I recently read a quote from THE Dave Ramsey which stated, "The worst thing we can do is get a second job. The best thing to do is start a home-based business."
So now the question is, "How do I do that?!" Well, thanks to the recent explosion of direct sales companies and their popularity among americans of all ages, you could practically throw out a flare and have a hundred people lining up ready to tell you why their business is the best.
I'm not here for that today.
I'm here to let you know the benefits of starting a home based business and how it can help you in the long run. I don't "just" do direct sales (and really, I haven't even told you which companies I represent, thankyouverymuch), I also teach private voice lessons as my main income. I went from teaching in a public school system, having administrators breathing down my neck, and drawing a consistent monthly paycheck to literally flying by the seat of my pants as I began searching for campuses and areas with a need for a voice teacher in about 3 months' time.
So, from all the experience I've gained through breaking out of The System and diving head first into the entrepreneurial world, here's a list of what I wish I had known when (or even before) I started.
1. We waste a LOT of money on income taxes.
Really. When I was teaching, they just took money out of my check and I never thought anything about it. I would submit thousands of dollars of my hard earned income before I ever even saw it and would be thrilled to get a few hundred back in a return come April. How on earth does that make any sense?!
As a home-based business owner, you can claim the most obscure things on your taxes as expenses and losses as long as you keep iron-clad records of what they are and save your receipts, for heaven's sake!
Here are a few examples:
- Mileage -- you can claim your work mileage between working locations, but not from home to work and work to home...unless you work FROM home. Woah. Need groceries? Pick up a box of envelopes or an ink cartridge for your office printer while you're there and suddenly you've just made a business-related trip and can claim that mileage.
- Dinner meetings -- want to go out with your girlfriends? Bring up your business and that meal becomes more fun for your checkbook.
- Social outings -- when you meet with a potential client (a.k.a. anyone at all), as long as you "talk business" with them within 24 hours of your meeting/event, the entire expense is lumped into the claimable column.
Do your research and make sure you're abiding by the rules, but seriously, there's money to be saved by tracking your expenses.
2. You get what you give.
This is a tough one at first because you feel like you've just invested in starting up and want to turn a profit before spending more money. However, what you give does NOT have to be monetary. It can be time, it can be services, it can be presenting information. But if you don't put anything into your business after investing in it, I hate to break it to you but... your business will NOT run itself. There is no such business that allows us to pitch in once and then wake up a millionaire (if you ever find that, let me know... I've got some debt to pay off!). So get off your rear and get to work! ...on to #3.
3. What you think is work, is not the work you need to be doing.
Yes, having an organized office is important. Yes, keeping your contact list legible and alphabetized is helpful. Yes, that excel spreadsheet with your inventory is fascinating. Yes, stamping and labeling your marketing materials is a great way to ensure you are available to those who see them.
No, none of the above qualify as work.
Work, in an entrepreneurial sense, is productivity. It's business-building activities. It's promoting your business, your expertise, and your services so people will know who you are and what you're doing and why you're doing it. If you aren't talking to people or contacting them about your business and building relationships, you are not working. (and I bet your business isn't working very well, either, hmm?).
"If you aren't talking to people or contacting them about your business and building relationships, you are not working."
4. Talking to people about your business never gets easier.
This one is like performing, but I'm giving you the band-aid version here. The only way to get over stage fright is to perform on stage and get stage fright. You have to learn how to deal with it. It's a miserable cycle, but it literally is the ONLY way. However, talking to people about your business will ALWAYS be hard. It will ALWAYS be uncomfortable, and you will ALWAYS have that little voice in your head telling you that you should go put some more labels on your catalogs and call that customer tomorrow. Don't listen to it, just do it. The only thing to fear is fear itself... and picking up the phone to ask someone to give you their money. You can't view it that way though. Bottom line, yeah, that's probably what you want out of the conversation but sometimes talking to people about your business opens the door for them to express interest in what you do (recruiting opportunity, ding ding ding!) or makes them think of someone they know that might need to hear what you have to say. Just do it. Call, text, email, message them on social media, send them a letter in the mail... whatever you have to do, just do it. Don't wait. Someone else who is reading this may beat you to it, and then you'll be on the docks complaining because you showed up today and missed the boat that sailed last week.
5. Never, ever, ever believe that you are in control.
You're not. Ever.
I went to lunch with my first recruit this past week who, amidst our conversation about successes and why God leads us to trials that never end up going anywhere, shared a story with me. To preface this, you need to know that when I was in college, I had a seemingly meaningless library job. It was a work-study program, making $5.50/hour and I didn't think too highly of it save for the three hours a week I could sit at a desk and do my homework without disruption. I didn't take it seriously, and I only worked while the rest of the campus was at church, so it really was a very dull position and I've blocked most of the experience from my memory.
However, my friend had a different story to share. She had once asked me to cover her shift at the library because she would be out of town. I agreed, but for whatever reason (I couldn't even tell you if I tried, honestly), I ended up missing the shift and the library was left unattended. When she returned from her trip, she was fired from the position. At this point in the conversation, I felt like complete garbage and apologized, but wait... there's more.
She said she approached me about it and I "sort of blew [her] off" in response (another nomination for friend of the year goes to...), but the fact of the matter was, she was without a job and needed to replace that income. So on she went. She ended up finding an internship for the music director at a local church. Come to find out, the man who was the youth pastor's intern would soon become her husband, and the story gets really interesting from there.
While I was wallowing in my guilt for "ruining her life" by not doing what I said I would do and getting her fired, she was able to see the bigger picture. Her words to me this week were, "While I resented you for a little bit, I ended up finding a new job, and then my husband who I wouldn't have met had I not needed to find that job. So, in a way, I sort of attribute you getting me fired to me falling into the amazing life I have now."
I could count on one hand the number of times I've thought about that job after I left it. I can't tell you even an idea of why I didn't show up for that shift or what I did instead, but how incredibly humbling is it to realize that every single thing we do (or in this case, don't do) can have a magnificent effect on the people around us?
There is a far bigger plan for you than you will ever realize, and the best and worst part of it is the fact that you aren't in control of any of it, so do your best with what you've got so you can give your best to those you can.
(...even if your best is not showing up for work and getting your friend fired... which, even though it worked out for the best, I will still feel guilty about...)
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