Most of the time when people hear about work from home opportunities, they seem like the ideal job to have. You don’t have a boss, you don’t have a set schedule, you can get up when you want, come and go as you please, and the potential to make a lot of money is there. But working at home is not always as great as it seems at first glance. In this post I have pointed out some of the negative aspects of being a home worker so you can decide whether it suits you or not.
One of the biggest things to keep in mind before you quit your job and jump into a work at home opportunity is that your income is going to be very unpredictable and it will most likely take a while before you start earning enough money to live on. When you work for yourself, it can take months or even years to build your online home business (assuming that is what you are doing) to a level where it brings in a steady regular income that you can comfortably live on. You need to be prepared to put in a lot of time and effort, and do a lot of learning before you start seeing solid monetary returns with an online business.
If you are employed by somebody through a home based job, you are likely to find that there are times when you are frantically busy and the money is rolling in, and times when there is no work at all so you don’t have an income coming in. This is because many companies use their home workers as a source of casual labor when they have more than their permanent staff can handle. It is rare to find work from home jobs that offer a set number of hours every week and keep it that way. If you build up a good reputation for reliability and quality work, then you will probably find that after a while, you can pick and choose your jobs a little more. However, in the beginning you must be prepared to be flexible and do the work when it is there. Next week, the opportunity may be gone.
It is absolutely critical to be extremely self motivated when you work at home for yourself. This means making use of all the time that you have available to work in a way that will bring in money – not just sitting there checking your email all day, scrolling through social media, or surfing the internet. If you don’t have work one day, then you can spend that day looking for more work from home opportunities or building your online business. There are usually no bosses, co-workers, deadlines, or anything else making you get work done. You have to motivate yourself to do work and that can be very difficult, so don’t even try to become your own boss unless you are highly self-motivated.
It is also very important to avoid distractions when you are working at home because there are more of them than you might think. Set up a dedicated space in your house where nothing happens except your work if at all possible. A spare bedroom can often be a good place for a home office as long as you set it up as an office more than a bedroom. Friends and family members who know that you are working at home will often forget the “working” part and think that they can call you or drop by any time. They will also expect you to be free to have coffee, lunch, go out, or whatever. They can even be insulted when you explain that you have to work. They take it personally, not realizing that you actually have to get stuff done and there are already several other people wanting you to drop your work for them too. This needs to be handled sensitively if you want to keep your friends. It helps if you have regular times every day when you work, similar to a regular job, so that you can give them times when you are available.
It can be difficult to motivate yourself when you work at home. If you are alone with no other adults at home, it can also be very isolating, not having that contact with other people that you would get with a regular job. If you find that this is an issue for you, try something that involves at least speaking to people on the phone, like customer support or market research.
When you make money at home the work that you do can often be very boring and repetitive. You have to focus on your reasons for doing it and keep yourself motivated knowing you are creating a better future for you and your family. If you are realistic and are prepared to work hard then home business opportunities can be extremely rewarding in many ways.
So now you see that working from home is not all fun and games, and you aren’t going to make money right away, or at least not a lot of it. But it can be a great way to earn a living in the long run, so if you still think it’s something you are ready to do after reading this post then go for it!