Bedroom Businesses: The naked truth behind building a business from home
Would you like to know all of the dirty details on how to start a bedroom business? What about learning all of the ins and outs of the business? Well, today I am going to cover the naked truth about starting a business from your own home. It’s not as rough as some people think it is and the pleasure you’ll gain from running your own bedroom business is amazing.
Now that I’ve got all of the bedroom innuendos out, we can get down to what this article really covers – building a freelance business from your own home 
Below are some of the truths to building a freelancing business, some of which people want you to believe are false. However, in my years as a full time freelancer, I’ve come to know that these tid-bits of information are 100% accurate.
It’s going to be a tough road
The feast or famine cycle is very, very real and everyone experiences it, especially new freelancers. Being properly prepared for this type of a cycle is a must and can be done fairly easily to minimize the risk of going belly up with your new bedroom business.
One thing to remember is to always promote yourself and handle your marketing even when you’re at your busiest times. This will help allow those potential clients trickle in and start to fill up time slots when you’re finishing up your current projects. Another great way to handle the feast or famine cycle as a freelancer is to make sure you’re putting some of your funds away in savings. I try to save 15-20% so I know I always have some spare cash on hand during the slower periods.
Invoicing, Accounting & legalizing your business has never been easier
First things first, you’re going to want to help separate your business funds and legalities from your own personal assets, so you’ll want to head over to a website like My New Company or Legal Zoom and set up an LLC or a Corporation. The process is super easy and really low cost. From there, you’ll want to get set up with invoicing software (check out our article on top invoicing apps for freelancers) and also some accounting software like Outright or Less Accounting.
By having these items in place, you’ll ensure that your business will run smoothly and as you can see from the items above, it’s much easier than the older ways of having to run your business with multiple accountants and paper filing systems.
You don’t need a lot of money to start
When you look at the article I wrote on how you can start a design business for $25.00, you’ll see that the entry level for running your own business is very, very low. This makes setting up shop and getting started with a profitable freelance business very, very easy.
You do not need outside funding and you don’t even need a lot of cash saved as “back up”. When I started full time designing, I had zero dollars. I find that the drive to succeed really comes on strong when you know you’re backed against a wall and don’t have that nest egg to rely on.
Office space is not a necessity
If you have a laptop, you can run your business right from your bed or couch. Gone are the days that require freelance business owners to have a separate office space away from the home where there’s desks, computers, couches and other items for clients to check out when they come in. The majority of the time, you won’t even need to see the clients face to face, especially working over the web and working with clients from different countries.
You can set yourself up a nice little kitchen table business or bedroom business right from the comfort of your own home without the need for all of the extras and fluff. As I write this article right now, I’m sitting at a small 4 foot wide desk that I’ve had for the past 5 years, typing on a keyboard I’ve had for even longer.
Interested in running your own freelance business from home?
The first of many Guerrilla Guides I’ve released covers how to start a profitable freelance design business and is currently only $7.00 to download. At midnight (eastern standard time), the pricing is going up to $17, so you should head over and grab up your copy now if you haven’t already.
