Ten Reasons To Start Your Own Home-Based Small Business

[sparkleandshine]

1. To earn some money! Use your earnings to treat your kids or to put towards things like Christmas or a holiday. Who knows, if you stick at it and work hard, maybe one day your earnings from your own business might add up to a part time or even a full time income.
2. To replace having a pension plan for your retirement or to add to your existing one.
3. For the tax advantages and benefits.
4. To have something that's yours that no one can take away from you.
5. To not have all your eggs in one basket.
6. To create a role for yourself which is more challenging or creative than your current day job.
7. It looks great on your CV.
8. To meet lots of like minded people and make new friends.
9. For the opportunity to buy things for yourself and for presents for others at trade (discounted) prices.
10.To work when you want, where you want, how you want, with who you want, wearing whatever you want - yes, even in your PJs! - without having to worry about organising childcare / the cost of childcare


Those are my reasons - can you think of any more? I worked full time from home when my daughter was little and now combine working from home with part time work

 

[Stims]

There certainly are many advantages to being self employed.. but lets not forget the disadvantages

I think i'd like to work for myself, i just need a good enough idea.

 

[Scott@KarmaContent]

I work for myself full-time now and the big driver for me was that I didn't want a boss any more. It always niggled me that I had to ask them permission to live my life. 'Can I have the morning off so I go and watch my daughter's class assembly', or 'Can I have time off to go to the dentist?' If you've got a particular tit for a boss they'll say no to these things.

 

[Karonher]

I am self-employed rather than running a business. There are advantages, but it can be worrying when work does not come in.

 

[Jon]

Even all those reasons wouldn't be enough for me to pack in a full time waged job


Would have to start off part time and be on such an upwards curve that I was confident it was worth doing


Like Karonher says, if the work doesn't come in I bet it is pretty worrying

 

[sparkleandshine]

No I would never suggest anyone give up a full time job, it can be very slow progress. But for those who can't work full time for whatever reason - carers, students, people with health issues - its good to have other possibilities. Its also possible to build a business from scratch entirely in your free time whilst working full time, but you would have to really believe in what you are doing. I know someone who is doing this he is a printer, his full time job, by day and a kitchen fitter, his own business, by night.

 

[sparkleandshine]

What would you say are the downsides then ? For me when I was full time with Avon it was that your income can be irregular and also some months you might work really hard and earn very little, but then equally other months you might not work very hard at all but earn a good amount of money for the little bit of work you had done, so that was an upside

 

[Jon]

What would you say are the downsides then ? For me when I was full time with Avon it was that your income can be irregular and also some months you might work really hard and earn very little, but then equally other months you might not work very hard at all but earn a good amount of money for the little bit of work you had done, so that was an upside

I think we need to separate here


Running your own business from scratch


and


Running a franchise or MLM/Direct selling thing where 80% of the thinking is done for you and you are stifled creatively thinking because of numerous rules.


the two I feel are SO different

 

[sparkleandshine]

I agree Jon they are, when working for an mlm they say you are working for yourself but really you're working for them but on a self employed rather than employed basis

 

[Stims]

I agree Jon they are, when working for an mlm they say you are working for yourself but really you're working for them but on a self employed rather than employed basis

Yes exactly, and half of them have such poor products (think health craze industry) that they also do it as a type of marketing.

 

[sparkleandshine]

That's when you are getting more into pyramid scheme territory, where the products being sold are massively overpriced for what they are so basically unsaleable in the real world and the company is really just making its money by selling its starter kits to unsuspecting new sign ups who wont then be able to go on to make the sales they need to make for the business they have bought into to ever be viable for them. That's when things start to get a bit murky! Avoid at all costs! There are people all over the US and probably nowadays more and more in the UK with garages and spare rooms full of this kind of stuff, sadly