Why the reluctance to freelance/start a business?

I think the reluctance is because it's not as easy as you're making it sound. the extra stress and time I would have to invest for the return.

Ding, ding, ding.

My dh and 2 others started their own business. Now it's not a work from home business so I don't know about those.

First, let's talk about the financial stress. don't know about you op, but I was not keen on mortgaging my house to the hilt nor having a small business loan of roughly 500K attached to my life. Talk about stress.

Next, let's talk about time. :scared: because life does not go on hold because you want to start a business, you generally end up still working your 9-5 (most health insurance is attached to a job). My dh was working 10 hours at his full time job while then putting another 20 hours min to the start up.

Why do you think most small business go under in 5-10 years.

Now after 3 years my dh is battling cancer. He can't work until treatment is done. His partners are know a nervous wreck, I'm a nervous wreck.

I seriously thought about opening a bakery but after doing the research I said, "Thanks but no thanks" . and this was after I attended culinary school. Between health codes, building codes, financial start up & the stress of dealing with deranged brides who want William and Kate's wedding cake but only wanted to pay 19.99 for it!! I said to myself, at my age this is sooo not worth it.

Personally, I think one of the reasons so many small business go under is because folks think all they have to do is hang up a "open" sign and viola.
 
I work from home with Ameriplan USA and I love it. Yes it does take awhile to reach that level of success you want, but the "work" I do, doesn't even feel like work. All I do is email people and post ADs on forums and other classified sites and answer questions when people email me or call me. I was already emailing people and posting on forums, so why not get paid for it? I literally have the easiest "job" I could ask for, but it is still hard because you have to stay consistent with it and you have to find that motivation to actually work when working from home. For me it's not just about the money I'm earning, it's the time freedom I get to have to spend it with my family and friends. Work the hours I want to work. If I want to take a month off, I can and not have to tell anyone and the beauty part of it, since I earn Residual Monthly income, I could take 6 months off and still get paid every month.

I highly recommend for those who want to work from home, it's to own your own business weither it be a business you make up on your own or work through a company like I do. It allows you to work the hrs you want, take time off when you want, be your own boss, and get paid residual monthly income. Plus the amazing tax write offs every year. I get to write off a % of my rent and electric bill, my health benefit plan, my phone, internet, anything I buy for the business: printer, computer, ink, paper, business cards, etc. and if you advertise on your car perhaps a car magnet, even your mileage.

With todays economy and not many jobs out there, working from home maybe the only option for many people. It was for me. I looked everywhere for a job after losing my last job but couldn't find one and when I did, I'd fill out the application and never got an interview. For those who been out of work for 5+ years, their best option is to get a work from home job or business. 1 of my team members in Ameriplan didn't have a job past few years, she tried obtaining one and wouldn't get hired just because she was out of work for so long. But that's todays employment for you!
 
I work from home with Ameriplan USA and I love it. Yes it does take awhile to reach that level of success you want, but the "work" I do, doesn't even feel like work. All I do is email people and post ADs on forums and other classified sites and answer questions when people email me or call me. I was already emailing people and posting on forums, so why not get paid for it? I literally have the easiest "job" I could ask for, but it is still hard because you have to stay consistent with it and you have to find that motivation to actually work when working from home. For me it's not just about the money I'm earning, it's the time freedom I get to have to spend it with my family and friends. Work the hours I want to work. If I want to take a month off, I can and not have to tell anyone and the beauty part of it, since I earn Residual Monthly income, I could take 6 months off and still get paid every month.

I highly recommend for those who want to work from home, it's to own your own business weither it be a business you make up on your own or work through a company like I do. It allows you to work the hrs you want, take time off when you want, be your own boss, and get paid residual monthly income. Plus the amazing tax write offs every year. I get to write off a % of my rent and electric bill, my health benefit plan, my phone, internet, anything I buy for the business: printer, computer, ink, paper, business cards, etc. and if you advertise on your car perhaps a car magnet, even your mileage.

With todays economy and not many jobs out there, working from home maybe the only option for many people. It was for me. I looked everywhere for a job after losing my last job but couldn't find one and when I did, I'd fill out the application and never got an interview. For those who been out of work for 5+ years, their best option is to get a work from home job or business. 1 of my team members in Ameriplan didn't have a job past few years, she tried obtaining one and wouldn't get hired just because she was out of work for so long. But that's todays employment for you!

So you're a spammer :mad:. I hate spammers with a passion.
 
