5 Reasons to Work from Home

Do you desire freedom? Freedom from the 9-5. Freedom from bosses and colleagues? Freedom to do as you please, when you please? Freedom to live your life on your own terms? 

It’s definitely what I wanted! I knew from a young age, that I didn’t want to work for someone else. I wanted to do my own thing, my own way. Add to that, I don’t follow orders very well. So how do you do this? How do you get to do your own thing? How do you break free?

You need a few things to achieve this. The big one is experience. Before you can venture out on your own, you desperately need experience. You need this so you can determine when someone is taking advantage of you or your business.

Maybe someone is asking you to commit fraud. Would you be able to recognize this as a new Massage Therapist? If you are a new and YOUNG therapist, would you know how to handle it or even be comfortable handling it if you are only 20 years old? What if your client is 50 years old trying to take advantage of your business. Will you know how to correct the client professionally without coming off as rude?

The fact is – you need experience so you know how to effectively run and manage a business. You need to know when and how to properly handle a number of different situations that may arise. This principle applies to ANY home business, let alone Massage Therapy or Aesthetics businesses. The second you start dealing with the public, you need to be aware of your rights, their rights, the laws and bylaws, any legislation requirement, and the possible situations that can, and I assure you, WILL arise in your home business. 

I watched businesses of fellow RMT colleagues fail in their homes because they didn’t wait. They plunged in without looking. Sometimes, the simplest obstacle took them down. 

In my particular case, I chose to work for other businesses for about 7 years before taking the plunge.

When I was finally able to open up my own small Massage Studio, I was so happy. This was what I had wanted for years. To have a place to call my own. No bosses, no colleagues, no drama, no gossip. A place where I could make all the business decisions on my own. A place to simply be. To work on clients and give my best to them 100% of the time.

This place was mine. You don’t need to be a Massage Therapist to have your own business. You can open up your own business doing many different things. You can be a hairstylist, Aesthetician, Accountant, Wedding Planner, or Chiropractor. You can make jewelry, sell clothes or hand bags, specialty soaps and scrubs or crafty items. You can have an online website selling things, a blog, write books, edit photos, create websites for others, graphic design, teach english in a foreign country and so many other things.

 As long as you obtain the appropriate permits and know the laws and bylaws around your particular business, it’s very simple to start a business in your home.

I didn’t say it was easy! It’s still difficult to make decisions during the setup process regarding your business and sometimes the complications that arise. 

However, opening a business of your own is well worth it! It can also be accomplished a few different ways. Most people lease a storefront on a main street or in a strip mall plaza. Other people will lease a space inside a mall. You can also buy land and build your own building or buy a house and convert it into a business.

Today, we are going to focus on what a small business out of your house could look like. You can either have a simple setup or a more complex setup. I wanted a more elaborate setup which means I have a separate space where I operate my business.

This space is in a self contained section of my house. It has a separate entrance, office, reception area and treatment area. If you don’t want a setup this large, or if you don’t have enough space, you can set up a smaller office using a spare room. You simply have to consider if you’ll have the public in your house. In my case, I work with the public. I don’t want them walking through my personal space. 

Either way, having a separate workspace is very beneficial.

In my space, a door closes off my business from the rest of my home so it is completely self contained. I have a front door for clients to enter from my driveway and a back door that allows me access to a garbage and recycling area. In between, I have a small office which stores my extra products and office supplies, a small restroom for clients and a laundry area.

This setup allows me the ability to spend the entire day on the workside of my house with no distractions. I’m more productive, more focused and clients don’t have access to the personal side of my house. It also keeps out my 2 furballs…

Working from home has many pros that I personally believe outweigh the cons.

1. Complete Control

You gain control a few ways. The first and most important is that you gain complete control over your life and complete control over your time and how you spend it. 

Imagine never again having to ask permission to change your schedule. Your boss will always approve your day off. In fact, take a whole week off!  YOU make your own decisions! 

You make your own business decisions and decide which directions your business moves. You decide how busy and successful your business becomes. You also decide if you need to slow it down because you want to be less busy. Or maybe you want to make more money and make the decision to hire employees and expand your business. 

COMPLETE CONTROL. 

Control over what you do and how you do it. 

