Purchasing a home-based business opportunity is a great undertaking.

Self-employment is one of those fulfilling experiences you’ve really got to see to believe; it can be incredibly rewarding to be your own boss. But there is some loss involved: your benefits no longer will be supplied by an employer. You will be in charge of securing your own health, life and insurance benefits. You’ll also have to ensure that money is put aside for your retirement.

Many new work-from-home business owners take a look at their gross income with delight: “I made $50K at my job but now I’m bringing in $65K!” But then he or she realizes that $65K doesn’t go as far as the $50K? Why not? Benefits!

Employers pay workmen’s compensation insurance. They may match funds you place in your retirement accounts. They also may offer life and disability insurance to you at a great discount.  As the owner of a business, it’s all on you now to set aside enough income tax, social security tax, retirement income, and so on.

Time to create your own benefits package.

Here’s the lowdown on four benefits you will need to secure for you and your family:

1. Health Insurance

Possibly the most important insurance of all to purchase, make sure you have researched this before giving notice. If you have a spouse or partner with employer-sponsored health benefits, check to see if you can be added to his/her plan.

If this option is unavailable, consider looking into your state’s or the federal health exchange (the Affordable Care Act, also known as ‘Obamacare’) to look at its various health plans at various price points. You also can check to see if you might qualify for subsidies for your monthly health insurance premiums.

If you’re worried about whether or not the healthcare marketplace will even be around in a year or two, you will need to research group health plans via private health insurance providers. To keep your premiums low, take a look at pairing a high-deductible plan (lower monthly premiums) with a Health Savings Account, which allows you to save up for out-of-pocket healthcare expenses.

2. Disability Insurance

Second in importance to health insurance, disability insurance helps protect your family’s finances should you become unable to work because of injury or illness. Even a short-term disability of just three months could devastate your finances. Get disability insurance!

3. Life Insurance

If you’re single with no children, you may not need life insurance. You also may not need it if you’re married and your spouse or partner has a reliable job. But once kids arrive? That’s all she wrote. Your children will need your income during their formative years, and a non-working spouse may not be able to pay the mortgage. Even if a spouse is working and could conceivably support your family, it will be very hard for your partner to raise a family while working full time. Life insurance can be relatively inexpensive – less than $50/month in some cases. It’s something to consider if you are thinking about buying a franchise or starting out on your own.

4. Retirement Savings

Yes, you may have borrowed from that 401(k) to help pay for our franchise fee (one of the most affordable available, by the way). But you’re going to want to retire some day; you need to save up.

While your employer may have had retirement plans to which you contributed, you can open up your own at many different banks, investment management companies, even insurance firms. The different types of retirement savings accounts include IRAs, SEP-IRAs and Solo 401(k)s. Compound interest is a marvelous thing and the sooner you get started saving for the days you won’t be working, the better!

You may be worried about losing “secure” benefits provided by your employer.

But working for someone else no longer is a sure bet – and the control is your own when you own a franchise such as Dryer Vent Wizard.

Contact us today to learn more about our dryer vent cleaning franchises.