10 step beginner's guide to starting a home based business

With the advent of internet and the mass media, everyone wants a piece of this billion dollar pie by starting a business. But what other way, than starting this business in your home? This would be rent free & easier to manage. It is a great way to start at first and you’d get to know what it takes to launch a full fledged business.

Access your talents

Before you start a business, understand where you’re really good at something. You could be a very creative person or good at communication or good at attending the little details & so on. The traits and the grade of intelligence may vary according to the time spent sharpening them. If you have been self-employed before, doing a business might be easier for you. Since, you know how to be self-reliant, perserverant, initiative & the ability to deal with uncertainity. All of these qualities might make you rich one day.

Examine your skills

Talents and skills are two seperate terms.

In the case of talents, you’re born with it. It could be something innate in you. Like a second language, it talks to you & you understands it. Moreover, talents are passive. You might or might not be actualizing these talents for the benefit of yourself. Or for those around you.

But in the case of skills, you sharpen them with consistency. This is something you learn as you grow. Through constant repitition over an extended period of time, you attain a certain skill. This could be really valuable as the skills are active in nature. It is something, you have been practicing day in and day out. Or maybe not anymore. I remember buying a guitar & getting really good at it years ago.

A talented person with good attention to details, may have a strong accounting/organizational skills. Whereas, a creative person (yes, creativity is a skill you sharpen & everybody’s born with it) may have excellent skills for drawing, writing or graphic design.

T + S = B

Now after recognising the difference between the both, identify which talent suits you and you have been working at it. “Talent + Skill = Business”. If you haven’t been working at your talents, consider doing it. This doesn’t mean that this formula is compulsory. But it is recommended. As it is mentioned before, you might have a certain talent but you haven’t been working at it. Sometimes, you need to reach for the small businesses.

Remembering the quote mentioned at the beginning of this article, if you have a car and you have the skills to drive, then consider part-time Uber. Or if you have a kitchen- start baking, have a knack for writing- start a blog, love petting dogs- become a dog sitter, been practicing yoga- become an instructor, learning a skill or a language- teach. There are multiple opportunities that you need to list out. But remember to not to just stick to home-based businesses only. Brainstorm as much as possible and later you can strike off unwanted ideas. Avail our LLP Registration services.

Look for gaps in the market

In this step, you need to look a need that isn’t met in the market. After matching your skills and talents, search for this need that should be served. Remember, a businessman actually serves the society & in return for this he/she charges money. Sometimes, a need should be generated and made necessary. Most of the businesses of today, generates a need. You’ll fill this gap and make the economy work better. 

Giving these ideas a home-based business test

Prepare a checklist & ensure that the refined list you’d prepare would consist of businesses that are fit to be run at home. Consider 4-5 ideas to be in this list, if the list is of 10 articles. At least pick 20% of the total ideas. But don’t run with any idea now. You need to be sure that the business that you’d be doing should check the upcoming 2 points as well.

These are very crucial to be included. Also, there might be some ideas that are not home based but seem very good or some are home-based but not very viable in the long run. You can either choose a business that finances you in the short run and put that into investments in the long run business that is not home based or you can keep looking for other business ideas that should be worth your time & energy.

Figuring out the profit angle.

I told you, the next 2 steps are crucial. In this step, you need to find out whether the people want to pay for you in exchange for what you offer to them. Ask these questions for every business idea that you wish to pursue:

           Q: How much would I get paid for it?

           Q: Can I make sufficient income from it?

Every business is about making profit. And without sufficient profits in the long run, you won’t be able to pay the bills. Let alone making sufficient profits and expanding your business. Evaluate all the business ideas by answering the questions given above. If it is checked and ensured that the analysis is right. Go with the idea. You need to decide how much is enough for you according to your purpose. You might want to earn some part time extra money or you want to consider it full time. For different purposes, the weightage of the questions change.

Make a B-Plan

After going with the idea selection phase, design a B-plan. The B-Plan or Business plan consists of 5 key features namely executive summary, industry analysis, marketing analysis, operations plan and financial plan.

• Executive summary

This is a very crucial step if you want to gather investments from other sources. Summary should be short, precise and tell the people your vision and purpose of doing business. It also, tell people why your business plan is unique and will succeed in the future. It should sum up all of your business ideas is a single short paragraph

• Industry analysis

In this step, you need to analyse the industry as a whole. What are your competitors & how would the market look with your presence in it. Along with this, you should know about your niche market & in which demographic do they fall.

• Marketing analysis

By analysing how you would reach your target audience and how would you be reaching them, you take a step further into completion. In addition to this, how would you be utilizing the social media to reach the masses and make the impact. Remember, you need to cut the noise and be stand out. So, you need to be subtle and actually focus on your core values. This could be a good strategy to let people know why you’re doing this business. What is the purpose of it.

• Operations plan

Here, you need to mention what you’re looking for to hire in the first employees and how would you hire them. You need to mention the milestones your business would accomplish in 1 year, 2 years or 3 years. At least make plans for 3 years beforehand.

• The financial plan

This step tells everything about the budgeting of your business. How much would your firm be needing for seed money to get going, how much would you be making in the future, including what you think you can make within a given amount of time. In addition to this, what’s the pricing strategy would you be adopting according to the competitors.

Ignore the noise    

There are definitely million of ads out there to tell you how to start a business within 7 days or within a month. You need to ignore these ads. These are simply noise out there in the world. Let’s get this straight, there are no shortcuts to real success. It will take time, you might fail, but you will definitely learn. The steps mentioned above are very practical & should be followed religiously. 

Get customers to pay you upfront.

After this business is established, get the customers to pay you upfront. Your business is to generate profits and in the first few months so that your cost is covered. Or if you want to generate goodwill, at least ask for 50% upfront and the rest afterwards. That way you’ll be able to run a long-term business.

Don’t put your fledging business under pressure

Don’t expect the business to pay you too soon. You might not be able to generate enough returns that you could not cover the costs. For this, we advise you to work full time or part time along with this to invest further. You might be working 2-3 jobs. That’s how much it might take if you want to bootstrap (invest your own savings and earnings in your business).

Anubhav, who is a content writer at LegalRaasta has written this article.

LegalRaasta is a platform that provide expert services like MSME registration, FSSAI License registration or GST registration.