Be my own boss?

March 9, 2014 jgardner

Have you thought of starting a business but have no idea what you want to do?

Is it possible that you could make income from physical work? Have you done physical work before in your life? Do

you feel the most satisfied and content when you are outside working in the sun? Are you tired of the commute to a desk job?

Have you always been good with your hands doing repairs and services around the house when others in the family don’t have the time or energy?

Bob was tired of his 3 hour commute to the office and the office politics so when he got laid off from work he

thought “is there anything else I could do? I have some unemployment benefits for a few months and the spouse is

bringing in some money. Why don’t I see if I can make a go of handyman services? I live in a suburb where most

people go into the city and the only time they can do house repairs or chores is on the weekend.”

I should look into:

   local handyman services already in my town

   how many customers I might have for my service

   What could be the unique selling point for my business

   What would be the costs of starting up and creating awareness for the new business

   Was there any local town bylaws and government certification needed for a handyman service.

He had some research to do before he started the new business and we will follow along as he does in the next

installment.

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Categories: Mindset Tags: Tags: home business, self employed, technorati

Fred

December 29, 2013 jgardner

Fred, the homebased business consultant

Life as a consultant or the continuing story of Fred. Is it possible to create a new job with his old company?

Fred was on disability after suffering a heart attack. His disability was running out in six months so he had to decide how he would make some money. His boss was eager to have him back but Fred knew he couldn’t handle the 5:00 a.m. commute to the downtown office and working for nine hours each day. So, he went in to the downtown office one day to talk to his boss about working from home.
“ If I set up a Skype conferencing connection for any meetings and we shared the documents and emails through the company intranet system, I think I could actually have more productive hours per day!” , said Fred.

“But how would we get ahold of you for any questions during the day?”, asked his Boss.

“ I could have my email messages forwarded to my smartphone at all times so that if I wasn’t in the office, it would be just as quick for me to respond as in the office,” said Fred.

“ But what about meetings with clients once we have the work done?”

“ You could add any meetings that come up in the intranet calendar and I could drive in for the meeting. We could review the job before the meeting and what to do with the job after the meeting that I could take home to work on. Since there is still the same tight work deadline, I would probably do extra hours at home as I am saving time by not commuting back and forth to get the work done quicker,” said Fred.

You could fire me as an employee and re-hire me as a sub-consultant. We would have a contract specifying our responsibilities which would include me remitting my own required taxes to the government and other requirements as a sub-consultant. You know my work and how I have been able to work to deadline so this should be a win-win for both you and me.”

Fred’s boss said he would think about this new development as he valued Fred’s skills. Fred went home to look into how much net income he would need to work from home as a sub-consultant

Have you thought about the idea of hiring yourself with your skills out as a consultant? What are the legal and government regulations you need to put into place to be self-employed?

Have a look at Fred’s continuing story as he starts his home business by subscribing to The Business of At Home Business newsletter.

Categories: Fred Tags: Tags: home business, self employed, technorati