Are You Ready To Work From Home?

I constantly get asked what is it that I do to generate an income from home. Although there are several people that are simply curious, there’s also several that want to learn how they can do the same. I wholeheartedly believe that anyone can from work from home if they want it badly enough. Today’s post is not about how to land jobs or business advice. It’s determining if you are in fact ready to work from home. Before you being seeking opportunities or setting up shop, you should be asking yourself the following questions:

Why?

Why do you want to work from home? Perhaps you like the flexibility of being at home with your kids. Or you simply need to generate income, but don’t want to leave the home. For me, it was all about my family. We are a homeschooling family and my husband works long hours. I worked outside the home for many years, but after losing my job, I knew I couldn’t go back to the long 10-12 hour days I previously worked. My why IS my motivation. I want to help contribute towards my family’s finances, but I also want to be present for my kids. Figuring out why you want to work from home will give you the boost you need on the rough days and will push you to keep going. My advice is that you write it down and re-read it when you feel like giving up.

What?

The next question is simple, but you’ll be surprised how many people don’t have a clue about this one. What do you want to do? You know you want to work from home, but what do you enjoy doing? Better yet, what are you passionate about? I’ve met several moms that have done odd jobs from home to generate some income. They don’t necessarily enjoy what they’re doing, but they do it anyways. I find that eventually they just quit. Just like any outside the home job, you have to enjoy what it is that you’re doing. Otherwise you’ll be ready to quit before your efforts pay off. It’s better to take the time to land a job or create a business that you know you’ll look forward to each day. Working from home IS work, so don’t jump on the first thing that comes your way.

When?

This is the tricky one. When are you going to work? If you have older kids that go to school each day, this may not be as big of an issue since you can work when they’re not home. But if you have little ones or homeschool, you’ll need to get a bit more creative. Just to give you an idea, I wake up before my family does so that I can get a couple of hours of work done before the kids wake up. Once they’re up, I focus on them and getting their day going. During the day, I’ll answer an email here and there or get on my blog’s social media sites through my mobile phone. I typically do this when my toddler is napping. I get the bulk of my work done at night and on the weekends since this is when my husband is home. It’s not ideal and I do have to sacrifice family time, but it’s the season we’re currently in. If you don’t have this figured out, you’ll wind up frustrated. So come up with a work schedule and stick to it. You’ll be more productive and less likely to quit.

I truly believe that if you can easily answer these questions, then you are ready to pursue working from home. This is not meant to get you to overthink your decision to work from home. It’s simply to get you thinking about the logistics, so that you’re ready when your career or business take off. 🙂

Do you work from home? Or is it something you’ve considered? I would love to hear your work from home story!