Am I Cut Out for a Home-Based Business?

Before you embark on starting a home-based business, it is important to do some self-evaluation to ensure that you’re on the right track for your business idea. Being brutally honest is part of the process of getting started. Answer the following to help you make your decision. Don’t hold back; be honest.

Nine Points For Home-Based Business Self-Evaluation

These nine points should help guide you in making the choice to start your own home-based business. It is more than just picking a product, service, or networking marketing company and jumping in. Are YOU really ready? You need to ask yourself the hard questions!

1. Are You Self-Motivated? – Are you able to set schedules for yourself and get things done on time without having someone else set the schedule for you? When you work for yourself you are going to have to determine the processes by which things get done. Can you handle doing that? If that’s a weakness for you, can you get help from someone like a business coach or personal mentor?
    
2. Discover Your Why – Figure out why you want to start a business. If it’s to be rich, to be able to sit on the beach all day, or to “have more time,” then you’re fooling yourself and you need to find a different type of job. Sure, eventually you may have more control over your time, but when you first start you’ll work harder for free than you’ve ever imagined you could.
    
3. Be Realistic – You may not have a boss technically anymore, but depending on what type of business you start, you may suddenly feel like you have many bosses. For example if you become a virtual assistant, you’ll likely have 8 to 10 clients who all think they’re your boss. You’ll have to find a way to balance this fact with your expectations.
    
4. List Your Resources – Before starting a business, list all your current resources, whether it’s software and tools or people who can help you. This resource list will help you to ask people to help you, and will help you know what you have going for you right now.
    
5. Do You Play Well with Others? – You might think a home business means you don’t have to deal with anyone else, but often times the opposite is true. If you know that you have difficulty with others, you may want to choose a home business to start where you don’t have to deal with people as much.
    
6. You’ll Need to Wear Many Hats – When you start a business you may have to be the bookkeeper, the laborer, and the candlestick maker. This is how it is when you own your business; you do what needs to be done at the moment it needs to be done, even if it’s something you hate. Sure, you can outsource but when that falls through, you must do it.
    
7. Do You Have Enough Experience? – When you think of the type of business you want to start, are you truly experienced enough to do it or should you start at a different level to move up to what you really want to do? For example, if you’ve never had a successful home business, you can’t coach others to have one.
    
8. Do You Have a Good Relationship with Money? – When it comes to making your own money in a home business, you’ll have to become an expert at money management. Sometimes you will feel as if you’re working for free; other times the money will seem to be on autopilot.
    
9. Do You Understand the Competition? – One aspect of choosing whether you’re right for a home business is to look at your competition. Determine whether or not you can deliver at least as well as them, with your own twist.
    

Not everyone is cut out for having a home business. Some people need the structure of a place to go each day, and a manager to lead them, in order to be successful at what they do. It’s imperative that you are real, open, and honest, with yourself during your self-evaluation. Pretending won't make it happen.

If You Think You Need Help Then Ask.

Rev. Stephen B. Henry is available, approachable, and affordable. Reach him by email, here: thewiz@ourhutch.com.

Kat Sturtz is a business, life, and marketing coach and may be reached by email here: kat@rockingyourpath.com.

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