Personality Test: Are You Fit to Work From Home?

Have you had daydreams of working from home? Of course you have! Whohasn'timagined lazily rolling out of bed, pulling on their slippers, brewing a cup of coffee, and casually strolling into the next room to start “working from home"? It may sound like a fantasy, but working from home (running a home-based franchise or other home-based business) isn’t as easy as it's often made out to be.

Challenges of Working from Home

What could go wrong with a home-based business? All sorts of things: there can be disturbances from family, unpredictable midday interruptions, awkwardness finding meeting places for clients, the challenge of maintaining a professional work atmosphere, and the ever-present challenge of balancing home and office life.

While it's no cakewalk, many people -- usually those fitting certain key personality traits -- have cracked the code to successfully running a business from home. But before you get too excited and dive into any home-based business, you need to take a realistic look at your own personality to see if it matches what it takes to be successful in a home office setting. Consider these key traits to examine within yourself to determine if you stand a good chance to be successful in a home-based business:

Running a Home-Based Business: Key Personality Traits

Motivation: How motivated a person is determines the level of effort they will expend in the course of running their business. If the business is started as a whim and the individual is not properly motivated then they would never be able to dedicate their full attention to the business. Motivation plays the major role in influencing a person’s dedication to the work.

Work Habits: If a person has the nature to professionally conduct their work, having good work ethics and a dedicated nature then they are more likely to succeed running their own business from their home. Work habits influence the amount of time people give to their work and how professionally they can conduct their work. Someone with poor work habits would probably delay assignments and projects to the last moment and then hurriedly to the work and submit a sub-standard result.

Personality: Different psychologists have given numerous tests and studies to try to find out the various personality types of individuals and try to group people in certain classes so that it can be easier to understand their actions. Personalities are complex gathering of different traits and attributes which make a person’s guide for why they do certain things.

Personality types which can function without guidance and can take action independently work better in home business settings rather than people who need to be influenced or are intimated by others. An outgoing personality works better in a home business setting while otherwise people need to be bound by certain schedules or need to be forced to follow certain work timings.

Lifestyle: When you are running a business from home you are constantly being distracted by family and other domestic concerns. It is difficult to manage a business while you are being constantly distracted by fixing certain things around the house or otherwise. Your lifestyle should change once you are in your work hours or at your work station. If your lifestyle is to be involved in everything around you, then you would find it very hard to get anything done either at home or at work.

To successfully run a franchise from home, there are certain questions which you must first ask yourself. The answers will provide you with a better notion as to which kind of franchise opportunities or business opportunities best fit your mindset and personality.

Running a Home-Based Business: Key Questions

Am I self-motivated?

Leasing a franchise is a long-term affair. On a daily and long-term basis, you will need to discipline and motivate yourself to work long hours to make this business a success.

Is there any reason for wanting to work outside my home, other than monetary reasons?

Working from home does not necessarily mean that you would be saving money. Good reasons for working from home can be greater work time flexibility to cater to family obligations (more predominant for single parents and mothers), any kind of physical disabilities which make venturing outside a daily nuisance, or any other personal reason.

Can I multitask and am I multi-talented?

If you can easily juggle handling multiple tasks at the same time and can work on various projects at the same time then it is most likely that you will be able to handle working from your home based offices. Franchises often require you to take over a variety of tasks and you’d be required to single-handedly handle all the office functions from home. You need to keep that in mind when setting up your home business.

Can I comfortably work alone or do I need people around me?

Usually, it is difficult for younger people or people who are very social to work in an isolated atmosphere. They need company to keep them on the top of their game which is unavailable at home. For people with such personality traits, a store business is more viable.

Do I have the necessary space and facilities to operate a business from my home?

There are certain things which have become necessary for someone to launch a functioning business from their home. This includes having proper work furniture such as a desk and work station, a computer, a separate phone line to cater to the customers calls, a fax machine, a printer and answering machine as well. Having a credit card reader is useful too. You need to ensure that your office space is clearly separated from your home space as it is beneficial having separate areas for work and personal life.

Does my family support and acknowledge my home-based franchise or small business?

It's really not good enough that your family notionally support the idea of your running a home-based franchise or small business; they must be willing to respect and honor the commitment it takes to actually manage one on a day-to- day basis. In practice, that means your family must offer you solitude while you're working, and they should be willing to give you the peace required to work during the office hours you have decided for yourself. Privacy and bounds should be predetermined so that later on there aren’t any conflicts with family over intrusion into personal time and space from work time and space or vice versa.

Running a business from home can be a rewarding option, but priorities need to be established beforehand, lest your new venture leads to domestic and professional problems in the future. If you feel that a home-based franchise or small business does fit your personality, capabilities, and interests, then you have a world of options before you. Feel free to browse the FranchiseHelp.com franchise directory, where you'll find thousands of franchise opportunities that could fit the bill, across a wide variety of industries and business types.

Best of luck in your home based franchise adventure!

To learn more about franchise opportunities and business opportunities visit us at FranchiseHelp.