Life Management and Your Home Based Business
By Debra Braden
The key word
here would be balance, in an ideal world. Depending on what your home business is, a great deal of time
may be needed to get it off the ground, or to keep it going.
Balance may be difficult to achieve.
But with thought and creativity it is possible.
Running your own
home-based business sounds like a great idea.
You dream of setting your own hours, being your own boss, and
calling the shots. What you
may forget is that unless you’re able to hire employees right away,
you’re the boss, the mail clerk, the secretary, the accounting
department… Do you get my
drift? There usually aren’t
designated people to handle the many varied aspects of running a business. You may find that you’re working longer hours than you did
on your 9 to 5. The
difference of course is that you’re doing this for yourself and your
family, not someone else.
So what’s an
entrepreneur to do? You may
not want to hear this, but if you have a family their support is very
important. Have a family
meeting before you start your business.
Let them know what your plans are and how these plans are going to
affect them. This way you
give the family a chance to offer support without feeling like they’ve
been put in a threatening situation, one in which they feel they are
losing out. Let them know how
much time you intend to devote to your business.
Talk to them about any scheduling adjustments that may need to be
made. You may be pleasantly
surprised at how willing your family is to pitch in.
Friends and family need to
be considered when running a home-based business.
Even though this type of business is growing in popularity, there
are still many people that think that you’re not really working if
you’re at home. You’ll
have to rectify that inaccurate assumption, quickly. If you’ll be devoting specific hours to your business let
others know the hours that you are not available.
They may not like it at first but they’ll soon get used to it if
you’re consistent.
Another
very important aspect of running a home-based business is separating your
work from the rest of your life. Make
time for yourself, family and friends.
All work and no play not only make Jack a dull boy, but it
increases the chance of burnout. Not
to mention alienating family and friends.
As
you can see there’s more to planning a business than start up costs,
location, etc. Don’t forget
to plan for those closest to you.
