5 Stupid Things People Do Working From Home

Thanks to technological advancements, people have decided to make lifestyle changes and have flocked by their thousands to start home based businesses. Home based businesses is the largest growing segment of small businesses today and unlike previous decades anyone who has a computer and internet connection has the ability to start their own home based business literally overnight.

Home based businesses can afford greater flexibility over our lives and can really give us a sense of freedom. With this sense of freedom there are also pitfalls that many home based business owners make that can really set them back.

Here are 7 stupid things people do working from home that can be disastrous to your new found freedom and financial well being.

1. Taking their new found freedom to literally. Your now the boss, you've been waiting for this moment. No more boss to report to and no stuffy corporate environment to inhibit and hold you back. Instead of taking this as a chance to stretch yourself you instead take the new freedom to literally and spend countless hours watching day time soaps instead of working. You get distracted by household chores and go on endless errands during work hours because you can. The reality is that just because you have your home business doesn't mean you can slack off and work when you feel like it. The reality is that unlike in the workplace where you can work to the barest minimum expectation and still get paid, here if you don't work hard you don't get paid. Eventually your sloppiness is going to catch up and you are going to struggle to pay the bills. So before you get excited you need to realize that you are going to have to work harder than you did for your boss only this time you will reap the rewards.

2. They go overboard with the work. You started a home based business for a reason, maybe it was so that you can spend quality time with your family, maybe it was to enable you to stay at home with your young children or maybe it was for a better lifestyle choice. So a few months into the new home business you see these very people working twice the hours they used to when they were working only now instead of taking their work home with them they have the work with them at home 24 hours a day. These people can't seem to switch off from their business because there is always something to do and never seems to be enough time to get them done. Don't let that be you. Learn to switch off completely from work and set up scheduled times when you will work and when you will spend with your family so that you don't feel guilty for spending time with your loved ones.

3. They don't know how to delegate. If you look at your former workplace you weren't expected to do everything. They had people doing a particular task and others doing another task. The reality is that all good businesses know how to delegate tasks and functions to people who are going to do them best. This isn't going to be the case with a new startup home based business simply because you may not have the financial resources to delegate everything that you want to. However you can do some simple things to delegate things to people if you realize how much you can save by doing it. For example if it is going to take you 6 hours to get your monthly bookkeeping records up to date but it will cost 3 hours and $600 to delegate to the bookkeeper you can decide can you make better use of your six hours and will you in that period make more than $600 to pay for the bookkeeper. If so then delegate. The more you focus on your core competences and delegate the rest the better off you will be and your business. Not only will you be doing things you enjoy and keep your enthusiasm for your business high you are also giving opportunities to help others do what they are competent at.

4. They buy themselves a job instead of building a business. The point of going into business is so that you can create some sense of financial freedom and to provide a product or service to your target market. However many people who start home based businesses soon realize that it just isn't economically viable and instead of calling it a day and start a different business with better prospects or go back to the workforce they instead hold onto their dream like it's the last glamour of hope in their lives. You can spot these people because they keep pumping their savings into a business or they get their loved one who has worked hard for their paycheck to invest into their business. They hold onto the hope that one day the business will grow but it generally never does. If your business isn't viable then all you have is you have bought yourself a job where you are overworked and for some people they may even be volunteering for the pleasure of owning a business because they can't even draw an income. Sure during the startup period many businesses owners choose to reinvest the profits back into their business and sure some business takes longer than others to break even but you know after time whether the business is going to work and because you are home based there isn't any reason why you can't start again with another venture after all you have now learnt some valuable lessons. Don't hold onto an empty dream if it isn't performing.

5. The dream to small and settle. You might have a home based business but that doesn't mean you have to think small. The greatest shame is seeing home based business owners who only think small because they see themselves as a small business owner. The reality is that many great well known companies started out in dorm rooms, in someone's garage or on the kitchen table. There is no reason to create limitations on yourself if you want to create a large company. Great things can start off small, just dream big and take one day at a time.

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