# Your Best Advice for Working-At-Home!



## moonrabbit (Apr 1, 2016)

Let's get this forum jumping! There are so many people that could benefit from working at home, so many people that are curious about it or trying to find a way to get started. Everyone that works from home has a unique perspective, it could be such a blessing to others to share our experiences.

What is your best advice for people that are just getting started?

What good advice did you get when you started out?

What did you wish you knew before you started?

What are the best things about working from home?

What are the most challenging things about working from home?

Reality vs expectations: what surprises did you have along the way? Is the reality of working from home different from what you expected going into it?

Let's keep it ad free and give our best advice as if we were talking to a good friend and showing them the ropes!


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## moonrabbit (Apr 1, 2016)

I'll get it started. I work online and have been working online for 9 years now.
When I started I was not particularly tech savvy.

My best advice is to start doing some freelance work BEFORE quitting your day job. It takes some time to start earning enough to support your family in my experience and I have friends that jumped in with both feet and it was very tough for them financially for at least the first year if not the first few years. So I'd suggest starting by looking at the money you make online as a supplemental type of income, not your main income source. Take that first year to get some experience and contacts, also use it to build your skills. You can learn how to do ANYTHING online, almost always for free. 

For me I started off doing customer service from home, answering phonecalls and emails. On the online job boards I saw that there were lots of good paying jobs for web designers so I started learning how to do that off youtube. That practice of seeing a skill that was in demand and then slowly learning it has been the key to growing my income over the years. I kept adding skills and increasing the amount of money I could earn.

I made the habit of dedicating an hour a day to adding new skills.

Here are some challenges I had along the way and how I overcame them:

1) I had the expectation that I would not need childcare if I worked from home, but with my smaller children that was a disaster. Getting part time childcare (in my home) was the right decision for us. Now that my youngest is 4 we are almost at the point where we could get by without our extra set of hands at home. I expect to not need childcare next year but it is very tough to work at home when you have little kids, just FYI. Another work-at-home mom said: working at home is like bringing your babies to your corporate office job, that's how people need to imagine it. And she was right! Imagine being on an important call and your baby wakes up early from his nap and starts screaming. Imagine sippy cups spilling on your laptop. Imagine babies pulling on the wires under your desk. Imagine sticky little hands on your business documents. That is reality.

2) Separation of work and home is tough when you work at home. Home creeps into your work time and work creeps into your home time. If your not careful it will all kind of melt together and you will be in a perpetual half working half living your life type of state. Having a separate work area helps, keeping set "office hours" helps. Unplugging at the end of the day helps. Teaching your family to respect your working time/space helps too.


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## Ellendra (Jul 31, 2013)

My best advice is to start with a reputable company that hires remote workers. There are hundreds of them. This will let you try it out without having to go freelance right away.

Second: Hold those companies to the same standards as a brick-and-mortar business. You should never have to pay a fee to get a job!

Third: if it involves the phone, make sure you have a quiet workspace. At one of my previous jobs, I had the unfortunate task of having to fire people who tried to work with the TV blaring and the kids being rambunctious.

Fourth: make sure you're really ok with being in the house all day. Some people aren't.

Fifth: it really is a JOB. Not a vacation with paydays. You will have to work with the same dedication as if you were going into the office. Keep that in mind.

(I've had several at-home jobs over the years, some my own businesses and others as an employee. My current job involves taking catalog orders over the phone for a major clothing company. They even provided the laptop to use!)


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## sisterpine (May 9, 2004)

Here is my .02 cents. In the beginning it was pretty exciting, I sold hand made items at the farmers market and then on ebay type places. The first few years paid pretty well I expect because I fell into a niche market. Doing the "making" of the product was kind of hard on my arms and I had to make changes after a few years and shifted into another market that turned out to be pretty saturated. Hence the money fell off some too. At this point a dozen years into things we are making a new web store to replace the old outdated ones. We are trying to drum up some new business and are therefore having to invest in professional photos for the site etc. Every thing costs money (our overhead) . Though ours is very low compared to many store sites it still is not free and to make money we must first pay this overhead every month.

