“Should You Start Your Own Work at Home Business?”

While starting our new web site www.immoplaza.fr (french real estate map mashup + different layers of info), my brother and I both work in our family house during summer. We work longer as if we were in our office (easy: 35h french legal work time) So we can end up working in the living room for brain games, in 2 different room after an argue or event in front of TV (tour de france) for designing maps or graphic work. But we still need an office. I remember going to the dentist who lived and worked in the same flat, it smelled fried food, it made my general feeling go down. Voilà!
Guy, we both liked the art of the start! A bientôt

My wife and I started a web development and IT consultancy about 4 years ago. We spend 60 plus hours a week at the minimum each between accounting, marketing, sales, service calls, development, and blogging (see below). Like any small business, cash flow is an issue at times. With 4 kids, it is wonderful to be able to spend so much time with them by being home for most of the day. On the same hand, it can be a real challenge when we need to focus on our work for more than 20 minutes at a time. Challenges aside, I’d not want to be doing anything else. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. If you don’t want to work a lot, home based business may not be for you.
We recently began blogging and currently have 4 sites between us. We are looking for alternate sources of income as well as PR and marketing for the consultancy. Our main website at www.gartnerwebdev.com focuses on making IT easy for small business owners to understand. There is a spin-off from that where the target is IT types. My wife has smartnotcheap.blogspot.com that is geared toward frugality and saving money at home. She is an accountant and a tight wad – so she’s good at it! She has another site that focuses on vintage items and children’s books – the target demographic for both is remarkably similar.
I wouldn’t trade the lifestyle for anything. When I work hard for myself and my family, I have much less to complain about, and I feel good at the end of the day than I do when working hard for someone else.

My husband and I have been involved in home businesses or self-employed for many years and occasionally work for someone else parttime. I’ve discovered that more and more people seem to be starting home businesses these days, or at least are looking into it.

Running your own home business is increasingly becoming a viable option for many people.
Years in the corporate world often leads people to become frustrated and irritated with the petty office politics that inevitably occur. And it’s recognised that most people reach their income peak at around 45 to 50 years of age no matter how much more they can offer employers.
But breaking out of the rat-race and getting into business for yourself is a daunting prospect to many. What should I do? What good ideas can I turn into a business? Am I living in a fantasy world to believe I can really do this?
Many people who have these thoughts eventually take the safer option and stick with something they hate until retirement releases them on a pittance of an income. Or worse, they get made redundant without much hope of getting suitable replacement work.
Luckily there are plenty of forums out there to guide people and reassure them that their plans are viable – or at least, enable them to modify them to make sure they are viable!
Then there’s a whole host of ‘off-the-shelf’ businesses that anyone can plug into. Affiliate programmes, M L Ms and so on.
However, many of these are treated with scepticism and deemed to be pyramid schemes. No doubt there are scams out there. But there are several bona fide businesses that enable people to add to or replace their income, or even earn astronomical sums.
Don’t be fooled by companies that say it’s easy and that you hardly need to work at all. No body can earn, say, $30,000 per month without putting in some hard work and learning about the business they’re involved with.
So, do your research and when you find something that’s of interest, give it 100%. You might be surprised to find that escaping the rat race is easier to do than you might think!
Steve Thomas
www.SeeForYourself.tv

Hi Guy,
Brilliant Blog. I would love to pick your brain about marketing your business for a global audience.
Just wanted to put a plug in for an additional benefit of working for yourself – you can often live where you want. I have my own company and can work from wherever I am in the world. Just as long as my client and I have access to a phone line or an internet connection we are good to go. I live in Italy, but can spend a month in India, the US, and provide seamless service to my clients.
Your thoughts on portable businesses?
Best,
Megan Fitzgerald
www.careerbychoice.com