No i'm not a spammer. I dont email random people. I email people who have requested more information about working from home with the company. Spamming would make me lose my IBO status with the company. They take that stuff very seriously and so do I. I hate spammers myself. Why would I SPAM and put my IBO status in jeopardy and do something I hate myself? That doesn't make any sense. As for posting ADs online, its how we advertise. I'm a network marketer. And it's on work from home forums and work from home classified sites, where it belongs. I don't and can't go on other boards and advertise. Before you call someone a Spammer next time, try learning all the facts first!

So you're a spammer :mad:. I hate spammers with a passion.
 

My now deceased tried doing his own business and I believe it is was caused him to be deceased at the age of 58 yrs, it can take it out of you physically, mentally and oh so many ways if you are not prepared, it is not easy and you have to be prepared no matter if it is a home based business or out of the home. It is a frightening adventure and not for everyone, daring at the very least. Some will make it and live to tell the story, some will have to give up and go back to working for others and have learned a few lessons along the way. Maybe try again later. It is not easy as it sounds and you have to have some security to back yourself up.
 
I stink at sales and no matter what your business is, you're "selling" yourself. I've had a part-time business for awhile that I loved, but when my clients fell on hard times after a few years, I was unable to replace them & the business died.
 
Phew, I could write a book on this topic.

I think people are reluctant because of a realistic fear of failure, the fluctuating income, and the lack of benefits. They SHOULD be wary of the fact that going independent this way changes a lot of other things. It can change your whole perspective and philosophy.

Like many in our generation, we started our first business because we were faced with a sink or swim scenario. My company was bought by venture capitalists, butchered, and my whole office was outsourced, mostly to India with some in California. I could have gone to Cali at a huge pay cut. My husband worked at a university, almost everyone was laid off and replaced by work/study students and unpaid internships. We were pregnant. So we threw ourselves into our business with the only caveat being we'd do it without debt. We succeeded. (Other businesses we've started have failed.)

Among my peers, it seems less a choice whether to start a business and more an act of desperation. I'm proud to be a part of a large indie movement and have begun buying indie. Some of my favorite authors, musicians, and artists are entirely independent of their respective industries. It's as exciting a time to be alive as it is uncertain and scary. The rewards have been fantastic (both my husband and I have been home with our daughters from day one), but the risks are pretty big. TBH, I get a lot of inspiration from Walt Disney's biography, seeing how he weathered all those set backs and failures, how he believed in himself (and sometimes he really didn't). I want to believe in that world, where we can make it if we try and my idealism has paid off.
 
Health insurance is one big reason. Other benefits as well.

I have had three of my own businesses. Travel agency (I had been selling travel for years in a walk in agency), pet sitting company (when no one was doing it and no one even knew what it was), and survey programming for a friend

Two of them we did on the side while DH was working at a place with benefits. The other (pet sitting) we did when we got laid off- for a year full time- and then on the side when we were working full time again.

The survey gig was a pretty steady, well paying thing for one large company that DH and I did for many years. Then they cut back on a lot of work. The travel wound up being a lot of money in insurance and a lot of wasted time looking things up for people that never booked. I did it for years though because I loved it! The pet sitting we loved and did it for many years until the economy started going downhill and people got cheap. They wanted less visits (e/o day!) and were putting their animals at risk. We also had a run in with some psycho clients that had had lots of issues with other people where we lived. I really did pet sitting for the fun and joy of it and they basically ruined it for me. I did not trust people after that and was very warry about entering other people's homes (even with an iron clad contract.) Sad really.

Lots of things to consider that you may not have thought of!
 
I am a SAHM and have been a childcare provider for 18 yrs, and I make good money doing it! However, my true passion is photography and have had some paying jobs, but would like to start a business doing photography, but I don't really know how to get started? in the beginning I would do it on the side, (nights and weekends) just because I want to be sure it brings on what I'm used too! There is a very popular photographer in our town, but he charges an insane (greedy) amount for photos, so I may be a bit intimidated by that? Really??? $900 for senior pics??

If people are happily paying him that amount, then there's no reason to be intimidated by it. If you have talent, you can actually find your own niche of people who would pay you a lesser amount for your work. You just have to realize that people place different values on things.
We have a lot of people around here (apparently it's common in the military) who start their own "business." I have on friend who has paid the same person a couple hundred dollars twice for mediocre pictures. Now, recently, I have seen some pictures by the same photographer that I thought were really great, but my friends' pictures were not. What I figured out is that while the photographer does have talent, she lacks the experience in certain areas to justify charging the same for one type of pictures as she does for all the others.
Basically, you have to be willing to put the work in to become a worthwhile commodity. Most people want things to be easy.
 
