The work at home lifestyle is often idealized - more time with the family, a 60 second commute and working in your pajamas. Before you take the leap take some time to consider if working at home is really for you. For some, working it home is the ideal situation; it suits their family, financial situation, skill set and personality. But for others it can be a nightmare that ultimately leads to financial troubles and unhappiness. Here are a few things you might consider before make the move.

Your Ideal Work Situation

When, where and how are you most productive are three important questions to ask yourself. Do you need a pristine office, absolute silence and the input of fellow colleagues? Do you need to be allocated work, pushed to meet deadlines and generally encouraged to stay positive? These are hard questions to answer but in order to make the best decision possible it’s important to be honest with yourself.

To be successful working at home you’ll need to be highly motivated, a self starter and have excellent time management skills. Depending on your home situation you might also need to be able to work in a noisy environment, be capable of working odd hours and staying focused with many interruptions.

Respect

The status symbols of the old economy might be falling away all the time, but they are still very much alive in the minds of some people. Working at home doesn’t necessarily mean you will get less respect from business people and friends. Some will admire your move to cut costs, work for yourself and create something remarkable. However others will look down on you as being lazy and unsuccessful. If you are someone who takes great pleasure from putting a suit and tie on everyday, working at home probably isn’t for you.

Personality

Working at home requires a special kind of personality. As with any new venture success can take many years or not come at all. Your first venture might not be successful or you may have to confront many failures first. How do you handle failures and setbacks? Do you accept that all successful people fail, learn from your mistakes and get right back up? Or do your cringe at the thought of failure and only tackle projects where you know you can be successful?

No one is a perfect work at home entrepreneur. If you didn’t quite match up to these ideal traits, never fear. Identify the areas you would like to improve and make a conscious effort to get better at them. Work at home success is within your reach.

Many entrepreneurs who are opening a dollar store forget that aggressive cost management is one of the keys to the success of their business. They don’t realize that cost management will be required from the time the very first purchase is made in preparation for opening their store and it includes every purchase that is made as long as the store is open and operating. While low cost items may not warrant a huge investment of your time and energy, other costs will require continual scrutiny.

Those who are opening a dollar store often assume that major expenses should be examined as they prepare for opening a dollar store. While they might look for methods to reduce the costs of store fixtures by buying used fixtures rather than new, they fail to understand the costs of merchandise and ways to reduce those costs as they create their first orders.

Those same entrepreneurs forget that cost management must occur on a daily basis. When opening a dollar store the goal of achieving breakeven status will remain a high priority. That means that costs such as labor must be measured against store sales. While it is nice to have extra cashiers so the owner can be away after the store first opens, that likely will be a cost that store sales cannot cover at the beginning of operation.

Likewise it will take focused effort to reduce the cost of goods sold during the early months of operation. Yet that is exactly what the entrepreneur must do after opening a dollar store. Every means of reducing the cost of goods sold must be utilized. It might be negotiating for lower prices, increasing quantities, negotiating freight costs, or buying similar merchandise locally. All options to reduce cost must be examined.

In a tight margin business such as will be faced when opening a dollar store cost reduction is a high priority. It is a high priority that must be started even before the store opens. It will remain a high priority for as long as the store is open and in operation.

To Your Dollar Store Success!