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Starting a Home Business

© Bert Markgraf

Most of us are employed and work for someone else. All employees at some time either lose their job or are blessed with unpleasant co-workers or bosses. One of the most common recurrent fantasies in these situations must be to stand in a spare room of your house visualizing where the desk, telephone etc. would go if you could only start your own business and tell those idiots back at work where to go. Yet, most of us don't do it. We go back to sending out CV's, apologizing to the boss, ignoring the boor in the next cubicle and daydreaming.

One reason for this is that starting a new business seems to be very complicated and it is not even clear where to start. What's the first step? Is there anything you can do while still working? Is financing required? How can you be sure that you haven't forgotten something?

At this Canadian government site, run by Industry Canada, there is a comprehensive guide to starting a home-based business. Some time-sensitive items are slightly out of date and it is geared to Canadian laws and regulations but, overall, it presents an extremely useful step-by-step how-to model. Starting with your motivation and whether your new business should be in your home, it continues with a discussion of business structures and how to begin. Following that, marketing, sales methods and advertising are covered and finally there are sections on financing, organization and management.

Now you can stop day-dreaming, convert that room and quit your job. You'll start a successful small business. You'll write weekly "case study" columns for Suite 101 detailing your progress. Harvard will pick your columns as the definitive work on how to start a small business. You'll become a business guru. Bill Gates will call you for advice. Well, maybe you won't stop day-dreaming.

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