Home Business Opportunities Offer Much More Than the Obvious

If you’re considering a home business opportunity, or even if you’ve just started one, you may want to consider exactly what that decision would allow you. There are obvious advantages to working from home: you control your own income, you choose your own hours, you don’t have rush hour traffic, you avoid the fear of layoffs or cuts, you are your own boss. Surely those reasons alone are enough to spur someone into action who has even dreamed of owning a business. But what I’ve come to realize is that home business offers a lot more bonuses than most people realize.

Now that we have joined the ranks of the self-employed, I have found that I am almost overwhelmed, albeit in a good way, by what this way of life has to offer. It has caused a complete self-examination that has created a life without limits, literally. And anyone successfully running their own home business won’t find borders where there used to be a plethora of them.

Consider just a few…

Opportunity to hone your time management skills – This is great. You didn’t have time in a traditional job to manage your personal life effectively, I’m sure. A job dictates the hours you have left to do the things you need and want to do. So your after-work hours are itemized for you, simply out of necessity. I used to find that there were not enough hours in the day. Weekends came, it was chores, errands, and maybe some spare time (if I wasn’t too tired) to enjoy some personal time. Now, I find it a welcome challenge to decide which hours make the most sense for our business, which should be spent doing the things that are necessary, and which should be spent exploring what life has to offer.

Be more physically fit – This was a big plus for me. Although I used to get up at dawn to make sure I worked out before showering and going to work, I have now found time to set up a comprehensive training plan. I combine the things that interest me (fast walking, a little running and yoga) and I feel better than I have in years. Knowing that I wasn’t “on time” to walk out the door to go to work has given me time to take better care of myself. Even if you just add a brisk walk to your daily routine, it makes a big difference in your health.

Take more short trips – This has been a problem. Sure, you always had vacation time coming from work. Maybe paid, maybe not. But you had to ask for time off and then wait for the go-ahead to come through. And I was always on the fence about whether to use my vacation time to travel to be with family on vacation or to go somewhere new and exciting. Working from home, those mid-week visits to family and friends, or a beach shack, or even an event (like the Daytona 500 we just held here) are completely doable. And I don’t have to worry if another colleague asked for the same time off.

To learn – Well, before you say that this doesn’t sound like fun, I have to tell you that it is. I have been able to read more and watch more shows on the Science Channel or the Discovery Channel and have actually spent a lot of time online reading informative articles. A friend of mine who entered the business field from home about 4 years ago, she actually took some courses at a local community college that she had always wanted to take. She opens the world to anything you want to discover so you can set your own schedule.

Do things you never had time to do but always wanted to do – This is my favorite. Grow that herb garden, volunteer somewhere, join a book club, attend local plays, try new foods and cooking methods, train a team or join a team…the list is endless . But the point is that without that time constraint that had us rush inside to let the dogs out and then put dinner on the table, we now have limitless options to try things we only dreamed of before. We walk our dogs in the most pleasant part of the day and spend quality time with them. That makes me so happy, that I am a better person. We also have 3 local flea and farmers markets that we never went to. Come the weekend, we told ourselves that we had to fight the crowds and unless we started early, everything would work itself out. So we convinced ourselves not to go. Now, we have even struck up a friendship with a gentleman at a local produce market and have learned many ways to prepare vegetables and fruits that we never would have imagined. We also choose the mornings when most deliveries arrive.

Connect with old friends – This was one that I thought was a pleasant surprise. I was never one to spend a lot of time on Facebook, Classmates.com, etc. Every once in a while, when he could sneak me out for a couple of minutes, he’d jump in line. Now, as our business grows through social media, we have connected with old friends and even gone to visit some of them. What a great feeling to have time to do that.

live where you want to live – Yes it’s correct. And we do it now. We live half of the year in Florida (winter) and half in Lake Powell in Arizona. Portability changes everything. Instead of living where the jobs are or where the work is, the mobility offered by a home business opens up the world to you and your family. Since it probably only matters that you have internet service and a phone, try new places. A friend of ours with his own home business retired from teaching at age 35 and moved to a warm climate. He no longer had to live where there were vacancies for teachers. We love meeting new people and this gives us the chance to really see two drastically different parts of the US, while getting the best of each place.

Improve your money management skills – I, for one, had none. Really. I was counting on my husband to deposit our checks and since he had an accounting system set up to automatically pay our bills, I never thought about it. I knew what the checks would be each month because in a traditional job, for the most part, you know what you will earn. Now, even though we are earning more, it is not a fixed paycheck and I have made an effort to take advantage of the business opportunity we purchased as it is based on a financial and wealth development product that offers advice, education and advice. for making our money work for us. Since I’ve taken the time to learn what money management entails, I actually feel more confident than before and it’s a great feeling knowing I’m getting the most out of what we earn.

Calm down and enjoy life – This is by far the most rewarding of all the bonuses that owning a home business gives us. No more ironing my work clothes the night before, going to bed early to be prepared for the next day’s rush, rushing home (after traffic) to feed the dogs and ourselves, and then doing the things that need to be done before delivering. one more time. Now, we take life one day at a time, using the time we have in the way that works best for our business and ourselves. I take advantage of the good weather when it’s here and often meet interesting people just running errands. My mentality is different and I project it.

We wouldn’t trade our lives with anyone. We have discovered that the benefits of our home business are far more plentiful than we originally told ourselves they would be. With a home business, it’s a whole new world out there – and you might have time to explore it!