Almost as interesting as the array of home – based businesses out there are the stories behind them. Each business, even the home – based opportunities like Amway and Mary Kay that people buy into as a turnkey operation, was started by someone. Lately, I have been doing some thinking about this and I realized that I know far more home – based professionals than I thought.
In my own home, there are two of us. Me with my freelance writing business and tiny little private law practice and my husband with an independent venture of his own as well as a traditional job. It might run in the family, because even though my husband’s mother has a storefront, her business is independently owned and operated. His father does carpentry and property maintenance type services on an independent contractor basis. My mother has her own online business which she runs from home, and ever since he retired, my father has worked as an independent contractor albeit for the same company that he worked for prior to retirement. He also has a casual sideline business that he allows to ebb and flow along with his golfing schedule.
Widening the circle a bit, my mentor, the woman who gave me the courage to open my own private law practice, has an office where she meets clients but she does the bulk of her work at home. Friends from law school have gone on to create farms, an organic juice bar, private law practices, and legal writing businesses. As far as friends in the community, there is a wonderful young woman who owns and operates an animal rescue while her husband just opened his own commercial cleaning business. I know of at least three photographers who work out of their homes.
The moral of the story is that if becoming a home – based professional is something that you want to do, it is more than likely that sources of inspiration are all around you. There are people building home – based businesses all around you, and you can more than likely figure out how to join them.
Photo by clarita on morguefile.com