This is a guest post by Alex Papa
Over the last decade many full-time employees have made the bold decision to resign from their jobs and pursue a home-based business. The primary motivator for people making this decision is the need for independence, as well as a desire to choose their own hours, and to enable themselves to have more time for their families. The recent economic meltdown has created a greater influx of people into the home-based-business industry.
From the many aspiring entrepreneurs out there, the home-based entrepreneurs are the individuals I empathize with the most. The reason for this is that from the outside looking in, the home-based-business industry appears appealing, but the reality on the inside is completely contrary to this perception.
Please bear in mind that while I write this article, I am not opposing business start-ups. On the contrary, I would encourage people to start their own business. However, I am skeptical about businesses that plan to operate from somebody’s home indefinitely. In this article I will address the 5 major challenges encountered by people working from home.
1. You Handle All The Work Alone
In a conventional company with an organizational structure different tasks are delegated to employees. In a home-based-business, the entrepreneur handles all of these tasks on his or her own. This workload is elevated to an even higher degree if your business gains momentum and grows. All the mundane and repetitive tasks from the administrative to the operational activities are handled solely by you, the home-based-business owner.
2. You Neglect Spending Quality Time With Your Family
The greater the success of your home based business the greater the amount of time that is required to operate the business. But whether or not your business is successful, the very nature of starting a new business demands relentless dedication. Working up to 20 hours each day is not unfamiliar territory for a new home business owner. The time you invest in your business will inadvertently result in you neglecting the time spent with your family.
3. Your Home Life Becomes Your Work Life
If your business is based in an office sometime in the evening you can close the door, go home and leave the work in the office until the next morning. But working from home poses a different scenario altogether. Your home life unwittingly becomes your work life. No matter where you are in your home, the attraction of checking if you made any sales, or sending an email, or discussing projects with your freelancers becomes forceful; and it also becomes difficult to restrain this urge. The term “workaholic” takes on a new meaning in your life.
4. Your Family May Begin to Resent You
A level of anxiety wells up within me whenever I hear of someone who is about to start a home business. I feel a sense of sympathy toward the individual and their family because I know the strain a home business can have on a family. Beside the hectic schedule you will adhere to, you will also encounter immediate family members who do not understand the concept of working from home. Many people cannot relate to the idea of someone who sits at a computer in his/her home and “works”. To them real “work” is when you leave home at a certain time, go to your place of work, and return at a certain time. Your family may believe that work is going out of the house; therefore if you stay at home you are not working. This lack of understanding can stir up a level of resentment that can cause serious family quarrels if it is not addressed timeously.
5. You Will Encounter Constant Distractions
In the home environment you may have your kids playing around, dogs barking outside, music blasting from the neighbor’s house, and many other distractions. These distractions can hamper your ability to concentrate on the job at hand. Often I have witnessed people who sacrificed everything to start a home based business, but failed due to lack of concentration and they are now left feeding themselves from the crumbs of a social security check, and desperately seeking some form of full-time employment.
It is clearly evident that starting a business from home presents numerous challenges, but if the venture is approached correctly, it could lead to the beginning of a prosperous and prominent establishment.
It may be a good idea when you first start a business to work from home. However, it is not normal for a business to operate from home for ever. A healthy business should expand and eventually move to its own “home”.
It may take you a few months or years to take your business into an office and until then you will have to work from home. In my next article I will give you 7 tips on how to overcome the challenges of working from home and maintain a balance between your family and your business life.
As an entrepreneur, husband and dad, Alex Papa has encountered all the challenges people face when they start a home based business. But he has learned to overcome and he has also expanded all his ventures to dedicated premises and offices. Alex may still work from home occasionally, where he loves writing for his blog in which you can benefit from the latest Norton promotion codes.
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Great post Onibalusi.
There is no doubt that working from has its advantages but it also has some major disadvantages. Not everyone can succeed working from home as it sounds much better than it actually is for most.
My biggest problem is the distractions and I am working hard to keep my focus.
I think so DB – The disadvantages of managing yoru business from home show later in life when you have kids and a business in the same house! How can you focus on what you do if you have the TV on or kids running about?
Well said man. Working from home might be fun when you first started but as times goes on you will not feel comfortable with it. So the best thing to do is to find a location for your business. Thanks for sharing. Have fun.
PS: I sent you a mail, but you didn’t reply back. why? hope to hear from you soon.
A mail?
I didn’t get any mail from you bro, maybe you should check on this.l Or is the message meant for Alex?
NO! not you bro! sorry, the msg is meant for Alex. Thanks so much.
Hi Sam, at the start is it ok to work from home. I am sure that as a young person you can do well from home, provided that you discipline yourself to work when you are supposed to work and play when you are supposed to play!
Don’t forget, you can also gain heaps of weight too.
You have to take time to force yourself to the gym or workout at home, else the pounds start, well, pouncing.
