Homepreneur's handbook

Homepreneur Handbook

Why to start a home-based business

If you're reading this, you probably already know why you should be starting a home-based business or you have your own reasons of why you want to start a home-based business.

But just in case you're still not sure, I want to share why I think it's good to start a home-based business.

One good reason is freedom; the freedom to do what you want and when you want.

You don't have to worry about a boss telling you what to do or when you can have your breaks and your lunch.

Another thing I like about starting a home-based business is just being able to spend more time with your loved ones. I have a husband and kids, and I just love spending time with them and being able to have a positive influence on my kids' lives is an awesome thing in my opinion.

Another great reason to start a home-based business is that there's no commute. You don't have to worry about driving in the traffic every day and being stressed out. I think I heard somewhere that driving in traffic every day shortens your lifespan.

Another reason I like starting a home-based business is that you get to sleep in, and you get to go to sleep when you want to.

And if you're the type of person that wants to wake up early, say at at 4 o'clock in the morning, go ahead.

You can do that as well and go to bed early.

So again, it all comes back down to freedom and just being able to do what you want and controlling your schedule.

You can also choose to go out when it's not busy instead of the weekends. Most people choose to go out on the weekends when it's real busy. For example, a lot of people like to go camping on the weekends. But the problem with that is a lot of campgrounds are fully booked or there's just a lot of people camping on the weekends and it's hard to be able to enjoy peace and quiet if that's what you're after when you're going camping.

Or maybe you just want to go shopping. You go to the mall and it's hard to find a parking spot and the malls are just full of shoppers and it can get stressful sometimes.

So, if you have a home-based business, you can choose to go out when it's not busy and just avoid the stress and the lineups. And again, you'll have more peace and serenity in your life when you do that.

And lastly, there's flexibility. I may have already mentioned it, but yeah, you have the flexibility throughout the day to do what you want.

So, for example, you might be working on one of your projects and then you get a phone call from one of your kids saying that he wants to get picked up from the gym. No problem. You could just stop what you're doing, leave your house and pick up your child from wherever he is.

Or maybe one day your family tells you that they want to go out somewhere and you can be like, sure, fine. You could take the day off if you choose to. You can't always do that when you're working. I mean, you can call in sick, but you can't do that too much when you're working.

Most Businesses Fail

Now let me just get this out of the way, and I'm sure you've probably heard of this…

Most businesses fail.

And it’s true. Just look up the stats. Depending on where you look, it’s probably something like 90% or more that fail.

But in my opinion, if you're persistent, you’ll eventually succeed.

Look at most millionaires and billionaires. If you were to research them, you’ll find that their first businesses failed.

If you're persistent enough, and you learn from your lessons, and you just stick to what you're doing, eventually you'll figure things out, and you'll get the results that you wanted.

This is my opinion only and I'm not guaranteeing you anything. I'm not guaranteeing that you're going to be successful but all I ask is that you be persistent and do not give up.

Passion

If you have already chosen the niche or industry that you want to start a business in, then you can skip this section.

But if you're still looking for a niche and you're wondering if you should choose one that you're passionate about, then pay attention.

Obviously, if you're passionate about something and you start a business in that niche or industry, then you're going to enjoy what you're doing more, but is it profitable?

And this is where you're going to have to do some research and see if the niche that you're interested in is profitable.

And if you realize that it's not as profitable as you thought it would be, will you still be happy with the small results that you'll get from this business?

Because I understand that a lot of people start a business not necessarily to get rich, but just to help pay the bills.

Maybe you have a minimalist lifestyle, so you probably don't need to make six figures, a million dollars or more a year.

Or maybe you're just looking for a side hustle and that makes sense as well.

But just realize that there is going to be a trade-off and if you want to start a business and make a lot of money, you may have to choose a niche or industry that you're not passionate about.

What you can do though is brainstorm all the niches that you're passionate about and choose the ones that will most likely bring in the most profits.

Income Types

There are many things to consider before starting a business and one of these things is to figure out what type of income you're looking to get from your business.

Are you willing to trade your time for money? If so, then a service-type business (where people pay you for your expertise or for your work) will suit you.

An example of this is freelancing. Freelancers get paid for the work they do for their clients. They can be graphic designers, copywriters, virtual assistants, web developers, social media managers, etc.

