Making Money From Home - Part-Time or Full Time?

"Steve, should I run my new home-based business on a part-time or full time basis? Should I give up my job and throw myself into it 100% both in commitment and time, or should I start working it just a few hours a week, part-time, initially?" - this is question I often get asked. Here are my thoughts:

The part-time or full time question can only be answered really once I know who I answering - the answer is specific to the individual. If you the type of person who needs to 'burn all your boats' and put everything into something flat-out 100% of your time for you to really get results, AND you have the financial means to survive at least 6 months on any existing income or savings you, then starting your own business full time is the best way from day one for you.

On the other hand, if you have a reasonable amount of existing financial commitments and you need to maintain a certain amount of income because you don't have the luxury of savings to fall back on, then my advice would be to definitely start part-time initially, and build up your new home based business income steadily over time until it's at such a level that you could give up your job and then focus on your new home business full time.

That said, I have worked with people who have really got their home business up to a good new supplementary income level, all whilst holding down a job, and yet (usually because they really enjoy their job) they've maintained their job and continued their home based business still part-time, even though it was bringing in a healthy income.

What you certainly don't want to do is have a heavy burden of overheads on top of you that puts obvious pressure on you to ensure you maintain paying those overheads, and then you throw on top the added pressure of giving up your job with it's steady income to run your home-based business full-time. That's heaping far too much pressure on you to make your new business a success, and believe me when I say, you don't want to start a new business with that initial financial pressure. Starting your own business will already have many new challenges, hurdles to jump, stress issues, etc - don't compound all these things by also putting yourself under unnecessary financial pressure as well.

I respect the challenge is that when you're in a job you really dislike, there is obviously going to be the natural temptation to throw in that job for your new 'fun and excitement-packed' new business, all with the added enjoyment of working from home much more. But you need to resist that temptation to chuck in the job, at least in the short-term and channel the dislike you may have for your job into motivation to get your new business at home making money as soon as possible. Because then (and only then) once the money is starting to roll on, you have the choices to decide if you then go full time with your new business, with the huge plus that at that point you know your new business is making enough to take the strain of your financial commitments.