The Benefits Of Having A Home Business

Without question the greatest lure for starting and running a business is the fact that you become your own boss. Of course, this is only partly true, for the simple reason that your customers will always be your bosses. I have been self-employed in various ventures for a number of years, with the majority being operated from my home. For me the lure of self-employment is the freedom, hands down. It is not so much the ability to create a significant income or the potential to generate equity, it is the sense of freedom and independence that being your own boss brings. What this means is that you can establish your own work schedule, you can work at any pace you desire, and you can earn how ever much you wish. Just so long as the work is getting completed, your customers and clients are delighted with your work, and you are meeting deadlines. And you can do all this in your slippers and bathrobe if you would like, unless someone is coming over for a meeting. More importantly, you can see goodbye to office politics.

While it may not be a good reason to start a business solely on the prospect of making big bucks, it is true that the majority of people do have the potential to make more money by owning and creating a business than they do working for a paycheck. This is because when you are working for someone else; there are just a limited number of hours in a day for which to earn an hourly wage or a commission. This is the primary reason why most people cannot get wealthy as a traditional employee unless they invest their money in something independent of their work. Trading time for money will never get anyone rich.

On the other hand, whenever you have a business of your own, you can multiply yourself by hiring others to increase the overall revenue of your business. This will in turn multiply the number of your customers who will buy your goods or services, you can duplicate your business model and open in new geographical areas, and you can duplicate and expand the number of products that you sell. Once you have built a business that is generating revenues and profits, duplicating what works can greatly increase your personal income and equity.

Even without duplicating, you can set your own wages, put in more hours to complete a job if necessary, and remain in control of that project. Too often in a business, you will have to wait for nine other departments to get on board before you can finish a task. Whenever you working at a pace that you control, you can ascertain just how long every task should take, you can charge customers accordingly, and then even finish the project on your own if it is feasible.

Having the ability to create your own work environment and the ability to be flexible in how you operate the business are even more of the major advantages of starting and operating a business from home. If you so choose, you can spend some of these commuting hours getting work done or enjoy more time with friends.

The typical employee will usually commute at least one total hour each day. This is an additional five hours each week to do as you wish. If you desire, you can exercise or jog right before lunch, pick the kids up after school, be at home to let the TV repairperson in, and do a host of other personal activities on your schedule, without sacrificing any of your business responsibilities.

You also have the opportunity to work in an office setting of your choice, decorate as you like, and decide which high-tech and no-tech appliances are to your liking. For the millions of people who have moved from cubicles to home offices, these personal choices are a major factor. Additionally, if you are green conscious, you can regulate your own heat, shut off unused lights and even go solar-powered if you so choose. While many businesses today are getting in step with the green environmental movement, plenty are not. You, as your own boss, can do so and feel that sense of doing something good for Mother Earth in your own little piece of the world.

Operating a business from home also qualifies you for any number of the tax benefits associated with operating a business, even if you work a regular job and operate your business only part time. As soon as you open for business, a portion of your utility bills are tax-deductible against business revenues, part of your transportation expenses (which is proportional to the amount of time and mileage your car was used for business purposes) are tax-deductible, and any books or publications that you bought for your business can be deducted for educational purposes. Even though you will pay some self-employment taxes, you can usually greatly benefit by many more deductions with a home-based business. - 18098