Do you want to start a home-based business and free yourself from the rat race? Do you want to be your own boss? I bet you do! These thoughts have probably crossed your mind. It’s why you’re here in the first place! As an entrepreneur who started off working from home, I can personally say that it’s a good way to create an extra income for yourself. It may even develop into a full time business.
Many home based entrepreneurs earn an income of $100k (or more) annually. Starting and building a successful home-based business can completely change your life. These are just a few reasons why starting a home-based business can be a great idea (for the right person). I’m sure some of the most successful home-based business owners can come up with 100 reasons why working from home is a great way to start your entrepreneurial journey.
In this blog I identify the top three reasons I believe anyone who wants to make money from home should strongly consider starting a home-based business. I also identify a few home based business ideas that you can build on to get started. So if you’ve already been thinking about it, by the time you’re done reading you’ll like be ready to take the plunge!
Here are the Top 3 Reasons to Start a Home-Based Business
Reason 1: The Income Potential – Building a successful and profitable business can result in a higher take home pay. Much higher. Sure it may take much time and effort. However, building something of your own will feel good! The thought of your potential earnings exceeding your current income ten-fold. Starting a home based business also gives you the opportunity to create a residual income. That means you’ll be able to make money while you sleep. It’s called a passive income. A passive income is every smart entrepreneur’s goal. (And if it isn’t, it should be). Think about it this way, starting a home-based business could result in you becoming financially secure (and free) in the way you want to be.
Reason 2: The Lifestyle – Some business owners get caught up in the day to day operations of the business and never take time off. This can be avoided if you do it right. The key is to build a team. Yes, you can build a team as a home-based business owner. You can hire freelancers or contractors to assist you if needed. Or you can build a business that makes money on auto-pilot (more about this later). The key is to free up your time so you’re not working your life away. Most of us spend about 85% of our life working. 100% of us would rather being doing other things most of the time (like actually enjoying our lives outside of work).
If you build your home-based business in a way that it can make money while you sleep, your work/life balance will improve. Your lifestyle will change. You’ll be able to travel more and do more things with your family. You may even be able do a few of the things on your bucket list. That’s reason enough to start an in-home business.
Reason 3: Becoming a Leader – People will look up to you. You’ll be an inspiration to them. When they see the type of lifestyle you have and how happy you are as a home business owner, it’ll motivate them to accomplish their career goals. It may even encourage them to start their own home business. If that happens, it gives you the opportunity to help them make money doing what you do (and make a percentage of the money they make). Being a leader in this capacity can increase your income even more. (This is actually the business model behind network marketing and multi-level marketing). The reward of being a home based business leader is being able to teach others how to do it so you increase your income potential.
Which Home-Based Business Opportunity or Idea is Right for You?
There are literally hundreds of different types of home based businesses you can start. In another recent blog I outlined three low cost business start-up ideas that you can do from home. I discussed referral marketing, affiliate marketing, janitorial services, and non-medical personal home care businesses. (All of these except janitorial services can be done from home).
The type of business you start should depend primarily on two things. Your passion and the potential profitability of the business. Other important factors you should consider include whether or not you’ll need to hire help and how much of your time it will take. Choose the type of business that will meet your lifestyle and income needs and desires. This is exactly what LenCred Funding Analyst Anthony Oliver did to determine if he should launch his home based business, Humble Beginnings Co. Anthony chose a business he was passionate about that also had the ability to generate significant revenue and produce an additional income stream for him. Go here to learn more about Humble Beginnings.
Three Steps You Should Take Before Starting Your Home-Based Business
Before starting your home business, I suggest that your write your business plan, register your business and get capital (if you need it). Going through the business plan writing process is critical because this is where you learn more about your business industry. A lot of research is done during the business plan writing process. During this process you’ll be able to determine if the type of home business you want to start is (financially) worth your time. In another recent blog I also discussed how to write a business plan. Whether you do it yourself, or hire someone, don’t forget this all important step!
Once you determine if it’s a viable business, the next thing to do is legally register the business in the state where you are operating. Yes, you still have to legally register your business even though you’ll be operating it in-home. There are many different types of business entities you can register. It can get confusing if you don’t know anything about business formation. There are sole proprietorship’s (which I discuss here), limited liability companies and corporations. These are all types of business entities. I suggest contacting an expert like The Company Corporation to determine which business entity type will work for your home business.
After writing your business plan and legally registering your business, you’re ready to begin. During the business plan writing process you may have discovered that you need startup capital to really get your business off to a strong start. If that’s the case, the third and final step you want to take before you start is– get capital.
2 Simple and Inexpensive Tools You Can Use to Start a Home-Based Business
Starting your business at home can be lucrative and less costly than starting a brick and mortar business. It can also be inexpensive to promote and build your business online. There are a number of inexpensive tools that you can use to build your home based business online. These tools will help you understand how to implement effective online marketing strategies and help you manage your business. I have used the following tools to build and manage a home based business and they have produced good results for me:
SiteSell – I used this tool to help me learn how to build an online business when first starting out. This is the perfect tool when starting a new business online because it teaches you how to use your passion and knowledge to build a business online. It’s also great because it was designed to work well for beginners as well as those with advanced website building and internet marketing skills. It provides step by step video training that educates you how to build and design your website in the simplest way possible, how to write and develop excellent written content for the web (that will generate lead and sales), and how to analyze your website marketing efforts to determine if they are paying off. Overall, SiteSell provides you with everything that you will ever need to build a profitable home based business online.
Google Apps for Business (now called GSuite) – I use this tool daily to manage my home based business and I absolutely love it. Google Apps for Business is a very robust tool that includes just about everything you need to manage your home based business. It comes with email, calendar, and google office products such as sheets and slides (which is the equivalent to Microsoft Word and PowerPoint). It also comes with access to the Google Apps Marketplace where you can find complimentary software that integrates into Google Apps for Business. This includes scheduling software that enables you to schedule appointments with your clients, invoicing software that enables you to invoice your clients so they can pay you online, and accounting software that enables you to manage your business finances. All of these are basic yet key tools you need to manage each component of your business.
I have found that the aforementioned tools work well for beginners. SiteSell teaches you how to build a profitable business online and Google Apps for Business helps you manage your business. They also cost less than $400.00 per year combined. That’s an affordable amount for entrepreneurs who are just starting out and testing the waters to determine if their business will be profitable. Why not build your dream business online (in the simplest way possible) and save money while doing it?
Let LenCred Help You Get Startup Capital for You Home-Based Business
If it turns out that you need startup capital for your business, LenCred can help. LenCred specializes in working with startup business owners to obtain the capital needed to launch their companies. The average LenCred startup business client obtains at least $30,000 in funding. Even if you need less (or more) than that, LenCred may be able to help you.
The LenCred team specializes in helping business owners obtain unsecured business lines of credit. Unsecured business lines of credit is one of the easiest types of capital for startup business owners to obtain. All you need to do to get approved for an unsecured business line of credit is meet the lender’s personal credit criteria. If you have a good personal credit history and you’re starting a home based business that needs a capital infusion, contact the LenCred team for more information on how to get started.
