An amazing thing about house projects is how they can prepare you with many work skills including some for self-employment.
If you are off work and yet doing your home projects - Good for you - picking up your hammer when the chips are down and using your sweat to make your home and your life better! The very grit that heads you into fixing things and making good use of your time will instill a busy and productive pace your own business if you start one.
The parallels of home projects and home business are amazing: You find your opportunities for projects.
You make a plan.
You obtain and organize materials.
You pace your work.
You motivate yourself to move ahead.
You account for the money.
The big difference in self-employment is that you receive money for the work and you calculate a profit for it.
What are some of the other skills from your project work that can apply to your situation? From your house projects, you are accustomed to learning new things.
When you start a project, you read up on codes and methods.
You visit local experts and ask for help learning the skills for a task.
You practice on test pieces and sharpen your equipment.
You improve skills to do the project and also the smarts to know how to do it right and legally acceptable.
Your brain is used to this process and is in good shape to learn the ins and outs of your new business.
More about how building codes teach you about business: You have probably already fumed about some codes that interfere with a simple solution on projects you have already done.
Let's say plumbing - the distance for a vent pipe from a sink - it's usually a nuisance in a remodel, but you wrestle with it and find out that if you cheat you will be out of code and have a less valuable house, and also a sink that won't drain right.
After facing these glitches many times over the years, you have learned that the building codes may be cumbersome but do make sense and uphold the value of the house.
That realization makes you mature in attitude when it comes to the regulations you face in your own business and will prepare you to face them and adhere to them, a good ingredient for success.
Organization is another skill that translates well to self-employment.
You have had to break your projects into stages, order materials at the right time, and place the supplies in order so that they stay dry and are accessible when you need them.
You have had to keep track of them so you find them and not have to buy items again that you could not find - well, at least not too many times.
You have also had to organize the sequence of tasks on your projects.
The step-wise progress on your plans makes sense to you and leads to success in your building.
This is a very important part of starting a business and also running one every day.
You are using important mental abilities that you have honed over years of home improvement.
In developing your business, you will write these steps down and it will become the substance of your business plan.
You are closer than you think! You also know from house projects which ones not to start.
The ones that are too expensive, too big, require too long a warm season, or are impractical.
Knowing when to say no is an essential skill in your self-employment toolkit.
You are not afraid of saying no to certain dream projects.
This self-discipline is a developed skill that has come with experience and mistakes along the way.
Pay attention to it, as it is actually now wisdom in you.
By the way, wisdom is stuff other people consider common sense but which we pay a high price for.
Some folks discover that they don't have the ability to handle the self-directed aspects of projects, although they like doing them with others.
Do you often wait for your expert friend to come by and get you going? It is fine to notice your motivational style.
Perhaps you ask for plans and strategies from others and then follow them with their oversight and encouragement.
You get things done, but when folks with more experience are there to guide you.
In that case, you might not want to be your own boss, unless you can afford to hire a project manager to run the business end.
Instead, you might want to look for work with another outfit, rather than get yourself stranded on an island and not know how to get off.
Consider your skills and abilities from your projects and see where you have developed interests, organization, and drive to translate these to the workplace.
You may be surprised how you have been in a training program of your own design for many years already! Happy Home Team from Dr Debi!