and the types of benefits that you have from your current job, and the amounts and types of resources that you have available to get you through the inevitable times when not much money is coming in. It is important that you are brutally honest with yourself in thinking about this, and in discussing it with others in your family. Trying to put a positive spin on an economic situation that is unsustainable does not do you any favors and could put you in the heartbreaking position of having to close your new business shortly after you start it.
Other things to think about are whether state and local regulations permit you to run the kind of business that you want to run from your home, and whether the reasons that you want to start a home – based business are reasons that will help you sustain it in the long run. By taking plenty of time to think about whether a home – based business is right for you, you will know whether you want to proceed onwards to planning a home – based business.
Photo by ppdigital on morguefile.com.