I'm genuinely curious about something, and you can consider this a spinoff of the work at home scam thread. Why are people so reluctant to consider (or never even seem to consider) starting their own business or freelancing when they need extra money and want to WAH?

I see so many posts about people wanting to WAH and wanting to know if this or that is a scam, or they're willing to work crazy hours for little money at things like Cha Cha or survey taking.

Why the reluctance to start your own gig? You have much more control over the income, can do something you actually like, and have a bit more freedom with the work in general. Is it fear? Is it just that it's too much work to start your own thing? Lack of knowledge about business (which can be overcome, BTW)?

I just don't get why people are so willing to "settle" for the low paying, scammy, hard to find, WAH jobs. Most people have some skill or hobby that they can monetize, so why not do it?

It's what I did many years ago and I've never looked back, or regretted it. I just wonder why people would rather do crap work than strive to find something they genuinely enjoy and which can actually pay them a decent amount of money.
Well, for one thing I personally have no interest in owning my own business. I am no salesperson -- and, to some extent, every business owner has to be a salesperson. It wouldn't be enjoyable for me at all.

You make it sound as if the world is divided into people who work at crap jobs for pennies and people who own their own business. This is blatantly false. Many of us work in traditional jobs and are quite happy with our situations.

When you work for yourself, you have to take care of many things that may not be evident at first-glance: Your own health and life insurance, your own retirement plan, paying "both sides" of your Social Security, managing your facilities and perhaps other employees, finding clients, dealing with times when you have no work (and thus no pay), managing client complaints, perhaps dealing with lawsuits when things go badly. Yes, I could do these things, but they aren't really the things I do best.

Not everyone has a skill that lends itself to a small business or an idea for a new product. Not all hobbies translate into work, and -- even if your hobby is something for which people will pay -- people only pay for good quality. I know three people who would like to be full-time photographers. Two of them have real talent; the third doesn't, but she thinks she does. Of the three, only one really has the business sense to market the product, promote the product, follow through with the sales. And what's enjoyable as a hobby often becomes work when you take it on 40 hours a week. My husband used to work with a guy who enjoyed raising birds. He began selling them, and pretty soon it was a business -- but although he loved the birds, he didn't love customer calls, dealing with money, etc. He gave up the hobby altogether.

Having a hobby for which people will pay doesn't always mean you have the business acumen to pull off a business. I'm thinking of another guy with whom my husband worked -- this has been years ago. Back then, the area in which they worked had a shortage of lunch restaurants. You literally couldn't get in and out of a place in an hour, so he developed a dream for a retirement job: He thought he'd open a little deli selling sandwiches and salads, open only for lunch. He was in the right area, and he had a great idea. He and his wife both took out all their retirement funds, and they rented a small shop. Their food was wonderful, but they failed miserably. Not being business people, they didn't know the right questions to ask, and they didn't know how to price their product. They changed prices several times in the first weeks, which angered their customers. I mean, if you pay $4 for a Reuben today, and next week you go back expecting the same low price but you find that the sandwich has been marked up to $7, you're going to notice and question. They also -- and this was downright stupid -- signed a long-term lease for a shop without realizing that they couldn't put a big sign out by the road to bring in business. No one visits a business of which they're unaware. He failed miserably, and now he has no retirement funds.

Bouncing off that topic, starting a business usually requires money. Even people who have it available may be reluctant to risk losing it. Years ago I used to make custom cakes -- never all that many because I also had a full-time job. I was really good at it, but I realized quickly that only wedding cakes were profitable. Flour, eggs and sugar are cheap to buy, but I spent much of my profit on new supplies (you'd be amazed just how many cake pans and cake stands I own). If I were doing this full-time, those supplies would've been used and would've been worthwhile -- this was not true for me on a part-time basis.

Many of these businesses you're suggesting are internet-based. To be really successful in such a business, you need to be able to communicate well through the written word. This is a skill that's diminishing; how many internet posters genuinely believe alot is a word, have no idea how to use pronouns, and just plain don't write well? Also, to be successful in such a business, you have to know how to create a webpage, collect payment over the internet, etc. Think about it: Ebay is successful because the average user doesn't have to create the wheel to make these things happen -- the structure is provided.

You've found something that works for you, but your mistake is in thinking that we're all alike. Owning your own business works for you and is enjoyable for you, but that doesn't mean it'll work for everyone else.
 
1. Lack of funds

2. Lack of knowledge (while this can be fixed, it takes money to do that so see #1)

3. Lack of benefits such as health insurance (mine is expensive enough as it is even with the group discount I get at work so yet again see #1)

4. Really, really high risk of failure

5. And most importantly, lack of a product, skill or idea to sell
 














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