The Pros And Cons Of Working At Home

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The Advantages And Disadvantages Of Working With A Home Business


Hi Folks

Ok you have taken the decision that you want to work from home with your own business. You want to be your own boss.

Congratulations, you have made a start, but did you really think being your own boss with your own business through before you took the plunge?

What I'm saying is. You have got to realise something about life. Life has a certain balance: there is no pleasure without pain, and there are no pros without cons.


This is my take on the upsides and downsides of home businesses.

Pro: Independence.

You do what you want, when you want. No-one else can screw up your hard work, and you don’t need to depend on anyone but yourself. Your days of being told what to do are over. And there’s no dress code, either! Many people who work from home admit to sitting around in their pyjamas all day, or even working in the nude.

Con: No Security.

With independence, though, comes responsibility. There’s nobody to carry you if you do badly one day – if you don’t make any money for the business, then you don’t get paid. People like certainty in their lives (that’s why they spend big bucks on insurance) – it can be hard to live with this ultimate step into performance-related pay. You might find yourself quickly wishing you had a regular wage again.

Pro: Flexible Working.

You decide your hours. If you want to take Wednesday off and work Saturday instead, then no-one’s stopping you. If you’d like to get up early and cram all your work into the mornings so you can have the afternoons off, then hey, you’re the boss. Such flexibility can be a massive relief after years of working nine to five.

Con: Work Never Ends.

When you work from home, it can be tempting to be constantly monitoring things, even when you’ve decided you’re not working. The only person who can handle a crisis is you – and crises have a tendency to happen in the middle of the night, or on your day off.

Pro: Keeping All the Money.

Everything you earn is yours to keep. It can be truly disheartening to work somewhere where cash is being handled, and realising that the takings for the day add up to a hundred times more than you got paid. You know that someone’s getting rich off your back, but it’s not you – working from home makes you the fatcat at the top.

Con: Doing Everything.

Not all that money was profit, you know. It goes on things like marketing, management, stock control, deliveries, and so on. Suddenly you have to manage everything that goes on in your business – you deal with suppliers on one end and customers on the other, you have to do all the budgeting and spending, and you become your own marketing department. You get to deal with all the fun tax issues, too.

Pro: No More Commuting.

Commuting is expensive, painful, and can feel like a complete waste of time – just think of all the time and money most people spend travelling to and from work. When you have a home business, you just get up and you’re right next to your workplace – isn’t that convenient?

Con: One Less Room.

Your house can feel a lot smaller when you’ve had to set one room aside as your ‘home office’. When you’re not working, it just sits there, useless, and meanwhile your kids are getting upset at how small their bedrooms are.

Pro: A Healthier Lifestyle.

When you only have an hour’s lunch break to do everything you need to do, you can end up running yourself into the ground and not eating properly. Working from home lets you do your errands when you want, and eat good food every day.

Con: The Loneliness.

If you’re the only one around in your house during the day, it avoids distractions – but it can also feel very lonely. If you’re the kind of person who likes being around other people, you can start to get quite depressed.

But…

If you talk to anyone who works from home, they’ll probably say that for them, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. Once you’re doing your own thing and feeling great, it’s hard to go back to a salary existence – and remember, it’s far easier to work around your problems in a home business than it is to deal with any problems you might have at work.

There you go folks and if anyone thinks I've missed a pro or a con then by all means leave it below via a comment.

Have a great weekend and be successful.

Robert Allan

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Recent Comments

73

It's takes a lot of motivation and self-discipline to work from home but for me it's worth it.

Yes indeed Holly.
When you can see the results of your work and know its going to make you some money the effort is well worth it.

Not so in a normal 9 to 5 when most of the time you are simply another cog in the ever turning wheel.
Thank you for reading.
Enjoy your Sunday.
Robert

My experience working from home you must be disciplined and stick to a daily schedule to make it work

Yes indeed Juan, you must have a schedule or at least a time table you know you can stick to.

I personally get all the little tasks done first then move on to the bigger ones.
That way I can concentrate on what needs to be accomplished without any distractions.
Thank you for reading and have a good one.
Robert

As a person who does both, working from home and working at the office, I will say that I'm healthier at home. At the office, I'm stuck in the same office chair all day, and don't get a lot of breaks. At home, like right now, I'm typing while laying on the couch. I work from the couch or the recliner, or my office chair at home. I can get up and run around the house and switch out the laundry whenever I want. At the office, we have a lot of fast food. At home I have good food I make myself,

I would rather be home.

You said it Rhonda, much better being at home and comfy while working.
Actually a lot of people complain of a sore back from sitting in an office chair for hours on end.
At least at home you can get up and walk about or go outside for a breath of fresh air.

