Work from Home to Achieve the Ultimate Work-Life Balance
When you find out how you too can work from home you will never want to turn back.
When you work at a company outside of the home, the commute and time spent away is a factor that contributes to an imbalance of time management and personal satisfaction.
It’s hard to manage the duties of a job outside the home with the responsibilities you want to master and succeed at within the home.
When you merge the two effectively, adopting a work at home lifestyle, you get the best of both worlds – being your own boss and in charge of your personal life with more ease.
How the Work at Home Concept Has Evolved Over Time
Years ago, there were classified ads in magazines offering people the opportunity to work from home stuffing envelopes.
These announcements got a lot of attention because many
people loved the idea of working from home and making money.
The promise of quick and easy money seemed like a dream come true. But the ads weren’t true.
This was a scam designed to take advantage of people who wanted to be able to stay at home and yet still afford to pay their bills.
As time passed, work from home scams cropped up everywhere, so it made people skeptical.
They were afraid that if something sounded too good to be true, then it was. With scam work at home jobs, this is definitely true.
However, at the same time these scams were popping up, so were legitimate work from home opportunities.
These legitimate jobs could be the answer that you’re looking for and there are hundreds of jobs that you can do right from your own home.
The route that you take to create your work at home job depends on how you want to set it up.
If you have a job that you currently enjoy, you could approach your boss and ask if there’s an opportunity for you to telecommute.
If you’re new at the company, you might not be someone chosen to work from home if there’s yet to be a track record of what you’re capable of producing yet.
Many bosses worry that if they let an employ telecommute, the projects might not get finished on time.
They fear that there might be too many interruptions or that employees who worked at home might claim more hours of work time than they actually did.
There simply isn’t a lot of trust and because of that, it isn’t common for many businesses to offer work at home jobs.
If you’d like the chance to work at home, just be prepared to have good reasons why it benefits the company to allow you to do this.
Even if you’re a long term employee with a great work reputation who wants to telecommute, you’ll want to prepare a list of all the ways this could be advantageous for the company.
Use facts such as working at home gains a company more productivity, more work time, and often, less time off for illness. Knowing the facts could help sway your boss if he or she is on the fence about the idea.
The work at home concept has also evolved to the point that you don’t have to be someone’s employee in order to work at home. You can set this up by creating your own business.
It used to be that there was simply not an easy way to work from home - mainly because of the lack of swift communication. You had to call someone on the phone or physically go and meet with that person.
If that person wasn’t available, that could slow your progress and throw you off schedule. The lack of technology was the biggest problem years ago when it came to working at home.
It was difficult to discuss projects or issues that came up with each employee involved.
If something did happen or a quick-fix was needed after hours. There was often a struggle to reach the right person in a timely manner.
But now, with the Internet, the majority of the obstacles people face when wanting to work from home have been removed.
When a work at home employee or business needs to be reached, there are numerous contact methods.
It used to be that working at home meant that the person lacked credibility. It wasn’t a “real” job or “real” business.
But the beliefs surrounding working from home have changed along with the technology.
There are no longer any requirements for someone to work at home. You don’t have to have a certain education for most opportunities.
You also don’t have to be a certain age. You can be a teenager, a young adult, middle aged adult or senior citizen.
The work at home concept has evolved to the point that you now have the option of creating your own business. The type of business that you can create is limitless.
If you’d like to open an online store selling soaps or essential oils, then you have that chance.
Or, you can sell furniture or clothing. Whatever you enjoy doing, you can create a business around it. There are also numerous opportunities for people to create a business working as a service provider.
These are people who sometimes cater to a niche. For example, some service providers might be work from home as a virtual assistant for authors. Other virtual assistants might cater only to lawyers.
The type of tasks a virtual assistant handles will vary according to the type of client involved.
Many businesses and individuals want to hire service providers who work from home because delegating tasks outside of the business or their life saves them time as well as money.
A service provider can do tasks such as bookkeeping. An online bookkeeper can keep records of accounts receivable as well as items that need to be paid or followed up on.
