The Associated Press:
First, they had to deal with being laid off. Then the challenge became figuring out how to run a business from a spare bedroom while the kids are fighting and the dog is barking.
Many members of the latest generation of entrepreneurs are people who lost their jobs and decided to start businesses in their homes. It’s safe to say that practically all these new owners face a shakeout period as they learn to juggle a business and their personal lives.
Parents who become entrepreneurs and their children have some of the hardest transitions.
Suzanne Kantra, who was laid off from an editing job in October, is running an online publication called Techlicious.com out of the three-bedroom apartment in Manhattan she shares with her husband and three children ages 1 to 7. When she’s working in her bedroom, the door is closed. For her older children, “knowing I’m home but not available has been an adjustment for them,” she said.
Even single home-based entrepreneurs have to get used to a new way of life.
Stephen Fishman, who started a San Francisco home-based business as an author after being laid off 18 years ago, recalled that feelings of isolation were a big problem during the first few years after he lost his job in a big company. “You don’t have co-workers to interact with,” he said.
“I would often go out to a cafe to do work in the afternoon and just be with people,” Fishman said.
And that was long before the days of coffee houses where people could take their laptops and get free WiFi.
Many home-based owners get a bit of a rude awakening when they realize they no longer have support staff or people to deal with high-tech issues and keep track of invoices. Thomasina Tafur recalls thinking, “it’s truly me, myself and I.”
The solution she and other owners have found is to outsource work that they either don’t know enough about, or that distracts them from building the business.
Photo by djayo.