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Home Office - Serious Planning Starting Home-Based Business Requires Serious Planning In business for yourself! You’re the boss with control of your schedule and the people with whom you work. Work from home and integrate family and professional demands. Set your own financial goals and achieve them. In business for yourself! Set adrift with no direction. Work alone with no one else to talk to. Time is unstructured, family interrupts, and you stress over your next source of income. Which scenario describes your image of a home-based business? If it is the first then you’re on your way; if the second, continue as an employee. Starting a home-based business is a serious undertaking. Here are some considerations to help you decide to do so. How viable is your business plan (and do you have one?) Examine the scope of your product or service and your target audience. Is there a need for what you have to offer that you can fulfill in a superior manner? Write your business plan on paper and review it with people who can help you focus the plan. The US Small Business Administration and your local Chambers of Commerce offer a variety of resources to help solidify your plan and take initial steps to starting your own business. Should you start part-time while working for someone else or go full-time? Part of your decision is based on your financial reserves and potential for support from others while you get established. Consider that if you go full-time you can devote 100% of your time to building your business, enabling you to reach your financial goals faster than if you dabble part-time. Several variables help you decide whether to base your business at home or in an outside office. Do you have—or can you create—the space at home to set up an office? You may not need a lot of space but it should be dedicated for business use only. Tax implications and business operations demand a separate space. How disciplined are you to consistently “go to work” at home, or do you need to go to an outside office to conduct your business? Check your community for zoning restrictions against home-based businesses. Local real estate prices may be conducive to leasing a small office space that a larger business cannot use or locate a shared-office facility developed specifically for individual entrepreneurs to share administrative resources. Once you decide your business will be home-based your dedicated space needs some basic equipment. The following basics assume a “typical” office set-up without special requirements for unique businesses (like drafting tables, complex computer equipment, or special tools and supplies). First, you need a way in which to shut out the noise and traffic of home life. Ideally you should create your office in a dedicated room. If you cannot, then carve out a section of a room and petition it with a screen. The space should be away from other aspects of home life including the television, family room, play area, and kitchen. Your space should be attractive to and professional for clients if you will host visitors in your home office. Next, your home office must accommodate the equipment you will use. You need power outlets (or circuit-controlled outlet strips) to handle the power resources your equipment will draw. You need adequate lighting and a means for shutting out the light (if your business involves projecting images, developing photographs, or long-term use of a computer monitor). You need an uncluttered desktop work surface for writing and furniture—and a system—for filing documents and records. You need strong furniture to support electronic devices such as a computer, printer, fax machine and telephone/answering machine. Seating should include at least an ergonomic chair for you and an attractive chair for a visitor. A serious home-based business is a business that happens to be based in your home instead of an employer’s facility. Treat it as serious business. (c) Sylvia Henderson and The Gazette Newspapers 2001 |
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