Finding Work that Works

Suggestions and checklists for finding out what is possible, and whether or not you might be able to do it.

Your Financial Resources

Do you have any money to invest, or can you take out a loan. If you can take out a loan, do you really want to do so? Can you afford to buy equipment or make home changes a little at a time? What kinds of business will fit into the amount you have to invest, or what kinds of business can you start with only the equipment you already have?

Other Resources

Do you have a computer, crafting equipment, supplies to work with to make a few sales? Can you do work that requires little equipment if you have none, or can you purchase equipment to get started?

Your Skills and Talents

What are you good at? What do you like to do? What work experience have you had? Is there a natural line of work that can be brought home? Is there a similar line, or something else that uses skills you have learned. For example, nurses are experienced at keeping meticulous records of details, teachers may be skilled at assessments or proofreading. If you can come up with nothing that seems to fit, then look at things you can do, and can tolerate doing. Perhaps there is a line of work that you can self-train in, or one that will get you started and help finance the thing you really want to do.

Your Community

We live in a small town with a population of 300. This means we have to do most marketing outside our community. We do some here, the size of the town means we cannot specialize, but must be very flexible and offer a total service in any area. This means we run several lines of business from our home. In a large city you may more easily find a specialized niche, but it may also be harder to compete as there will be more competition. Different things are possible in different areas, and each area has specific needs that are not being filled. Find the ones you can fill, and you have a business.

Your Personality

What do you like, can you work with people well, or do you like to work alone. Are you a procrastinator, compulsive, sedentary? Do you like to work at night, or during the daytime with people around you? Can you work with kids around, or do you need total quiet? Do you enjoy sales, or would you rather sell products in a non-personal way? These questions form the basis for your success or failure in business, depending on what you choose, and they are every bit as important as the official qualifications you possess.

Your Family

How will your family react? Will your kids and husband be supportive, or will you always feel like you are struggling to get business and to justify yourself to your family? Some businesses can succeed without familial support, but others require it. If you need to answer the phone with a business name, your children and husband need to be willing to do so. If you are on your own in this, choose something you can do in just a few hours a time, and make sure you can get that time undisturbed...without having to fight your husband or kids for the internet, for example. And if they do not support you in it, are you strong enough to continue anyway, or do you feel that to do so would break up the family?

Your Home

How is your home life structured? A highly organized home can more easily accomodate a business than a home where anything goes. If you have kids in school, this changes your available time. If your husband works nights and has to sleep in the daytime, you may work better when he is asleep, or when he is awake to help with the kids. Consider where the business will fit in that structure. If you move frequently, you need a business that can be moved without much disruption.

Your House

Where is the space in your house to accommodate a business. If you have room for a filing cabinet, a trash can, and a computer desk, you have room to set up a number of different businesses. Which room will be best for you? If you work best alone, then a quiet corner is where you want to be. My desk is in the livingroom, well in view of most areas of the house, because I work on and off throughout the day, and I want to see what the kids are up to! Some businesses require a dedicated room, or specialized built in equipment. The home you live in makes a difference in what you choose.

Your Support Network

Who do you know that can advise, encourage, and occasionally assist you? Do not depend on your friends and neighbors as customers, it rarely works, even if they do trust you. If you cannot get customers outside your family, you are choosing the wrong business. Your support network is for keeping your spirits up and helping to reassure you that you are capable, for offering insight into what you may do well at, and for adapting ideas to work for you.