Home-Based Business Insight

Home-based Business Checklist

Trying to decide whether a home-based business is right for you? This checklist summarizes all the aspects of starting a home-based business that you should consider. Be sure to take a hard look at your neighborhood, your house, and your personal circumstances to determine if you could run your business successfully out of your home. You may also want to get a second opinion; ask a friend to do an appraisal for you using the checklist and compare the answers.

                                                                                                                                                                                     Yes                     No

1. I work well without supervision.                                                                   
2. I don't mind being alone for long stretches of time.                                        
3. I am self-motivated and self-disciplined.                                                       
4. I am confident and enthusiastic about my home-based business.                   
5. I find it easy to manage my own time.                                                          
6. Success depends on wanting something, willpower and personal discipline and I have these three qualities.                                                                   
7. Setting personal goals and planning how to achieve them is important and I do this regularly.                                                                                         
8. I enjoy giving my best to everything I do; successfully completing a job gives me a feeling of satisfaction.                                                                         
9. I am not afraid to work hard and for long hours.                                         
10. I can do several things at the same time.                                                            
11. I find unexpected situations stimulating, especially when I'm organized and know what I'm doing.                                                                                
12. I don't mind taking risks or facing uncertainty.                                            
13. I have discussed my home-based business plans with my family members   
14. My family understands how important my business goals are to me.           
15. My family is supportive of my home-based business.                                  
16. My neighborhood allows home-based businesses.                                     
17. My neighborhood has a suitable location for my home-based business.      
18. My neighborhood is attractive.                                                                  
19. I have good relationships with my neighbors - and will continue to do so if I start a home-based business.                                                                      
20. My property is attractive and well-maintained at all times.                          
21. My property has adequate parking for my home-based business's clients/customers.                                                                                      
22. My home-based business activities will not disturb my neighbors.               
23. Visitors can get to my home-based business office without going through my entire house.                                                                                              
24. My house has a business office area suitable to my home-based business's needs.                                                                                                       

My house has all the facilities I need for my home-based business, such as a shop or consulting room                                                                           

If you answered an unqualified "yes" to all the questions, starting a home-based business is exactly what you should do. In fact, I'm surprised you haven't started one already! You're obviously entrepreneurial and are living in a home that's ideally suited to running a home-based business. If you weren't able to answer some of the questions, hopefully this checklist has given you a better idea of the things you need to research, change, or think about more deeply before you start a home-based business of your own.