Are you planning on possibly starting a home business? It's an exciting and liberating thing to do. If I had to do it over again, I would. But it does have its pitfalls. My words of warning and caution are not at all intended to turn you away quite the opposite! Instead it is good to know where you are going when you start a journey and what you might encounter along the way.
We - my husband and I - began our own home-based business four years ago and it was the right decision at the right time. But it has been demanding and difficult as well as rewarding and exciting. What is rarely mentioned is the change involved. This article is mostly about that, and mostly about my husband's personal and professional transformation as we moved into our own home-based business. The decision to start our business had been in my mind for about ten years. I had been a schoolteacher and my husband was an investment banker. However, my real interest was in creating dishware, crockery, and all the assorted items that go with a meal in a restaurant. I was especially interested in organic food and cooking and I worked at creating dishware and many other items for organic restaurants and businesses.
That became my passion. I thought about and dreamed about it and hoped that one day I would start a home business. My husband was not interested in the home business idea, although very supportive of my dream for myself. For years he thrived in the corporate world. He was the essence of the high achieving executive, and he loved it. Then the stress began to build. Eventually, our son went away to college. It seemed to be time for a change. Over and over we would repeat the pattern: I would suggest that he quite his job and join me in our own business. Again and again he said no. Then he reached a point where the stress became serious and for the first time he talked about a business.
His health was suffering and for the first time he talked out loud about the possibility of doing something else. He would market and I would create. We talked and let our imaginations work. We would makeover the house and turn part of it into a set of offices and what I called |
