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Advantages and Disadvantages of Working From Home

Advantages of Working from Home

Control of your time

The first obvious thing to recognize is that by working from home in your own business you can plan your day around what needs to be done in all aspects of your life. If you are a telecommuter you may not enjoy this advantage as you may be required to be available during the day or certainly during core hours. When it is your own business you can arrange your diary as you need to in order to get things done.

This is great for parents as they can look after a sick child, attend school events, participate in the childrens school and not have to worry about childcare. This alone is a fantastic benefit where half terms and school holidays present nothing like the logistical problem that most people face.

Other benefits are that you can schedule docyors appointments, get the car fixed or other such things without needing anyones permission. Holidays can be taken when you want and not when the roster allows. You do not have to take time off when you are having something delivered. How many times does the delivery not happen and you have wasted a day?
Lower Costs of Starting a Business

When start a business working from home you add very little to your cost base. You do not need new premises, you do not need to equip an office or facility as you will already have most of what you need. You do not need to add telephone lines especially as we now have almost universal access to broadband.Basically you have more or less every thing you need and anything you need to add can be tax deductible. This keeps the risks of starting up a business down to a minimum. It also means that it is within reach of many more people so the opportunity is attractive to thousands more people.
Save time and Money

The biggest saving for most people is that they no longer have to commute to work. This not only saves the expense but also frees up 1.5 to 3 hours a day for most people. This is a fantastic saving in time which can now be used productively building your financial security. The cost of commuting also gets eliminated and this may mean the car has to be serviced less, the tyres last longer and you may not need to replace the car as often. All these savings add up over the course of the year.

You will not need your work suits and so you will not need to to spend money on drycleaning. Lunches made and eaten at home will cost less than those bought at the workplace.
Tax and National Insurance

There are many tax advantages of being self employed. It is not possible to go into any detail here because it depends on your legal structure, sole trader, partnership or Limited company but in all cases it is better to be the owner than an employee. Part of you domestic costs now become allowable for tax as you have part of your home dedicated to your business and these costs can be off set against the profits of the business. Telephone casts can be off set as well together with the cost of your computer equipment. There are specific rules on thes aspects so you should consult your accountant.

The rate of National Insurance is also lower than for employess and it may also help many stay at home mums retain their benefits because they may not have a gap in their contributions. (Check this with your accountant).

Car expenses can also be expensed against the business including part of the cost of a car. (there are limits so don't expect to get a Ferrari from the taxman!)

Plan your holidays around your business trips. If you have to go to Italy for your business extend your stay for some holiday. The flights would be an allowable tax deduction. Obviously your holiday expenses cannot be deducted but it may still help for those who do have to travel.
Lack of Stress

Can you imagine what it is like to wake up knowing that you are the boss? You cannot be made redundant; you do not have to work for a boss who decides your future; you do not have to worry about office politics; you can't be outsourced, downsized, or made to reapply for your own job. Those broken promises about promotions, bonuses, overtime do not exist. Offifce Politics have gone. You don't have to beg to get time off.

The reduction in stress is quite incredible. For some people this wold outweigh all other considerations. Just sit back and imagine the world without all those things. How would that change your life.
Quality of life

You now are in control of your life. You can spend saturday with the family rather than catching up on all those domestic chores you could not do in the week. The saving in commuting time alone will allow all those chores to get done during the week so you can now enjoy the weekend. How good is that?
Enviromentally Friendly

If you are not commuting you are not polluting. In our damaged world undergoing climate change working from is an ecologically sound move.

Disadvantages of Working from Home

Regular Income

The obvious one is that if you give up a job you give up a regular income. I use the word regular rather than guaranteed because who has a guaranteed job these days.

The timing of giving up a job is important because you cannot hope to replace an income day one unless you are on a low wage working part time. This is something that many people get wrong. They start to earn as much from their home business which the work part time as their day job so they jump into full time. A new business will have good and not so good months which is normal in the early days. Try to avoid the trap of jumping too soon.
Balancing Family Time with Work

It is very easy to just keep working to move your business on and because work is where you live you can end up working more hours than you planned and find that it infringes on family time. This is something for each individual to work out for themselves but you have to decide the work life balance even more when you work from home.

It is important that the family understand that just because you are at home you still need to work. It is worthwhile making sure that everyone understands and that they do not put pressure on you. Many work from home businesses involve evening activity (when the customers and downline get in from the day job). This is something you need to be prepared to do and so your family need to buy in as well. It will be worth it.
Lack of Social Interaction

Because you work from home you will miss out on the social aspects of working. Some people really miss this aspect of working in an office. Loneliness can be an issue, particularly in the early days. Once you are more established you have your downline to work with as well as your customer contact. This is another reason why company training meetings are so important. You will meet and mix with people doing just what you do and you will establish lifelong friends in the process.

Bearing this in mind you may want to look at opportunities that do involve customer contact. Keep this in mind when choosing your home business.
Self Discipline

Because you are the boss you have to be self motivated and self disciplined. There is nobody there to say you have not done enough or that you are wasting your day rather than using it. This is why the Daily Method of Operation is so important ( See Starting your Home business from Scratch article).

Only you can ensure that you get the job done. Do not get distracted by all the domestic chores. You must block out your working time and keep it sacrosanct.

Conclusion

It all depends upon the individual. For some people it is absoluely perfect. For those lacking self discipline and work ethic it may not be the solution. For stay at home mums it may give the best of both worlds. This is something that only you can decide.

For me it is absolutely perfect. I love having control of my life; I love the excitement of building my own future. I enjoy what I do and start each day looking forward to the tasks ahead. I do not really think of it as work as I passionately believe in what I do changes people's lives. It is just a great way to live!

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