Yes, that is so true Barbara. I haven’t heard of any people who became very fit or won an Olympic medal while working out from home. Likewise, I don’t know of any massively successful entrepreneurs who still work from home. Some of them did start from home, but they moved on!
hi Oni, i always try to visit your site once a day. and i’v never upset, because every time i visit here find something to learn, really. it was a great post, bro. you’ve outlined 5 superb points, disadvantages of working from home. but i think it has some benefit too. though some of your points are unavoidable, but we can be in touch with family. and it helps to be closed to them. specially telecommuting or working on the net is possible from home, i think so.
Fair point Rahul, if you only want to be self-employed it is fine to start while you work from home. In my next article I will give you some tips about how to balance work life and home life, when you work from home. One of the important things you need to do is to be committed to your work time and also to your “fun” time. When you work, you work, but when it is time for play you must make sure you enjoy it. We’ll talk about this and a lot more in my next article!!
Hi Rahul,
This is not me. All the credit to the awesome Alex Papa, this is his wonderful work!
Good points Oni,
When you become serious full time blogger works from home, better to setup a workplace at home separately. Work at home how you work at office.
The famous Indian blogger Amit Agarwal said that because of he works from home that doesn’t mean he write with pijama dress. He starts his daily blogging like work at office.
This will help to understand work environment for you and family too.
Hi Dinesh,
Thanks so much for your awesome comments, this post is by Alex Papa so all the credit goes to him.
I am glad this was confirmed by a person like Amit Agarwal. My experience is the same. For example, today I have decided not to go to the office, but rather work from home. However, the fact that I work from home, does not mean that I don’t treat the room I work like an office!
The main challenge is to set yourself time frames. Best is if you can set yourself a fixed 8 hour timeframe for work. If you turn on the computer in the morning and start to work, then do some small things, work again, do some other small things, work again and get things done quickly before going to bed will get you problems, you won’t get much done this way.
Hi Andreas, thanks for reading this post. Most of the full-time, home-based entrepreneurs are “work-alcoholic”. How can someone expect them to work only 8 hours a day?
Hi Oni,
Of course a great post as usual!. I found the #1 is the most important, i can handle my works myself without afraid of doing some mistakes and face the boss green face LOL.
However there are the downsides, which are, i can’t socialize to people in reality, which when i have a job, i talk to other people, and socialise.
Thanks for this Oni, take care.
haha, yes Kimi! As you said, if we work from home our social life can be limited to cyber social life, like chatting on MSN or Skype! That is tragic. We have to make sure that we get out of the house to enjoy proper social life.
Thanks for sharing.
Hi Oni,
Even though working from home may be a dream for many, most people don’t actually realize that it isn’t as easy, as it sounds. The freedom you are given is not necessarily a good thing and it might actually be the thing that leads to failure. Not having a boss to tell you what to do might seem great initially, but as all kinds of different tasks start accumulating, one will probably lose his grip.
Your third point is an absolute true and a big downside when it comes to working from home. No matter what you do, you are at your workplace. And since you are, keeping the thoughts about it away can be very hard and close to impossible.
Great article! All valid points!
True Daniel, it is so easy for work and family life to get mixed. There has to be boundaries. Both work and family are very important and if we choose to work from home we need to allow quality time for work and quality time for our families. If we don’t, then both will suffer.
Hi Oni,
You did a hit the nail on its head. I would agree on all the perceptions you made there but I think the so called “Main Challenges of Working from Home”are not taken seriously anymore because of the fact that all their hardworks are worth it. They rather think of how would they earn much more than those forsaken test in their work.
Haha! True! I know people that don’t care about the challenges of working from home, because they make a lot more money than the job they left behind. Great point! When money talks…everything else walks!
I really like your post because it is very though-provoking and unveils the other side of working form home. I think it miss a lot of opportunities if you’re one because your working hours is far different from the working office hours, right? If you have time, its not that fulfilling. Anyways, I ‘d still love working from home.
Thanks for sharing and Keep going! 
… I know… that’s why I wrote this post, because despite all the challenges, most young, single people still love the idea of working from home… Wait till you have babies and then you may change your mind, you may start to love the chance of getting out of the house for a few hours to focus on your business and then come back home to see your kids away from the distractions of business.
The biggest issue I have is allocating time to fix things that need fixing. I have re-tooled my business to have more structure and streamline business process. What I have found is that sometimes, you may have to fix & update your website, which means you have to make unexpected calls to your programmer or do it yourself. That takes time. For other processes, such as my copy writing business unit, you may have updates, corrections or even want to enhance a submission — this takes time. One thing that is never really talked about is the time that is eaten up throughout the day, when you have “UNEXPECTED” issues that arise.
Yep, those “unexpected” issues can be time killers. I think, in a proper business, where you manage staff and not issues, you can let other members of your team deal with unexpected things so that you can focus on what matters most. That’s why I said that creating a business team, rather than working on your own from home is the ideal option.
Great post Oni
I’ve been working from home for 12 months now and I think the biggest issue is the isolation, I miss the company of my work mates.
Jim
Jim, that is something you don’t hear very often, but how true it is! Loneliness and isolation is another challenge of working from home. Thank you for sharing that.