You can get paid by the hour or you can get paid on the completion of a project depending on what type of freelancing you're doing.

If you don't want to trade time for money and want more freedom in your life, you might be more interested in passive income where you generate income on a monthly or annual basis without you having to do any work.

Or if there is some work involved, it's very minimal. But most of the work required will be done at the beginning of setting up your business or your project or your product launch or whatever vehicle that you're using to generate this passive income.

And similar to that, you can generate a recurring income every month or year or quarterly, except this may require a little bit more work such as a membership site or it could even be in the form of a service where you're contracted to do some work for your clients every month such as maintaining their websites or handling their marketing campaigns.

And then there's probably other types of income out there that I haven't mentioned here.

You could also combine all these types of income. For example, you might have a service component in your business, and you might also have a recurring part and you might have another department where you're selling physical or digital products.

Ultimately, the type of income that you want will depend on the type of lifestyle that you want.

But of course, if you are desperate, you probably won't be too picky and will just want to start generating income right away. Initially, you might not care if you’re earning passive income or if you must trade time for money.

Eventually when you do have income coming in, that's when you could start rearranging your business so that it accommodates the type of lifestyle that you want.

Inspiration from Other Businesses

If you have a unique idea for a business that you want to start, that's great. Go ahead and pursue that idea.

But if you're new to business and you're not sure what type of business model to have, then I suggest that you use other people's business models as inspiration. Just look at the businesses that are successful in the niche/industry that you're interested in and see how you can do that business model.

Find out which products or services are generating the most sales for that business.

Find out how they advertise their products.

Examine all their marketing campaigns.

Study how they operate their business and anything else that you can study about their business.

Also look at who their target customers are.

And if you want to take it a step further, brainstorm of how you can make your business better than theirs.

Leverage

If you want to grow your business fast, or if you want to just have a big business where you're generating six, seven or more figures per year, leverage is going to be one of your best friends.

One example that I heard from someone recently is, imagine that you have one superstar telemarketer who is the best telemarketer in the world in closing sales. Would you rather have him on your team, or would you rather have a team of 100 average telemarketers?

I know which one I would pick. I would pick the team with the 100 telemarketers. Let's say that superstar telemarketer can make 10 sales an hour, and each of these average telemarketers is only able to make one sale per hour. Well, if there’s 100 average telemarketers, they’ll generate 100 sales per hour collectively.

So that's the power of leverage, and there are many ways to get leverage in your business.

Once you get any type of momentum, you should leverage off that.

I remember when I had an eBay business, and I won an award, I leveraged off that award. Once I had an award for being a top eBay seller, I started creating courses on how to sell on eBay. I basically had instant authority by stating that I was an eBay award winner.

The same thing goes with this eBook that you're reading right now. I've been running businesses for over 20 years, so I can leverage that knowledge to create an eBook such as this on how to start a home-based business. I also have authority on this subject because of my experience.

Another example is, imagine if there was one entrepreneur starting a business versus a team of entrepreneurs who are starting a business in the same niche. Who do you think has a higher chance of succeeding? I'm not saying you must network and find others to work with. You could also just have your family help you out. Basically, a family-run business, right? You could have your wife and your kids help you out running a business.

If you have neither of those, you could just have your friends help you out.

Basically, there are many ways to leverage your business, and that's something that you must keep in mind and be aware of. Always be on the lookout for key areas in your life and in your business that you can leverage.

Stop Thinking and Just Do It

I've said before that failing is just a part of business and is common amongst successful people, whether it be people who are making six figures a year or less or millionaires or billionaires.

Go ahead and do your research on your favorite millionaires and I'm sure you'll find that they failed a lot early on when they first started their businesses.

Here are some quotes that I found online...

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“When we give ourselves permission to fail, we at the same time give ourselves permission to excel.”

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“Giving up is the only sure way to fail.”

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“I have not failed; I have found 10,000 ways that don't work.” – Thomas Edison

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I’m showing you those quotes because I want to encourage you to start your business and not fear failing or getting embarrassed.

Stop thinking and just act!

I really want you to succeed and it's not a matter of if, but when you're going to be faced with some obstacles. And how you react to them is very important.

I believe anybody can succeed as long as they put their mind to it. So, with that said, stop reading and get to work. I wish you the best of luck on your journey!