| Home | Free Articles for Your Site | Submit an Article | Advertise | Link to Us | Search | Contact Us |
This site is an archive of old articles

    SEARCH ARTICLES
    Custom Search


vertical line

Article Surfing Archive



Keeping It Real - Articles Surfing

When you first make the decision to work from home, whether it's starting your own business or working for someone else, it's easy to get caught up in the excitement of it all and sometimes certain aspects fall through the cracks.

Unfortunately, if you don*t take the time to plan out your business and consider every angle of working from home, you may find yourself quickly becoming a part of the 70% of home business owners that fail within the first year.

If you don*t think this can happen to you, check out Kelly McCausey's latest guest, the owner of Marlo Quinn, on wahmtalkradio.com and I can guarantee that you'll be reconsidering.

It's not about having the motivation, the ideas, and the knowledge to create a viable home business; it's about having the plan to guide you there. While it's true that many women who own successful home businesses did so without a plan, it certainly does no harm for you to create one for yourself as a way to get things rolling.

Here are 3 things that you might not take into consideration when you decide to work from home:

1. Do you have the time? You might be thinking, well yes, I*m at home all day. But what about your children, activities, household duties? Are you capable of balancing all those things so that you can run a home business too? Just because you*re going to be working from home doesn*t mean you don*t have to work. The truth is, you*re going to have to work harder then you*ve ever worked before. Are you ready to miss time with your family, work until the wee hours of morning, work within a schedule and manage your time wisely? Don*t kid yourself into thinking that you can work when you want and still make tons of money. The truth is, you*re going to have to make plenty of sacrifices to get to that point. However, it really is possible to set your own hours and make a good income, but it takes months of hard work to get there first. So if you*re not ready to make sacrifices in the name of business, then maybe you should reconsider and wait until you are ready.

2. How are you going to accomplish everything? Jumping too quickly into a business can leave you feeling confused and frustrated when things don*t happen the way you want, or expect them to. Outlining a plan for each phase of your business will give you a clear idea on what you need to do to get to and through each phase.

a) How will you operate your business? Online, from your home, or in a brick and mortar store?
b) Who is your target market? (who will buy from you)
c) If you choose to operate online, how will you get a website, domain name, will you need a shopping cart, a merchant, a designer?
d) How will you stock your store? What about photos?
e) How will market your business and finance your marketing efforts?
f) How will you fulfill orders and ship them? Will you be able to get to the post office to ship items in a timely manner?
g) Do you need any special licenses to operate? What about insurance? Packaging?

There are so many things to consider when you choose to run a business from home, that if you have a plan in place it will be so much easier to accomplish your goals and prepare yourself for any unexpected things that may come up.

3. Are you prepared for growth? A home business is no simple undertaking. It takes sweat, guts, and tears to build up a business to the point that you can actually make an income. Depending on the type of business you have, will you be able to handle it on your own, or will you need to outsource, hire help, or even move into a facility? Do you even want to grow that large, or will you be happy running a small business? This is something you need to seriously think about. For example, if you own a children's boutique selling clothes that you make yourself by hand, what will you do when the orders start coming in faster then you can keep up with? Will you have someone to help you, will you look for a manufacturer for your designs, or will you have to start handing out refunds? Being prepared to handle growth before it happens will make the transition go smoothly when the time comes.

So before you jump on the work at home bandwagon looking for a fast buck, slow down and keep it real. Ask questions, research, consider hiring a business coach to help you get started the right way, and most importantly do something you love!

Submitted by:

Melissa Ingold

This article is brought to you by Writing From Home: Writing for work at home mom businesses, website content, articles, marketing materials, and free reprint articles will improve your sales, website traffic, and help you build customer trust. For more information visit http://www.writingfromhome.com. Check out the free "Wahm Content Knowledge Seminar" at http://www.wahmwebsitecontent.com and learn how website content can drive traffic to your site, build customer trust, and create residual income.



        RELATED SITES






https://articlesurfing.org/business/keeping_it_real.html

Copyright © 1995 - Photius Coutsoukis (All Rights Reserved).










ARTICLE CATEGORIES

Aging
Arts and Crafts
Auto and Trucks
Automotive
Business
Business and Finance
Cancer Survival
Career
Classifieds
Computers and Internet
Computers and Technology
Cooking
Culture
Education
Education #2
Entertainment
Etiquette
Family
Finances
Food and Drink
Food and Drink B
Gadgets and Gizmos
Gardening
Health
Hobbies
Home Improvement
Home Management
Humor
Internet
Jobs
Kids and Teens
Learning Languages
Leadership
Legal
Legal B
Marketing
Marketing B
Medical Business
Medicines and Remedies
Music and Movies
Online Business
Opinions
Parenting
Parenting B
Pets
Pets and Animals
Poetry
Politics
Politics and Government
Real Estate
Recreation
Recreation and Sports
Science
Self Help
Self Improvement
Short Stories
Site Promotion
Society
Sports
Travel and Leisure
Travel Part B
Web Development
Wellness, Fitness and Diet
World Affairs
Writing
Writing B