For most people, one of the main reasons for starting a home based business is their desire to work from home.
While working from home has its obvious advantages, some find that it’s not as glamorous as it sounds.
Working from home requires focus that is built in to a job that comes with a desk and a boss.
And while it’s very convenient to be able to throw in a load of laundry while you’re “at work,” or to start getting dinner ready in the middle of the day, these luxuries can also be downsides to the setup. You may find your laundry done and dinner ready at the end of the day, but also discover that you’ve made no money.
Certainly, working from home doesn’t mean you have to close your eyes to the household work that needs to get done, but if you’re going to mix the two, you have to schedule in time to do the laundry the same way you would schedule in a client phone call.
Another common complaint about working from home is the feeling that you’re always at work.
Again, when you have a job, there is a built-in physical boundary that allows you to clock out (physically and mentally) when your work is done at the end of the day.
This problem can be lessened if you have a designated work space. Not everyone has a house that allows them to devote an entire room to an office, but that’s certainly the ideal situation.
At least, your workspace should be someplace that is reserved only for work during certain hours. And, everything work related should be restricted to this certain area.
If you find yourself leaving your work on the couch, at the kitchen table, in your bedroom , , , then yes, it’s going to feel like you’re always at work.
And then of course there is the issue of your children. Some people love working with their children around, others find it distracting and impossible.
There is always the option of having someone come into your house and watch the children for a few hours a day so that you can laser focus.
This works well if you have an office in your house, but can still be hard because inevitably, your children are going to want you at some point during the day, and not the sitter.
How To Work From Home Without Working From Home
If you find working from home too hard, or just plain don’t like it, getting a job and working for someone else in an office is not your only option.
You can still have your home based business, and do your work outside your house.
Your first option for making this happen is to rent an office. Unless you live in a really tiny town, there are office spaces that come with a secretary, mail service, and use of a copy machine and printer.
You share all of these things with other people, but the others are in no way connected to your business.
This setup allows you the flexibility of being your own boss and setting your own hours, while still giving you the advantages of the physical separation between work and home.
The downside to this arrangement is that while it’s not outrageously expensive, it can be cost-prohibitive when you’re just starting your business and need everything you bring in to go either in your pocket or back into the business.
In that case, a popular option has become the virtual office space, or shared office space. These exist in almost every city and are much cheaper than renting an entire office dedicated to you.
Cost for your virtual office can run anywhere from $50 a month to a few hundred dollars a month depending on location and the services offered.
Again, these spaces give you the advantage of having staff, wi-fi, copy and printing services, conference rooms, and a physical address separate from your home.
You’ll find yourself surrounded by entrepreneurs in a virtual office space, which means the atmosphere is often very casual and the energy very high. While your kids likely aren’t welcome, your dog probably is.
In virtual office arrangements, you don’t have a desk that’s only yours in most cases, so you may find yourself keeping your work “stuff” at home. This is a minor inconvenience at best, since 99% of your work is likely stored on your laptop anyway.
Virtual office spaces are growing in popularity and are really the perfect answer for the person who wants to owner their own home based business but doesn’t want to work from home, or simply finds it too challenging.
One of the biggest perks to the shared office space is that it averts the all to common “lonely entrepreneur” syndrome and gets you out among not just other adults, but other like-minded adults.
If you are a stay at home mom, another big plus of the virtual office space is that it’s affordable enough that you don’t feel like you need to spend the whole day there. It may be that you can be more productive hiring someone to watch your children for three hours while you work at your virtual office than you can be trying to work all day with your children around.
Don’t discount this option if you see yourself as a stay at home mom not wanting to leave your children. The shared office space can offer you the best of both worlds as a stay at home mom and a business owner who financially supports her family.
If having a home based business seems like the perfect solution for you, or if you have a business that isn’t making you happy right now, we may have the solution for you at KidsPartyCharacters.com.
Owner Cheryl Jacobs has decided to spread the joy she’s found with KidsPartyCharacters.com and allow a select number of people to license their own KidsPartyCharacters.com business.
With a license, or membership, you will have an exclusive territory in which you can book parties, the right to use the over 200 costumes we have, access to our casting director and acting coach, and step-by-step training and support for your business from Cheryl and the entire team at KidsPartyCharacters.com.
Book a no-obligation call with Cheryl today right here, and let her help you decide if this could be the perfect business for you.
Want to see a little more of what you can do with a KidsPartyCharacters.com business? Connect with us on Facebook to keep up with what parties we’re helping to make magical.
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