I work at home

[cvsage]

It isn't easy but there's lots of advice on the internet, here for example
http://www.ki-work.com/.

Just try to avoid get rich quick schemes because there really is no easy money to be had.

I'll be happy to answer any questions from people taking the plunge, thinking of franchises or considering courses to help them run a business.

[Dioritt]

Since taking the plunge and becoming a freelancer, I could never go back to full-time employment.

I love the freedom freelancing offers. I can work when I want and from wherever I want. As long as I have an internet connection, I can just as easily work from an apartment in Tenerife as from my home in England.

The one thing I would say to anybody considering working from home is that you have to be structured in your approach to work. It's all too easy to put things off until tomorrow only to find a deadline looming and the work not even started. But if you truly believe you have enough self discipline then I'd recommend home-working to anybody.

Just don't expect things to happen overnight. As with any business, a home business takes time to builld up and you'll probably need to keep the day-job for a while. Keep at it and if you really want it to happen, it will

~Sharon

[7days]

Working from home is terrific. I have been doing this for around three years or more now and simply love it and won't go back to working outside the home. But of course I used to make a great deal more when I was getting a salary, benefits, insurance, and had people that I could actually see in person at a job. This internet and doing free lance and being an independent contractor can be great for many of us. I do agree with what was said above with having to be structured. You need to work so many more hours and work SMART plus work until you about drop. You need to have already lots of years of experience in whatever field you are in to do this, as you need to keep motivating yourself to do the work. There isn't anyone but you making you work. You need to be organized and get jobs done by deadlines (if there are deadlines).

[Camilla]

Well none of the poll options were suitable for me as my answer would have been

- It simply doesn't appeal to me

Whoever put the poll up obviously feels that most people would want to work from home but that those who don't are in employment because they don't dare to risk leaving their regular job. That isn't the case with all of us, though. Probably not even the majority.

I love my job and can't imagine doing anything else.

I know I just wouldn't be suited to working from home. That isn't to say I couldn't run my own business, but I'd definitely have to have an office that I went to every day.

I don't believe in mixing business with pleasure and the way I see it, working from home is doing just that. When you're at home you're at work and vice versa.

How do you 'work at home' people cope with this? How do you switch off to relax knowing that there's something waiting to be done that you could just as easily do now as tomorrow morning? I couldn't do that. I'd be working far too much, I'm sure.

Camilla

[TINA]

Well I agree, the poll has some missing answer - we need whomever started this poll to ADD another one to vote on for those of us that are fortunate enough to be ALREADY working from home.

Working from/at home requires practically 24 hrs a day. Sometimes you grab food to eat, but I don't count that as you eat at your computer. Sometimes you get some sleep and get away from your computer or your at-home business, just enough hours to wake up and rush over to your computer at home. You don't have to worry about being late for work, are are early. There is no set time to start. You don't have to worry about working overtime, as there is no time to stop work.

I used to work outside the home and loved that as well. But I am unable to do that right now and so I had to do internet marketing and other internet things to learn how to work from home. Finally, something I could do typing from home thanks to the internet. I wouldn't change it for the world. Although I do miss benefits of being employed by someone else such as then you get insurance and vacation. There is no time off and no vacation when you work for yourself. You are constantly thinking of your business. Your business drives you to work. You don't need a car to get to work, your business drives you there. You can work in your pajamas or you can dress up professionally as you have all these clothes you used to wear at work.

Even being between jobs can be a big job. Then the person has a job trying to find a job.

[Dioritt]

I disagree with what Tina wrote about there being no time off or no time for yourself when you work from home.

I honestly think that this is down to personal attitude. Some people are able to close the door behind them and switch off while others aren't. Sure, sometimes, when I know I have an important deadline looming or am worried that I won't find enough work to keep me going next month, I find it difficult to switch off but that was exactly the same when I was employed. I'd still sit at home thinking about the pile of papers on my desk that I'd need to deal with in the morning and worrying about whether or not I'd be able to meet my deadlines.

Obviously, when you're self employed, you don't get paid holidays but in general, you have so much more freedom that one weighs up the other. The perfect situation doesn't exist so it's up to the individual to decide what they want most from life. Personally, I much prefer the flexibility I have now to getting a few weeks paid leave every year. If I budget properly and set aside a certain amount every week to cover my loss on income during holidays, then they're still paid, just as much as if I'd been employed.

