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Running a home based business doesn’t suit everyone, so before you get all excited about the latest home business opportunity you’ve found please take a moment to browse through the following list of pros and cons of running a business from home.
Pros:
- You get to spend more time with your family.
- It’s a great way to bootstrap your business when you are starting out.
- Short commute.
- Apparently running a business from home decreases the chances of divorce.
- You can work in your pyjamas.
- You can choose your own hours.
- You get to choose your office.
- You can work with the cat/dog/pet of choice.
- You can nominate the local coffee shop as your “board room”.
Cons:
- Your family get used to having you around and can expect to be able to interrupt you.
- It can be hard to switch off and stop working.
- There is no separation of work and social life.
- Not ideal if customers visit you.
- Might not create the right image of your business in a customers mind.
- You’ll need to be more disciplined, it’s easy to be distracted by household tasks, playstation or cold beer and sunny gardens.
- There’s no colleagues to chat with at the coffee machine/water cooler.
- It can start to take over your home.
If you’re already working from home, let us know how you get on.
This is an entry in the Home Based Business Group Writing Project. The photo is by:.Fabio
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This blog is about business opportunities and ideas that I spot, think of or hear about and think are useful and interesting. It is intended to provide ideas and inspriation for you to help you find the right business idea for you to then grow it into a successful business.
Hi there – it is nice to see someone posting the cons for a change.
I ran my last business from an office and this one from home. And while I love not having to drive to work – I hate the fact that work has taken over my home.
Another drawback is, when you work from home and also employ people, you wind up having staff meetings in your home and I don’t like doing that.
Now, if I had a bigger house, with a seperate office it would be so much better.
Catherine,
Thanks, I think it’s always worthwhile knowing the good and bad points.
very good poct John, and thanks for submitting it , there are indeed cons , but the rewards can easily outweigh them
Some good points. I’ve found myself constantly doing small changes to my website in the evenings or at weekends even though I’m not officially working. Good thing with that is that it doesn’t really feel like work as there’s nobody other than yourself waiting for it to be done.
One bonus I was reacquainted with last week was being able to make the most of the nice day and go out on my bike down to the seafront for an hour or so. Not something I’d likely do at this time of the year if I was getting back from a job at 6pm.
[...] The Pros and Cons of Home Based Business by John [...]
[...] John Crickett presents The Pros And Cons Of Home Based Businesses posted at Business Opportunities And Ideas, saying, “An overview of the pros and cons of running a business from your home.” [...]
Great post, especially with the cons…you’re right, so many other sites are blindly pro homeworking! I started working from home, moved to an office and now work from a converted shop at the front of my home (converted from our old front room.) When I worked from the kitchen table it was hard to switch off and you couldn’t have staff/client meetings as you grew…however you could get out and that broke the day up too – now I spend all day stuck at the shop normally. But the great thing about the shop is that it’s totally seperate from my house (round the back) so I totally shut of business at the end of the day/weekend and shut of the house during working times…best of both worlds! And my commute is 2 seconds – with mug of tea in hand and cat at feet – bliss!
All in all homeworking is great – afterall if the guys at Google can start in a garage, then I’m happy enough at home!
Freya
Thanks Freya. Sounds like you’ve got an ideal setup (apart from the cat – I’m more of a dog person).
Ahhh but once you meet Mr Charlesworth (our cat) – I’m sure he’ll turn you away from dogs for ever!! He also miows at the top of his lungs until we let him into the shop – still he keeps the mice at bay!
Unfortunately I’m allergic to cat hair (it makes me wheeze) so while I like cats, I tend to keep my distance.
I’d like to give a few more pros, based on the experience of my wife and I who are both working in separate MLM busineses (for her working around our now seven year old son, and for me around a full time job).
1. There are no problems with covering school holidays or sick kids – you just ease off on the hours you do when your family needs you – no boss to worry about.
2. It can give a bored housewife/husband a new challenge in life and get them thinking outside the confines of their 4 walls.
3. For us it gives us something to work on together in the evenings – much better than sitting in front of the TV.
4. We know we are putting in a lot of hard work now (and things tend to move pretty slowly at the start), but we think that provided we are dedicated and keep plugging away, that ultimately our MLM businesses could give us a great financial future, moreso than a regular paid job.