You’re right… it seemed like it would be something great, but like anything, until you do it, you don’t have a clue. I enjoyed working at home for about a month, then I really started missing the social interaction and teamwork that went into working with others. I’ve actually gone back into the “working” world because I get a greater sense of satisfaction from it than sitting at home plugging away on the computer all day.
Ryan, it takes a lot of courage and honesty to say that you have gone back into the working world because you missed working with others. As we said above, here we have identified another problem of working from home; that of loneliness. If you don’t have a family at home, this can be very serious and it may push you to going back to the work environment. This is a fact, and it is really scary!
Working from home can lead to social isolation if you don’t have a lot of friends that don’t work or have a flexible work schedule.
Also one of the biggest issues are distraction which multiply when you work from home. A solution could be to have a schedule or have a list of tasks that you should do per day. That way you know you can’t be doing something else because you have a list to complete. This might sound hard but if you want something done you should plan ahead!
Distraction is an issue for those that have a family and kids. Isolations is an issue for those that don’t have a family and kids. So there are challenges either way! That’s why we need to address them early. I think those who work at home without a family must do something in the evening to enhance their social life and get out of the house to see people. Those who have a family at home may prefer to go out to an office during the day and then come home in the evening to be with the family.
Alex you have highlighted the right points but having said that what I would like to even mention that Distractions and preventing them is more of and internal task rather than external. If you work from home distractions are bound to happen. And it is more to do with how you respond to it. Forget about improving professional life it can even hamper your personal life.
Interesting point Himanchu. How do you propose that we respond to distractions?
Great post Alex! You definitely bring up some very interesting points.
I think that most of the issues you mentioned can also occur when you leave to an office (i.e. not spending quality time with your family and being away working too much causes your family to resent you, etc.) or can be solved by outsourcing tasks so that you can concentrate only on the 10% of tasks that actually produce income.
But let’s face it, most people that are attracted to work from home business opportunities (affiliate marketing, network marketing, blogging, etc) do so because they want the benefits of being able to work from home, make their own hours and not be told when they can take a lunch break. I think that most people don’t think of all the issues that may arise, such as the ones you mentioned, primarily because they have no prior experience running a business.
I think most work from home opportunities have to start at home but I also agree that as your business grows you have to keep a better eye on your business and running a profitable business from home may simply not be sustainable.
It all depends on what your income goals are. If you want to make a few hundred dollars a month, you certainly would not go lease office space. However, if you goals is to produce a 6 or even 7 figure income, a nice studio office would be a great addition to your business.
Ultimately, if you stop being busy and concentrate on following
Pareto’s Law
in your business, you will have much better odds at reaching your business goals.
Thanks for sharing!
Hector, you talk like a man with experience. As you said, there is no point renting an office if you only make a few hundred dollars a month. However, if you progress to making a few thousand dollars a month it does make sense to have a small office, and maybe staff to work for you. Again, there has to be a time when you “shut” the door and your mind and you go home to see your family. Thank you Hector for sharing!
Hey Alex,
I think one of the biggest challenges is actually learning to take a break away from work when you are at home. It’s really easy to just keep going and neglecting the time.
Good to see you here Richard. Taking a break is important to maintain balance. Staying in front of the screen 12 hours a day with no break will eventually cause damage.
Because of those unexpected distractions, some freelancers always work as the night comes. That’s the only time they can concentrate on their works. (my friend told me that point)
So I think it’s fine if we run a home bussiness. But sometimes, just let it be natural. In my opinion, I love the moment when I leave home to work and when I finish my work, come back home. That’s quite nice. I don’t want to be at home and stressed out all the time
Hi Cindy, I know what you mean about distractions at home. I also know what it is to wait for the night to do some work! We have a 12 months old baby girl and if I stay at home to work, I won’t be able to do much, until after she is in bed! That is why I prefer to work in the office and then drive home in the evening and spend time with here before she goes to bed. Thanks for your comment.
Great write-up, Alex. You definitely know what it’s like working from home. I struggle with all 5 of these challenges regularly. Most of my friends and family just don’t understand. Because of this, I love working late late in the evenings/early morning like I am right now. I feel like I get the most work done when everyone else is in bed.
I have been working at home for about 4 years now, developing websites and doing stuff, and I confirm that these are the main problems of this lifestyle. By this time I have overcome 4 of these, and my final challenge is to learn to set some time aside from my work / existence to spend with the family.
Since planning to work from home full-time within a year from now, I realized that I should set up a room for my home-business where I can work without distractions. But in the end, I will not forget to give quality time to my family. It is them why I’m working.
The biggest challenge that I find working from home is getting motivated enough to actually work…That and being able to focus!
I have some ideas: having a room separately from family room and finding trustable partner (I should able to meet or speak with him/her).
Those 5 Main Challenges are only on the beginning, over time we’ll able to handle them. But each person may vary, one can handle them quickly and others always face those problems for many years.
I find that having a set work area away from everything else in my house helps, and then giving myself set hours to get things done, which utilizes the parkinson principle.
Usually works, but there are some slips to mozy on into the kitchen and take a break