Pros and Cons of Starting a Home Business

January 5, 2014 by  
Filed under A Note for You, Front Page

English: Home office with computers

English: Home office with computers (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pros and Cons of Starting a Home Business

Beginning a business out of a private home has gone mainstream. Entrepreneurs in a variety of industries have started up successful business from their home office, bedroom, or kitchen table. You can find financial professionals, lawyers, landscapers, dog walkers, and architects who have decided to ditch the long commute and high rental fees that working in an office building might require. They have also decided to become self-employed to enjoy more control over their lives.

In fact, you do not have to have a lot of formal education or special high-tech skills to run your own business out of a home office. If you are not sure what kind of business that you could begin to earn a full-time or part-time income, you might refer to this article: Five Real Ways to Earn Extra Money. It concentrates on businesses that could be started in your spare time, but some of these businesses can turn into generous incomes.

Pros of Running a Business from Home

There is no doubt that working from home has a lot of advantages. The most obvious one is that 30 second commute from your bedroom to your personal computer. You do not have to get dressed up, fix your hair, or even wear shoes. Most people can conduct a lot of their daily tasks with an Internet connection, PC, and phone.

You may need to dress up to meet clients or attend to some tasks outside of your home, but you can always return to eat lunch out of your fridge. You can also save money on office rent. You might even be able to take advantage of a home office deduction on your income taxes.

Cons of Working out of Your House

Running a business from your house has some disadvantages. Some people crave the social life that a busy office provides, but working from home also provides a way to avoid office politics if you do not care for them. The other advantage and disadvantage is that your work will probably be accessible twenty-four hours a day. This means that you can maintain a flexible schedule, but you might find yourself devoting time to work that you would have spent on relaxing or tending your family otherwise.

Distractions might become a problem when you work from home. Friends and family might think that you have plenty of free time now that you do not have to commute to an office, but most self-employed people succeed because they invest a lot of time and energy in your business. If you still have kids running around or elderly folks who need attention, it might be tough to focus on your home business enough to really succeed.

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What is an Entrepreneur?

Time 100 2006 gala, Craig Newmark.

Time 100 2006 gala, Craig Newmark. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What is an Entrepreneur?

by Victor Green

The best way that I can describe what an Entrepreneur is ‘Some people want it to happen. Some wish it would happen. Others make it happen’. That, to me, describes what a true Entrepreneur is.

Entrepreneurs have that special quality, the ability to reinvent something that may have been around for years but they put a new twist on it and make it different and attractive to an audience.

There are two examples that I can cite that will explain what I mean.

For many years kids grew up with a main attraction, the circus. Like many things in life it became stale and repetitive and the public starting losing interest. Then came along an entrepreneur with an idea and reinvented the circus, Cirque de Soleil, and the rest is history.

Coffee, a well-established drink in the USA but someone thought of selling coffee on every street corner, again the rest is history.

My point is that entrepreneurs think outside the box, they look at things from a different perspective. Too many people look at business in black and white, how about 50 shades of grey!

I had examples in my business life when I created businesses that were different, not necessarily new. I put a new slant on ideas and presented them in another form which was acceptable.

When I started my publishing business, the prime objective of a publisher of a trade magazine was to get a readership amongst buyers. I saw an opportunity to reach people who recommended products. This was a totally different approach to the other magazines but my idea was good as the people who made recommendations did so every day. This worked and the magazine was an instant success.

My finance company would be in competition with every bank, or organization, that offered money; a very competitive business. The idea we came up with was to target a specific audience and we choose lawyers. It may sound strange as lawyers earn good money, they do, but they are not too good a running a business.

We realized that and we designed a loan scheme specifically for them. They needed cash at certain times of year to pay their errors and omissions liability insurance and taxes. The amounts were in many cases very large, usually in the millions and had to be paid on time. We created a specific idea which addressed these problems and this took us away from the banking world. We set out to be seen as a specialist lender just for lawyers. It worked very well.

If you are, or want to be, an Entrepreneur you must think an idea through and see why you will be different and better to what is on the market. Create a new approach. The most important thing is that the idea must be good for your customers as well as yourself. To sell an idea it has to make money for those you sell to, this is the way to guarantee success.

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How a Fault can Unlock a Vault

September 14, 2009 by  
Filed under Featured Articles, Wright Ideas

vault

This article is inspired by Robert Caldini and in work on influence. Readers will find tips on how to be more influential in business by increasing their trustworthiness.

 

Rochefoucauld wrote “We only confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no big ones.” I look around in the current news and I can see people putting this idea to work. Palin resigned. Governor Sanford tried to use it but he kept talking too much. Volkswagen used it when it came out and was not afraid to tell everyone how ugly the little car was. Having given your buyers two sides of the coin, you will be more effective in your persuasion. You have to have clear connections between the negative and positive attributes. If you want to increase your trustworthiness, then you do not have to think too hard about the things you reveal as a weakness.

 


Always make sure your dark cloud has a silver lining. The price can be high if your products last longer. Follow up with a benefit related to the buyers cost and not anything else that goes with your product. You need to make lemonade out of any lemons you may have. You can neutralize your drawback just by thinking it through.

 

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