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Working at Home: Who is doing it?

Working at home statistics: 

When you realize all of the people that are working at home you may be surprised.  Usually when you think of working at home, you think of people running home-based businesses.  But there are many others.  It can include an accountant wanting to extend her maternity leave, working at home three days a week with a new baby, or the salesman working for the downsized company who has asked him to work at home.  Or it can be someone such as you running a small business on the side while working a full-time job.  People from all walks of life are spending at least of their work week working at home.  According to the American Home Business Association, 39 million people in the United States were working at home in some capacity in 1996.  Over 20 million of those workers have started their own home-based business such as consulting, sales, marketing, publishing and more. 

We are all aware of the difficulty of starting your own business and the high rate of failure.  But, people working at home in home-based businesses are proving themselves different.  They are quickly changing the face of small business.  Home-based businesses are incredibly successful as a whole, easy to start, easy to maintain, and the low initial investment may provide a quick road to often massive sums of money.  Working at home, or working at home in a home-based business can pay off. 

Working at home may combine the low-risk, low investment opportunity with the draw of being home to raise your children. The following are some current statistics on home-based businesses: 

• There are currently more than 23 million home-based businesses in operation in the United States.
• More than 8000 new home-based businesses are started every day.
• Home-based businesses have success rates of over 90%, meaning they are still around after 3 years.  (Traditional small businesses, by comparison, have a 20% success rate)
• Home-based businesses appeal to both sexes: 60% of home-based business owners are women; 40% or men.

All that is really required to start a home-based business is the desire, a product or service that people need or want, the time to get your idea off the ground, and the space to call your “office”. Working at home in a home-based business may be a wonderful opportunity to quickly establish a new lifestyle with your children, supplementing your income, or it can allow you  the opportunity to go for the American dream. 

Information from Home but Not Alone by Katherine Murray 

Webpage by Paul Susic MA Licensed Psychologist Ph.D. Candidate CEO/President Susic Psychological Consulting P.C.

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