Assessing Your Assets
by Phil Hanson
Do you have sufficient knowledge and skills to meet the requirements and obligations of your work-at-home business? If not, the time to acquire them is before you sever all ties with existing employment.
The same thing applies to any equipment you may need for running your business. The more you already have, the less expensive (and risky) starting your new business will be.
Will you have sufficient space in which to work? Often, a spare bedroom, den, party room, family room, kitchen, basement or garage will suffice, depending on the kind of business. Know how much room you’re going to need before you abandon other options.
Are you self-directing and self-motivating? If you need to have an authority figure standing over you, telling you every move to make and cracking a whip, you probably won’t last too long as a home-based self-employed businessperson. As a self-employed individual, you’re both boss and primary worker. Without you making the decisions and taking appropriate actions, nothing will get done.
That’s not to say you can’t have mentors or hire consultants; successful business people do it all the time. But, if you come to rely too much on others to make business decisions for you, you’re not really the boss. You’re putting control of your business in someone else’s hands, thus defeating your purpose. Spare yourself the humiliation and agony. Keep your day job.
|
