"There's No Place Like Home "The cottage industry, an old-fashionedenterprise, is enjoying a revival so strong that it's difficult tofind out just how many Nigerians are now working at home. Because women now enter business at a rate faster than men, the trendof operating from home is growing. A natural starting place for manybusinesses seems to be the garage, basement, or anywhere in thecompound. Homemakers, hobbyists, retirees, people interested in a second income,and the disabled are just a few of the groups attracted to homeenterprises. A young mother once told me her craft business beganwhen she started applying decorations on her children's clothes. A retired civil servant bought 36 beehives and sold honey to localfood stores and individuals. A teacher did typing and secretarialjobs for her husband and friends untilshe realized the potential market and opened a full-time secretarialservice from her apartment. Others have become home business owners byusing their skills in catering, counseling, teaching, day care,sewing, writing, photography, consulting, market research, andlandscape design.The list of services that have been successfully operated from home isendless: maid services, home nursing, party planning, dog grooming,and others too numerous to mention. Let your thoughts run freelythrough the possibilities until you can target exactly the right typeof business for your skills, your home space, your market, and yourpart of the country.
Home Entrepreneurship: Is It For You?
The first step in deciding whether to start a business is to askyourself this important question: "Do I have what it takes to be anentrepreneur? " Studying the characteristics of successful businessowners will help you to tell whether your personality traits,experiences, and values are similar to those who have succeeded. Andassessing your experience, skills, and life goals will also help youdecide if you want to invest the energy, time, and resources thatsuccessful entrepreneurship requires.
Who is the "Typical" Entrepreneur?
What makes an entrepreneur successful is a hotly debated andvigorously researched subject. The following questions will help youdetermine your "Entrepreneurial Quotient." Write down your answers,please be sincere with yourself.
Do you reconcile your bank account as soon as the monthly statementcomes in or can you start doing it? Entrepreneurs are careful aboutmoney. They usually know how much money they have so they can seizeopportunities on short notice. They know what things cost, whetherprices are going up or down, and whether they are getting a bargain. Did you earn money on your own from some source other than your familybefore you were 15 years old? Most people who are going to make moneyin business show an affinity for making money at an early age—by helping in familybusiness after school hours, selling or delivering newspapers, or somesuch strategy.
Do you get up early in the morning and find yourself at work beforeothers are out of bed? Entrepreneurs sleep and eat enough to keep uptheir strength, but they don't usually tarry at these pursuits.Do you tend to trust your hunches rather than wait until you have alot of information on hand? Hunches are judgments based on factorsthat cannot be quantified; a big part of entrepreneurship seems to berisk-taking based on these hunches.
Do you remember people's names and faces well? Ease in rememberingnames and faces is very important in the business world.What were your favorite subjects when you were in school?Entrepreneurs seem to prefer subjects in which the answers areconclusive rather than open-ended conclusions full of contingencies.In school, did you usually stay away from student organizations andstudent union government? Most entrepreneurs tend to be loners ratherthan joiners, unless joining is a useful tactic for making contactsand gathering business information.In courting the opposite sex, did you tend to go for one person at atime as opposed to playing the field? Most entrepreneurs preferred oneperson because to play the field would have taken too much time awayfrom business activities. I can recollect vividly, I couldn't copewith more than one at a time!!!Could your deals be bonded by your words? Or must there be writtencontracts and guarantees?Good entrepreneurs can be trusted with something less binding thanwritten contracts. When the only bond is a word, it becomes a matterof honor, and no good entrepreneur can afford to lose honor.
Do you devote considerably more time and thought to work than to otheractivities, such as hobbies? Entrepreneurs may have some leisure timeactivities, but their principal hobby is their work.Answering these questions will provide reality testing for your ideas. What resources are available to you? Will you start by keeping yourjob and going part-time for a while? Do you have a small nest egg,inheritance, or retirement income to live on until you get thebusiness going? Do you already own tools or machines that will help(for instance, professional cameras for a commercial photographybusiness)? Are you able to go back to school for training ifnecessary? Have you built up a network of contacts and possiblecustomers through your previous lines of work or will you be startingfrom scratch?
Answering these questions honestly and completely will help you assessnot only your chances for success but also which type of home-basedbusiness to choose. For instance, if your past professional life andcontacts are all in the educational, teaching, child-oriented schoolarea, then you should have powerful reasons for leaving that andopening an oil and gas consulting business. Possibly a tutoringbusiness would use more of your resources and networks. On the otherhand, if your assessment of your life goals and preferences helps yourealize that you are burned out from working with kids, then perhaps abusiness planning birthday parties could later be built into a generalparty planning and catering business. You would be using your oldcontacts to build a long-range business plan that focuses on a servicebusiness for adults.
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