There are a few fundamental questions that you need to consider before starting your own home-based micro-business.

1. Your motivation

Why do you want to start your own micro-business?
Understanding why you are starting a micro-business will give you better grounding for all future endeavors. This will be the anchor to your purpose in starting your micro-business. Some questions to help you determine why you want to start your own micro-business:

a) Do you want to work better hours? Not the routine 9-5?
b) Do you want to be your own boss? Why? Are you prepared for being the boss?
c) Do you want to improve your financial position? By how much? When do you want to do it by? Why?

2. Are you prepared

Are you prepared for the demands of starting your micro-business?
Starting your own micro-business means you will be doing multiple roles within the business. This can be quite stressful to your physical and emotional health. Some questions to help you determine why you want to start your own micro-business:

a) Are you prepared to put in the effort and hours required to succeed?
b) Do you have the support of your family in starting your micro-business?
c) Are you prepared to lower your standard of living until your micro-business is properly established and profitable?

3. What skills and experience you have that you can bring into starting your micro-business?

a) Do you have necessary experience in the field you are starting your micro-business in?
b) Are you good at making quick decisions?
c) Are you prepared to learn new business skills in starting your micro-business?

4. What are your finances in starting your own home-based micro-business? Are you able to fund the initial investments and operating cash flows in the early stages of starting your micro-business?

a) Do you have enough cash available to start your micro-business?
b) Do you know how much money you can borrow start your micro-business?
c) Are you comfortable taking calculated financial risks in starting your micro-business?

Things you lose that you might want to
think about before quitting your job.

1. Saying good bye to a reliable and predictable income.

No job is 100% secure, and there is a good argument that being in control of your income via your own micro-business is more secure than a job (you’re not at the risk of downsizing, et cetera..), however it doesn’t feel like that, especially when you first start out. Even the oldest, most established business cannot be certain sales will keep coming. From week to week you go up and down - and are never certain when or where your next sale will come from. You can have great months and bad months - and the only constant is unpredictability. A steady paycheck feels a lot more secure than the ups and downs of your own micro-business.

2. Your micro-business is your life.

When you leave work... you leave work. Most small business owners live and breath their business so they don’t ever really leave work. Now I’ve got it pretty good (at the moment!) because I love what I do and I don’t "have to" work much, though I do choose to work a lot. That being said, I am also trapped in working my micro-business day in and day out, 24/7 - which is not necessarily ideal. Chances are, when you start your own micro-business - you won’t be working 9-5... or even 8-6. Early on you will most likely carry the entire show - and until you can justify hiring others - your hours will be long indeed... and you won’t have much of a weekend either. However... if you are smart, set realistic expectations, and remember life is a balance - then running your own micro-business can definitely be less work than a normal job... if you choose it to be so.

3. You may never make 'real money' until you sell your business.

An unfortunate situation in many small businesses is that the owner often doesn’t make much more than an average salary, sometimes even less. Now if you are evaluating starting a micro-business based purely on financial rewards, you might want to think about changing your assessment criteria. Many small business owners don’t make a big windfall until they sell their business, and often by the time they are making the final sale, they will most likely be using the sale money for their retirement fund. Although it is also true that the only way to become really, really wealthy - besides inheritance, robbing banks and winning the lotto - is by starting your own business.

The reality is that only a small percentage of businesses ever make their owner really wealthy, the rest stumble along earning an average wage, more or less. Of course many of those micro-business owners earning an average wage also love their lifestyle - and only work as hard as they want to. Running your own micro-business has the greatest potential to make you rich, or may never make you rich, but here is the important part, having your own micro-business is very likely to make you a happier, healthier person - if you keep your goals simple and aim for lifestyle over riches. Anyone can get rich... but in actual fact, contented people are lifestyle-rich, often without necessarily having attained a great deal of material wealth too.

4. There is no retirement plan, paid leave or sick leave.

You may not think about retirement very much, but it’s nice to know that when you have a job your employer is planning for your future by contributing to your retirement fund/plan. As a micro-business owner your employer is you, and besides looking after your employee's retirement funding, you are also in charge of your own retirement plan. This is an added worry that you don’t have when you are working for another business.

Having time off is a concept not familiar to many micro-business owners. Being paid when you have time off is like a dream for a micro-business owner. There are some common myths about business owners working 24/7 - even when sick. If you do things right, your business should still function without you when you need time off because of illness - or even if you dare to take a short vacation. However that being said, most micro-business owners find themselves as the most critical cog in the business system - and if you remove that cog from the business gear-train, things fall apart and stop functioning. The important skill to learn is that the micro-business owner should work on the business, not in it, but that’s easier said than done... especially early on when operating funds are tight, it’s very likely you will be working mostly in the business. Don’t expect any paid vacations anytime soon!

There are no workmates for the solo-entrepreneur. You can hire employees that may, hopefully become friends, but the dynamic is always... you're the boss and they're the employees. If you have been used to working in a busy, lively, and talkative office full of peers that share the same perspective as you, with Friday afternoon cocktails, group functions - and shared time complaining about the boss - you can kiss all that goodbye.

Well... okay, that’s not always entirely true...

Things are definitely different from working in someone else’s business, but I’ve seen many small and micro-businesses that have great working environments. The difference is - that as the boss, you have to create and develop your own business atmosphere and socialization program. You can do this by creating an amazing business culture where all employees are friends, and the office environment is like a party that happens to get work done too. Or, if you do not require employees, then it’s your job to make sure you don’t turn into a lonely home-based, micro-business hermit. This means flexing your socializing muscles and organizing events with other business people (or whomever else you like to associate with), making sure you stay actively involved in organizations, groups and clubs - and that you leave the home-office now and then to interact with real live people. Much like everything else in running your own micro-business, you are in charge of your social life too.

These are just some of the key things that need to be considered when starting your own home-based micro-business. The above points are often overlooked, and planning stages rushed through when people are starting their new micro-business. By considering these above questions, your will have some clear indications about why you are starting your own micro-business, and a quick reference guide - should you run into any difficulties in starting your micro-business.

Last words: Determination and Persistence

You'll need to be determined and persistent when approaching your way of making money in your own micro-business. If you give up too quickly... you are never going to find a way to make much money, and in fact, may lose considerable sums of money in your indeterminate, likely ill-fated attempts.

Most people who have actually found success in their own micro-businesses have planned their business well, been dedicated to what they do, and persistently follow their hopes and dreams to their successful conclusion. They didn’t give up once they found out that they were not automatically raking in fast and easy money.

Persistence means staying focused and "doing" one thing to the best of your ability until it eventually succeeds, not "trying" a succession of many different things that ultimately lead to failure, simply because you quit too quickly.

If an endeavor has been successfully done by someone else before, there is no sound reason that you too cannot duplicate their business successes - and reach your goals in both lifestyle and financial terms.

To YOUR future success, I dedicate this service...
It's your choice, continue as you are, having less than what you want, or make those critical, life-changing choices for a happier, healthier and wealthier life by following that which is placed before you.