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Working from home involves a whole lot more than simply throwing in the towel at your employed job and undertaking the same tasks from the comfort of your own living space. After all, if it was as simple as that, surely we’d all be opting to work within our own four walls. The decision to work from home, rather, has all sorts of inherent responsibilities that you may have never even considered before when working in employed positions. So, before diving right into the deep end, do your research and decide whether working from home is the right decision for you and your lifestyle. Here’s some key information to help you form your decision.
Is Self-Employment Right for You?
Self-employment, much like everything else in the working world, has its benefits as well as its downfalls. So let’s take a look through them. The enviable perks of self-employment include being your own boss. You decide what your position entails, what hours you’re going to work each week and you will also be able to put a value on your own work through your pricing. This is an amazing amount of freedom and liberates you from the standard nine to five regime. You have more control over your own life as well as your trade. You don’t have to answer to others and have the executive hand in any decisions or changes that may occur in your working life. Perfect, right? You also don’t have to apply for holidays or have limited holiday time, as everything is down to you. If you need to take a day off for a big event, you can take it! If you want an extended holiday, you can go ahead and book it. No worries at all. However, there are also drawbacks in regards to everything being down to you. You have to completely dedicate yourself to your personal brand in order for it to succeed. It is essential that you are motivated, as you won’t have anyone on your back reminding you to complete tasks or be productive. You also have to ensure that your company is profitable, so that you are earning enough to survive and take the time off that you want. There won’t be steady payslips, holiday pay or sick pay anymore so you need to be more responsible with your cash and savings. You also have to sort your own tax out at the end of the year. So, while there are many pros to working for yourself from home, you need to ensure that you are motivated, dedicated and proactive at all times. If you believe that you are capable of this, then it’s time to start taking the next steps!
Understanding Your Finances
Setting up a business isn’t as simple as setting up a few social media pages and spreading the word about your products or services. You need to invest huge amounts of time, energy and cash to get things up and started. So you need to understand your current financial situation and decide whether you will be able to commit to this. Check out your credit score on a free credit check site. This will help you to see how creditors and lenders will view you and consequently how willing they will be to help you out when it comes to funding your self-employed work in the beginning of your venture. Loans will be necessary down the line, not only to make larger purchases that will see a return at a later date but also to improve your rating, meaning that you can lend larger sums of cash as your business grows and expands. Always use reliable lenders such as Loan Center and ensure that you make your repayments on time. This will help to improve your score, as companies and banks will be able to see that you always repay what you owe and stick to the terms and conditions of your contracts. If things are looking less than positive, remain in employment for a little while and use this time to clear old debts and improve your score, meaning that you can start out your new business on the right foot.
Getting Started
Once you’ve got your finances in order and are entirely sure that this is the right path for your life to take, you can start investing in your personal brand. Ensure that you register as self-employed. You can then start developing products or services, create your website, conduct market research and start advertising and targeting customers who could potentially form a loyal customer base for your brand. Patience is a virtue when it comes to self-employment, so don’t rush things. Take your time, be sensible with your money and focus on customer satisfaction and raising brand awareness. It won’t be too long until you start to reap the profits.