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Pay
any attention at all to your email inbox and you'd be forgiven for
thinking that the only way to run a business from home is on the
Internet. Sure, many people are running spectacularly successful
Internet-based home businesses. Many, many more are doing so even
more spectacularly unsuccessfully.
But
what if you're not interested in running an Internet business? What
if you want to start and run a home business the old-fashioned way?
Where do you start?
Actually starting any home business is the easy part. The hard
part's deciding what that business should be.
So
how do you even start the process of deciding on the right home
business for you? The key is to be methodical, realistic, objective
and patient.
Step 1 : Personal Inventory
The
first place to start is to inventory your skills, experience,
interests, and personality characteristics. These are what you have
to work with - your raw ingredients, so to speak.
Make
a list of personal qualities and factors that you can throw into the
mix. Include things like:
=>
your personal background;
=> training and education;
=> work and volunteer experience;
=> special interests and hobbies;
=> leisure activities;
=> your personality and temperament.
All
of these qualities and factors make up what you know and what you're
good at.
Step 2 : Identify What You Like
It's
one thing to know a lot about something or be good at it. It's quite
another to enjoy it enough to want to make it your life's work. So,
remove from the list you created in Step 1 anything that you don't
really, really like doing or which plain doesn't interest you. No
matter how good you are at it. If you're lucky enough to like what
you're good at, as a general rule, stick with what you know.
Step 3 : Match Your Likes With Marketable Activities
If
Steps 1 and 2 still haven't suggested feasible
home business ideas,
review the following activities that have proven marketable for
others and weigh them against your "likes" from Step 2:
Crafts - pottery, ceramics, leadlighting
Health and Fitness - aerobics instructor, network marketing
for a health products company, home health care
Household Services - cleaning, gardening, shopping
Professional Services - attorney, architect, interior designer
Personal Services - make-up artist, hairdresser
Business Services - business plan writer, meeting planner
Wholesale Sales - antique dealer, dropshipper
Retail Sales - children's clothing, widgets
Computers - web design, internet training.
You
get the idea. This is not an exhaustive list, obviously. You can
visit the AHBBO Ideas Page for a list of over 500 home business
ideas at
Step 4 : Make a List of Business Ideas That Fit With Your Likes From
Step 2
By
the time you're done, you'll have a hitlist of possible matches
between your skills and interests on the one hand and home business
ideas utilizing those skills and interests on the other.
Step 5 : Research
Armed
with your list from Step 4, identify those ideas that you think have
marketable potential and then research whether that belief is
accurate. In order to have marketable potential, the idea must
satisfy the following criteria:
=> It
must satisfy or create a need in the market. The golden rule for any
business is to either find or create a need and then fill it.
=> It
must have longevity. If your idea is trendy or faddish, it doesn't
have longevity. Go for substance over form in all things.
=> It
must be unique. This doesn't mean you have to invent something
completely new but it does mean that there has to be some *aspect*
of your product or service that sets it apart from the competition.
This is easy if you go for the niche, rather than mass, market.
Don't try to be all things to all people. You'll only end up being
too little to too many.
=> It
must not be an oversaturated market. The more competition you have,
the harder it will be to make your mark. It's unrealistic to expect
no competition, of course. In fact, too little competition is a
warning sign either that your business idea has no market or that
the market is controlled by a few big players. What you want is
healthy competition where it's possible to differentiate yourself
from competing businesses.
This
all gets back to uniqueness. If you can't compete on uniqueness, you
must compete on price (or convenience). If you're forced to compete
on price alone, that just drives down your profit margin. Not smart
business.
=>
You must be able to price competitively yet profitably. The price
you set for your product or service must allow you to compete
effectively with other businesses in your market, it must be
acceptable to consumers and it must return you a fair profit. If any
one of these three is off, move on.
=>
Your business must fit with your lifestyle. If you're a parent of
young children and you primarily want to start a business from home
so you can stay home with them, a real estate brokerage business
that requires you to be out and about meeting with prospective
clients is obviously not going to work.
You'll instead need to choose a business that can be conducted
entirely (or near enough entirely) from within the four walls of
your home office. Similarly, if your business idea would involve
having clients come to your home, you're not going to want an unruly
3 year old underfoot as you're trying to conduct business.
=>
Your financial resources must be sufficient to launch and carry the
business until it becomes profitable. No business is profitable from
day one, of course. But some are quicker to break even than others.
If your business requires a considerable initial capital outlay to
start - computer, printer and software for a web design business,
for example - it will take you longer to break even than if the only
prerequisite was the knowledge inside your own head, such as working
from home as an attorney.
If
your financial situation is such that you can't afford to quit your
day job until your business is paying its way, this, too, will mean
it will take longer to break even than if you're able to devote
every waking hour to your business. Just do what you have to do.
That's all any of us can do.
Step 6 : Business Plan
Once
you've gone through the above process and identified what appears to
be the right business for you, the final "gut check" is to write a
business plan for your business, much as you would for a
presentation to a bank for financing. Include sections for
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and set goals for
what your business needs to achieve for you, by when, and how you
are going to get there.
There
are plenty of good resources online about how to prepare a thorough
business plan. A great place to start is at About.com (http://www.about.com).
Just type "business plans" into the search box.
Although it may seem like a waste of time and effort to complete a
business plan if you don't intend to seek outside financing, taking
the time and exercising the discipline needed to really focus your
mind on the important issues facing your business, you will be
forced to take a long hard look at your idea through very objective
and realistic eyes.
If
your idea passes the business plan test, then you can be reasonably
confident that this is the right business for you. If you come away
from this exercise feeling hesitant, uncertain and unsure, either do
more research (if the reason for your hesitancy and uncertainty is
lack of information) or discard the idea (if it's because you don't
think your idea is going to fly). If this happens, just keep
repeating Steps 5 and 6 until you end up with an idea and a business
plan that you're confident is going to work!
Although it's frustrating to wait once you've made up your mind to
start a business from home, this really is one situation where the
tortoise wins the race. By taking a methodical, systematic and
disciplined approach to identifying the right home business for you,
you give your business the best possible chance for long-term
survival, hopefully avoiding some very expensive mistakes along the
way.
__________________________________________________________
Elena
Fawkner is editor of A Home-Based Business Online ... practical
business ideas, opportunities and solutions for the work-from-home
entrepreneur.
__________________________________________________________
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