Research or data service providing is a job that’s evolved over time.
It used to be that whenever a person or business needed information, they had to make a trip to the library.
The information was either in books or on microfiche. It took a lot of time to search this information by hand.
Now, a service provider can easily research online. Data service can be something as easy as creating graphs, PowerPoint presentations and more.
Service providers can be used to manage email accounts for a business or sole proprietor.
Studies have shown that responding to email messages is one of the biggest time drains that a lot of people face. This kind of provider can also fall under the category of customer service.
Online businesses often hire people to work at home answering after hours calls from customers or hire people to handle customer concerns during the day.
Many people who work from home use social media to find clients, to build their brand and more.
A social media manager is a work at home job that’s also changed over time. When social media first arrived on the scene, it didn’t have the power that it now has.
Because social media is constantly evolving and the access to information as well as to potential clients is so big, many companies hire outside the business to keep up with the demand.
If you’re someone who has a specialty, you can offer your services online, which can enable you to work from home. This might be something like counseling. There are many sites that offer online counseling services.
You could either become a remote employee or start your own online counseling business.
Life coaches can work from home. So can teachers. You can tutor online or work with an education company and hold virtual classrooms.
The work at home concept has evolved in the area of consulting. You can share your expertise with clients or hold webinars.
There are affiliate marketing work at home jobs you could start - or you could use your writing skills to start a blog.
If you like the idea of having a shop, you can start an e-commerce store and this store could house anything you’d like.
The thought of working at home might be something that you’ve always wanted to do and you’ve decided that now’s the right time.
You might have some questions about how to achieve this working at home life - especially if the concept is one that you’ve never tried. You might even be a little afraid of change because going into the office has been your normal for so long.
Change always creates uncertainty. Working from home is something that can benefit your life for the better once you make the decisions on how it’s going to be set up.
You’ll want to look at how you’re going to handle the day to day responsibilities.
You’ll have to decide how your work at home life is going to be handled so that it doesn’t interfere with other things you want to do. Setting this up at the start will prevent you from working all the time.
You’ll want to decide what success looks like to you and how you’re going to create that.
Something you’ll want to consider is how you’re going to create a balance between your work and your life in a way that’s going to be satisfying to you.
Working from Home Lets You Set Your Own Schedule
One of the many joys of working from home is that you get to set your own schedule.
Before you decide what that means for you, remember that your work is still work.
The attire and location might have changed, but the responsibilities and deadlines won’t.
You need to create a schedule, regardless of what it looks like because it’s one of the keys to success.
It’s also a crucial part of maintaining a work-life balance.
You want success but you don’t want to give up what’s important to you outside of work, either.
A key thing to remember is that you have a total of twenty-four hours. How you choose to arrange those twenty-four hours is up to you.
But during that time, how productive you are (or aren’t) will fall on your shoulders.
If you create the kind of schedule that works great for you, you’ll end up with a work day that you enjoy.
There are no 100% right or wrong ways to set up a schedule. Don’t try to get it perfect right from the start.
You might put something in place for a schedule and then decide that you don’t like it. No big deal, just change it.
You might end up changing your schedule a few times before you settle into one that feels right for you.
Keep in mind that everyone has what’s known as peak hours. These are the times that you feel the most alert. It’s also when you seem to get the most accomplished from your to-do list.
This is when you need to work on what’s the most imperative for your business.
Handle the most pressing project during this time rather than spending the time on non-essentials such as answering emails that aren’t top priority.
The good thing about being an entrepreneur is that you can set your schedule so that you work whenever you have the time.
That means that you can schedule what you need to get done and work as much as you’d like to work.
You can work all day if you want to. But the opposite is true as well. You can work as little as you want to.
It doesn’t matter which one you choose as your schedule. What does matter is that you make sure that you’ve arranged your schedule so that you’re working the hours you need to have enough income to be able to pay your bills.
That means you don’t have to leap out of bed in the morning and get straight to work.