Sick pay is a problem and without insurance, if you're long term sick then your business is probably doomed. Insurance isn't cheap, especially if you already have a condition that means you could need hospitalisation (and it's due to disabilities etc that many decide to start working from home) and most of us, unless we're doing really well, can't afford it. I know I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I don't have to spend several months in hospital!!

Like everything else, working from home on a self-employed basis has its good and bad points. For me, the good points far outweigh the bad, and even though it's not possible for me to go back to being employed (because of a disability) I wouldn't want to anyway.

~Sharon

[tomei]

Working at home is the way to go nowadays. With the economy the way it is you simply cannot afford to think that your JOB is secure.

-Anthony Tomei

[Camilla]

But then neither is freelance work, so I don't think it really makes much difference either way.

Camilla

[7days]

Job Security, that's something I USED to say when I had a ton of work to do and everyone was saying what a wonderful job I was doing, and how they couldn't live without me, etc., but then they found they could learn to live without me when there wasn't a lot of work to do. Anyone can be replaced, that is so true no matter who you are. No job is truly secure. Even if you own your own business, you could still lose some of your customers or clients. You could still have situations arise that would be out of your control.

Free Lance work isn't that great. Yeah, you can stay home, work your own hours (you mean when you are told to work, or you mean when the work is available). You can set your own pay and you can pay yourself whatever you want to. (Sure that's if all the bills are paid for first). You get paid what people are willing to pay. Sure you could raise your prices, but then worry about losing business or the consequences of same.

Free Lance work tends to be fought after just the same as any real job in real off line is fought after. And the pay isn't that great either.

[Camilla]

...And the pay isn't that great either.

Surely that's generalising a little too much, isn't it? Doesn't how much you can earn as a freelancer depend on what kind of work you do?

I'm quite certain a freelance photographer earns more than a freelance hairdresser.

Having said that (and made my point, I believe), I will agree that no job is truly secure anymore - if it every has been! The economical climate changes and the employment situation changes with it. Just look how much has changes since computers made their way into offices. Lots of jobs disappeared and lots of new ones popped up. People needed re-training. Some were too old.

Life will always be like that. Nothing should ever be taken for granted.


~Camilla

I want to go out to work again propery when the kids are bigger but now its best for me to stay at home with them. I do ironing and that gives us some extra money so we manage but cant afford holidays and things.

I know jobs are not secure now and my husband can lose his job as well and then I dont know what we would do. Cant both do ironong LOL

Tnx
Lucy

[7days]

A person can have plenty of time for themselves and yes, they can make the time to go here and there. It's just that any time that you take off away from your home-based, self-contractor type position means you are not earning a penny. You only earn when you have the work available and you only earn when you are indeed working.

Holidays - yes you can take as many holidays off as you want when you are self-employed. Just that you do not get paid for them. You certainly may take as much time off for sick time as well as holidays, birthdays, weddings, whatever. Just that no one is there to do the work when you are away, no one is there to get your customer's work done or to keep your customers happy. Unless of course you are making money and have some machine or robot work when you are away. Or unless of course you have a secretary to do the work while you go play golf. And that isn't even funny.

Yeah, us self-employed, self-contractors, freelance people surely do have lots of freedom to come and go as we please, and whenever we decide to, but when the work is there and someone wants the job done, then WE have to do it as there is no one to back us up. If WE do not do it, then it may not be done RIGHT! WE have to do it as it is OUR business! WE have to do it, as no one else will!

Sick pay is a problem and without insurance, (someone mentioned this above)...

What insurance? No need to worry about going to the hospital, as most hospitals won't see you unless you have income, job, and insurance.
If your doctor or hospital bills get too big and you have no insurance, no disability, no job, no unemployment, and not much income at all, well then you won't have to worry about having any stays at the hospital as they won't see you without your having a "HEALTH INSURANCE CARD." What does the hospital say when you go for an X-ray or anything, something like, May I see your health insurance card. Where do you work? Who is your employer? WELL they don't like someone that says "NOT EMPLOYED" or "I work on the internet" or "SELF EMPLOYED."

