Tightrope: What makes a 'real entrepreneur'?  

August 28, 2007 

I have had a home-based business for a few years and I am getting tired of working from home. I don't feel like a real entrepreneur. In fact, most of my friends don't see me as a real business owner because I work from home.

When I was a kid my grandfather owned a printing shop. My school bus rode past the shop going to and from school. I remember the rush that I felt as we passed my grandfather's shop and all the kids would clap and yell "that's Aggie's grandfather's store." I felt so proud.

I would love to get an outside office but my budget is rather tight these days and I don't want to make a move that I will regret later. What guideline should I use to determine the most appropriate time to move into the real world of entrepreneurship?

You are already in the real world of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs are people who take their resources, whether large or small, and generate a living for themselves and others. This is being done successfully every day in home-based businesses as well as in the brick-and-mortar kind.

There are ups and downs either way you go. More important than when to move your business out of the house is getting caught up in peer pressure. It seems that you are relating the excitement of your schoolmates being impressed with your grandfather's printing shop to your current adult friends.

It's funny how children carry experiences into their adult life. It was a thrill to you for your bus buddies to be impressed to see your grandfather's business on their bus ride. It was so impressionable that you somehow think that your adult friends will be equally as impressed to see you in a business outside of your home.

My daughter's school bus used to pass my office every afternoon. We knew the exact time that the bus would pass and usually two or three of us would rush outside to wave to her and the kids as they passed by. My daughter was embarrassed by this and showed her dissatisfaction by sliding down in her seat so that we could only see the top of her head as the bus drove by. Now, the other kids on the bus were waving and shouting out the window and there we were, calling Sharon's name while she ignored us.

Today, she runs her own business from her home. She figured out how to employ a staff of people who work from their homes, and they all tie into a computer network. She's not much different from her school bus days in that she doesn't care what her friends and peers think; she is more concerned with what she thinks and how she feels.

You are in good company having a home-based business. Many large corporations are saving millions of dollars by sending their employees home to work.

Setting up a commercial office is a big-budget item. If you decide to move your business into a commercial space, start by talking with both your accountant to work out a budget that fits your situation and a lawyer to assist you in negotiating a commercial lease.

Whatever you decide to do make certain that it is a decision that works for you, your customers and your business; don't be influenced by peer pressure.

Gladys Edmunds' Entrepreneurial Tightrope column appears Wednesdays. Click here for an index of her columns. As a single, teen-age mom, Gladys made money doing laundry, cooking dinners for taxi drivers and selling fire extinguishers and Bibles door-to-door. Today, Edmunds is founder of Edmunds Travel Consultants in Pittsburgh and author of There's No Business Like Your Own Business, a six-step guide to success published by Viking. Her website is www.gladysedmunds.com. You can e-mail her at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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