Sick And Tired Of Doing Work At Home The Old Way?
The Old Way to Work At Home
Direct sales and call center work used to be the way most moms worked from home. Those are still viable options, but they aren’t right for every situation. Maybe, like me, you can’t get out to do home parties on a regular basis. I have a child with autism whose schedule is packed with therapy, camp, and more. Our evening schedule is dedicated to relaxing from a busy day and preparing for the next. As a single mom, I can’t get away from the house for long without lots of help from a secondary cargiver.
Call center work is great for those who don’t want to leave home. But, this requires a quiet space to work. You can’t risk your toddlers barging into the room yelling at each other, or in my case, my daughter repeatedly asking for more food. They just can’t understand the need for mom to have a quiet environment.
The Work At Home Environment
If you look forward to the end of the work day when you can walk away from the office or the store, then you should think hard about working at home. When you work at home all day, you can’t escape from it. You also can’t escape from the household chores staring you in the face all day while you write or work online.
Know Your Computer & The Internet
I can’t think of anything work from home related that won’t require at least basic knowledge of the internet and your computer. Having or finding friends and mentors who can help out with the things you don’t know will be valuable.
Your computer is likely to get old, worn out and might be temperamental at times. Do you know how to make it work again? You better plan ahead to save enough to pay for upgrades when you them too.
A good solid internet connection is the only way you can do this type of work! If your internet goes down at home, do you have a backup plan?
Getting Stuff Done – or Being Organized
Some people work better at folling a list of “to-do” than others. Some people get satisfaction out of knowing they tackled a list of things to get done for their business daily. Some don’t. While you don’t have to enjoy it, it helps. Can you be honest about your strengths and weaknesses in this area? Can you create plans and stick to them, or do you need someone else to create a plan for you?ome people find great satisfaction in making a list and getting everything on it done. Others find staying on task difficult, and may get distracted easily with other interests and ideas. You don’t have to be naturally task-oriented to succeed at working from home; but you do need to be honest with yourself about your abilities in this regard and plan accordingly.
Motivation
Motivation comes in all forms. It’s easy to lose your motivation when you don’t see results quickly or when you expected to. So, doing your research and being willing to test things out is important when you work from home.
I’ve written at places like Squidoo.com and found that when traffic to my pages or the money was slow, it was very hard to stay motivated. But, writing at Bubblews.com has been easy and my motivation has been great because I can see results daily.
Which is important to you? Getting something done regardless of the outcome, or is the money an immediate need? What motivates you to be able to work at home?
Your current job might provide benefits that you just can’t get at home. Health Insurance? Paid Vacations? Those can be difficult if not impossible to get when you work from home.
Another thing many don’t consider is that their employers take care of paying taxes. Guess what? That is up to you when you work from home? Are you prepared to take care of it on your own or to hire a CPA?