Working From Home And Inclement Weather: How Mother Nature Can Ruin Business

When people begin work at home careers, they often imagine the future in terms of large income earned and the great advantages that come from being one’s own boss.  The advertisements for home job opportunities are ripe with luxurious daydreams about travel and comfort.  The reality of working from home is often much more practical.  Dealing with the details of every day life and preparing for possible crisis can separate successful businesses from those that don’t live past the first few fruitless months.  Mother Nature can provide some stunning hurdles to overcome.  Inclement weather can provide really good direction towards protecting your new business prospects.

 

Snow days earned the status as most fun weather happening in childhood when schools would close in deference to those fluffy inches.  As a child, you could go out and play in the snow or stay in where you were warm and snug, but you didn’t have to work.  As an adult, snow days can create distractions when kids are home and business still calls.  On those days when you find your normal routine disrupted and are called to juggle more than just working from home, realign your daily goals towards those that are more realistic with your increased distractions.  Adjusting your timetable for completing a project to allow for the needs of your kids while they are home will decrease your frustration and make the special day more enjoyable.

 

Rainstorms carry several threats to your ability to productively continue working from home.  The more enjoyable aspect of rainy drawbacks include an increased tendency towards naps.  Unfortunately, these conditions are ripe for storms which carry several more vengeful threats.  Loss of electricity due to storms can halt all work efforts for hours up to days.  Equipment failure due to sudden electrical outages sometimes results in loss of documents or data, which can set projects back.  Floods, the flipside of storms, produce thousands of dollars in equipment damage for home based workers every year. 

 

Fires, like floods, can be devastating to home businesses.  Not only can fire halt work and ruin equipment, bad fires can completely displace homeowners, calling into question the home business’s chances for ultimate success.  Fires and floods, therefore, make insurance an essential for anyone considering a home business.  If your home is the heart of your work life and ability to make an income, protect yourself from Mother Nature with a policy that covers your home and business necessities.

The Signs for Recognizing a Solid Business Idea

Everyone has had great ideas for a business, at one time or another, but far too many times no action comes as a result of this thinking.  The phrase of “intent is worthless and execution is everything” comes to mind.  The accuracy or validity of this phrase is to be determined by each person that comes across it.  A solid business idea is the end result of running an initial idea through a barrage of prerequisite questions and challenges.  The goal is to play devil’s advocate for a moment to see how realistic an idea is, when paired up against many facts that may result in a failed business.

 

Someone who is serious about pursuing their own company needs to first start with a solid basis and plenty of support to back up the idea, from the beginning.  A solid business idea needs to be realistic and some questions should be immediately raised.  Who am I going to sell my product or services to?  Is the market that I plan on working in, saturated with this type of business already?  If so, how will this company be different to the consumer?  Are there high operating costs?  Will this be profitable and worth my time and efforts?  These are a few examples of the type of questions that should be tested against a new idea.  Once an idea is solidified, the marketing and advertising aspects need to be examined closely.  If all of this lines up well a business plan should be written to keep the growth and development on track.  It should also foresee any future challenges and detail a plan to deal with those obstacles.

 

Recognizing a solid business idea can require research and work to obtain.  Once this is done, in actuality, there is still quite a bit of work that will need to be done before the act of business should actually take place.  This is mentioned for a realistic expectation, and not for a deterrent to becoming a successful entrepreneur.  Starting a company from the ground up takes time, money, and a little luck and most importantly a strong foundation that is poured with the identification of the business plan.