Personal and family considerations are important to most business
success.  They become even more important in a home-based situation.

Consider the following as possible influences on you and your
business success.

A.  Reasons for Starting a Home-Based Business

Your success will be linked to how clear you are about your
motivation.  Why do you want to start or run a home-based business in
the first place? Motivating factors include:

· Being your own boss

· Making money

· Spending time with or being in the same place as your family

· Having time for other interests

· Wanting to expand a hobby or an interest.

People usually have more than one reason for wanting a home-based
business.  What things about a future as a home-based businessperson
appeal to you most?

B.  Personal Qualities and Traits

Business is only one area in which success is determined by your
faith in yourself, your self-confidence and your self-esteem.  
Self-confidence and self-esteem can be strengthened and developed.  
Most people gain confidence as they do something successfully a
number of times.

Consider investing some time to build your confidence and
self-esteem, as part of your preparation for business.  Some possible
ways include: training yourself to concentrate on your positive
attributes and your successes; taking community education courses to
build confidence; and joining a group such as a speakers',
professional or business club.  For more ideas, see the self-help
section of your local library.

Other traits known to be important for success in a home-based
business will be found in a later article.  The very traits that make
entrepreneurs successful, however, such as determination and
willingness to work long hours, can also turn into traps.  There are
extremes for each trait.  Having too much of a particular trait can
be as much of a problem in a home-based business as not having
enough.

C.  Personal Resources

Successful business people depend on other people, and they draw on
other people as resources.  Learning to see people and things as
resources may require a shift in your perspective.

One way to assess your situation is to consider the personal
resources you already have.  These include everything from your own
skills and energy to friends who might help with financing.  Create
an inventory of all the resources available to you: energy,
enthusiasm, time, training, sales experience, personal contacts,
support from friends, savings, investments, your partner's income,
income from the job you may decide to keep during start-up.

Use this personal inventory in your business research and planning.  
Parts of the inventory can later be transferred to the business plan
and the reference manual - two key business systems explained in the
following articles.

D.  Home Base and Home Life

Many home-based businesses fail because family members have different
ideas about what is important and about the effects the business will
have on the family.  Talk about these with the people who will be
affected or who are involved.

A home-based business can absorb all your time and energy.  There is
a risk that as you devote so much to your business, other parts of
your life will be ignored.  You may be a workaholic.  If this energy
is managed, it can help a business succeed.  Ignored, workaholism,
like other addictions, isolates people from family and friends and
causes stress.  In serious cases, this can lead to family breakdown
and business failure.  Management of the grey area between home
business and home life is particularly important for women, who with
the main responsibility for domestic tasks may have to struggle to
prevent business time and energy being drawn into household work.  
Expectations in this area are seldom discussed and often perceived
differently by household members.  When a person is at home, others
may find it reasonable to ask that a little extra be done here or
there.  These patterns can undermine business success.  Check out
expectations and possible effects on your business and household with
your family/partner.

E.  Essential Space

The need for a designated space for the business, even if space is
severely restricted, is emphasised in many home-based business
guidelines.  Sometimes this is more symbolic than real but it does
make a statement about the seriousness of your undertaking.

Assess the physical layout of your home.  Where might you be able to
conduct business? What remodelling might have to be done? What
changes would these ideas have on the present use of space? Estimates
you make at this time will be useful for completing the sections on
location, premises and facilities, and start-up costs in your
business plan.

IS HOME THE BEST PLACE?

Assess whether your home is the best location for the business you
have in mind.  Potential advantages and disadvantages of a home base
are summarised in the following table:

POTENTIAL ADVANTAGES

        Low risk of expensive mistakes

        Opportunity to use household resources for business use

        Low overhead, running costs

        No commuting time or expense

        Tax advantages (with deductions allowed for part of the house)

        Reduced child-care costs; increased quality time with family

        Relatively inexpensive way to test a market

POTENTIAL DISADVANTAGES

        Isolation and lack of contact with colleagues

        Increased family stress, with the difficulty of separating
        business and home life

        Need for self-discipline and the ability to plan and manage one´s
        own time

        Bylaws and regulations affecting what you can and can´t do at
        home

        Poor image (you may look more home-like than business-like)

        Conflict with neighbours over noise, traffic, and changed use of
        space

        Parking problems

ASSESSING POSSIBLE CHANGES

One good way to consider the influences of a home-based business is
to write an explanation of how the business will affect different
parts of your life - family, social, professional, personal.  Include
your ideas for dealing with different negative effects.

Ask someone whose judgement you trust to read what you have written.
Ask this person to tell you honestly whether he or she feels what
you have written is accurate and believes you can do what you have
outlined.  Then use the feedback you get to discuss possible changes
with the people who will be most affected.  From a business point of
view, the success of the home-based enterprise indirectly depends on
the support of these people.  Involving them early and keeping them
informed can reduce the unavoidable stresses of business start-up.

IS A HOME-BASED BUSINESS REALISTIC FOR YOU?

To summarize your situation, use these questions to assess whether
starting a home-based business is realistic for you at this time.

Legalities

Is your business legal according to the zoning bylaws? What legal
restrictions may limit you from operating from your home?

Physical Space

Do you have enough space? Will you have to remodel? What effects will
a changed use of space have on your family?

Personal Qualities

Do you have what it takes to become a successful businessperson?

Do you have the support of family members?

Will family actively help you and support you, or leave you alone? Do
you know what your family truly thinks about your idea, emotionally
as well as logically?

Neighbourhood

How will the neighbours react? Will your home-based business affect
them? How might your business affect relationships between your
household and your neighbours?

Work Style

Are you a self-starter, motivated and disciplined about working on
your own? What social or professional development activities could
take the place of the interaction you'll miss from an outside place
of work?

Balances

Can you be disciplined about maintaining a balance between home life
and working at home, between your business and your personal life,
between your own growth and that of your business?

Asking oneself these questions - and answering them - isn't easy, but
making sure from the beginning that your situation supports success
is a key to business planning.  

Article reprinted from The Office Edge Newsletter