I cycle a lot and weather permitting I'm out and about almost every day. It fair blows away the cobwebs and I do most of my thinking when I'm out and about.

Thank you for taking time out to read the blog Rhonda and hope you're having a great Saturday.
Robert

Hi Robert
Great share, thank you.
I ran a recruitment business from home and my biggest con was an obnoxious Neighbour using power tools during the ,mornings, my cold calling hours. It became a real challenge. Laws are there to protect us from that but the fight and unpleasantness was not worth it because I've bought this property &'it's not in my interests to sell or move.
Thankfully an inline business is not dependent on many hours of phoning.
Blessings
Louise
PS. Did you see I mentioned you in my blog called Deer Caught In The Headlights?

Thank you Louise.
Always appreciate being appreciated.
I have been working from home about 12 years now ever since I took early retirement and I don't regret it for one minute.
There are ups and downs and good days and bad but taking everything into consideration I would never go back to working for someone else.

Now as its getting late here in Scotland its time I was off this machine and chill for a wee while in front of the telly before bed.
Have a great Saturday yourself.
Robert
PS
No I didn't see your blog.
Give the URL and I will read it tomorrow.

As much as I love working from home, I probably lead a less healthy lifestyle now. I worked for the government for 30 years and would walk to and from my office, 20 minutes each way. Plus I was obliged to take a lunch hour and 15 minutes extra break morning and afternoon to rest my eyes. Now, I just walk downstairs to my office and rarely take a break. And my desk faces the garden and I can watch the squirrels, which is somewhat distracting!

I was like you Diane and was a civil servant for our government here in Edinburgh.

However for the last 8 years or so I was a trainer so I had a bit of variety and that help break up the utter boredom of day to day tasks we had to do.

The one thing I did like was that I got moved to a different department every 12 months.

From my flat I'm looking directly down at a local cemetery but in the distance I can see the hills.

Plenty squirrels there as well and I saw a fox this morning.

Thank you for reading Diane and hope you have had a good Saturday.
Robert

How spooky - I was a civil servant, a training officer for the Job Centre. I was made redundant in 2012, and took the opportunity to become a full-time writer.

I worked in many government departments in Edinburgh such as The Inland Revenue, Health Department, Land Register, Archives, Births, Deaths, Marriages, Justice Department and I even did a stint in our Parliament getting all the Admin ready before it actually opened.

I took early retirement in 2007.

Enjoy your Sunday and the week to come.

Robert

Hi Robert
I have been self-employed all my working life so I love everything about working from home
For everyone who hasn't had this opportunity, I would say Discipline is the best strength to have
Go well
Vicki

Hello Vickie.
It must be Sunday where you are now so you must be an early bird. I suppose Carol will still be fast asleep lol
I'm about to sign off for the night myself.
Thank you for reading and yes I entirely agree working for yourself beats a normal 9 to 5 hands down.
Robert

Great tips as always Robert. I would have to agree there is nothing like the freedom of working from home . For me I found not having a structure put in place for the day often would up being not a productive day. So for me it’s distractions and missing chitchat with my work buddies.

C'mon now Pam, was the chit-chat all that interesting?
Much better working for yourself and yes it might get a wee bit lonely at times but your working for yourself so that must give you a life when you do feel a wee bit down.
Onwards and upwards Pam and never look back.
Robert

Well Robert you have just put an idea for a blog that tells the Government to go to the moon and don't come back .

Hi Thomas and thank you for stopping by.
Glad you liked it and it has given you an idea.
I take it the trip to the moon would be one-way lol.
Enjoy your Saturday.
Robert

I find the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. I could not go and work for someone else now.
It can be tough to be disciplined and focused at first but once you get the habit it's fine.

I agree Linda.
When you first start it can be quite overwhelming but you soldier on and gradually you start to make sense of it all and everything falls into place.
It really is a step by step learning process just like any other new job you start.
You know virtually nothing when you start and you have to learn.
Its as simple as that.
Thank you for dropping by and reading my blog and have a great Saturday.
Robert

Thank you Robert, enjoy your weekend.

No probs Linda and enjoy the week to come as well.
Robert

Con: must be responsible to pay your own taxes and file a profit and loss statement if in US reporting to IRS, need hire CPA or tax accountant.

Hi Brenda and thank you for reading and for your input.
Thank you also for your Tax Info.
We in the UK have to inform our HMRC but as I'm not a US Citizen I have to rely on people such as yourself to give the relevant info.
Enjoy your Saturday.
Robert

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