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Few home businesses manage to avoid falling into the feast-or-famine trap, going from complete overload one week to a dearth of business the next. Larger companies also have busy and quiet times but the home business operator is more susceptible to these fluctuations as, being generally a one-person business, he or she cannot delegate any of the workload, and the cost and hassle of employing or contracting part-time assistance adds substantially to overheads and is often not cost-effective.

Riding the income roller-coaster is not only stressful, it can impact significantly on the quality of work presented or the availability of the home business owner to regular clients who may expect a

rapid response to an order or query, or need work done to deadline at short notice. When the operator is under pressure and unable to respond as needed, the business can lose a good client, plunging it back into having to win new contracts when the volume of work drops off. More than that, because the home business person has typically been expending all their time and energy supplying the goods or services required during the peak time, he or she has not been marketing the business and often has no new work lined up when the busy period is over. How, then, can home business operators overcome the challenges of having too much work to handle one day, and not enough the next?

Some tips
It's probably impossible to ensure a completely steady work or income flow if you are self-employed, but there are several steps which a home business owner can take to help even out the workflow and make life a bit easier. Deciding whether the reason you run your own business is just to give you an income - i.e. to be self-employed - or to build a bigger business is a critical part of the equation. It will help you determine whether you would like to use any excess work to grow your business, tactfully turn it away or find ways to deal with what you can't handle. A range of practical things you can do to manage your work and income flow is listed below. You'll find some of them contradictory - having a clear goal in mind will help you choose those that will work most effectively for your business.