There is a lot of interest in working at home these days. The attractions are numerous and reflect the way the world is developing as well as the decreasing permanency of full time careers. No longer does somebody have a job for life, seldom will your hear of a person working for a company “man and boy”.

Some of the benefits and drawbacks of working at home as a full time career can be listed as follows:

Benefits

1. You will be your own boss and no longer have to work within the corporate framework or put up with unreasonable and insecure supervisors and managers.

2. You can build up your income with more than one different business, thereby getting more interest and satisfaction out of your working life.

3. Have you ever paused to consider how much your car costs to commute yout to your place of work, perhaps miles away in the city? I have been doing 60 miles a day, five days a week. If you add the cost of fuel, service and depreciation together the AA says that my car costs 65p per mile. For 46 weeks every year this would cost £9,000 per year. This is saved by working at home!

4. A small point but I used to have to buy 2 or 3 new suits every year for working in the office. Now I only buy one – I still have several to choose from but only wear one when I have a meeting to attend. My work at home is done in jeans!

5. You can walk your dog morning noon and night, do exercise whenever you want, be in for deliveries and repair men etc – and never miss an hour of work (unless you decide that you want to).

There are many other benefits, generally particular to each different individual. However, there are a number of drawbacks that you should be aware of, when judging if a work at home career is suitable for you.

Drawbacks

1. Working at home can be lonely. Some people like the isolation, for some it drives them up the wall. If you are an average person, you can get enough human contact by ensuring you attend meetings, sign up to an occasional networking event. One thing that I came up with was to set a couple of days per week when I need to go into town and visit the Document Exchange DX service. I will take my laptop with me together with mobile broadband connection and install myself in my favourite Starbucks or Coffee Republic and make an Americano last for a couple of hours. I can get some work done and feel that I am “out of the office”. Sometimes I will give an associate a call and persuade him to join me for an hour. It helps.

2. Lack of corporate support can be a problem. However, it is possible to outsource most of what you might need, such as computer support, legal and regulatory guidance and technical backup. You will need to factor the cost of these services into your business but they need not be expensive or be used very often.

A work at home career is in no way a cop out from normal working but allows you to work in exactly the way that you want. If you have the right frame of mind and are able to adapt to the change in environment – you are solely responsible for your income and way in which you spend what is actually the biggest part of your life.

If you are thinking of working from home, to earn extra cash or to replace your full time career, but are unable to afford much in the way of investment, there are ways that you can get started. In fact working from home in many different fields has one of the lowest start up cost requirements of all profitable business opportunities.

You can start from two points:

1. You already have a computer and therefore its cost does not need to be factored into your business start up.

2. You do not have a computer and buying one would be prohibitive.

I am going to assume that you must go down the route of starting a business without a computer – and are unable to simply go out and buy one. At $1000 typical cost, they are a significant investment.

The alternatives that involve both working at home and no investment can include some of the following ideas:

• Taking in dogs for owners who work a full or long day. You would be able to care for 2 or 3 dogs, talk them for walks and keep them happy and secure. If you have a garden you could fence off a run area. Clients would drop off the dogs each morning on their way to work along with food supplies etc.
• A similar idea would be to provide care services for children after school for example. Depending on your place of residence you may need some form of accreditation for this!
• Envelope stuffing/jewelry assemble etc. This can be hard and mundane work – but it is possible to earn for no outlay.
• Writing article copy for friends and contacts (subcontract your services to Internet marketers)

Your options increase dramatically if you are happy to work in clients’ homes, other venues etc. You can be more flexible in your approach – clean cars, collect shopping etc. However, without even modest investment, no cost work at home businesses are a little limited in their scope. Setting up a home business on a shoestring, i.e. you can invest a little, is much more likely to result in success. It is very true when they say that you do not getting something for nothing! Also guaranteed profitable businesses for no cost are likely to be scams – there will be a cost somewhere and it may be hidden at first.

Business Opportunity Market’s advice to anybody who wants a no cost business to work at home is that there always has to be a little cost – little cost, little effort = little return. Real business opportunities require some investment and a lot of commitment.

There are many people who aspire to be their own boss. They want to leave behind the nine to five and daily grind in order to be free of the sometimes oppressive framework of the typical workplace. Working from home can offer many the chance to achieve this goal.

Part time home working is a way that many start the process of leaving their normal ‘day job’ in order to demonstrate that it is possible to earn an income themselves. By starting small, a few hours a week, it is possible to develop the confidence needed for when the break is finally made and the support of an organisation and a regular income is left behind.

Many workers feel secure within their workplace, working 9 until 5 for perhaps 48 weeks of every year. Without this security working at home they would flounder, nobody to talk to and nobody to tell them what to do! Others however crave independence but making the break can be equally hard for them. Although wanting the freedom of working for themselves, perhaps after many years of institutionalized working, too sudden a change would not be easily tolerated. This is why part time home working might very well be the stepping stone that they need.

Even if the long term goal is to run a different business, starting part time home working can achieve three positive and different benefits:

1. It could be a low risk practice period for the ultimate planned self employment.

2. It could develop self discipline needed to work away from the normal workplace.

3. It could potentially provide the seed money for the eventual break away from full time employment.

Therefore working from home part time could provide an ideal first stage in moving forwards towards the self employed goal by reducing the risk and even providing some small business funding.

Even if the aim is to buy a shop for example, or set up a small factory in a rented building, part time home working could commence by testing small batches of sales over the Internet or manufacturing prototype products in a home garage. There are many other different types of business that anybody could do for a few hours a week, whether they spend the rest of their time working, studying or looking after a family. As a start up business opportunity, part time home working is ideal, and can be as little or large as the individual wants.