Planning ahead is an essential skill for the home – based professional. It is important to know what you are doing next week, but it is also important to take time to look ahead to next month, and the month after that, and even a few months or years into the future as you go about your day to day business. There are events in every home – based professional’s life that will require careful thought and planning months ahead of time to ensure a smooth passage through the periods of time when those events are happening.
Major events like moving, having a child, and caring for an older relative (just to name a few) do not require that you shut down your home – based business unless, of course, you decide that that is what is best for you and your family. If you plan ahead for these events, you can adjust your work load so that you can still do some work while they are happening. What exactly that will look like will depend upon what kind of home – based business you have. There is at least one thing that it likely to be relevant to your planning process no matter what kind of home – based business you have.
That one thing is that any decrease that you are anticipating in the output of your home – based business will result in a decrease in income. As part of the planning process, you will have to think through how you will compensate for that income. One option is to take on a little extra work in the months leading up to the event. This may or may not be an option depending upon what exactly is going on. For example, if you are pregnant, you may not want to increase your work load too much because it is common to feel rather tired during much of your third trimester. If you are moving, there may be other demands on your time leading up to the move as well as afterwards (like, say, packing and unpacking) that would make taking on extra work an unrealistic option.
In the alternative, you could plan a budget for how to get by with that decreased income for the period of time that you expect it to be at that level. Either way, simply having a plan in place makes it easier to get through that major life change than if you have no plan. If you have planned ahead and have either stored money away or have planned how you will live on less, you will feel much calmer than if you are trying to make sense of the whole money thing as you are packing boxes to move or feeding your newborn baby at three in the morning.
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