Has the thought of being self-employed ever crossed your mind? Many companies are downsizing, terminating or even firing their employees without warning, and the next victim could be you! With the current state of the economy, it may be difficult to get a job after losing one. It is therefore advisable to create an alternative income stream or start a business.
Before you start your home business, you need to understand that transitioning from being an employee to being one’s own boss is quite challenging. Many people find it difficult to adapt and end up failing in their first years of starting up.
Below are some traits you must possess to help you transition into self-employment:
Flexibility
When you are an employee, you have everything planned for you; your only job is the execution of the task. As a business owner, however, you make all the decisions. For every decision made, you bear the consequences. Running one’s own business requires a level of flexibility, as unforeseen events may alter your choices.
Self-motivation
As an employee, you are probably used to having your actions directed or controlled by others. If you are going to start your own business and succeed in it, you must be self-motivated. Nobody is going to tell you what to do. You alone can direct the company in the right direction.
Quick to identify opportunities and act on them
Most employees work with their heads down. The boss looks for the business opportunities and then assigns employees to work on them. Running your business will require that you search for opportunities, i.e. must learn to recognize or smell the opportunities, and pursue them. Your role changes to that of keeping your head up, eyes open and ears on the ground.
Despite the difficulty in transitioning from employee to a business owner, starting up your business can be very attractive. If you are a mom or dad planning to be an entrepreneur, owning a home-based business is the way to go.
Below are some inspiring home based business ideas you can start in Australia:
1.Freelancing
Freelancing is one of the easiest businesses to set up and does not require a lot of capital, resources, and paperwork. Freelancers are in high demand as companies are continually looking for people to manage their content, design their websites and manage their social sites. A home freelance business is a great way to earn some money from the comfort of your home. You, however, have to sharpen your skills and consistently learn new tricks in your field of specialization. Stay relevant as you build a reputation for yourself.
2.Blogging
If you are good with words and enjoy writing in a conversational style, blogging could earn you a good income. Identify a niche you are good at, create a blog and engage your readers with attractive content. This strategy will help you get traffic to your site and even earn you writing gigs from other bloggers in the same niche. After you cultivate a good readership and sufficient traffic, you can make money from your blog through monetization.
3.Child Care Business
The childcare business is ideal for people who adore babies and love being around them. If you excel in this area, you are sure of having a steady income from children in your targeted age group. Just make sure you adhere to all the necessary legal requirements. You must have professional care providers, your space has to meet the minimum space requirement per child, and the children’s meals have to be hygienically prepared.
4.Bookkeeping
If you love numbers and pay attention to detail, you can provide bookkeeping services to companies or busy individuals who want to keep track of their monthly income and expenses. All you need is some accounting skills, and you are good to go. If the thought of starting this business excites you, take some short courses to help sharpen your skills.
5.Be a life coach or career consultant
This can be a terrific home business venture. People are always looking for solutions to different issues in life – solutions that they need someone out there to provide. If you run a successful career-oriented or coaching blog, you can offer to coach people for a fee. Once you identify what area of self-improvement you are good at, you can start consulting or coaching online.
Having a home-based business gives you the flexibility that your 8-5 job cannot give you. It gives you the opportunity to do something for yourself and actualize your dreams of being your own boss!