Businesses are excellent passion projects, and are hard but rewarding full-time roles. However, businesses cost money to run. You need to pay your rent on a premises; you need to pay your staff, you need to purchase crucial supplies. There's a lot of cost when it comes to business. But would you let that put you off? If so - that's opportunity cost. You're denying yourself what you want, based off a reality that you perceive. The truth is, if you're canny, you can run a business on the cheap. You'll have to forgo a lot of the opportunities presented to a business with financial clout behind it, but you'll also have to look within yourself and your skillset.

Quite obviously, you'll have to run the business from home in lieu of a 'proper office'. This is cheap, because it means no additional costs for your place of work, but there are some difficulties. Namely that you can't hire anyone and that most homes aren't the most productive of work spaces at all. To work from home successfully, you'll also need to use what you have got. That means your skillset. Because you cannot hire anyone, your business is going to focus around what you can do - as the owner and sole worker in the business. You're limited to your ideas and your talents, so your business needs to be something in your comfort zone - and ideally it needs to fill a clear gap in the market, while being something you can actually do.

Operating a business from home means that, ironically enough, not everything can be done in-house. You'll need to network to find work, you'll need to collaborate to complete projects and you'll need to outsource when it gets too much (a good sign, sometimes!). However, there's a lot that you can make use of - and there are plenty of services, like managed print services from Xeretec, that can help you get your work done. There will be all manner of services that you can use to help out your home business - because a home is going to lack a lot of equipment which could be crucial. You need to prepared for running a home business, as it's a big ask and a difficult role. It will become harder than ever to separate your work from your personal life as it is all taking place in the same surroundings. This can be really tough on your mind, as you won't know when to take a break - or you might take too many breaks. The home isn't great for productivity, but try to carve out a professional office space where you can work hard - so you can play hard when you're done. Try to limit the home business to one portion of the home.

If you want to make a success out of working from home, you'll need to use all the skills you've got. It will keep costs down, but also help your ability to be resourceful, a skill which can certainly boost your productivity. Home working isn't for anyone, but it might be for you if you can make the best out of what you have