You can put off working and just do it after you’ve put the kids to bed for the night.
This way, you can work without any demands on your time or the interruptions that always go hand in hand when you have children.
If you don’t want to, you don’t even have to work straight through. You can break up your schedule so that your time is accounted for only according to projects or tasks rather than hours.
There’s no need to work eight, six or less hours straight through if you don’t like to do it that way.
You can work on and off throughout the day. Being at home allows you to start a project in the morning, then put it aside until the evening.
Or, you can start it at night and complete it the next day. Working from home lets you create a flexible schedule.
You don’t have to check in with anyone to see if that’s okay. There’s no boss that you have to ask permission from.
That means that if you want to schedule a day off, that’s completely up to you. To make it easier to set your own schedule, there a few tips you might want to consider.
Getting into the right mindset can make it easier to accomplish work related tasks.
For that reason, you may want to create a mental division between work and home to keep that balance.
In order to do that, have a specific “going to work” area set aside that you use every time you get ready to work.
Having this lets your mind switch gears and focus. Plus, having a designated area can help to set boundaries if you have roommates, a spouse or kids.
When you go to your work station, it means that you’re not available and shouldn’t be disturbed.
You do want to create some kind of schedule because if you don’t, the day will get away from you.
Even if you decide that you’re only going to work two hours a day, create your schedule around that decision.
Decide the days of week that you’re going to work and the hours during those days.
Look at the entire week and decide what kind of overall hours you want. If you want to work a full forty hours, then draft a schedule based on that.
You can create your schedule based on income, too. If you need to make a certain amount and working more will bring that in, then determine your hours and days based on that.
Establish what’s allowed when you’re setting your own schedule. These boundaries are what will help you have a separation of work and home.
This is one of the biggest problems that comes from working at home.
It’s too easy for work to creep into home life and the next thing you know, you’ve let go of the defining line between the two.
This can have a negative impact on your relationships as well as your health.
So if you feel it works best for your life to work at night so that you can be there for your family and do the things you want to do, then arrange your schedule to fit that.
Don’t be afraid of creating a schedule that others might feel are weird times.
For example, if it’s best for you to work from midnight to three in the morning, then do that. You don’t owe anyone an explanation for your working hours.
When creating your schedule, think about the things you need to complete during the times you’ve chosen.
Write down everything you have to accomplish, then number those tasks according to order of importance. That way, when you work, you’ll know what you need to be focusing on.
There’s something that a lot of people forget to do when they’re making a schedule.
They forget to build in time off for lunch or breaks. Studies have shown that taking a short break actually improves productivity as well as focus.
So add these to your schedule. If you’re not a morning person, stop trying to force yourself to work during morning hours. It’s okay to not be ready to get to work by 9 a.m.
Many people do their best work later than that.
If you enjoy having a relaxed morning and don’t really find your most productive self until noon, then start your work day at noon. That’s up to you.
Another thing to consider when setting your own schedule is that you do have to either avoid the stuff that wastes your time, or you have to account for them.
You already know the biggest issue that derails a schedule and that’s social media.
One “quick second” to check what’s trending or to scroll through your timeline can turn into an hour later easily.
If you’re a social media junkie and you enjoy pausing to pop online to see what’s going on, you don’t have to change that.
Just add those times to your schedule and then get back to work when your time is up.
By scheduling your time wasters, you’ll be able to get everything done that you need to accomplish.
You also want to watch out for things that go wrong because something often does whether you work at the office or at home.
So give yourself a few minutes of slack time. If you know a project is going to take one hour to complete, don’t schedule one hour. Give yourself an hour and ten minutes.
Setting a work at home schedule sometimes gets overrun by the responsibilities of the home.
People sometimes find themselves interrupting work to keep up with the laundry, bathe the dog or a dozen other chores that come up.
When setting your schedule, remember that it’s okay to not do chores during the time you’ve set aside for work.
