Work from Home Job or Business

December 22, 2007 | No Comments

Once you have decided, either from necessity or by choice, to work from home, you are most likely to face a dilemma in the shape of a choice between taking up a work at home job or start a business from home. Entrepreneurship is being your own master, answerable to no one but yourself. A job, be at home or at an outside office, means acting on someone else’s instructions. It is but natural that you would want to be your own boss. However, it is not as simple as that to take a call on an aspect that is bound to affect your life to a great extent.

A decision on this should be taken after a proper analysis of your strong points and weaknesses.

Entrepreneurship requires qualities of a type that include high energy levels, ability to set and achieve goals, confidence, and long term planning of the future of the business. Just as wages are remuneration for labor, profits come out of risks. Entrepreneurs are ready to undertake high risks and have the capacity to take failures in their stride. An entrepreneur views a failure as a part of growing and an experience to be used for future actions. Entrepreneurs are vigilant of others’ failures too and possess acumen to learn from them too.

Entrepreneurship requires decision making of the level of a manager and not that of a worker. Entrepreneurs have to decide, initiate action on decisions, garner resources, and at the same time strive to make all efforts to succeed in a way they were intended to. Entrepreneurs do not wait for opportunities; they have the capacity to create opportunities.

Entrepreneurs, in fact, have to bear responsibility of, not only their own actions but also the actions of those whom they employ. The buck ends at their desk and they have no scapegoat whom they can blame.

If your strong points fit into these characteristics, it is advisable that you start a home business rather than going in for a work at home job.

In case you are so passionate about running a business from home and want to ignore some of the qualities of an entrepreneur that you do not possess, there is one option that you may consider. There are instances where you can start a business from home without being the owner of the business and choose for working for an already established company. You can be your own master and work according to the hours that you like without having to bear the responsibilities and hassles that are part and parcel of owning a business. This has its tax advantages too, as all expenses on your office, including mortgage and other expenses, become deductible as business expense.

A work at home job, on the other hand, is a different ball altogether. A regular paycheck is assured according to the time you have put in on the job. You can work according to the hours that suit you. You are not constrained to work from 9 to 5 and can put in the committed number of hours according to your liking. Project based jobs require completion of the work within the deadline set for them irrespective of the fact that you worked early in the morning or late in the night. Moreover, works at home jobs do not require any investment and save you the bother of commuting long distances. There are, however, some work at home jobs where a fee is mandatory. You will do yourself good if you avoid such offers, as frauds are rampant and gullible work at home job seekers are being targeted.

Like all jobs, work at home jobs too mean that you have a boss and bear the consequences of being someone’s employee and you have to work on the instructions of your boss, meet the deadlines he, and not you, sets for you. The risk of getting fired at the will of the employer is always there and so is to go for a work at home job or starting a business from home.

Like all decisions, the choice between a work from home job or starting a home business too requires a proper deliberation with your own self and family, a fair amount of research before you actually take the plunge into either of the two options. If it is business that you are choosing there are numerous choices before you. You could start a business from home as a caterer, event manger, virtual assistant, bookkeeper, accountant or any other that that you are good at. Registering with the authorities is mandatory. Work from home jobs on the other hand have everything cut out for you by the company you do not have to bother about legalities, licenses and the like.

Written by Vishal P. Rao of Work at Home Forum.

Posted in Work at Home Jobs