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5 Tips For The Aspiring Stay-At-Home Entrepreneur
An overhead photo of a person sitting at a white table with a laptop. Books, notepads, phones, and cups are nearby on the table.It seems as though everyone these days has a side hustle on the side of their regular job, but having a successful home-based business comes with challenges of its own. From work/life balance to day-to-day operations of running a business from your home, there are many considerations for the successful entrepreneur: personal, professional, and legal. If you have or are thinking about starting a home-based business, our Small Business Consulting Service can help self-employed sole proprietors get their business off the ground and soaring to new heights! And our Home Based Business Add On may be right for you if you need legal advice and assistance 24/7 from experienced, dedicated attorneys: from reading contracts to making sure you get paid, having a lawyer in your pocket removes stress and lets you focus on what you do best. Learn more about this add-on to your Legal Protection Plan and read on for a few home-based business tips.
Make A Schedule & Stick To It
If it's work time, be working. If you're with your kids, be with your kids and not distracted doing something else for your home-based business. Setting office hours can help you get more done and keep your professional and personal lives separate. Don't answer work or business calls during family time and make sure your family knows when it's your work time... and stick to it!
Take Breaks
You can't run a successful business if you're running on empty, so make sure to set aside time for yourself as well as time for family and time for work. Get to bed early and take naps when you can. Nothing gets accomplished if you're not taking care of yourself.
Keep A Planner
Plan everything: meetings, calls, lunches, date nights, birthday parties, classes, vacations, goals, rest time, play time, and more. Anything and everything can be planned, and making sure you get to everything means making plans every day and sticking to them. Set goals for each day, week, month, and year. Don't think that you have to put dates with your spouse or lunch with your friends off to have a highly successful business; they just need to be planned in advance. You're working hard to be able to spend time with your family and friends!
Delegate Wherever Possible
When your business becomes more successful, consider hiring out some of the things that take up a lot of your time. Consider hiring a cleaning service to come in once or twice per week, set up an online system to make your appointments and meetings for you, or consider hiring an accountant to take over those tasks. As your business becomes more successful, you'll be able to find ways to create more time by delegating out tasks that take up a lot of time.
Networking
Your business will grow faster the more people you know, so building relationships with your clients and others you do business with will be important as your business grows. You may even find that, as you get closer to the people you interact with, that your professional and personal lives can bleed into each other a little here and there; for instance bringing your kids to a casual meeting or other event.
If you have questions about starting or managing a home based business, our Small Business Consulting Services and Home-Based Business add on may be good options for you. Make an appointment to discuss your business needs today!
Five Tips For Home-Based Business Owners
An organized desk with paper and computer monitorRunning a business from your home often sounds great: working for yourself, getting creative, and making money doing something you love to do. We offer special legal subscription plan coverage for home based businesses to take some of the legal guesswork out of running your business day-to-day, but there are other, practical considerations, too:
Where You Live
There may be rules for the kinds of home-based businesses that can be run from your neighborhood. Apartment living means knowing what is within the rules for business activity and what the apartment management will allow. If you're renting, talk with your landlord or apartment manager first and make sure that your home-based business doesn't break any rules in your lease.
Where You Work
Being self-motivated and focused means having a dedicated work space, and it is difficult to concentrate on daily work tasks from the couch. You can get more work done if you set aside an area in your home that is private, conducive to your work style and the kind of work you do, where your work can be kept organized. Dedicate a corner of the living room to a workspace, or make sure that the kitchen table is cleared at the end of the night and ready for work the next day. If you have enough space, set aside a room for your work.
Anticipate Distractions
It's wonderful not to have to commute to work, but maintaining focus throughout the day when you're sharing your working and living space can be challenging, particularly if you live with others. There are dozens of ways that working from home can be distracting: conversations, daily chores, child care, personal phone calls, visitors, and neighbors can all become work distractions fairly easily. You can combat some of these by making sure that your family or roommates know and understand your work schedule and give you time and space to work. Scheduling your time so that you have hours blocked out for work tasks and household tasks that don't overlap is also helpful. Communicate your needs to others in your household and ask for their support in your new endeavor. Sectioning off part of your home as an official workspace not only allows you to establish boundaries during work hours from those you live with, but has the added bonus of possibly being a tax write off.
Develop Discipline
Time management and motivation are two of the biggest weaknesses mentioned by work-from-home entrepreneurs. Taking an online time management course may prove helpful, and many are free of charge. Keeping a list of your goals within sight during your workday can also help keep you motivated. These goals might be more freedom to travel, or saving for a big purchase, or helping people. Whatever your reasons for starting your home-based business, remember your passion and stay focused on the big picture.
Take Breaks
Staying committed and working hard are both important, but knowing when to stop and take a breather is just as important. You can't help anyone or get your tasks completed if you're exhausted. Just like you need to create household boundaries to do your work, you also need to create work boundaries so you can live the life working from home can give you. Create set hours when you take business calls. Shut down your computer at a specific time every day. Put away your work documents and set up for the next day at a certain time each day. Not taking the time to rest can cause your relationships to suffer and you can burn out. Create a schedule for your work tasks and home tasks each day and stick to it as much as possible.
Running a successful home-based business takes dedication, diligence, motivation, and organization. Learning to work around distractions, keeping yourself motivated, and staying organized will increase your chances of success, help you meet your goals, and give you time to do to the things you want to do outside of work, too. Knowing how to balance your work and life to maintain healthy home and work relationships takes a lot of effort, but the end result is amazingly rewarding for you, your family, and your customers.
You're not on your own running your home-based business. Our small business consulting services and legal subscription plans for individuals and home-based businesses can help you start out - or keep going! - on the right foot!