Do You Have What it Takes to SOHO ?

Working from home might sound fantastic for some especially for mums, aint it so ? no need to be stuck in the traffic, able to spend more time with your kids, more time to get your groceries, no fixed schedules, no late appointments, flexibility, you earn what you made, dont have to worry abour retrenchment, no office politics, dont have to buy expensive dress to show off to your co workers, dont have to make-up is this what you are thinking ?
If its so then I would really hope you think more than twice before you jump onto this SOHO thingy. Its not as easy as you perceive to be a succesful self employed.
Even tough these are all indisputably strong benefits of running your own SOHO business, all these are attainable provided you put enough efforts into it. There is a lot of sacrifices to be made before you would even arrive at a point where you will consider all the above mentioned quality will be a benefits to you. There are factors influencing whether a person is suitable to run their own SOHO business or otherwise.

These factors are :
a.] Personal

b.] Financial

c.] Enviromental

Lets look at all the Personal elements that would be influencing your decision on whether you are suitable to become self employed or else.

Commitment – You must be totally committed to ensure the success of your business. You will also have to make sure that you can tell the differences between a commitment and a hobby/interest. Interest will dies off over time but commitment will grow and be even stronger as time goes by. You must have the “FIRE” in you to achieve the success you have been dreaming of.

Risk-Taker – Its not like you are still working for someone else, if you screws up you will hafta bear the losses, its your own money! So, if you aren’t really a risk taker perhaps a paid employment is a better option.

Self Motivation – No more motivational seminar where peoples holds hand and sings motivational song unless, you are paying for it yourself. So now you gotta be able to motivate yourself to do even the most annoying task as long as it puts money into your bank.

Self Discipline – Working from home does have a lot of disadvantages, even more if you are a mum and you kids are constantly bugging you for attention. There will be no end to the distractions you will get. So the key here is Discipline, you need a lotsa discipline to make sure you stays on the track.

Patience - starting a home-business is one thing; turning a profit is quite another. You will not make a profit overnight. Be prepared to be patient and frugal during the first few months of your new venture. Make every cents count!

Flexibility and Adaptability – before you started your own SOHO, you may have a lot of staffs working for you, you may even have your own secretary or PA to assist and to take care daily routine work, but now you are on your own and you must prepare to be able to play all those roles youself. At least in the early stage of your SOHO, you have to learn new skills and to adapt as soon as you can. Its definitely not a bed of roses.

Willingness to Sacrifice – especially in the early stages of your business, be prepared to make sacrifices in terms of time and money to get your business off the ground. You will need to be prepared to put in long hours and, more likely than not, get by on less money than you were bringing home from your paid job.

Stress Management - the burden of your SOHO success or failure will rest solely on your shoulders. That’s a lot of responsibility. Can you cope with the stress ? do you have a good stress management program ? Judge your own level of stress management and the level of stress you can absorb, if it’s not high, you either look for a way to increase it or you will be better off working for others.