Not a day goes by when I don’t see one of those “I made so much money from my home based business I bought a new home” type commercials. Those ads are completely misleading, and I am really surprised the FTC doesn’t fine the hell out of those companies. They have created a great deal of home based business myths, so I have decided to blog about it.
Here is a quick list of the various myths about running a home based business.
Hardly Any Hours
A lot of people seem to think home based business = no hours. That can’t be further from the truth. If anything, a lot of people who work from home work longer hours, especially when they first start their company.
Believe it or not, if you work from your house you will probably be tempted to work long hours. This is especially true if you run an Internet business. Just imagine it, sitting there waiting for that chicken to finish cooking in the oven and you look over at your closed laptop, just wondering if you can suck out that extra dollar or two from your website. It is a disease, really.
There are some people who work from their home for 2 hours a day and make a good income, but they had to do a ton of hard work to get to that point.
High Pay
Very few home based business make good money. During the initial startup of your company you will be lucky to make more than a few hundred per month.
Although the potential is there to make a great income, you have to work incredibly hard to be successful.
Anyone Can Do It
You have to be really smart to run your own business. If it is a one-person operation you have to manage money, websites, etc. 99% of the people out there are too dumb to run their own business. Just keep your day job while starting out (assuming you have one), so you can have some cash coming in during the beginning..
Low Risk
Low risk? Hah. I think the only thing riskier than running a home business is buying millions of lotto tickets. You risk a lot, like losing your initial investment, getting your pants sued off, etc. The govt. may even fine you if you are running a business in an area that is not zoned for commercial purposes.
Low Initial Investment
How big your initial investment is depends on the business model. Generally Internet-based business cost much less to start than regular companies, but they still cost something.
No Need For Childcare
Although you will have more flexibility with your hours, you may still need childcare. Could you imagine trying to work out a huge deal via a conference call with a two year old screaming in the background?
You Can Act More Casual
You should always remember that although you can act however you want in your own house, you should still act professional while working. If you don’t, no one will take your business seriously.
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March 17th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
I would just love to be able to work from home. Not to become rich, but just to have a job working from home.
March 17th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
A lot of white-collar jobs are becoming at-home jobs. Tech support, customer service, programming, web design, server administration, etc. I have a feeling most, if not all, white-collar jobs will have at-home options within 25 years. Mostly because it costs a lot less.