It’s also okay to involve family members. Just because you’re at home doesn’t mean that you’re suddenly available to run the errands or start doing all the chores around the house.
Let everyone pitch in to help so that you stay on track with your schedule.
Remember too that you can adjust your schedule as needed for the unexpected or when you just feel like taking some time off.
Eliminate the Stress of a Commute with a Work at Home Job
No one denies that commuting to work is extremely stressful. In fact, studies have shown that commuting is so stressful, it negatively affects both your emotional and physical health.
The longer the commute, the worse it is on the body. Commuting stress can cause issues for you such as weight gain.
People who have commutes have a tendency to try to find extra time to make sure they get to work on time.
So they either skip breakfast, which is linked to weight gain, or, they eat something on the go which can also add on the pounds.
When they get off work and face the same commuting issues, they might grab fast food to eat on the way home.
Or they get home and they’re too tired to make a healthy dish so they eat foods that aren’t that good for them. Commuting is linked to unhappiness because of the stress factor.
It’s also tied to sleep deprivation. In turn, this can lead to high blood pressure, digestive problems, and more.
If you work a job that requires you to be there 8 hours a day, your commuting time can easily add an additional 2 to 3 hours per day to your week, depending on how the traffic is and the related issues.
The stress of commuting is found in the events associated with the travel. The heavy amount of traffic causes you to feel stressed.
This stress can put in a bad mood. You can feel out of sorts or angry with the traffic.
This could be because of the sheer volume of traffic. One reason is because of the stop and go nature of commuting.
It might feel as if you inch forward at a snail’s pace and just when you think you’ve almost reached your turn, someone cuts you off.
That just makes your blood boil at the inconsiderate action. Worse is that when you have all that heavy traffic, someone’s bound to make a wrong move and the next thing you know, there’s an accident.
So then you’re dealing with trying to get over into another lane. Of course, the other drivers act like they can’t see you, so you end up stuck, unable to get out from behind the accident.
That can take anywhere from an extra half an hour to hours for the accident to get cleared so traffic can resume the same stop and go actions as before. The pressure within you mounts.
You get knots in your stomach and tension revs up in your neck and shoulders.
You feel this stress and agitation from traffic because it’s a huge waste of time. You’ve got somewhere to be and you just can’t get there.
When you’re stuck in traffic, it’s easy for your brain to turn to all the things that you could be doing.
This is the worst way to get your day going. Being able to do absolutely nothing but sit still.
And all of these commuting woes are in addition to the harried morning you’ve already had.
Most people are constantly pushing themselves in the morning. It’s like you get out of bed and your internal voice just starts telling you to go, go, go.
You rush around your house trying to get yourself ready to get out the door.
If you have children, you probably had to get them ready and hurry around taking care of the stuff associated with that.
If something happens, like someone is missing a book bag or the dog needs to go out, you feel the stress start rolling because you know you’re going to end up caught in the morning rush.
It’s no wonder that commuting is listed as something that negatively affect your health.
If the traffic was all that there was to deal with when it comes to commuting, that might not be all that bad.
But there’s more to it than just that. You also have the stress of dealing with car maintenance.
You have to take care of the car to make sure that your vehicle can get you where you need to go on your commute.
You have to make sure that you put gas in so that you have enough to get to work and back.
If you don’t, then you’ll either have to leave the house earlier to stop by the gas station, or you have to stop as soon as you get off work.
Besides the gas, you have to keep an eye on the tires. In the colder months, the tire pressure can drop so then you have to find an air pump to bring the tires back up to the safe level.
For people who don’t have an air pump at home, most gas stations charge anywhere from $1.50 or more to give you access to the pump.
If the pump won’t take your debit card, or dollar bills and you don’t have any quarters, you’re forced to fix that before you can address the tire issue.
If you get walk out of the house in the morning and there’s a flat, that’s an even bigger issue. Obviously, you have to fix that before you can start your commute.
Hopefully, the little donut tire will do the trick of getting you to and from.
But then you have to either to call someone on your way to work to take care of the tire or you have to take time at work to deal with it.
