So you own a home business - that’s great. You know it is important for you to set a schedule for your work hours so that customers can know when to reach you, and so that you can maintain the rest of your life as well. However, why is it important that you avoid being available for 24 hours each day? It might seem easy to simply be there all of the time. With internet, computers and email systems, as well as a web site, you are certainly going to have a business that is available online 24 hours a day. If you are getting customers or taking orders at all hours of the day and night, wouldn’t it be much more profitable for you to always be there? Certainly it would seem so.
The 24 hour Trap is something that a lot of home business owners fall into and it is very hard to get back out again. In fact, many people quit their day job so that they can have more time at home, working at a home business, and so that they can have more control over when they work and when they don’t feel like working. Yet so many people get to the point where they are working at their home business for 24 hours a day, and not able to stop. This is very dangerous, for several different reasons.
First of all, if you let yourself get to the point where you are working 24 hours a day, this is not as good for your business as you might think it is. You are gong to be stuck - stuck with the hours that you have set for yourself, and stuck with the idea that you aren’t getting what you need out of life. It is very easy to burn out when you are working 24 hours a day, much easier than it is to burn out at a regular job. The reason is that even if you don’t like your regular job, there is always going to be a quitting time so you can go home or do whatever you want to do to make your life better. With a home business, you need to have this as well so that you can stay on top of things. It is far too easy to take on enough work to be working all of the time, and this only ends up making people absolutely miserable. It is way too easy to be put into a position where you are unable to stop working, and this is not going to be good for you, or for the business that you are trying to run, by any means.