As soon as you go into a home business or even express interest in one you are likely to start getting the question….

The question itself varies. It may be expressed as doubt that there is anything legitimate you can do to earn money from home. It may be someone asking if you can do them a favor because you’re just at home all day. But what it really is is a question of whether or not you are really working.

It doesn’t matter how normal what you do would seem if you did it outside the home. You could be a computer programmer working at home and people would have trouble believing that you actually work.

Explaining that you are in a real business can take time. From my experience, I can tell you that it can take years, literally. At least, it took my inlaws about 2-3 years just to believe that I really was earning good money working at home and for them to finally stop nagging me to get a job. Still can’t get them to quit giving me their annual copy of home business tax tips they find every year in one magazine or another. It seems to be reprinted every year.

How you explain it depends on your audience and what you want them to do. It can be as simple as comparing your home business to the job it would be if you worked for someone else. Then again, you could be trying to recruit that person into your business, in which case you really want them to understand the possibilities.

When you have a home business people get pretty shameless about asking about what you earn. After all, they can scarcely believe you earn anything at all!

This is difficult for the more privacy minded. There’s no good reason for them to be snooping, after all, in many cases. However, if you’re earning a really good living it can be fun to give a range. There’s no need to be specific in most cases. Or just say “It varies,” which is so often so very true.

The fun ones are the ones who think that because it’s a home business it must be easy and want you to teach them. I’ve had many a relative come up and ask me to help them get going online. And I do. Most of them, however, have failed to put in the effort required in order to succeed and have just given up.

You also have to take your home business seriously yourself if you want others to understand that it is a serious venture. If you’re always goofing around it is going to be very hard for the people who know you to respect that you work hard in your business.

Fortunately, there will also be times you can describe what you do in your home business just as matter of factly as you would describe a job. Many people just won’t want the details, and ask about what you do as a matter of social routine.

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