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Last Updated on July 11, 2016 by Work In My Pajamas
Opening up a business of your own is a challenge of great proportions with the market being competitive as ever. However, with unstable economic flows and the rise of new innovative technologies, privately owned businesses are flourishing around the globe. In fact, many of today’s leading tech companies started out at someone’s garage – Apple began in Steve Job’s adoptive parents’ home, HP was founded just a few blocks further in a house that Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard were renting, and Amazon started in Jeff Bezos’ garage. The Silicon Valley pattern does have palpable advantages and you should consider them as well.
No commuting
Setting up shop at your home or your parents’ garage means that you can jump out of bed and get straight to work. Literally. You can save a lot of time by skipping the long and sometimes exhausting hours of travel by catching up on much needed sleep or, even better, by establishing a morning routine that will increase your productivity during the day – wake up, have breakfast, prepare material for work, read a chapter of a business-related book and browse the Internet for new business solutions. You could also use the money you would spend on commuting and put it in a jar that would be your little office fund for dark days – you’ll easily measure your savings in just one year’s time.
Reduced fixed costs
Another cost efficient advantage of owning a stay-at-home business is the lack of utility costs. Well, you do still pay them, but for your house, no additional fees for the business since you are not renting any space. This means that all of your initial investment goes into direct overhead costs – workforce, computers and equipment, documentation required to open up a business, etc. This gives you a very flexible approach to growing your business as you can switch to a larger (or smaller – depending on the scale of your work) office space as soon as the need appears – you don’t have to wait for any lease to expire.
Personalized surrounding
The working environment is not merely how you represent your business to potential partners or clients, but it has a huge effect on productivity, overall. Blank and dull spaces with little natural light and insignificant decoration cause the general mood in the office to spiral down thus demotivating people from work. That’s why you can organize your home office to fit your personal preferences – you can introduce bright colored furniture with lazy bags or rocking chairs, have shaggy warm rugs in a lounge area full of large pillows where you can sit down and brainstorm your next moves or you can even introduce a time out area with a gaming console or some form of entertainment to help sharpen the focus on important issues by reducing stress.
More time to spend with family
Another important thing about being your own boss is that you can organize your flexible working hours in a way so you can easily balance work obligations and family life. This is an exceptional perk for working parents with school children who have many extra curriculum activities and require the presence of parents frequently. No more begging your boss to let you go earlier or making complicated arrangements with co-workers to cover for you. You make the plans, your word is final.
So, you have decided to step into the entrepreneurship world so it must mean one crucial thing – you have discovered a need for a certain market niche that has not yet been fulfilled and only you have the correct solution. This is the most important reason for starting a business – addressing a yet unsolved problem. All your other dilemmas will be resolved once you gather a strong team and setup your business strategy and all you need for that is comfortable space and a computer. God’s speed!
