Start a Home Business — But Don’t Quit Your Job

As with all types of businesses, large or small, it takes time to achieve consistent success. If you’ve started a Home-Based business, you might be tempted to quit your job at the first sign of success, however, if your business is in it’s infancy, it’s wise to give yourself more time and hang onto that job until you’re absolutely sure you’ll be able to support yourself and your family with your home business.

Here’s a few reasons why you should not consider giving up your job immediately when starting your home business:

Benefits: If you’ve had your job long enough to qualify for benefits that may include medical, dental and other personal benefits, such as maturnity leave, or a retirement pension, these will all disapear when you quit your job. This is a major reason why you must carefully consider how long it will take to replace these benefits through the income from your home business.

Income: Getting a business off the ground can be costly, even if you’re a one person operation on a shoestring budget. If you’ve used your savings to get started and not taken out any loans, you may still need the money to pay your household expenses, buy food and to support your family. If you must depend totally on the income from a growing home business, you’ll probably have to cut out any vacations and extra-curricular activities you participate in, which you may hesitate to do. Hanging onto your job during this stage of your home business will help you to maintain all of these costs.

Proof of Income: If you decide to apply for a small business loan, you’re going to have to prove you have a steady income, an important consideration if you hope to receive any money from the government or private lenders. They’ll require you to prove you have the income to pay back any loan money or you may not quality. Therefore, even if you’re tempted to quit your job immediately, don’t make the mistake of doing so before you’re new source of income is assured .

Emergencies and Unexpected Expenses: Life can be unpredictable. You never know what might happen from day to day. Your car could break down and need major repairs, a strong wind could knock a tree down that crashes through your roof or a member of your family could suddenly becove very ill and require emergency medical attention. Any of these situations could be devastating to your future if you no longer have the benefits or security of your regular job.

Loan Commitments: Starting your business with as little money as possible is a good idea when possible and maintaining your job will help fund your business. This will help you to avoid having to take out a loan to cover start-up expenses. The advantages here are obvious. Money you earn from your job to start and run a business doesn’t have to payed back. Therefore, hanging onto your job for as long as possibe and this will reduce the the amount of debt you will have to take on.

Discipline: If you’re like most people, maintaining a regular schedule at the beginning stages of your business will actually help you work better. Thus keeping your job will not only help fund your new home busines, it will also help you stay focused. Just knowing you have a busy schedule can help you discipline yourself and not take your time for granted or waste time.

Networking: If your business isn’t a conflict of interest with your employer, why not network with your co-workers. There’s always the possibility that your home business will be of interest to someone, whether you’re selling a product or service.

These are only a few examples of the wisdom of keeping your job while starting your business and I’m sure you can come up with additional ones. For example, you may want to monitor the success of your growing business for a while to make sure it will be able to sustain and grow your income in the long term. Income is important, of course, but you’ll also want to make sure your business is something you’ll enjoy doing full time and have to rely on to take care of your family’s needs.

If you discover the business you’ve started really isn’t right for you, maintaining your job will make it much easier to try something different until you find the type of home busines that will take care of your financial needs while you find a business you enjoy doing for a living. On the other hand, if you’ve commited to your business and no longer have your job, it may be a lot more difficult to turn back. You will have to either ask for your old job back or find a new one. To avoid that from happening, you may consider keeping your job for as long as you feel is necessary.

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Glenn Cutforth is a writer and publisher of quality eBooks at MaxxPublishing.com who has worked from home since 1994. For more information on operating your Work From Home business, check out his website at: HomeBiz Advisor.info and download your free copy of the “Home Business Startup Guide”.

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