Operating a Home-Based Business Isn't Always as Simple as We Like to Think. Here's How to Balance a Growing Business With the Pressures of Home and Family.
By Mike Foley
Tired of a nine-to-five job with a boss breathing down your neck and a bumper-to-bumper commute to and from work? Do you fantasize about change? Would you like to own your own business or even better, a home-based business? After all, what could beat working at home? You're the boss and working in a relaxed, comfortable, familiar environment. Nothing can beat that, right?
Maybe, maybe not.
Although home-based businesses have become far more common in the new century, many entrepreneurs have discovered that running a business at home isn't the comfortable experience they had envisioned. In fact, because the home office often involves balancing business concerns and family matters, the situation is doubly tough.
For that reason, successful home-based entrepreneurs have developed a means for meeting the unique challenges that threaten productive work and lead to frustration. From hiring out work, to subcontractors, to routing mail away from the home (with a PMB or Personal Mail Box), home-based business owners have created their own systems for saving time in an unusually demanding business environment.
And many times, setting boundaries with family is most important.
"You've got to keep your office separate from the rest of the household," says Fran Dancing Feather, owner of Honor the Mountain Press in Big Bear Lake, California. "It has to be a very defined space."
Dancing Feather, who has operated the small publishing business from home since 1994, has published curriculum materials for Sherman Indian High School in Riverside, along with four full-length books on native spirituality. She has operated the business full-time, while also playing the role of wife to husband, Wayne, and mother of four children.
"It actually works out well once you set the boundaries," she explains. "I taught the kids to make their own lunches and then told them, 'Don't bother me unless you're bleeding from the eyes."
She says family members will respect the office space if the entrepreneur respects it and sets the example. That's particularly important when you're struggling to learn the business or tap new markets. Marketing has, in fact, been her greatest challenge in operating from home.
"If I were starting over, I'd partner with someone who knows marketing a lot better than I do. That would have saved me a lot of trouble."
That marketing experience comes through in Dancing Feather's advice to would-be home entrepreneurs.
"If you're going to make it work, know as much about your business as possible. Know how to perform as many tasks as you can. Then you'll be able to handle whatever comes up. If you don't know something, find good books and talk to someone who does."
Although she admits that the home business path can be rough, Dancing Feather says the rewards are well worth it.
"Working at home isn't always easy," she says. "You need to know that going in. But if you can handle the difficulties, it can be very rewarding. You'll have a level of freedom and creativity you can't find anywhere else."
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