How Long Can Your Home Business Stay Home?

The best way to start your own business is to begin by moonlighting.  You can develop your skills, identify markets, and learn cost structures without the added worry of making sure you bring home enough money to get through the month.

Many budding entrepreneurs do their moonlighting in a guest room or basement at home, saving them overhead and commuting as their business begins to take off.

In time, they may find that their full-time enterprise still won't necessarily require free-standing office space off site, so for the sake of convenience, their operations remain home-based.

If that's the situation you are facing, there are several factors that will figure into whether you should expect to remain in your house as your business grows, or whether you need to make plans to go somewhere else.

Will Customers Be Coming To You?

Many businesses are service-based and operate electronically or via mail, receiving and sending both inputs and outputs over the internet or with shipping companies.

But if your business is one that creates a product, you may have customers coming to your home.  Maybe you're doing custom embroidery and clients want to bring a garment for personalization.  Perhaps you even run a massage business. 

Whatever the case may be, you'll have to decide if you want potentially dozens of people knowing where you live and coming to your house daily. 

This can cause a number of problems.  You may need to secure your belongings to make sure customers aren't getting sticky-fingered.  You may have homeowners' association rules that prohibit excessive traffic or messy parking.  There could also be liability issues with your insurance. If you find yourself needing new insurance, sites like homeownersinsurance.com will help you find a coverage provider that will be valid for business operated in your home.

Will A Whole Bunch of Stuff Be Coming To You?

To revisit our embroidery example, how much inventory might you accumulate?  Shirts and sweatshirts are terribly bulky, and when large orders come in, you may be so blinded by the good news of a big sale that you may forget you need a lot of cubic feet inside your home for all the inputs.

Will you have enough space?  And even if you will, will you and your family tolerate that kind of bulk on a regular basis for prolonged periods?  Will your stored goods damage your flooring or walls?  Can they easily be transported down staircases or through doorways?

If space-hungry inputs--or even just frequent deliveries in and out--are a likely part of your business, you might be better served to find a cheap storefront and maintain a normal homefront.

Can You Access What You Need?

Many home businesses involve catering or other food service functions.  In order to legally prepare food commercially, you must have a commercial kitchen.  While the laws vary by state, you might be able to do a limited amount of such work with the standard kitchen in your home.  At some threshold, however, you will be handling too much volume for this exemption and will be required to upgrade.

That will not be cheap, nor will it be easy or compact.  Commercial kitchens require heavy wiring, extensive plumbing, and city water. California's standards are typical.  If you have a lightweight residential electric service, aging pipes, or well water, there's no way a commercial kitchen will be feasible for you.

Starting a business from home just makes sense.  Under certain circumstances, it must graduate to its own quarters.  Think ahead and be prepared to make sure the disruptive effect of that move is minimized.