What works good for me....being at home to get orders out the very next day.
Being able to make the product any time I want to without regard to sleeping family members as my shop is outside of the house on the same property.

Challenges...keeping pace with a fast moving customer base, all of whom seem to be very tech savvy. Staying motivated even when things are really slow. Thinking up new products and ways of marketing our products.

Would I do it again, knowing what I know now...not likely. Lots of work for little money at this point.


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## Raeven (Oct 11, 2011)

I work for myself in my own business from home and have done it exclusively now for the past 11 years. I've been in my business for 20 years but simultaneously worked another job for most of that time.

To work from home, you have to be deadline-driven and disciplined enough to put work ahead of all else when you must. I agree with *moonrabbit* that it's very important to separate your work life from your home life, else it all sort of blends together. For me, this isn't so much of a problem now that I'm on my own, because if I happen to find it hard to sleep at 2:00 a.m., I can get up and work if it suits me to do it at that time.

Mine is entirely a service business, so my priority is to provide the best service I possibly can to my clients. But I also keep strict business hours so my personal time remains personal.

If you say you're going to do something by a certain date or time, make sure you follow through to the letter or maybe even beat your time estimate a little. People will generally be thrilled to receive your product/service a little early, but they never forget if you are late.

No matter what, do the best work you've ever done with as much integrity as you have for every single client. It may take longer to grow your business, but the rewards are worth it. I haven't advertised for new work... ever. It's all word of mouth. And I have clients that have stuck with me for the entire 20 years I've been doing what I do.

I also agree with *Ellendra*, make sure your telephone presence is always professional, and make sure you're a 'stay-at-home' working type. It's not for everyone.


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## TheKingsTable (Jan 13, 2016)

Make a budget and figure out how many hours you will need to work to make enough money. I've tried a handful of work-from-home internet jobs. Some were worth it, but some paid $1 or less per hour. Do the math before you jump into it.



sisterpine said:


> Challenges...keeping pace with a fast moving customer base, all of whom seem to be very tech savvy.


Good point. I'd never thought of that one. With an online business, I imagine you'd have to be knowledge about the latest marketing strategies, payment methods, apps, etc.


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## katlupe (Nov 15, 2004)

This is my best advice for working at home. I work for myself and what has worked for me is to not give up. Things may not be going well for a few months, but just keep working and doing your best. Pretty soon things change. If you are selling products and have a customer base, give each customer excellent service. Mail their products out as soon as they are paid for. Send them an email to tell them it is on the way and to thank them for their order. Offer them a 30 day refund and offer to pay the shipping back if it is not what you claimed it to be. Go the little extra to get the return customer.

If you are selling products and worry about those refunds, set aside some money to cover any you get. I find that you don't really get that many, unless you are selling clothing. I try to put aside money from each sale for future refunds, if any. If there aren't, then I have saved some money. 

Work every day. Even if you can only work an hour. Activity every day is important if you are selling online because it is crucial to keeping your products in the search.


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## morninglory (Aug 7, 2003)

I am searching for legitimate work on the computer from home. So far all I am finding are ones you have to pay. I have had lots of customer service experience in my lifetime but none working from home. Are there really sites out there where you send a resume and get a job?


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## Ellendra (Jul 31, 2013)

morninglory said:


> I am searching for legitimate work on the computer from home. So far all I am finding are ones you have to pay. I have had lots of customer service experience in my lifetime but none working from home. Are there really sites out there where you send a resume and get a job?


Yes, there are.

The one I started with was Alpine Access. They were bought out by another company, but they still hire people to work from home: http://www.sykes.com/unitedstates/

There's a move by fast food companies to hire at-home workers to take orders, you can find their ads on indeed.com, just type "remote" for the location. That will give you a list of thousands of openings, and you can narrow it down from there.

Another place to look would be catalog companies. Most of them are slowly moving toward home agents. Check the websites of your favorite catalogs.


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