Best Time to Start a Home Based Business

When is the best time to start a home based business? Start by asking yourself a few key questions:

1) Have your hours have been cut, or maybe it was your paycheck that was cut?

2) Were you laid off or phased out?

3) Have your resumes gone unanswered?

4) Have your unemployment benefits been exhausted?

5) Have you liquidated all your assets?

6) Do you have over 20 years of work experience?

7) Can you provide a needed service?

8) Can you create something saleable?

9) Do you have limited funds?

10)Are you motivated to make a change?

If you have answered "yes" to these questions then you are a prime candidate to start up your own home based business. In fact, if you've answered "yes" you may have some catching up to do, the longer you're out of work the harder everything else becomes. We each bear responsibility differently, some create the stress and instability themselves without realizing it because of the importance they now put upon the outcome. New ventures need time to mature and come to fruition. Many great ideas failed at first but, became the catalyst for something else. There's a term for it, "evolution." Regardless of where you are in your life we are all hot wired to survive and evolve.

So, it goes without saying that if you are unemployed or suffered a salary cut you have already streamlined your spending habits, you may have already cashed in all your assets and may actually be facing foreclosure or homelessness. Do not become a statistic or a victim. Accept your circumstances for what they are, wrap your brain around your new reality and recognize this opportunity to change the course of your life. If you are having a hard time finding employment you're probably considered too old or over qualified. So what? What do they know? If you've been out of work more than 6 months they may think there's a reason why and not consider you a good candidate. You are being judged by whom? Forget about it. If you're a single parent, too thin, too heavy, too hairy, too weird it's just another reason to eliminate your name from a very long list of applicants. If you're under educated it may be a problem, if you are over educated they worry you won't stay. The reasons not to hire you are endless, finding the one reason they should hire you is comparable to winning the lottery. While you're waiting for that to happen, start figuring out what service or product you can provide.

Now is the time to try to remember all the things you used to enjoy or some things that you do well. It's important to get settled into a quiet place where you can think and do some free associations and just start to write all these thoughts down on paper. Here are a couple of classic self-help books that can help you get started, "How To Attract Success" by FW Sears and "Think & Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill.

For instance, I know that many Realtors, like me, came from other industries other than "sales", I came from an administrative and accounting background. I know of several laid off, career minded wage earners, utility workers, mechanical engineers, management executives and teachers, who found second careers in landscaping, as handymen, real estate investors, caterers and fruit gift basketeers. Some people with creative talents in fine arts, music, photography, programming or even web design, as independent contractors, have turned those jobs into their own home based businesses.

As freelancers and independent contractors we can combine our god given talents, our life experiences and all our resources to create new opportunities. I am further inspired by a 93 year old family friend who reminded me recently that he had had his share as well of hard times, bankruptcies and law suits and he had survived knowing that this too shall pass. His advice, you get up every morning and you keep going by putting one foot in front of the other. If one thing doesn't work out you try something else and you keep doing that until something clicks.

When is the best time to start a home based business? As soon as you can think of one you should jump on it, it's going to take some time to get it off the ground. It will be easier to transition if it's on your own terms in your own time.

If it is time to re-invent yourself, be brutally honest with yourself but, don't beat yourself up over what's past; instead be brave, be bold and you'll be brilliant. Never give up and never look back, today is all we have, make it count.