This article was originally published on LinkedIn.
I love having my own business and working from home – but it’s certainly not for everyone, and there are both benefits and drawbacks to being a home-based business owner or freelancer!
If you’re considering starting your own business and working from home, here are a few things to keep in mind and the pros and cons of each:
1) You get to work in your own space.
- PRO: Your home is (presumably) a comfortable environment, you don’t have to go outside when the weather is miserable, and you don’t have to worry about a lengthy commute.
- CON: Productivity can decrease if you let yourself get too comfy (such as wearing pajamas all day long), and it’s possible that you might occasionally go a couple days without getting outside at all (and that can’t be healthy!).
2) You never know when your next project will come along.
- PRO: It’s exciting to always have different types of work, and sometimes projects land in your lap without warning (score!).
- CON: It seems to be a general rule in freelancing / owning your own business that you won’t have any work for a while, and then suddenly all the work will come in at the same time and needs to be completed within a very short time-frame. This can get a little stressful if you aren’t prepared for it.
3) You are your brand.
- PRO: Most of what you’re doing, you’ll probably love; a lot of the activities you partake in for your personal life can also help to support and promote your work life.
- CON: You don’t ever really get a break – and you think about your business constantly.
4) You get to be your own boss.
- PRO: You can set your own hours based on the times of day that you are most productive, and you get to make all the decisions.
- CON: If you aren’t disciplined, you’re going to find yourself in a lot of trouble! Not working with people can sometimes get lonely and also means a lack of brainstorming sessions and bouncing ideas off of others, and since you probably don’t have any employees, you have to perform every job at your business yourself.
Before starting your own home-based business, take the time to really think about your work style and work ethic, as well as some of the challenges you think you might face and some of the ways that you could manage those challenges. It will help to make the transition that much smoother!
Have you started your own business? What have you found to be some of the pros and cons? If you’re thinking about starting your own business but haven’t yet, what’s holding you back?