Start & Run a Real Home-Based Business. Dan Furman

isolation in working in a home-based business. I did like many of the people I worked with, and I miss the camaraderie. If you’re a big “people person” and like coworkers a lot, make sure you’re okay with the fact that there are none in your own business (at least not initially).

      In the end, I’m a bit of a loner, and I prefer the company of my two dogs and one cat, who make ideal coworkers. No backstabbing, no office politics — just give them a meal and they’re happy.

      8. You Can Do Usual “Weekend” Things When You Wish

      Do you know what stores look like on Tuesday afternoon? They’re empty. People who work normal business hours have no idea how nice it is to go shopping when there aren’t crowds of people and long lines. Working for yourself in a home-based business usually gives you the freedom to shop or do other things, like go to the post office and the bank when you wish (for the most part).

      In addition to this, when I get stressed with work and need a quick break, do you know what I do? I mow my lawn. This accomplishes two things: It gives my mind the clearing out that it needs, and by mowing my lawn during the week, it also frees up my Saturday afternoon.

      9. No Stupid, Arbitrary Rules

      When you own a home-based business, you can usually dress like you wish, decorate your office how you wish, come in when you wish, and leave when you wish. You can set a vacation time and not worry about it having to be approved, and (depending on your type of business) you can take off any day you want. You don’t have to follow any inane rules. For example, through intelligent scheduling and working a little harder some days, my business employs the three-day-weekend rule quite frequently.

      10. No Boss

      I saved this one for last because it’s a big deal to me — the fact that the boss is the person looking back at you from the mirror is a huge plus.

      I didn’t have many good bosses — I had a few good ones earlier in my career (Al H. from Playtogs and Pete M. from Travelport immediately spring to mind), but I found as I rose in the corporate structure, the bosses got worse and worse. The rules got sillier, and the structure less flexible. Early in my career when I was a retail clerk, if I needed a day off, Al could just plug in another name-tag-wearing schlep with almost no noticeable drop-off.

      However, as my skills improved and it was harder to replace me (or so I told myself), the requests for days off and vacations were met with less enthusiasm. And I was expected to dress better, too. In addition, office politics started rearing its ugly head. Any idea I came up with was met with suspicion; who would take the credit was a big deal.

      I have little patience for things like this. As far as work goes, I am interested in doing a good job, not in who gets credit for it. I dislike endless meetings and indecision, and am quite grating and difficult to deal with when I’m hit with red tape and office politics. So, being my own boss is a HUGE plus.

      I suspect many people reading this book are a little like that. If you see yourself in any of the preceding examples, it’s a good bet you will like working for yourself in a home-based business.

      9

      Count On The Unexpected Happening

      One of the best lessons I ever learned comes from doing home improvement projects. In short, the lesson is that the unexpected is always around the corner and can turn a seemingly simple project into a difficult one. Most people who are starting a business don’t think of this. If they did, many of them would have second thoughts. I don’t want to dampen your enthusiasm, but be prepared for many unexpected and time-consuming things to crop up when you start a business. As I said, it’s a bit like doing home improvement projects.

      Recently, my wife wanted a new light in the dining room. Never mind that my male brain thought the old one was fine; her female brain was horrified at the prospect of the old light hanging there even one more day, and she decided it had to be changed before our weekend visitors came. So anyway, I went to the attic to change the wiring for the new light, but unknown to me, the previous owner had wired the dimmer switch backwards (but it still worked).

      This light had a dimmer on one wall, and a regular up-and-down switch on the other. However, I didn’t really notice it was wired backwards. So I rewired it correctly (thus causing it to actually be incorrect in relation to the other switch), and when I thought I was done, I turned the power back on. Nothing. Well, nothing but a very troubling huuum. When working with electricity, that’s never a good sound.

      Result? Scratch one circuit breaker.

      This project had already taken longer than I wanted, and now I had to go to the store to buy a new circuit breaker. Of course, having not bought circuit breakers in a few years, I forgot that I needed type A of a particular model. I bought type B. Type B didn’t fit (although it looked like it should).

      By now this was really taking longer than I wanted, so, even though it went against all logic, I tried to make it fit.

      Ten minutes of persuasion with my rubber mallet yielded no results, so back to the store I went for another breaker. This time, I brought the old one with me (which I should have done in the first place), and bought type A.

      Back home type A still wouldn’t fit. Apparently my earlier persuasion with a mallet had bent the metal part the breaker slides into. A few taps with a hammer and a screwdriver, and success — it was now straight, and the breaker slid in.

      Back to the attic. Then my wife told me, “Skip the dimmer switch — I don’t like it anyway. Let’s just use the one switch.” I paused for a second, realizing that had she told me this three hours ago, I could have avoided all this. Anyway, I rewired it all correctly (I really am a pretty good electrician), and we now have a nice new light.

      My point in telling this story is to illustrate the multitude of things that can go wrong with just about anything you do. If it’s something you don’t do often, budget way more time than you think you will need. This simple “half hour” job took me four hours.

      Things That Seem Simple Often Aren’t

      Many aspects of your business will be harder than you think. And (as usual) many starting entrepreneurs are blind to this. Here’s an example from my own experience.

      In my first business, I created and sold direct-mail coupons. The idea was to have 30 local business coupons in the pack, and have the pack sent to 10,000 local households. This meant I had to get 10,000 of each coupon printed. The printer didn’t collate the coupons, so I received 30 boxes, each containing 10,000 of a single coupon. I then paid a mailing service to sort them and stuff the envelopes. It worked out okay, but profits were very small.

      For the second run, I decided to do the sorting and stuffing myself. I figured it would take a few nights to sort them.

      That was my mistake. It took more than a few nights — it took a few weeks to do this. Think about it: 30 boxes, each with 10,000 coupons. My father and I devised a rack that held piles of all 30 coupons, like a post office mail rack. What you had to do was grab one from each slot in the rack (remember, there are 30), put the pile of 30 in an envelope, seal the envelope, and affix the mailing label. Taking into account refilling the rack and getting more envelopes ready, it took about a minute for each package.

      So the entire job would take 10,000 minutes. That means it would take one person working nonstop for 24 hours, almost seven days. It would take four people, each working eight hours a day, almost five days.

      Well, I didn’t have four people willing to work eight hours a day. I did have a few friends who were willing to help in the evening. The trouble was, we were all in our early twenties, so I had to bribe them with beer (this is the law when you want