Unless you are lucky enough to have been born with the proverbial silver spoon in your mouth, you will need to earn to live. Trying to generate an income to meet our needs, whilst maintaining a decent quality of life, is an issue which we all have to face. In the traditional workplace the harder we work and the more hours we work the more money we earn. By this means we earn enough to enjoy the finer things of life but, unfortunately, the commitment and effort we put into earning leaves us with so little time and energy we cannot actually enjoy the finer things of life.
This dilemma is often referred to as the work/life balance. Everyone in this income trap is looking for an escape; a way to generate a good income whilst leaving enough time and energy to get the best from it. We want a good standard of living, a rewarding quality of life and the freedom to please ourselves, at least to some degree. The traditional scheme of giving our energy and skills in exchange for financial reward from an employer can never give us the freedom we crave.
Self-employment seems very attractive to many people but, in a traditional business setup, this can be just as inflexible and time-consuming as employment. Indeed, many who go down that particular route find it even more demanding than when they worked for somebody else.
The development of the internet in recent years has opened up a whole new world of opportunity to those looking for a way of getting the work/life balance they seek. By setting up our own internet business from home we have no boss and no commuting to the workplace each morning on crawling motorways or crowded trains. We choose when and where we work and we are completely in control of our own destiny. If we wish to do our work in the early hours of the morning; – no problem! If we want to work at the breakfast table in our pyjamas at whatever time we choose to get up; – no problem! We are our own boss. It has been said that by working this way, “We are building our own dreams rather than someone else’s”.
Setting up an online business involves a very small financial outlay and yet the potential rewards are very considerable. Your business must be treated as a proper business and not just as something you dabble with. An inability to understand this important issue is why many fail to make the grade. If you are prepared to do your homework, do your research, grasp the nettle and have a clear direction of where you want to go, the sky is the limit.
There is a range of options available when considering an internet business. Explore these and decide on the one which suits you best. Running a shop in your home town will offer a relatively small customer base; an online business gives you a world-wide customer base of many millions however ‘niche’ your business may be.
Good luck in your business ventures.