Working From Home in Lean Times By Naz Daud
in Business | Published 2010-05-06 13:15:02 | 209 Reads | Unrated
Summary
The one major disadvantage that comes with the territory when you decide to work for yourself from home is that you won’t have a regular income Some months may be better than others and while you may indeed earn more than you would working as an employee, there are no guarantees
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The one major disadvantage that comes with the territory when you decide to work for yourself from home is that you won’t have a regular income. Some months may be better than others and while you may indeed earn more than you would working as an employee, there are no guarantees.
Of course there are no guarantees with any job. Even a relatively safe employed position can disappear at any time these days, so it pays to bear this in mind if you are nervous about the prospect of working for yourself.
But nevertheless it does pay to be prepared for the lean times be
cause you are bound to get them from time to time. As a self employed person no one will be there to hold your hand and take the required amount of tax and National Insurance from you each month. As each month goes by you need to put this money in a separate account so the tax bill doesn’t come as a huge surprise to you.
But you need to go beyond this as well. For example you may earn £3,000 one month and feel as if you are doing really well. But there is no guarantee that you will still be doing as well the following month. This is harder to judge if you haven’t been self employed for very long, because you won’t have a broader picture of how much money you can bring in. But you should certainly look at saving some money each and every month, no matter how much or how little you bring in.
This is because there will be lean months and you want to know that you have enough money put away to keep going without any problems during those times. For example in recent months we have been going through a recession here in the UK. Many people have been struggling through it but there is no doubt that those who have savings put by will have a cushion they can use to get through it all financially - more easily than those who don’t.
Your business will have both good and bad times ahead because that is the nature of life. But if you prepare for the bad times before they arrive they won’t be as bad in the first place. For example you might miscalculate the amount of tax you need to put by and be faced with a slightly bigger tax bill than you thought you would have. Alternatively you may lose a client or two, and while you can replace them it will take some time to do so. That means operating on a smaller income until you find those replacements.
So you can see that preparing and planning for the lean times before they actually occur is a very good idea to put into practice. It leads to less stress and smoother times ahead because you will be less likely to have to worry about money. And that can only be a good thing for you and your home business.
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