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Finding a home
based business
If you’re like most people,
you like the idea of not having
a boss but the idea of working for yourself is just a bit overwhelming. What kind of business would it be? How expensive would it be to start? How would you find customers?
What skills would you need to start that business? How much money would it take to get
started? Where would I start?
These are all excellent questions.
I know because I asked myself all of
them. For many years, I was comfortable
with my job income and for that reason alone, I just stayed put even
though the
job was not rewarding, the boss was less then appreciative, and the
hours were
very hard on the family situation.
Let’s begin to answer these
questions by doing a little
research first. What kind of home business? You can begin by asking friends things like,
“Do you know anyone with a home business?” “What
do they do?” “Is
it
profitable?” “What would you do if you
could?” At this point, what you are
doing is testing the waters to see just where people’s interests are? Also start paying attention to all those
flyers that are you are receiving in your inbox and your postal box. Pay attention to what services are being
advertised. Someone else has done enough
research to think it is a good financial decision to advertise such and
such,
so add that to your list. Hopefully you
are writing this list of these opportunities on paper.
If it’s just in your head, it doesn’t
count. Don’t worry too much about what
is on the list, just keep adding to it. You
are creating a list of possibilities, that’s all.
Now you have a huge list of
home based jobs. You may not want any one
of these but what you
have done is begin to see a bigger picture. There
are all kinds of people creating all kinds of
different job
opportunities and the opportunities are as varied as the people
involved. So where do you fit into this
picture?
Let’s see where your
interests are? Make a list of your
qualities and skills
(good with people, good with detail, good with numbers, excellent cook,
etc)
and don’t forget to include special interest and hobbies (little
league, soccer,
gardening, natural medicine, etc). Where
do personal talents come into play? Well
let’s say you are the best accountant the office has ever had. That’s great, but if you don’t enjoy it,
forget it. Have you ever heard the
saying, “Do what you love and the money will follow.”
How
many times have you seen someone who was the absolute best at what
he/she did
but they had no deep interest? You want
to find something that brings you joy. Yes,
JOY, that is a totally new concept to the idea
of work, isn’t
it? Where do you go from here?
So we want to match
our interests and talents with what is
available in the marketplace. If it is
not available, a market must be created for it – and that is another
entire
newsletter.
Let’s stay within existing markets for
the time being. The basic rules in
business marketing are 1)
satisfy a need, 2) it needs to have longevity (avoid the latest fads),
3) it
should be unique (even if it is only one aspect that is different, that
may be
the one your customer was looking for), 4) avoid an over saturated
market. They say competition is good, but
that is
generally geared toward the consumer, not the marketer.
If you have a lot of competition, either your
product must be very unique or your price must be very competitive.
To summarize then,
compile an extensive list of current
opportunities, then list all your skills and talents, and try to find a
match. Finding your home based business
niche is a process. Focus first on the
outcome. You want to be able to work
from home so that you can be available for family, have flexibility
with your
time, and freedom to take time off as necessary. Keep
this focus and things just fall into
place much easier.
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