Working From Home

I think it’s past time that I’ve shared an article about working from home. After all, that’s what I do and I write the articles for this blog so it only makes sense. First, I’ll give you a little back story.

Once upon a time, I worked a regular job outside of the home.I started out babysitting when I was in high school and I also got a job working at a mall kiosk over winter break one year too. When I graduated high school and I figured college could wait, (ummmm…) I got a job at Sears in their photo studio. Holy moly!! I hated that job. Working with people’s kids isn’t my cup of tea and trying to get two year olds to sit for a photo is near to impossible. I quit that job to work at GTE as a customer service rep. For you young people, GTE is now Verizon. I wasn’t very good at that job either. Trying to be understanding and polite while people were yelling at me because their phone was shut off because they didn’t pay it is beyond my abilities. I told quite a few people off, lol. While working at GTE, I became pregnant with my first daughter. That led to me becoming a stay at home mom for the next 12 years.

Fast forward to the age of online social networking…

Last year I was frittering around on Twitter when I saw a tweet for a paid internship. At first, I ignored it. I’m from the school of, “If it seems to good to be true, it usually is.” How many paid internships are offered let alone telecommuting ones? After I noticed the same tweet for the second or third time, I finally responded. This led to a Twitter conversation which led to me typing up my first resumé EVER, which led to a phone interview. I was told later that I beat out other applicants because of my knowledge of social media. Wow! After not working for 12 years, I didn’t figure I had any marketable skills but it turns out that I did!

Answering that too-good-to-be-true tweet was the beginning of something that has turned out to be pretty important to me:  Having my own business.

The Benefits

Where to begin? Working from home, especially if you’re doing so for your own business, is so rewarding. It’s also challenging but I’ll get to that later.

• Self Esteem.  First and foremost, it gives you a huge ego boost because you’re providing a needed service to somebody and you’re doing it all under your own supervision. You make your own hours and you’re responsible for completing tasks on time. This shows that you are a great manager with awesome organizational skills as well as a great employee.
• Money.  Next, while earning money, you’re saving money. You don’t have to pay outrageous dough at the gas pumps, you’re eating food that’s already in your house for lunch, and you don’t have to buy work clothes. Your pajamas could be your “Casual Friday” heheh. And the biggest savings:  Daycare. Unless you want to send your kid(s) off for the day, you can make your work schedule coincide with school hours, nap time, or bed time.
• Flexibility.  The flexibility with working from home is amazing. Of course, if you have a demanding client, then not so much, but for the most part, as long as you’re making deadlines, you can do the work all in one or two days or spread it out to a few hours a day. You can take lunch and other breaks when you want to and you can start and finish your day when you want.
• Think Outside of the box.  Also, you get to work in the comfort of your home and in the space that you have specifically set up for YOU. No drab cubicles. No windowless offices.

The Negatives

Working from home isn’t a fairytale. While it has its ups, it also has its downs. I would think that is so with any job.

• Distractions.  One negative aspect of working from home are the potential distractions. I have a dedicated office which is my finished room over my garage. Being over the garage, I hear very little noise from downstairs unless my kids are raising an absolute ruckus which happens. DISTRACTION!! I either have to obsess over not going downstairs to break things up or I have to stop what I’m doing to see what they’re up to. While I have a door on my office, it doesn’t stop the kids from coming upstairs to ask for something or to tattle on each other either. Aside from kids, you have friends, neighbors, and delivery people stopping by during the day as well as your phone ringing that’s a huge distraction as well.
• Guilt.  There’s also a guilt factor when working from home. You’re in your house even though you are earning a living and it can be hard to resist doing household chores or playing with your kids even though you have a deadline to meet. This is solved by finding a balance and making a schedule. The dirty laundry will be there at the end of your designated work day. Trust me.
• Money.  Finances are also another point to worry about when working from home. Your utilities will be a little higher with having someone home all day and you also have to pay for office equipment. You also have to remember that you’re responsible for paying your own taxes while maintaining your own books: Income, expenses, profit and loss.
• Insurance.  I’m very lucky in that my husband’s employer provides our family with adequate medical, dental, and eye care. This definitely isn’t so with everybody. In fact, this alone could be a deal breaker when it comes to working from home. This is one factor that you should consider very seriously if you’re thinking of starting your own work from home business.
• Credibility.  I hope that this isn’t an issue for everyone, but being taken seriously when you’re working from home can be an issue. When I told some of my family that I was officially a business with a license, they laughed. I wish I was kidding but I’m not. There’s a stigma that comes with working from home that is still being overcome. Some people will assume that “working from home” is code for “eating bon bons and watching soap operas”. I try not to let it get to me because I know that my clients appreciate what I do for them. I know that I bring home real paychecks from them. I know that I am good at what I do.
• The Learning Curve.  If you’re new to the work at home game, you have things to learn such as whether or not to establish yourself as a business, what tax forms you need to file, how to find clients, how to market yourself, the difference between a C Corporation, S Corporation, LLC, and Sole Proprietorship, and you also have to learn how to balance work and family just to name a few. Don’t expect to figure it all in a day but these are things you should research and plan for.

In my personal opinion and for my situation, the benefits outweigh the negatives. Then again, I’m not your typical work at home person. I was a business before I even realized it and health insurance isn’t something I have to consider. Still, I believe that if I can do it, then anybody can and they can be successful at it too. It just takes effort, gumption, and discipline.

If you’d like more information or advice about starting your own work at home business, please leave me a comment or check out my contact page for other ways to get a hold of me. Consulting with others is what I do and what I love and I would be more than happy to have a conversation with you!