Home Business Or Job At Home

A lot of people would wonder what the difference is. Are we splitting hairs? Isnt it the same

thing regardless of what you call it? Actually, no. There is a very big difference between

working at home or building a home based business. In some areas there is overlap, but for the

most part there is a big distinction between the two.

A work at home is just that, a job. This is where you get paid a certain amount of money, either

hourly or salary for doing a particular job from your home. This is often referred to as

telecommuting. Common telecommuting jobs would be data entry, typing, Internet research and web

design.

For example. Lets say you head on over to Monster.com and find a telecommuting job for web

designers. You send in your resume and they hire you. They will then contact you with an

assignment. XYZ company wants to have a web site designed for high school students. They send you

the specs and tell you when they expect the job to be completed by. They will also tell you what

you will be paid, whether for the assignment itself or for how many hours it took you. If hourly,

theyll make you fill out a time card and send it to them.

That is an example of a work at home job. There is no overhead, no advertising expenses, youre

paid for the work you do and most likely youll get a 1099 at the end of the year so that you can

report all the money that you made. The only difference between what was described above and an

office job of the same type is the location from where youre working.

A home business is something quite different. For starters and this is the most important

difference, youre not paid for the work you do. Yes, you may ultimately make some money and

hopefully a lot of money, but there is no guarantee of payment. Youre putting in the work you do

in the hopes of being able to make some kind of income from it. You may ultimately decide to

start your own web design business and do the same kind of work that you did at the job but here

is where the two are quite different.

In starting your own web design business, nobody is going to give you an assignment. You have to

advertise your business and let people know that you are available to do custom web design. Youll

put up a web site, do some advertising on the Internet at a number of places and then sit back

and hope you get a few emails with requests for work. You will then have to tell your customers

what your rates are, how long the job will take and then finally get the specs for the design

itself. You are in charge of and responsible for everything.

There is of course a plus side to running your own home business as opposed to working a job at

home. With a job at home, there is only so much youre going to earn. With your own business,

while you may make absolutely nothing, there is a very good chance if you promote regularly and

work hard that you can turn your business into a very lucrative income.

Michael Russell

Your Independent guide to Home Business