Working From Home

I have been working from home for over five years now and this is what I can say… you have to be “cut” for it so it can work for you, meaning, you are fit for this kind of set-up. So how do you know if you are “cut” for it?Below are the primary characteristics, mindset, and attitude that you should have, for you to fit into this category of people who can succeed in working from home.SELF-MOTIVATEDWhether you are working for someone or you are self-employed, working from home requires a lot of self-motivation. Nobody is there to watch you. You look to your right and you see the kitchen… to your left is the T.V… and straight ahead is your bed.CREATIVEYou need to be creative in order to break the monotony of your day-to-day routine work at home. I mean, your home is where you eat, sleep, and relax. If you are there everyday you may just get burnt-out staying at home. This can be more challenging if you are working from your bedroom. You can really get sick of staying there.INDEPENDENT WORKERFor you to succeed in this venture, you should have a good track record of working independently. This means that you work very effectively with little or no supervision.FOCUSEDWorking from home can surely make you feel so at home, which can be distracting, more so if you have kids. You need to have the ability to keep focused despite all the distractions.DRIVEN AND PERSISTENTUnless you are working for someone, working from home can give you an erratic income. Some days can be better than the others. You have to be driven and persistent enough to continue working hard even if you don’t see any results.HIGH LEVEL OF COMMITMENTPersistence requires commitment. Focus requires commitment. You can’t start working from home and quit after a year. You have to stick to it, no matter what. You have to do all your planning before you even start instead of starting without too much plan and then quitting.ENJOYS BEING ALONEOne great thing about being in a work environment where you have co-workers is the interaction with other people that it offers. When you work from home, you are alone most of the time. This means that you have to be the type of person who enjoys solitude. Of course there are a lot of ways to be involved with other people such as meeting your clients and networking.ORGANIZED AND DISCIPLINEDYou need to be very organized to succeed in this venture, most especially with your time. Since you are just at home, you may feel like you have all the time in the world, which is why you have to follow a strict schedule for yourself.You need to be tough with yourself if you want to succeed in this endeavor. You need to set high goals, and stick to these goals. You need to be able to calculate how much work you need to do or render vis-à-vis how much you want to earn. If you are targeting $4000/month, then how does that translate to number of clients or projects? How and where do you get those clients or projects? How much work will it entail to even tap into those clients?In my case, I have to work on at least 16 Résumés a day to make approximately $4000/month. This is not possible, so if I want that monthly income then I have to think of other services (and I have a lot of other services) to offer that will give me a higher pay than the Résumé.The next question is “where do I get these clients”? This is where marketing and promotion comes. If telemarketing, for instance, is one of my marketing tools, I have to figure out how many calls a day can produce one client. Again, this will bring me back to being “organized”. Part of your daily or weekly schedule should be set aside just for marketing.So before you consider working from home, think about these characteristics that I’ve mentioned and then you will know if you are cut for it or not.