Ideas & Opportunities

Just a few decades ago working from home meant you were either a housewife or a telemarketer. But now, more and more people are realizing the benefits of setting up shop at home and going freelance. Free from bosses, strict work hours, and rent, going home never sounded so good. Let us count the ways.

Another advantage is that you don’t have to leave your home. If you’re a mother with a home-based business, you can bring your kids to school then operate your business without leaving the comforts of your own home. There are a lot of these entrepreneurs. Another group of people are those who operate Internet sites. There’s no point in going to an office especially if you’re just running your own website. You can just work at home.

For the disadvantages, there are actually a lot of distractions: the day-to-day activities of the house, television sets, you get a lot of phone calls, and since you’re not working at home, you’re not in a hurry to get up in the morning, which, depending on how you look at it, can also be an advantage. And there’s the rule of not bringing your work at home, or not talking about business at home, here you have no choice because everything is all under one roof.

For freelancers, there’s no boss. You’re not tied up to any type of contract, and there are a variety of jobs that you can choose to do. When you’re freelancing, you are your own boss. You can plan very well the load of your schedule based on the work that you might have. But on the other hand, everything is highly dependent on you. Being freelance, once you’re not available or don’t have a project, there’s no income that comes in. In freelancing there’s no long-term commitment to anything, but the business is entirely dependent on you.

By registering, you become more legit as a company, and there can be other people who can be involved. If you’re a consultant, for example, and you register as a company, there may be other consultants who may want to join your company. There’s that flexibility. And those who have registered their businesses as corporations can offer their services to multi-national companies that typically prefer to deal with companies rather than individuals.

Financially speaking, the amount of money you should invest in such a business would, of course, depend on the type of business. But definitely, it’s not as much as being office-based. You’re paying for equipment that you are directly going to use, in contrast to being in an office where you pay for utilities like rent and electricity separately.

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