Being late to work because of car issues will just add to the pressure and stress you’re under.
Your blood pressure will go up. If anything goes wrong while the car is at home, that’s not nearly as bad as if something happens while you’re in the middle of traffic.
If you get a flat tire or the car breaks down during your commute, you have to get the vehicle into the safety zone.
But you might worry about that because cars have been hit while disabled on the side of the road.
Pollution is another stress associated with commuting. It’s not just the ear pollution from the noise that you’re faced with.
You also have to endure the exhaust fumes from other traffic and this can also negatively affect your health.
All these things can cause the stress to build up and you may reach a point where you start to wonder if there could be a better way.
There is. You can work from home and completely get rid of the stress of commuting. You’ll actually get rid of a lot of stress.
If you need to put gas in the car, you can do it whenever you want during the day.
If something goes wrong with the vehicle, it won’t prevent you from getting to work, which also means that it won’t affect your income like it would if you were commuting.
When you work from home, you avoid the hassle and stress of leaving the house.
That means that you don’t have to rush around every morning. No more leaping into the shower while you’re still half awake to face the prospect of being stuck in traffic.
No more listening to the commuter’s radio in the car beside you blaring music at an ear-splitting level.
No more exhaust fumes. No more irritable drivers. Instead, you get to start your morning with relaxation.
You can get out of bed when you want to get out of bed, not when a job tells you must in order to be on time.
For you, there won’t be any unreasonable demands on your time. You’ll do what you want when you want.
No more cutting short the night before because you have to get up early for work the next morning.
You can stay up later and spend more time with family or friends if you want to. When you work from home, you can get out of bed and take a nice, long hot shower if you want to.
You can stroll into your living room, kitchen or home office and get to work all within just a few minutes. There are no angry shouts, nothing to disturb the tranquility and relaxation of the start of your day.
If you don’t own a car, working from home means you don’t have to get one if you don’t want one.
Your job won’t be impacted if you don’t since you can walk to work by heading to wherever you’ve set up your station in your home.
You won’t be stuck paying for expensive car insurance premiums. No more trying to schedule oil changes.
You won’t have to check the tires or make sure there’s gas. Working from home completely eliminates this kind of stress.
Plus, it opens up a little more financial freedom. There won’t be any car maintenance but there also won’t be any hefty car payments. That means less financial stress, too.
If you only have one vehicle for yourself and your spouse, you’ll get rid of the stress of one of you trying to find a ride or of having to take a spouse to work, then get to your own work.
Your day can start with a quite cup of coffee. A few minutes spent enjoying your family.
You can go out for a walk and enjoy the beauty of nature. You can do whatever you want because you’re the boss.
Caring for Kids Is Easier as a Work at Home Parent
Becoming a work at home parent is something that a lot of people think they’d enjoy doing.
It offers a lot of freedom.
You get to choose your own attire for the day.
The schedule you work by is one that you’re in charge of.
If you want to take a day off in the middle of the week, then you can.
You can work in the morning or in the evening.
You can even work in the middle of the night if you choose to.
Most people are excited at the thought of all the perks that come along with working at home, but one thing makes them hesitate.
The thought that having kids at home while trying to work might be chaotic.
You might want to work at home, but you wonder if chaos is going to become your new normal if you do that. The answer is no. Not long term anyway.
Like any new endeavor, there’s always a learning curve as you lean into the changes that you’re making.
But the chaos does go away once you have a routine in place. When that happens, working at home can be everything good that you imagined and more.
Caring for kids is easier when you’re working from home when it comes to dealing with any problems that might crop up.
You’ll be right there with your child in case they get sick which is less stressful than getting called at work from your child’s school or daycare to come pick up your child. You won’t have to worry about missing work or having to catch up.
Because you’re at home, you’ll be able to keep on working. You might have to adjust your schedule to be there for your child, but you won’t have to clear it with a boss first. You can just do whatever you need to.
