The Rural Voice, 2001-02, Page 29`al
LIVING
THE
DREAM
Whether it's a
Tong -held dream
you'd like to pursue
or a way of adding
income without
having to work off
the farm, starting a
home-based
business might be
the way to go.
By Larry Drew
Living
in the country and
working from home is familiar
to most farm families. Today,
it is also as likely that one or more
family members commute to another
career in town — perhaps dreaming
of starting their own home-based
business. Whether that dream is to
sell country crafts to retailers, run a
Bed & Breakfast, or provide graphic
design services, bringing that second
business into the house will require
careful consideration and planning.
Those that live or grew up on a
farm, no doubt are already familiar
with many of the advantages of being
"home-based". Take, for example,
the convenience and flexibility
afforded to balance work and family
time, or the potential rewards of
involving family members in the
business. To this day, I cherish that
mom and dad were able to be around
while I grew up. Today, I have a
four -month-old daughter at home —
and it's great to be working from
home.
For most of us, other top
motivators include doing what we
enjoy, the independence, and the
personal satisfaction and
accomplishment.
While supplementing the family
income or achieving financial
"freedom" is an important goal,
money is not likely to be the top
motivator for self-employment. If it
were, s6 many of us wouldn't have
so readily taken that pay cut that
generally comes with leaving a
career. But of course, the ability to
"make a living at it" must be
fulfilled; otherwise it may only be an
expensive hobby.
The analogy to a hobby may be a
good one if the business side of
things is not looked after. The
Canadian Federation of Independent
business says procrastination is a
major contributing cause to business
failure. I doubt if the entrepreneurs
put off what they enjoyed. If it was a
craft business, I bet the person made
lots of crafts. What likely wasn't
getting done was a combination of
less attractive administrative tasks —
from record keeping and paper work,
to dealing with suppliers and
bankers.
It is easy to underestimate the
time involved in administrative tasks.
In my former career I wrote a lot of
business communications. But when
the boss said to take five minutes to
write to head office about something,
I knew it would be at least 20
minutes later (after reviewing a file
and thinking of what I wanted to say)
that I would finally be in a position to
take five minutes and write it. Now,
it's not that I took too long, but rather
that my boss hadn't thought about
how long it should take. Dilbert, the
cartoon character, would tell you it's
because the boss hadn't put pen to
paper for quite some time. While it
may sound great to be your own
boss, you'll be responsible for
everything that needs to be done —
and likely doing most of it yourself.
There is lots of research and
planning that needs to be done before
getting down to administering and
managing a business. There is no
doubt that market research and
marketing plans are critical to
launching and running a successful
home-based business. Few, if any,
products or services actually "sell
themselves". While it's- true that my
parents didn't even need business
cards, letterhead, or marketing
brochures to sell their cattle or
soyabeans, any farm family that is
successfully direct marketing its
product to consumers will have a
different experience. They can tell
you about having to find a need for
their particular product (or service),
determine if there were enough
potential customers willing to pay for
the product, come up with a new
product mix to meet those needs and
at a price that the market was willing
to pay, decide where and how to best
reach all those needy people, and
envision how to package and deliver
their product to be able to satisfy (or
FEBRUARY 2001 25