Can You Start a Home Business?

A Home Business Article Contributed by Elizabeth Fox-Wise

Can Your Business Idea Be a Home Business?

There are several things you need to consider when you are thinking about starting a home business.

Thinking about your business idea, answer the following to see if it can be a home business or not.

Will the space available in your home be sufficient to house what the business will need? Besides a home office, what other space will the business require? Will you need to keep product and inventory on location? Is there any large equipment that the business will need house?

If the nature of the business conducive to sharing its space with your home? Fox example, if you want to start a business that relies on drop in customer traffic, will your business get enough exposure if it is a home business?

Would you be comfortable with this being a home business? Is there anything dangerous about the business? For example, if you want to start a Private Investigating Business and you have small children, will the clientele you will be dealing with be people you want in your home and around your children?

Will Your Town and Neighbors Be Tolerant of a Home Business?

You might be lucky and already live in an area that is zoned both residential AND business. If that is the case, you are free to make your business a home business.

However, you must get an occupancy permit if you intend to run a business from your home in a residential area that is not zoned for business.

Many towns do not allow any businesses to be operated in residential neighborhood without first obtaining a specific variance. Many zoning boards are reluctant to grant this variance except under extenuating circumstances.

These are all things you will need to find out for your area before considering a Home Business.

Will Your Family Support Your Decision to Run a Home Business?

Even if you intend to be the only one operating the home business, the decision of whether or not to run a business from your home is one that will effect all members of the family. Starting a New Home Business is much like bringing a new child into the family in many ways. With the introduction of the new business, you may meet with resistance, jealousy and even hostility from family members. Especially if they feel they were not part of the decision to make the business home based.

Family members may need to give up some space in the house to accommodate the new business. They may be inconvenienced by customers coming into their home. If the business does not require customers coming into your home, they might still have to deal with an excessive amount of phone calls and other intrusions into their home life.

There might be resentment that the new business owner is spending so much time building the business that they feel like they spend less time with the business owner than they did when the business owner worked away from home.

All of these feelings are normal. For a home business to succeed, as problems arise they must be discussed and addressed before they become too large to handle and the family and the home business can not comfortably coexist.