As a work at home parent, you’ll be able to free yourself from the many different kinds of stresses that go along with leaving the home to work. You won’t have to rush around before you leave the house to get to work.
You’ll get to spend time with your children and won’t have the pressure of keeping to a schedule that’s hard on your or your family. Instead, your days can turn into something that you enjoy and look forward to.
You could even explore homeschooling if you choose to. There are many associations and groups that offer support for this endeavor and many of them are made up of working parents.
The most important thing to do when you make the decision to work at home, is to be flexible, especially at the start of this change. Doing this will go a long way to helping you find and maintain a good work/life balance.
Build your own and start by creating a schedule based on the work that you need to get done.
You might need it to be quieter at your home during certain tasks so you could set up a schedule for those things for a time that’s before your children are up for the day or, for after they go to sleep.
Determine what your working hours are going to need to be. Next, decide what type of things you need to fit into those hours.
For example, if you have administrative type tasks like answering emails, it’ll be easier to do that even if your children are in the same room with you.
But the reason you want this schedule to be flexible, is that if you have an unexpected situation, or your child needs you, you’ll be able to rearrange as needed and won’t be under stress or pressure when you have to do so.
If your children are infants or toddlers, you can change your schedule based on when the kids take a nap. This is the time to schedule tasks that need quiet, such as phone calls.
For older children, you can create a quiet time for them. During the quiet time, teach your children to entertain themselves by doing an activity such as reading or coloring.
To protect your work life balance, make sure that you have a clear division between working and not.
This will help to keep you from splitting your focus when you’re trying to work as well as when you’re parenting.
You need a space that’s a designated work area even if it’s simply a corner in a room that’s shut off from the rest of the room by a divider of some kind.
When you work from home, you can count on being disturbed. It takes a little while for children to adjust to having their parent at home.
But you can teach them that there are times when you need them to be quiet.
What can help with that is following a routine as much as possible. That doesn’t mean that you have to work at the same time every day. It means you do the same thing every day.
For example, before you get to work, you spend some time with your children either reading them a story, having a conversation, or teaching them something then need to learn.
Even young children will get into a routine once it becomes a habit. Your routine can be filled with quiet times, meal routines and the like.
With young children, have them get dressed, or help them as needed, before you get to work.
This can be part of their routine that signals that it’s time for mom or dad to go to work. Sometimes, children are just not at the age where they can entertain themselves.
If that’s the case, have a special area where you can watch them while you do your easier work tasks.
You could create a special little work area for the child to “go to work” because little ones love to mimic mom or dad.
You can even create a list of “work tasks” for them. Kids love things like this.
When it comes to little children, getting a cup of water, a snack, or a favorite toy are things they commonly ask of parents. Plan ahead for this. Have the favorite toy within easy reach.
Prepare quick snacks and something for your child to drink that you can get to within seconds.
Give your older children things to do that sparks their curiosity and imagination.
You can do this by giving them activities to do that they can only do while you’re working. This makes your work time a fun thing for them. Take advantage of online learning.
There are so many courses that children of all ages can take. These are not just common courses that kids don’t really have a lot of interest in.
You can find free courses on everything from building stuff to photography to cooking to music, to art and more.
By finding learning resources that kids enjoy, they’ll look forward to spending their time on that while you work. Use both a structured and a non-structured routine for your kids.
You’ll be amazed at how long kids can entertain themselves when you build in a “your choice” option for them to pick from on the schedule.
Don’t work straight through for several hours. Not only is taking breaks a good idea for you, it’s a good idea for your children.
It gives both of you something to look forward. During your break times, you can go outside and play for a few minutes.
You can walk around the neighborhood, take the dog out for a walk, or play a quick game with the kids.
When it’s time to get back to work, you’ll both feel refreshed. It’s easier to care for kids when you work at home as long as you’re not expecting perfection.
Don’t put that burden on yourself and don’t give it to your children, either.
When they just can’t focus or you can’t focus and you working is the last thing either of you seem to be able to do, it’s okay to pause.
