What Are The Top 5 Questions For Folk Wanting to Start a Home online Business

Tony Sans

Hi Forum, I hope you all are doing well today. This is more of a poll than a question. I would like to know what are or were the top five concerns or questions folk have when thinking of starting an online business from home? All responses are greatly appreciated. ;-)

Ryan O'Bleness

Hello, @Tony Sans, welcome to the community. 

This is nothing scientific and is just based on  some of my personal experiences working from home and the experiences others have told me about. I think common concerns for those starting/operating a home-based business are as follows, but of course each entrepreneur faces a unique set of challenges. 

• Distractions: If you're working from home, you're inevitably going to get distracted by something else at some point throughout the day or at least the week. This could be home maintenance issues, family responsibilities, taking care of pets, etc. It can make it hard to focus on business. 
• Prioritizing: You are likely going to be working on multiple projects at a time. if you're working by yourself and have nobody to bounce ideas off of, it may be easy to get in a rut. It is important not to spread yourself too thin and determine a strategy to prioritize: deadline, relevance, importance, etc. for each project. 
• Resources are limited: Working from home gives you freedom and flexibility, but it also has its challenges. For example, your servers from home likely aren't going to be as strong as those in a big corporate office. You're likely not driving in as much revenue, either and everything has a fee. You also do not have the luxury of face-to-face communication with your team as often as well. 
• Hiring: Continuing off of my last point, if you did want to expand your team, it's harder to attract top-level talent when you can't offer them a cozy office space, a strong team around them, great pay and benefit. And if you are able to attain those employees initially you must also work harder to retain them if they are approached by a bigger company. 
• Working too much/Isolating yourself: Sometimes, businesses who operate out of their home aren't always taken seriously, when in reality, those business owners are often working longer hours. It is easy to lose track of time when you work from home. Since home is your workplace, you're constantly checking emails, on your computer or being consumed by your work at all hours of the day/night. It's important to maintain a healthy work/life balance and not isolate yourself from family and friends. 

With that said there are many benefits to starting a home-based business: save on overhead costs, cut out the time it takes to commute, less risk, tax advantages, flexibility and being your own boss, just to name a few. 

Tony Sans

Thank you Ryan, Your insight and experience is truly on point and appreciated. Anyone thinking of starting a home based business really needs to be aware of these, what could be obstacles even before they start. The advantage is that being prepared or forewarned can help them to avoid, to overcome or not be overwhelmed by these situations when and if they arise. Many new entrepreneurs don't figure these things in their plans, so these type obstacles can sometimes be the end of their dream.

allurebeautywarehouse

my question is how do you lower the cost of shipping? Going to the post office will have you spending hundreds on shipping, is there any way to minimize that?