Of course, that's only in the USA. If you are from Canada or Germany, then you are fine as those governments have some health care plan and they cover everything and everything as far as I have heard as far as medical care, hospital care, doctor visits, and prescriptions. But of course those countries do cost a lot to live in, and there are always other views on this matter, as each country has good and bad in them.

if you're long term sick then your business is probably doomed.

No, your business isn't doomed as you have to do the business whether you are sick or not as otherwise it doesn't get done, and you have no money to go buy food. I pity those that don't have a house that's paid for or someone else to help them with the bills, as they'll be sitting in some camp ground with their car and no place to live. I know someone that has been self employed, at home now, for 20 years. He never gets sick, he can't. He never takes a day off, he can't. (He does take holidays and Sundays off though because he decides to do so). He hasn't been to the doctor or hospital for about 30 years, no time for that when you are self employed.

Insurance isn't cheap, especially if you already have a condition that means you could need hospitalisation (and it's due to disabilities etc that many decide to start working from home)

Yes, most of the people I have talked to on the internet are having some sort of disabilities or health issues, or for some reason or the other, they are not able to work outside the home. So they do whatever they can do to find a job on the internet. Thus this has created such a large work force for internet workers.

If I wasn't sick, I'd still be working and it sure as heck wouldn't be working at home. If I didn't get sick, I wouldn't have lost my big shot high paying position. And I wouldn't have lost all my big shot benefits such as sick time and vacation time.

But of course if that didn't happen, then I wouldn't have had the many blessings of working on the internet every day for the last three or so years and meeting all the wonderful people that I have "met" online, and finding all the scam sites I found, and fighting all the scam sites I found. And I of course wouldn't have found internet auctions, wouldn't have found internet forums, etc.

Anyone that reads this that STILL has a job, STAY THERE AND DO NOT START YOUR OWN BUSINESS!!

DO NOT go think you can start an at-home business and make money at it! UNLESS you are truly skilled and really motivated, and real lucky, and have made plenty of plans ahead of time. STAY AT YOUR JOB, and I do not care how bad it is, and I do not care how much you hate it. STAY there anyways!! (Until you find another job).

DO NOT go think you can start an at-home business and make money at it! UNLESS you are truly skilled and really motivated, and real lucky, and have made plenty of plans ahead of time. STAY AT YOUR JOB, and I do not care how bad it is, and I do not care how much you hate it. STAY there anyways!! (Until you find another job).

What an absolute barrel of tosh!

Fancy telling people to stay in jobs they hate rather than tryng do something they believe in! What kind of advice is that?

You're generalising far too much and dangerously advising people through nothing other than your own, obviously bad, experience.

I run my own business from home and make a better living than a lot of my friends who are employed. Last year my personal income was slightly less than £45,000 - a decent income by most people's standards.

If you haven't been able to make a go of a home-based business that certainly doesn't mean others won't be able to.

Rita Edwards

[cameronpowell]

One of the main challenges facing anyone who works from home is work-life balance. I know; I have worked from home for several years, and the temptation to work too much is ever-present.

It's not just the fact that you are living near your work materials, such as your computer, emails, files, and so forth, and therefore, like a shopper making an impulse buy, it's very easy to do work outside of work hours.

No, I suspect that there's something else involved. People who work from home and do not own their company or have a significant stake in its outcome (such as significant profit-sharing) probably have less temptation to do work when they ought to be recovering and recreating.

It's the people who work from home AND own their own business -- who feel an ever-present sense of responsibility to themselves and even an anxiety to bring in more money -- who struggle most with balancing work and life.

Because the twin dangers are both present: the urge to work that stems from primal anxieties about money and security, and the convenient means to satisfy that urge because the work can be done right now.

So the structure required of a work-at-home worker must include enforced periods of rest, recreation, socialization, and exercise.

You've got to put it in your calendar. If it's not in the calendar, it won't get done. And then you've got to commit to following what's in your calendar, because putting something in it is only part of the battle.

[Camilla]

... You've got to put it in your calendar. If it's not in the calendar, it won't get done. And then you've got to commit to following what's in your calendar, because putting something in it is only part of the battle.

Well said, Cameron.

Although I don't work at home, I can understand the point you're making about not taking time out. I have a managerial position and often take work home with me, which in some respects is very similar to a person running a business from home and working more than their 8 hours a day. I sometimes work until 11pm and at weekends when we're recruiting! But then I take a holiday, which is nice

~Camilla