That’s part of the beauty of working at home. You also need to keep in mind that when you worked outside the home, there were times when your work demanded more of your focus or time.
The same situation will more than likely occur when you work from home, too. Plan for that by enlisting the help from a spouse or family member if you need to.
As you start to put your routine for working at home in place, pay attention to the actions you take that make the day seem to go well.
But also pay attention to what didn’t work for you. This information will be helpful for you to create a work at home lifestyle that’s best for you and your family members.
Engaging in Self Care Is Simple When You Work from Home
Rushing around in the morning to get ready to work is a normal start to the day in so many homes.
Rush to get a lunch packed for yourself if you take one.
Pack ones for the kids if that’s what you do.
Hurry to work once you get the kids off to school or settled at the daycare of babysitter’s house.
Then you get to the office and rush some more to get whatever’s on your plate that day finished.
Finally, you’re through. You’re mentally wiped out. It’s been a long day at the office and you can’t wait to get home.
Only now you’re stuck in traffic and it seems like it’s worse than ever.
You’re barely making progress forward. Because of how long the commute ends up taking you to get home, the relaxing bath you’d looked forward to just isn’t going to happen.
You have too many other things that you have to take care of. Thanks to being stuck in your car inching your way home, no longer have time for that bath.
Instead, when the day ends, you have to kick back in to rushing around mode to finish up for the night.
Then you go to bed and get up the next day still carrying the same stress from the day before because you didn’t get to soak in the bath and relax like you wanted to.
Unfortunately, that’s a common occurrence in the lives of so many people.
It’s not good for you to live that way. Not being able to practice self care is a leading contributor to stress and its related illnesses. Self care can erase the problems that stress does to your body.
It can also get rid of the fatigue you feel from being exhausted by always running to and from everywhere.
It’s not just stress that self care can help you eliminate. Taking care of yourself is essential to both short term and long term health.
When you practice self care, it helps you to relax, not get so uptight over stuff that happens, rejuvenate and it also enables you to focus better. That’s because self care is something that gives a boost to the way that you view yourself.
It helps you to feel more confident. It allows you to time to think and to process whatever is going on in your life. Self care isn’t something that you can do and then just forget it.
It’s something that you should do on a regular basis. Studies have shown that self care is something that can help you maintain a life balance and is imperative for you to be able to connect with what’s really going on with yourself.
Maybe you’re wishing that you could do this. Take care of yourself. You might be starting to think that you have to make some changes. You know that you can’t keep putting yourself last.
The good news is that you don’t have to. When you work at home, you won’t face the dilemma of having to choose between working and taking care of yourself.
If you want to take a long, relaxing bath, you can do that whenever you want.
Studies have shown that taking a bath relieves muscles aches and tension. But a bath isn’t your only good self care option when you work from home. There’s a lot that you can do.
In fact, you can take a break for self care in any way that you choose. It could be in the form of something you’ve always loved doing like a hobby or something you want to learn that makes you feel good.
Because your work schedule is one that you alone control, when you decide to take a break to take care of yourself, you can just do without watching the clock.
So if you want to break to do some spa activities, that’s within your ability.
You can use aromatherapy while you soak in the tub. You can lean back using a neck support and close your eyes while listening to music.
Or, you can take the time to use a facial mask or take the time to use a body scrub.
You can also do nothing but just sit in the bath and soak up the silence while you relax using bubble bath or scented oils.
You can surround yourself with your favorite candles. You can infuse your day with anything that makes you feel good.
This kind of self care will definitely make you feel pampered and relaxed and it’s one of the many perks that work at home people get to have whenever they want to.
Just the fact that you have the freedom to do so is what a lot of people find relaxing.
There’s no pressure to get the work done at a certain time. No one breathing down their neck.
It’s a lot easier to make yourself a priority when you have the time and the ability to arrange your activities according to when they work best for your life.
You can pencil in time for yourself in your schedule or you can be totally spontaneous too and practice self-care whenever you feel that it’s just what you need at the moment.
