Starting a Home Business

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name's Mark and we're going to be looking at how to start a home business. Starting a business from home, working from home is quite a step. Obviously with today's market, things are changing and more and more people are now looking for their own resources to make an income as there are fewer and fewer jobs outside in the commercial world. So one of the things that you need to think about is, "What is it you can do?" What have you got experience in, or an interest in or a passion for. If you can find those things, that's a good starting point. Of course then you have to think about what it is you're going to do in that specific field. Are you going to be a consultant? Are you going to be somebody that actually goes and supplies a service? Are you going to be selling something? Are you going to be an agent. You need to think about what tools you require for that particular job. Maybe a computer, maybe the Internet. Maybe you need a telephone line, mobile phone, maybe you need a vehicle. Maybe you need some way to store and stock your products. You need to consider all of these aspects obviously and the cost of the set up because obviously you're going to need to set up a business under your own name and register the name. You're going to need a bank account. You're going to need stationary and supplies. So you need to do a cost allocation of what it is that you're going to do and how much is going to be involved. And of course then you need to the potential gain that you can make. You mind find that actually working for yourself is actually very efficient because it's just you as a cost and you might be able to make more money doing it for yourself than working for a company so this could be good news. You will also have to become many things such as a bookkeeper. You'll need to keep books. You need to be aware of the tax situation. You'll need to know such things as planning, time management, and of course you need to know about... for example if you hold stock, your stock levels and inventory planning. So you need to be aware of a lot of things and you'll have to be responsible for all of these things. So please take that into consideration. But again as I said on a positive note it might be that actually your time is much highly sought after and it's much more rewarding than working for somebody. Whatever business you go into, you should do some market research heavily about the competition, the usage, the habits of whatever it is that you're going to sell. So you need to do maybe some local market monitoring if you're going to be working locally, national regional... whatever. So really do some key research into the demands and requirements of what it is you're offering. And planning of course, you need to plan your time as well. When talking about planning of course one of the most fundamental issues you need to do once you've done your research is a business plan. Once you've focused on your product or service and of course who you're going to be offering this product or service to, you're really need to get together a business plan which will give you a clear structured direction with which you need to follow in terms of operating effectively. So this is something that you must do."