Now, this in itself isn’t bad — a magician performing at parties and business conventions can make a fine living. But again, the overall income is limited by how many hours the magician is willing to perform.
I realize that any business can grow at the hands of a clever marketer, but some are easier to grow than others. And businesses where you work face to face (and especially one where you are the selling point) have a fairly limited scope in terms of expansion and increasing your income.
For my own business, I changed it from marketing myself as a writer to myself offering “writing services.” This means I have other freelancers take on certain projects, and then I approve their work. Since I see nobody face to face, I just changed some wording on my website and hired another writer.
Consider Your Lifestyle
In choosing your business, you also need to consider your lifestyle and what you enjoy doing. Otherwise, there will be trouble later on.
Here are a few examples of businesses conflicting with lifestyles:
• Someone who really doesn’t like working weekends opens a catering business.
• Someone who doesn’t like working evenings starts a home computer repair business (evenings are when most clients will be home).
• Someone who relies on others for care and/or transportation starts a courier service where he or she would be needed to deliver important documents at a moment’s notice.
The conflicts here may seem obvious, but in the excitement of starting a business, the obvious often gets overlooked because of the New Business Blinders.
My first business was an advertising business where the main product was a direct-mail coupon. My business partner and I were so excited at the prospect of the direct-mail fortunes we’d make that we overlooked one teeny little thing — I hated to cold-call and sell door-to-door (and he worked full time, so he couldn’t do it
either). Well, cold-calling and approaching businesses door-to-door are the primary ways a local direct-mail product is sold. Especially in the beginning.
Yeah, it should have been obvious to us. But it wasn’t. Starting entrepreneurs are blind to a lot of obvious things. It wasn’t until after all the planning was done and I had to hit the pavement and walk into that first business that I realized, “Wait a minute — I HATE doing this.”
It was a horrible feeling. That first day, before that first sales call, I sat in my car for an hour and listened to Iron Butterfly’s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” over and over again, afraid to get out of the car. Talk about a pathetic sight. My business was doomed right then and there. I eventually forced myself to make sales calls (and even made some sales), but I hated every second of it. And the business slowly died.
That’s why I’m telling you this now: No matter what business you are going into, make sure the business you pick really matches your goals, your lifestyle, your tolerance for work, your income expectations, etc. You’ll be much better off in the long run, whether you have an Iron Butterfly CD or not.
8
Ten Really Great Things About A Home-Based Business
In this book I go over a ton of things that will go wrong and point out important aspects of owning a business that you might miss. Essentially, I go over all sorts of “bad” things that could happen. So this chapter addresses only the good parts about owning a home-based business. It’s my attempt to spread a little sunshine. With that in mind, here are ten great things about owning a home-based business.
1. You Are Paid What You Are Really Worth
Do you think your work and efforts are worth $95 per hour, but your employer begs to differ? Well, once you are the employer, you set the rate. No more feeling underpaid — if you feel underpaid in your own business, trust me, you’re doing something wrong.
2. You Call the Shots — All of Them
You set the work rules, the hours of operation, the amount that gets spent on advertising — you do it all. Everything is run your way. For many people (myself included), this is a big deal. See, I always thought I could do it better than management — and now I get to do just that.
You also get to largely pick and choose the work you want to do. If you want to specialize in the one or two aspects of your business that really interest you, you can. Nobody is going to give you projects you don’t like — you have complete control over accepting them or not.
3. The Commute Is Usually Really Nice
My commute is about 50 feet. As long as I successfully navigate the sleeping cat on the stairs, there’s very little traffic. Depending on the type of home-based business you choose to start, this could vary, but in most cases, your driving/commuting time will go down.
4. More Time at Home
I suppose this could be a good or bad thing depending on your home life, but I’m fairly confident that most people who start a home-based business partly do it so they can spend more time with their families. The absence of a long commute and the fact that you set the hours you work means more time at home.
5. You Get to See More of Your Children’s Activities
One of the biggest complaints many working parents have is that they miss a lot of school plays, concerts, little league games, etc. Working for yourself in a home-based business means you can attend more of these activities. I realize this could mean attending a three-hour play where your child has a 30-second, nonspeaking part playing a tree; or you being witness to yet another 23-0 error-filled thrashing that is called in the second inning due to the mercy rule, but at least you were there.
6. You Get Out of Doing Things You Don’t Want to Do
This is the flip side to having more free time. The nature of a home-based business is such that vitally important work can spring up at any time. Meaning it’s the perfect excuse to get out of doing things you don’t want to do.
I’m serious — this is a benefit of owning your own business. How many times have you fumbled for an excuse not to do something? Your own business is a slam-dunk excuse that nobody can argue with.
This excuse works almost universally. Say you have a neighbor who invites you to his annual BBQ, which is something you’d be happy to attend if it weren’t for the lousy food, your neighbor’s questionable hygiene, the three free-roaming dogs he insists on keeping, and the pool that doubles as a … well, let’s not get gross, but last year, there were 11 small children swimming for five hours with no bathroom breaks.
Instead of damaging relations with this key figure in your life, (after all, he’d give you the shirt off his back ... not that you’d ever want it, but the offer stands), you can instead just tell your neighbor that you have an important client (Mr. Recliner) that needs attention.
I know it sounds like I’m kidding, but I’m not. The simple fact is that working for yourself gives you a “get out of stuff free” card. It’s a nice perk.
7. No Coworkers
This can be a double-edged sword. The upside is coworkers are usually in the way — in the way of your career, in the way of getting things accomplished, in the way when you have a great idea …
However,