Money for Home Business: Can You Afford It?

Let me guess. You can’t afford it.

You’d really love to [start a home business/spend time with your kids/give money to charity/adopt a child from China], you really would, but you just can’t afford it. If I hear that phrase one more time, I’m going to do something drastic.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you’re lying. You can afford it. You’re just choosing not to. In your case, that could be a wise choice or it could be a stupid choice, but it’s yours and you’re making it.

I could tell you about Christine who spent time hanging out in the upper echelons of homelessness. I could tell you about Harri in Finland, busting his ass and saving like crazy to work from home with his two little boys.

I could tell you about the time I spent six months in a homeless shelter. I could tell you about rolling pennies to buy a half-pound bag of generic rotini.

I could tell you what it feels like to have no money for baby formula. To fill the empty can with flour and return it to the store, claiming it tastes funny. To lie and steal to get free milk for your kid. To be 20 and single and totally unprepared for motherhood and dirt ass poor.

You don’t care and I don’t blame you. But don’t tell me you can’t afford it.

When I had Jack, Jamie took parental leave. In Canada, we get 55% of our salary for 50 weeks, up to 35 of which can be taken by the father. People looked at him like he was crazy. People came right out and said he was crazy. “How can you afford it?” “You’ll never be able to afford it!” “I wish we could do that but we can’t afford it.”

Here’s my open reply. We did not have a car. We did not have a house. We did not have cable TV, or a Best Buy account, or a shoe habit. We did not take vacations. We did not have a gym membership. We did not drink non-negotiable morning cappuccinos.

We sacrificed a damn lot and we got six blissful months of doing nothing but getting to know our new baby son.

Is this for everyone? Absolutely not. Are there things I will not give up? Hell, yes. But if I don’t do something or buy something or go somewhere, it’s not because I can’t afford it.

It’s because other things are more important.

When you say you can’t afford something, you are giving away your power. There might be damn good reasons for you to keep your day job. You want to save up some money first. You like the security. The health benefits come in handy. You can’t stand the sight of your wife. Hell, maybe you actually enjoy it.

Those are all choices, and they may be good ones, but they’re yours and you’re the one making them. Stop wimping out and start telling the truth.

This is the end of my ranting about money week. Next week, I rant about marketing your home business. Subscribe to the feed, you just might get to watch me explode live on the Internet.

***

Think you need a micro-business marketing coach? Click here to get started.

By Naomi Dunford