Posted on 02/17/2011 4:41:45 PM PST by Niuhuru
Does anyone here think that running a business from home is going to be the new way that businesses are run and how do you think this will affect hiring policies?
Er...no. Anything you do “at home” is inherently limited.
Unfortunately I believe homo-based businesses are the future.
I run my business from home, and I have NO PLANS for hiring employees.
If and when I expand, it will be through partnerships with other individuals or businesses to provide the workforce I need to continue providing services.
I have a small printing company and bulk mailing shop and do much of my work at home. I do not have drop in customers, strictly BtoB and go to my customers for their orders and of course deliveries. It works great. My wife and I have part time helpers and we give them 1099s because they work at their homes and on their time. Yes, this is a wave of the future.
What do you do?
I ran a home based internet type business for 5 years and did enjoy it. I quit my job on 9-10-01 to start it up. The next day was a shocker obviously and for a day or so I debated the move. The first year was actually the best year. An influx of competition and problems keeping inventory ultimately led to me shutting it down.
I had a computer business in my home for years in MD. Most places permit an office in a house because of Doctors, Insurance salesmen, and Real Estate persons. Generally, you may not store inventory. You can park a truck and keep inventory in it.
I would recommend a phone under a business name. This helps you get recognized as a legit business by other businesses. Go to the local bank and open a commercial account and get some checks printed.
I had associates not employees when I needed extra help.
Most important of all is that you are doing something which you REALLY like to do and are willing to put in a lot of hours to do it.
Happy Trails!
I can see more employees working from home to save the company money.
Besides babysitting employees, there is really little reason for offices to exist anymore.
I am the ONLY person who need to be at the office in my company. I run a warehouse that distributes print products.
Everyone else is support staff or graphic designers who really do not need to be there. E-mail and teleconferences are how most of communicate anyway.
The Unions are going crazy over the idea of people making money they can’t steal.
If I have a kid I think is a jerk, I’ll fire him/her. What’s to discuss?
I have a friend who came up with “Bumper Nuts”. You know what they are if you’ve seen them. Her biggest challenges are wasps on her front porch.
I run a business from home. I came out of a big corporate environment, so at first I was concerned that customers and suppliers would look-down on me or expect to see a nice office, etc...
I have worked all over the world, and in fact, Americans are the most accepting and practical in this regard. Many of my customers still in the corporate world envied me, and many customers found passing business to me, at home or not, saved them money on new hires, training, benefits, etc...(its also why I believe existing companies will not drive employment in this economy - but I digress)
In the end, few seem to care if I work from home. Its the strength of one’s work and character the speak loudest.
I had home-based businesses that I ran and made lots of money with. I sold and rented expensive electronic equipment. But this was in the 80’s & 90’s and they would be harder to operate now.
Generally, I would say that unless you have an outbuilding or a fairly spread-out home, you’re not going to be able to have a family-type house + inventory + employees.
You can rent a storage space, hopefully nearby, for $75-$150 a month if you need additional space. It is a time killer to go back & forth and you prolly get a little scattered with the goods over here and the paper over there and no computer anything at the storage space...but OTOH with mobile ‘net access (which did not exist back then) it can be made to work. What’s nice is that you can add and subtract more spaces as you need and “unneed” them.
Employees, which I strongly, strongly recommend against, are very tough out of a home based business. Maybe 1 employee is OK, but multiple = forget it. Actual, real, workers comp insurance will kill you. Phenomenally expensive.
You must be very careful of your state’s & Fed employment laws wrt withholding and independent contractor considerations.
All the admonitions to “wall off” your personal assets from your business assets become rather more difficult to keep walled off when the two are jumbled together. And, once that line is smudged, it ceases to have legal effect. What I am saying is, it is not that expensive to incorporate. But it can be more than trivially expensive to maintain all the proper rituals of being incorporated at the specific times they all need to be done. And should you do so, all those corporate protections go away.
It’s very likely that you’ll find yourself working 16-18 hours daily, many days, and that is OK. Your task is to reduce that, if you wish to have a life. The challenge is to get good, focused, and efficient effort going during the day that accumulates towards your bottom line. If you have kids running around, you’re going to have a problem. Not to say that you can ignore your kids.
What I’m saying is that you have to create a *feasibility*, not an impossibility.
I’m running my own commodities business. I’m becoming an agent so that way when I seal deals, I can get both the commission and the income from the contract. I simply don’t see the point in trying to get a normal job when there are none out there and also dealing with co-workers who are ready to blow up at you within a moment’s notice.
I think rather than expecting great things from home based businesses, there is going to be a trend toward “working for cash only.” No interference with government regulations and oppressive taxation, especially if the USA becomes bankrupt.
You have an excellent point and I will be sure ot remember that. But the benfits is that I don’t have to take time training someone, worrying about benefits, and also worrying about lawsuits and unions breathing down my neck. Plus I’ve tried to hire people and go in with them, but since I telecommute, it’s more trouble than it’s worth. I don’t plan on keeping stock, but facilitating commodities trading and taking the income, from both the supplier commission and also the agent’s commission. Both fat income for me and I’ll be able to get more than enough experience. If I need help, I’ll contract help.
Definately. The only poeple surviving this will be the ones who work with their hands and the ones working from home. For a while, it won’t be too safe going out.
I’ve noticed a lot of mobile businesses that might otherwise be fixed-based, like pet groomers, sales of window screens and carpeting, auto mechanics, and one guy who had a mobile gym! Oh, and a few weeks ago I saw a beauty shop in a motor home.
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