Due to the Covid pandemic, many people lost their jobs due to travel restrictions imposed on them due to lockdowns. This has left many hungry since they can’t afford three meals a day. Moreover, with an official cure still far away, people are restless looking for more job opportunities.
However, many people have thought about starting a small business amidst the chaos of the pandemic. Instead of looking for jobs to earn money, people strive for financial independence during such challenging times. Therefore, if you want to become an entrepreneur working from your home, continue reading on to learn what’s required.
Why Start A Small Business At Home?
There are many reasons to start a small business from your house. They include:
1. You Can Follow Your Passion
Starting a small business allows you to follow your passion. We humans always have an activity that we are passionate about throughout our lives. However, due to the need to earn money and start a family, we get burdened by responsibilities that make us forget our passion and go on with our daily, dull, 9 to 5 jobs.
However, starting a business or doing part-time work from home removes all that since you can now turn your passion into a business. Want to sell handmade designer vases and other similar objects? You can now do so by starting your own business from your home.
2. You Can Achieve Financial Independence
While you may get a fixed salary every month if you work in an office, there exists a high possibility that you can lose your job anytime. If that ends up being the case, you are jobless for some time and need to start frantically looking for jobs to pay your bills.
However, if you have your own small business, then you can apply for short term finance loans as they provide direct lenders with financial solutions for your small business. Having a running business ensures that there is a flow of cash toward you at all times. Eleven if you earn less than what you did with your job, you at least have job security since you are both the employee and the employer.
3. You Have Full Control Over Your Schedule
While you had fixed times for entering and exiting your office (the exiting time being subject to change), starting a small business removes all these worries. From now on, you decide when to go to your office, which could be your room also. You also have the power to determine when to stop work and leave the office.
This freedom to do anything and everything in life are impossible if you have a regular job. Only entrepreneurs get such privileges, and they explain this to others through career coaching.
How to Start a Small Business at Home?
Now that you are convinced about starting a new business, it’s time to go over the initial setup process one step at a time.
1. Come Up With A Business Plan
The first step is to come up with a good business plan. Here, it would help if you mentioned what products you are going to sell and how you will see them. The product that you have thought about should be something that you can produce and sell in a short period.
For example, if you have decided to sell homemade lunchboxes, you must know who the best customers will be. In this example, lunch boxes are great for school children and people who go to offices. This is how you should segment your target customer base. Also, study what other competing local businesses are doing.
2. Arrange Capital
The next step is to arrange capital to start your business. Most entrepreneurs take loans from banks and moneylenders to start their businesses. Use this capital to start procuring the initial supplies, such as furniture, desk accessories and business card holders for your office.
3. Hire Employees, If Required
The next step is to identify the workforce required. If you think you can manage all the processes yourself, you are fantastic and should follow that path. However, hiring employees should be a priority if you believe your business needs more staffing to run its daily operations.
The most important posts are that of a lawyer and an accountant. These two are required to manage your finances and sales volume and avoid illegal activities.
4. Formulate A Marketing Plan
The fourth step is to formulate a marketing plan. Depending on the product or service you are selling and the targeted segment of the customer base, you should brand your small business accordingly. For example, if you sell lunchboxes for officegoers, you should use a professional branding statement like logos and slogans. This should be reflected in the digital advertisements you should post on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
5. Legally Establish Your Business
After you have set yourself up for success with the previous requirements, the final step is to legalize your business by registering your small business name with the company registrar. Again, we highly recommend hiring a lawyer to make this step easier. After your business is legally established, start your operations as soon as possible.
Conclusion
Setting up your own small business is no easy feat. It requires a lot of thought processes to go into the entire process. It would help if you thought about what product you will sell, who to sell it to, how to market your products, and how they should identify your business. Meeting all these requirements will set you up for success as an entrepreneur.
About Author
Subham Shah is a marketing professional tasked with managing different facets of digital marketing. He helps businesses with different SaaS startups, their planning, and execution. He might be a millennial but has a soft heart of old-school hard rock and metal music.
