Maybe you’re sick of the rat race and want to quit your job, to go in a completely different direction. Maybe you’re a student, or a parent looking to make a little income in their spare time? Perhaps you’re not able to go to a regular job due to an illness or disability? If so, setting up a home based business could be for you.
You get to do something you love, you get to be the boss, and it’s completely flexible. You could work a little or a lot depending on your time restraints, and best of all since it’s from home there’s not even a commute to deal with. If you have an incredible idea for a product or service and have spotted a gap in the market, why not turn your idea into an incredible home business? Here are a few considerations to ensure you get off on the best foot.
Set Up Your Office
To work from home, you really need your own office space. Slouching on the sofa or sat in bed with the laptop isn’t going to cut it when you’re trying to get down to business. A good sized, sturdy desk and comfortable chair are essentials. You will also need a powerful computer, the last thing you need is to lose work or information due to the machine cutting out. Purchase all of the office equipment and stationery you will need, from a printer to pens, stamps, and envelopes. That way you can get on with work right away and aren’t constantly having to go out and buy these things as you go along.
Make the space beautiful, it’s worth it if you’re going to be spending a lot of time there. There are tonnes of decorating ideas online such as http://www.housebeautiful.com/ if you don’t know where to start. Having a home office is useful when you run a business from home, as it allows you to create the separation between work and home. Often entrepreneurs can get obsessed with their venture and end up working all hours. This isn’t healthy, setting times will allow you to take a break and come back with fresh eyes and renewed productivity.
Register Your Details
Once you’ve decided to take the plunge and set up your home business, you will need to inform the relative authorities. It’s not as scary as it sounds, a quick call or online form with the tax office is all you need to do for now. Then at the end of the tax year, you will fill in a return and pay any tax that’s owed. You need to register your business as soon as possible after it’s created, don’t delay or you could end up with a penalty.
To set up your business, you will need a business name. You can choose to set this up in your own name, or choose a company name. It’s worth making sure you can get a good quality domain name based on this (without the need to add numbers or underscores) to ensure everything is consistent throughout. If you run a few ideas through a site like wizzhosting.co.uk/domain-names/ it will give you a better idea as to what is available, and you can finalise your businesses name based on that.
Decide Where To Sell
As a home business (as opposed to a physical shop) you will be selling your items or services online. So your first step is to decide where you’re going to sell. You could use an online marketplace like eBay or Etsy- or one of the many alternatives listed here https://www.nchannel.com/blog/other-sites-like-ebay-alternatives/. These are advantageous to new businesses as you don’t have to pay for advertising or site design and it’s all very intuitive and easy to get set up.
On the down side, you will have a small amount of your profits taken each time you make a sale due to fees. If you want to go all in, you could have your own website set up right away. You could look into companies such as wizzhosting.co.uk – modern web host sites are easy to find and can help get you set up quickly and smoothly. You will need to factor in web design and advertising too. Remember to keep track of how much you’re spending and how much you’re making, apps like https://getalbert.com/ will make your life so much easier.
Get Active on Social Media
As a small business in a very large pond, you can’t just have the mentality of ‘build it, and they will come.’ You need to get your name out there, and one of the best (and free) ways to go about this is by utilising social media. Connect with other business owners, and add accounts that match your target demographic.
You could even add bloggers and collaborate with them- this article from HuffPost explains how to go about it http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aj-agrawal/7-ways-to-collaborate-wit_b_9366186.html. This is a useful way to get backlinks to your site and get your products promoted. You could share reviews as well as share/ retweet positive feedback too. Good reviews are worth their weight in gold and can sway a potential customer who’s currently on the fence. It can be difficult to build these up as a new company, so working with bloggers can be a great way to get started.