If I ever needed a reminder of why I love the work from home lifestyle the recent snow in England has provided it!

OK, we’ve had a little more snow that in recent years but it seems from the news the country has come more or less to a standstill.

Roads are covered in ice (not enough grit to go round – oh yes, sorry I forgot we don’t normally need it in the winter!). Airports are closed. Trains and buses stopped running.

People struggling to get to work, taking 3 or 4 times longer than normal to get to a place where the extra effort is not appreciated to do a job they hate.

Is that any way to live?

And here I am looking out of my office window at the beauty of nature. I’ve played with the kids – because I have the choice to do so – not because I couldn’t get in  to work.

I don’t have the pressure of a boss expecting me to fight my way in to the office. I have no demands placed upon me. I have no clients demanding my attention or my presence at meetings. Corporate life? No thank you – that’s a thing of the past for me.

As I was thinking about this post I got to thinking about how we ended up in this sorry mess. I guess it must have been the Industrial Revolution or something after which life changed.

Have you ever thought, I mean really thought, about why we all follow some long dead idiots’ rules about how we should life our lives?

Why, oh why, do we all subscribe to this ridiculous pattern of:

School – 9am to say 4pm

Work – 9am to 5pm (if you’re lucky but more like 7am to 7pm with travel time)

Retirement at 65 – time to do what we want at last – only we can’t because we didn’t earn enough to create a big enough nest egg

Of course, in the times of factories having to work at maximum capacity that model made sense – at least it did for the owners and the workers enjoyed regular work and thus pay. But who cared about the conditions? Who then decided that we had to work all day every weekday in whatever field we chose to work?

Sorry, but if that’s the life for you – you are most welcome to it. It’s not for me anymore. I want to be responsible for deciding on my own lifestyle.

The work all hours possible, corporate treadmill is an outdated and frankly, extremely unattractive model.

We should work when we need to and only then to generate a sizeable profit for our endeavours. Trading our time for income is a ridiculous notion. Surely that’s why we educate ourselves. So we are able to offer more of a service because of our training, experience and/or knowledge. That makes us more valuable BUT hopefully much more valuable than we could realistically charge as an hourly rate and certainly more than an employer would pay.

The only way to generate our true worth is to run our own business – preferably with multiple streams of income from a variety of sources – where we are not confined by a cap on earnings or the “generosity” of an employer to dish out bonuses.

This summer I’m planning on spending 5 weeks in Spain. That would be impossible if I was employed but for me it’s just a matter of deciding!

Now that’s what I call the Freedom Lifestyle.

So if you are still wondering why you do it (the daily commute, the thankless job) – go ahead, think about starting your own internet business, part time at first maybe, and create your own work from home lifestyle.

Let me know if you need any encouragement or ideas how to go about it.

Technorati: home business, lifestyle, lifestyle choice, work from home

So you’ve decided you want to run your own business.

You’ve mentally committed to doing so.

You’re enthusiastic, raring to go but don’t know what business to be in.

You know you want to work from home & also know you want to start part time.

Or maybe you’ve already taken the plunge but are not happy with the market you’re in.

It’s all very well me telling you you’ll have your greatest success following your passion but if that happens to be toe nail clippings through the ages it may turn out that’s not a profitable market!

It may seem obvious but the first thing to do before you start your business is to undertake a viability study.

You may have heard of Michel & Sylvie Fortin. Both are very successful online and offline and run a program called Success Chef. This is a top quality, high ticket program that contains multi media training for aspiring internet tycoons.

As part of that program they are releasing individual “cook books” covering various key areas that need to be in place for a business to be successful.

The first of these draws from Sylvie’s immense experience (she’s identified brilliant markets for many of the top producing marketers) and shows how to find a profitable market, research properly and ensure your success before you even commence trading.

Entitled, Marketing ESP Cookbook: The 4-Step Process to Finding Hot, Hungry Markets! this multi media program will ensure you do not waste money and time starting a business in a market that cannot sustain the level of profitability you require for your business.

Give yourself a head start, see if your chosen market really is the right place to be.

Technorati: ESP Marketing Cookbook, own business, profitable market, success chef, work from home