Should You Work From Home
One of my main goals for this blog is to help others make a living online, just as I do. You’ll find tips to help you learn how to make a living online throughout this blog. However, before considering this type of career path, you should be able to answer one vital question first: Should you work from home?
Working from home isn’t for everyone, so first you need to consider your own personality traits and expectations. Now, I’m referring to realistic expectations. Realistic expectations will bring real income for real people.
Begin by considering three different expectations.
Work Expectations
The first involves work expectations. Working from home has many benefits but there is real work involved. In fact, working from home can often mean working longer hours than your ordinary forty-hour work week at the office. In addition, there’s no boss available to keep you on track. Okay, “no boss” is a good thing, but you have to rely upon your own work ethic to keep you productive. If you’re the slacker type, you may end up doing very little work at home and that means little to no chance of success.
Income Expectations
Now consider income expectations. I don’t deal with the typical work-from-home scam that promises you’ll be rich and jetting around in your private plane. No, I do work designed to create real incomes for real people.
Can you make a fortune? Sure, but you’ll be working towards making a living before making a fortune. When some people hear that, they wonder, “What’s the point, then”? The point is that you can earn a living from home. For those of us that are just completely fed up with waking to an obnoxious alarm clock, getting all dressed up, and going to a J-O-B every day of our lives, we would gladly trade all of that in order to make the same living from home.
Because I now work from home:
- I wake up when I want to
- I work when I want to
- I take breaks when I want to
- I run errands when I want to
- And most, importantly I nap when I want to. (Hey, a girl needs her nap).
Do I work a lot? Yes I do, but I do it when I want and not when I’m told.
One question I often see is this: “Will I immediately be able to make a living by working from home?” More than likely, the answer is a solid NO, not immediately. This isn’t the same as quitting your job, and getting a new one the next day. There won’t be an automatic paycheck waiting for you 2 weeks later.
I highly recommend that if you need your current employment income to survive, DO NOT QUIT. Try the whole ‘work from home’ thing part time for a while. You may only make enough money for a cup of coffee the first month. You need to understand that and be prepared for that. Of course, if you aren’t currently making any money, or the money you make is not needed to pay bills and survive, then by all means go ahead and try working from home as a full time job. But again, don’t expect much right away. This takes time; in fact, it may even take one full year or more before you can say you are making enough money to make a living from working online. A year? Am I kidding? No, I’m not kidding, and while a year might seem like an eternity, it really isn’t. If you knew you could quit your job, and a year from now, you’d never have to go through the monotonous office routine ever again, would you get all excited in anticipation of that time? Sure you would! Just because it might take a while is no reason to completely avoid the process.
I’ve been working from home for several years now. But before that, I worked office jobs for thirty years. Thirty years of ‘day in, day out’, slogging through the hassle of working in an office even when I was so sick I should have been in bed. The one year that it took to be able to replace all of that with the joy of working from home is nothing compared to those thirty years of office grind.
So now you’ve considered both the work expectations and the income expectations. What’s the third expectation you should consider?
Friends and Family Expectations
You need to be prepared for friends and family expectations. If you intend to work from home, be prepared for the onslaught of criticism you’re going to receive from friends and family. Although they may be well-meaning, these people will chip away at your self confidence as they attempt to dissuade you from what they believe will be a mistake. Of course, in some cases, they may be right. But if you truly believe that you can make a living from home, then you’ll need to have the willpower to resist the negative attacks that will likely come from your friends and family. Listen to their advice, acknowledge their good intentions, but understand that they aren’t the ones who have the drive and determination to make this work – you do!
If you can deal with all three of those realistic expectations: work, income, and friends and family, then you’re ready to take the first steps. You may want to begin by reading my How To Make A Living In Your Pajamas series or pick topics that interest you from my archives. And of course, if you’re ready for private, one-on-one coaching, consider hiring me as your eBusiness coach and consultant. You can get more information about how that works, at my site, www.eBuzzCoach.com.
Tags: eBusiness coach and consultant, work from home, working online
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8 Responses to “Should You Work From Home”
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An ebusiness coach, web developer, Internet Marketer, SEO, and all around web geek who makes her living from home doing all of the above.
Well said. Perhaps only those that been through the process of “working at home” can fully understand. Perhaps working from home is much more difficult then getting a job. There are lot more to handle in terms of psychologically and physically.
There is a lot to handle, but some people enjoy wearing lots of hats. Maybe it’s about control, LOL. In any case, as long as one understands the reality, one can face it head on.
HI Donna,
What a breath of fresh air this post is. It’s nice to have someone “keep it real” when it comes to making money online. Get rich quick promises all look like scams to me and I bet that most of them are.
I’ll be hanging out here for more of your real talk and tips.
Thanks!
@ileane
ileane, there are lots of scams, but even if you follow a legitimate guide, there’s still lots of reality involved and work to be done. Dream, dream big, and then work hard to make those dreams come true.
Reality! I love this post – thank you so much for taking the time to write it. We need more of this online in front of ‘newbie’s’ eyes, you know? Instead of all the icky hoopla!
Great post, Donna! I too work from home with my marketing blog.I think it is important to have some sort of schedule to follow to get everything done.The internet is full of distractions.
Hi Donna,
I am working my way to the goal of working from home on my own terms. I have not encountered the F&F critique as of yet, but I am sure I will when my dream becomes a reality and they are still slogging off to work every day.