In business, it’s often said that the ‘location is everything’… and in many cases, that can be true.
However with the wonderful technology we have available to us today, working from home is becoming more and more popular… and practical.
For many, working from home is the ideal choice. While this sounds great at first, it’s not always practical and not everyone is disciplined enough to do this successfully.
To decide if this is a suitable option for you, first consider:
- The age of your children, if you have them (this may work for or against a home-based business)
- How disciplined you are
- Whether you have enough space
- How your family feels about this
- What the Council regulations are
- If you will be employing staff and if so, if you are prepared for them to be in your home
- Whether you will have customers visiting and if so, can you suitably maintain your home? Do you have enough parking available?
- Whether you will affect your neighbours
- Whether you will have any hazardous chemicals on the property or excessive noise
- Whether you will be creating extra waste and if so, how you will deal with that
- What implications this will bring regarding security issues, insurance, clients visiting after-hours
- If you’re renting your home, will your landlord allow you to run this business from home?
- Do you need to be easily seen by customers or can you operate ‘virtually’ – over the internet/mail?
Mind you, just because things don’t look 100% rosy once you’ve been through this list doesn’t mean working from home is not an option for you. If you can’t have customers visiting for some reason, you may choose to offer a free delivery service, making sure you factor this cost into your pricing. Cafés are also great place to arrange meetings.
Here’s to your success in business…
Donna-Marie
