Are you ready to work full time from home?

It’s been almost two years since I started dabbling on the internet, trying to make money online. At the time it was something of an experiment, something of a hobby, something I did partly for fun and partly in the hope of making enough money to quit my day job.

Now, 20 months later, my hobby has turned into a business and is generating enough income for me to happily work part-time.

If I decide to do this, I will take the big step from working my business in my spare time to earn some extra money, to working half the week for myself. Then I will be depending on money from my own business to pay my mortgage and my bills.

If I can achieve the same success working from home during the day as I have for the past year by working a few hours here and there in my spare time, I’ll be well on my way to becoming a full-time home business entrepreneur.

I know this sounds fantastic, but what if something goes wrong? If I eventually work full-time for myself, I’ll be giving up a regular full-time salary, not to mention company pension, sick pay, and bonuses. So I decided to ask myself some questions. I’ve put together a list of 5 questions to ask yourself before you quit your day job.

1. Do you have a financial cushion? Before you quit your full-time or part-time job, make sure you have some money in the bank in case something goes wrong. You need to make sure you have no credit card or loan debt and have at least 3 months salary at the bank just to allow you to recover if the worst happens.

2. Are you earning enough money? It sounds obvious, but remember to add up your current expenses to see if your online income will cover everything. Remember to factor in tax payments, and factor in the fact that you will no longer receive paid vacation, health insurance, sick pay, and pension from the company. If you have a big purchase in the near future, like a new home, you may want to postpone your full-time online career until you’ve secured your mortgage.

3. Are your income streams diverse enough? Are you earning all your money from a single source? If you’re currently making all your money selling similar items on eBay or earning income from a small number of affiliate programs or earning money from a single program like Google Adsense, you could be taking a risk. What happens if the market for the products you sell disappears? Do the affiliate programs you promote close? You need to take a close look at the sources of your income. Ideally, your income should come from numerous sources, eg selling your own products, promoting different affiliate programs, using multiple websites in different niches.

4. Do you have a business plan? Since you are considering taking such a big step, you need to have a business plan. This should include a description of your business and the products and services you offer, your market analysis, strategy and implementation along with a financial plan.

5. How will you cope with working alone? If you enjoy working with other people every day, the transition to working alone is likely to be quite difficult for you. You should consider possible strategies to deal with this change. For example, you might want to make sure that part of your business involves working with other people, perhaps providing a service locally or consulting. Or you could fill the void of not meeting people at work by joining a club or taking a training course part-time. Making an effort to keep in touch and meet regularly with friends and former colleagues will also help.

If you consider all of these factors before you quit your day job, this should give you the best possible chance of becoming a successful full-time Internet marketer.