The Unique Risks That Come With Running a Home Business

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Starting up a home business can be a great idea. You use the space you already own to turn a profit, making bills and the mortgage a lot easier to deal with. Dream scenario right? Of course! But only if you know about the unique risks that come with running a business from a home setting. While it’s usually quite easy to get up and running, surviving from here on out can get tricky. With that in mind, here are the top three risks to keep in mind. 

Expensive Insurance Policies

Depending on the type of business you want to put together, working from home will still require you to have an insurance policy in place. For example, if you plan to open up your own cake baking and delivery service you’re going to need baking insurance, just in case someone gets sick from one of your products. 

Yes, even cake makers and decorators have a specific type of insurance to invest in! However, depending on the scale of your company and the plans you’ve got for the future, taking out a form of public liability can be very expensive! Make sure you shop around and find the right insurance policies for your company – compare policies together and always be specific about what you need. 

Danger in the Digital World

The digital world is where you’re going to find most of your business. However, the digital world is also very dangerous. If you don’t have the appropriate IT Support to hand, you may find your business at risk on a large, long-term scale. Make sure you combat this by outsourcing to a reputable IT company from the moment you set up your website. And above all else, turn on two-factor authentication! 

And remember, it’s not just your details you need to worry about. If you work with clients on a name basis, you’re going to take down many of their details too – keeping these safe is the name of the game, and you could face a huge fine if you fail to put all the right safeguards in place. 

Poor Hiring Capability

Working from home has a very unique disadvantage in the current job market: it’s hard to bring someone else into the business when you’re working out of your home. After all, you probably won’t have the space, and you can get very used to working with just yourself. 

There’s always the opportunity to contract a freelancer, which can save you a lot of work trying to put together a robust hiring process. If this appeals to you, be sure to network amongst the kind of freelancer you want to hire and get to know a few people. You want to have a good pick of the right skills and talent and that takes a bit of one to one! 

Running a home business can get difficult. The risks involved are rare in more traditional businesses. Keep this in mind during setup.