2. Flexibility

I love this one. Owning a business from your home allows you greater flexibility. The easiest way to ensure you have the most flexibility is by adjusting your schedule for future months. You need to anticipate what kind of time off you would like and put it in your schedule immediately. Don’t wait until you’re so busy that you’re in desperate need of time off. Work it in now. You have to remember, that the only person who works for you is you. You are the only one making the decisions, and putting in the time and energy to get your work done.  

I always anticipate time off. Every year, in January, I plan out my time until the end of the summer. By February 1^st, the time I’m taking off in the summer has been blocked off and my hours in July and August have been shortened into summer hours. On June 1st, I plan out my time until the end of December and block off days that I want off. 

On top of this, every few months, I adjust my schedule to how I need it to be. For example, if my partner and I decide we want to visit friends or family on a day that I’m supposed to be working, as long as there are no clients booked in, I will block off my schedule. You simply need to stay on top of it. 

So book time off in your schedule. Book off the days you know you want off: like holiday Mondays for example or Christmas. Try to do this at the start of the year…then adjust as you go. Time off is one of the main reasons you started working from home in the first place, right? So you can take time off whenever you want! 

That’s all well and good, but remember, the work still needs to get done! Even if you start an online business and don’t have to deal with the public like I do, you still have to put in the hours. I’m working from home today on my blog and I started at 8:30am and plan to continue until 1:30pm to ensure that my work gets done. Then… I think I might bake some doughnuts! 

The key is balance. Know how much time you need to invest weekly to get your work done and enjoy the rest!

3. No Commute

Such a great benefit of working from home! No more commuting! Depending on how far you drive to work normally, if you owned a business from home, you could save anywhere from 45 minutes to 3 hours of drive time per day. Think of what you could do with that kind of extra time. Though I do admit, I sometimes miss blasting my music with the windows rolled down! 

So no commute. Cheaper car insurance also comes with that. Less wear and tear on your vehicle, which means you get to keep your car for longer. I know some people like to lease a car so that they can have a new car every 5 years. But if you own your car, imagine how much money you can save! 

My car cost me $305 monthly. Now that it’s paid off, if I kept it for another 10 years, that would be $36,000 in savings! This does not include the fact that you’ll have cheaper insurance, and less money on gas and maintenance. Mind blowing!

4. Spend Less, Save More

Now that you work from home, you are out a lot less! You will spend less as a result. I used to get Tim Horton’s coffee daily when I worked in Barrie. At one point, when I had 4 jobs, I was getting Tim’s 3 times each day. Spending a total of 20 dollars a day. That is on the cheap end compared to some people who get Starbucks daily, or go to get Mcdonalds or Subway for lunch or dinner. It can add up super quick! In my case, I was spending $400 EVERY month just from going to Tims!

That’s $48,000 over 10 years! 

Now, go ahead and add this to the savings from your car.

$84,000 in savings on car stuff and coffee take out over 10 years. It’s making me a little queasy just thinking about it. 

5. More Time for Family & Friends

This one is simple. Now that you have extra time because you no longer have to commute and you have flexibility in your schedule because YOU are the boss, you should be able to spend more time with your family and friends! 

All you have to do is make sure that you don’t overbook yourself with work. There’s nothing worse than finally getting to work from home but not having time for anything! If that happens, you are doing it wrong! The only thing that could prevent you from seeing friends and family more, is if they work more than you do and don’t have the same flexibility. This is probably going to happen because most people don’t work at home. Kind of ironic, isn’t it?

Now, If you still aren’t sure how to do this, scroll back up and reread #2!

There are many more reasons why having a business in your home is amazing and for me, operating a business in my home is 95% positive. Even though I always have to work hard, at the end of the day, I always feel successful. I feel happy. I feel less stressed and I know damn well that I was productive!  My to-do list might be never-ending, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

JOIN OUR FACEBOOK GROUP FOR ASPIRING BUSINESS OWNERS who want to open a brick & mortar or small home business!

If you’re interested in opening your own small business or are already making plans to open your own business, I have an amazing Facebook community that I would love for you to be a part of! It’s a safe and positive space with other like-minded individuals all working towards the goal of owning their own small traditional brick & mortar or home business. CLICK HERE TO JOIN!