Be a Part Time Entrepreneur, Make Money with a Website Working From Home

Posted by Philip King Business, News Add comments

Oct 292013

Work From Home as a Part Time Entrepreneur

Be a Part Time Entrepreneur, Make Money with a Website Working From Home

Have you ever thought of starting a business but put the idea on hold because you cannot risk throwing in the day job to put all your time and money into your venture?

Well, think again. With the advent of the Internet many business owners start off with part-time ventures, which they run during their spare time. They don’t expect their fledgling business to make them millionaires overnight or even pay the bills.

Just be realistic with your expectations, keep the costs down whilst you’re learning but don’t limit yourself on grown. A web site costs the same whether you have one or a million viewers.

As a part time entrepreneur you have the opportunity to make a go of working on something you are passionate about, just keep your expectations in check.

For example, lets say you love to cook and would love to launch a restaurant or deli. Traditionally that would a require full-time commitment and a lot of money. You could start with a small weekend catering business on a market or a foodie pop-up.

A foodie is a gourmet, or a person who has an ardent or refined interest in food and alcoholic beverages. A foodie seeks new food experiences as a hobby rather than simply eating out for convenience or hunger. [wikipedia]

Alternatively, you could sell your culinary pleasures directly from your web site! Working from home you could make your gourmet delights to order and have them delivered.

Just remember, it needs to be fun, so other members of the family have to be okay with the idea and be fully aware of the disruption your home based business is likely to cause.

As Professor David Rae, from the University of Lincoln, points out, “Selecting something you enjoy or are passionate about will help immensely in terms of building up your business the enjoyment factor essentially changes who you are, it shapes your identity and is a key ingredient with any successful business.”

Part-time Entrepreneurs are Common

Part-time entrepreneurs are actually more common than you might think with women and older people most likely to be work from home entrepreneurs. The study showed 85 per cent more females than males work on side businesses and 47 per cent of those over the age of 50 have more than one income stream, compared to around 38 per cent of young people.

Unlike the “old days”, due to a change in work mentality, people tend to change their jobs and even professions more often throughout their working life. This makes it easier than ever before to become a part-time entrepreneur.

It’s Faster and Cheaper than Ever to be Entrepreneur

It is now much faster and cheaper to go into business for yourself. You don’t need to take out a huge loan or even quit your job to be an entrepreneur. Developing a business idea, testing it and even taking it to market via the Internet can cost only a few hundred pounds.

Working From Home

Working from your home to make, grow and produce something is an economic, low risk method of starting a business. It gives you flexibility to work the hours around your primary job. It’s a smart way to get started all you need is a room and the ability to get online.

Direct Selling From Home

Direct selling from home helps you gain work experience through running your own micro businesses and is an ideal opportunity to develop entrepreneurial skills.

The concept is simple, you sell products (I bet you guessed that) which can be anything from beauty products to dog food to holidays and sell them via your own businesses.

Buying and selling products is a very low risk way of getting started, but it’s important to use your resources and skills to your best advantage.

Sell to your local community, get online and sell via your own web site or even through auction sites such as ebay.

Get Online

The Internet makes it possible to sell anything these days but identifying a niche or specialisation and finding out what people need is always important.

So do your research, pick a product or service that really interests you and start building your business from there. Don’t forget, if you’re internet based business is part-time, the orders will still be coming in whilst you’re at work.

Why Keeping Your Job is a Good Idea

Risk Factor

Keeping you day job and becoming a part-time entrepreneur is a really good idea because it allows you to test the water.

It’s a big risk to leave a stable job and venture out into the unknown, especially if you have a young family and/or a mortgage to pay.

When you begin, it will be hard work juggling the two jobs but staying in full or part-time employment allows you to test the market whilst maintaining a safety net.

Cash Flow

A major issue for most start-ups is cash flow. It’s difficult and expensive to borrow from the bank and simply adds you your worries. Starting a business while you’re still employed is essentially low-risk and low-cost. Any profits can also be invested straight back into the business (keep track of all costs, they are tax deductible).

Pension

Employer pension contributions can make up a sizable chunk of your pension pot – which is not to be sniffed at. Your firm may also offer other perks, such as health insurance, a free travel-card or a mobile phone.

Leaving your job could mean you will miss out money-saving perks, so setting up a second business in your spare time means you could get the best of both worlds.

The Downside of Starting a Business

As with all thing there are pros and cons. Before you decide to become a part-time entrepreneur, think about the following:

Goodbye Weekends

At the moment when you’ve finished work you can come home and relax. As an entrepreneur, when you’ve finished your day job, you come home to work.

Running a company is time consuming. Make sure you are under no illusions; businesses, however small, take up lots of time, particularly in the beginning stages. If you’re not fulfilling orders, you’ll be improving your web site, finding new products, designing your advertising, completing tax returns, learning new skills or one of the other hundred tasks you need to perform.

This will limit the time you have for your family and personal relationships so think carefully about the time commitment and consider what it will take to start your business.