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HOME BASED BUSINESS : Starting home-based business after layoffFirst, they had to deal with being laid off. Then the challenge became starting a home based business from a spare bedroom while the kids are fighting and the dog is barking. Many members of the latest generation of entrepreneurs are people who lost their jobs and decided to start a business in their homes. It's safe to say that practically all these new owners face a shakeout period as they learn to juggle a business and their personal lives. Parents who become entrepreneurs and their children have some of the hardest transitions. Suzanne Kantra, who was laid off from an editing job in October, is running an online publication called Techlicious.com out of the three-bedroom apartment in Manhattan she shares with her husband and three children ages one to seven. When she's working in her bedroom, the door is closed. For her older children, "knowing I'm home but not available has been an adjustment for them," she said. Sometimes the kids forget what that closed door means, and Kantra is interrupted anyway. One way Kantra tries to help them with the enforced separation is not to do any work from home around the time they come home from school. That way, she can give them all her attention as they tell her about their day. Learning to live with a home business can be a challenge for older kids, too. Diane Shader Smith was laid off from a big public-relations firm right before Christmas, and started her own Beverly Hills, Calif.-based company under her name. She had to set limits for family members and, along the way, cope with some guilty feelings. Shader Smith's son would show up with several of his fraternity brothers, looking for something to eat. "I have established a 'you must call first' rule," she said. And she put a sign on her office door that says "working" to deter family members from interrupting conference calls. Some business owners don't want clients and customers to know they work at home, fearing that they won't be seen as being professional enough. But home-based businesses have become so commonplace, and many of them so successful, that they may be worrying unnecessarily. Still, Nancy Juetten, who runs Main Street Media Savvy out of her Bellevue, Wash., home, said owners should be careful not to burden business relationships with their personal issues. So, if it turns out that an owner has to juggle a client meeting and child care, he or she shouldn't tell the client, "I have to take my child to the doctor and can't meet you at that time." The client might start feeling a little short-shrifted. Juetten suggested saying something along the lines of, "I have two windows when we could meet. Which works for you?" Also, children shouldn't be playing in the room where you talk on the phone with clients or other business associates. Some owners might be worried about the family's Labrador retriever barking in the background, but Juetten said she laughs about it with clients. If the barking is interfering with the conversation, though, it's time to move yourself or the dog to another part of the house. Even single home-based entrepreneurs have to get used to a new way of life. Stephen Fishman, who started a San Francisco home-based business as an author after being laid off 18 years ago, recalled that feelings of isolation were a big problem during the first few years after he lost his job in a big company. "You don't have co-workers to interact with," he said. "I would often go out to a cafe to do work in the afternoon and just be with people," Fishman said. And that was long before the days of coffee houses where people could take their laptops and get free WiFi. When Thomasina Tafur was laid off from a big corporate job in April, she was excited about the prospect of starting a business from her Memphis, Tenn., home. But, she said, "there were a few things that did catch me off guard." Tafur described herself as an introvert who likes to spend time by herself. "To go from an office environment where I see people all the time to an office environment where I see nobody, I was a little surprised at how much I enjoyed the human interaction with my colleagues," she said. Her solution is to try to get out of the house at least once a day for a business lunch or networking activity. And she's learned to monitor her emotions: "If I'm starting to feel a little funny, a little down, it could be because I'm holed up in my office." Many home-based business owners get a bit of a rude awakening when they realize they no longer have support staff or people to deal with high-tech issues and keep track of invoices. Tafur recalls thinking, "it's truly me, myself and I." The solution she and other owners have found is to outsource work that they either don't know enough about, or that distracts them from building the business. By : Joyce M. Rosenberg July 29, 2009 - http://finance.sympatico.msn.ca/savingsdebt/yourmoney/article.aspx?cp-documentid=20871787 4 Myths About Home Based Business InformationThere are a ton of misleading information about home based business that adds to the complication of starting a new business. So what are these myths? ...Cost-Cutting Strategies for Your Home Business ServicesWith mounting energy bills eating into everyone's income and increasing the cost of a home business, it's a good time to look into cost cutting strategies for your home business services ...Marketing Your Home Based Business ServicesMillions of Americans are living their entrepreneurial dreams by running a business from home. 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Home based businesses are being launched ...Top 100 American Home-Based Businesses 12/1/08StartupNation and Microsoft Office Live Small Business today announced the winners of the second annual StartupNation top 100 American home based businesses...Experts Offer Ideas to Business Owners 9/15/08Building your business - Question: I’m always trying to get additional customers to my business. Do you have any recommendations? ... |
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