There are so many ways that you can practice great self care when you work from home.
Yoga is an example of one of these. You can enjoy yoga any time day or night.
You’ll be able to perform the poses in your living room or in the fresh air on your patio or back porch if you prefer that.
As your own boss, you determine where your self care yoga breaks take place. You can also decide how long or short these breaks are, too.
Whatever you do, when you practice self care it not only gives your body a break, but your mind as well.
You can choose to meditate if you want to. You can sign up for online classes to learn how to do the technique that most appeals to you. Or, you can use guided meditation CDs, or watch meditation videos.
Whatever works for you. There’s no rush to pick the perfect one because you can take the time to change your mind and do something else if you decide it’s not the right one for you.
By engaging in self care that you enjoy, you’re better able to focus when you do get back to whatever you’re working on. Not only that, but meditation is known to ease fears.
When you’re worried about something or experiencing anxiety, meditation can calm your thoughts.
It’s also known to lower blood pressure. Plus, it can help you to be able to sleep more soundly at night.
When you don’t work at home, though, the odds are good that you can’t just take the time out of a busy day to meditate whenever you need to.
There’s too much to do, plus, you may not even have a private area to practice that or any other form of self care.
After getting off work, you usually face the same no-time issue again. Because by the time that you get home, tired and dragging from the day, self care meditation is something that’ll get pushed aside.
You probably don’t even want to do anything but fall into bed because you’re too tired.
When you work from home, you don’t have to struggle to make time for the things that you consider are important to your personal satisfaction.
You won’t have to choose between what must get done and what you’d like to do. At home, self care can be a regular activity and it should be because you deserve that. You need to take care of yourself.
Self care can be practiced with yoga, meditation but it can also be done with an activity as simple as reading a book.
The act of reading is a relaxing activity and is known to also improve clarity of mind.
Or, you can do other types of self care activities like drawing or playing a game. You can use a hobby you love as a form of care.
Whatever type of self care you think you might enjoy isn’t just a possibility when you work from home.
It can be your reality as often as you want it to be. Many people who work from home turn to exercise as a form of self care.
This can be something like riding an exercise bike, taking a swim, or dancing.
If you’re wondering where you’d find the time to practice this if you decided to work from home, you can easily gain it because you won’t have to put up with those long commute times any more.
Just think of everything you stand to gain when you do that. Giving up an hour or two stuck in traffic will do wonders for both your mental and physical health.
You’ll Save Money
Working from Home
When you work from home, you’ll make more money because it saves you the amount of money you’d normally spend if you didn’t work from home.
The money you’ll save is a lot more than you may realize.
Not having to commute to work is one way that you’ll save money.
Some people travel a minimum of twenty minutes each way to get to work.
Most, however, travel half an hour or longer each way.
When you’re commuting, you’re spending money even if you don’t see that money leave your pocket every day. If you take a subway or a ride share or drive your own vehicle, it’s costing you.
To figure out how much money you can actually save on commuting costs by working at home, you need to multiply the number of days that you travel for work based on what it costs to operate your vehicle.
You can find the amount it costs to run a vehicle by searching for an online commuter calculator.
This will ask you to input information about your commute such as the number of miles you travel each way, and what you have to pay for the gas it costs you to go those miles.
Figured into the cost of commuting is also what you have to pay to park your vehicle if this is an expense that you have.
If you live in a state where you have to drive on a toll road, then you’ll have to add in that cost, too.
In addition to that, you’ll have to add in the expenses that you pay in order to keep your vehicle maintained.
Because of commuting, you’ll be putting more mileage on the car, you’ll have to get the oil changed more frequently.
You’ll also need more tire rotations and the like. These things don’t even include the wear and tear on your vehicle.
Other expenses you might not realize is due to your commute is your car insurance.
Your insurance company figures the insurance premiums on your car based on how many miles per day you travel.
The longer your commute, the more of an impact this has on what you’re going to end up paying.
When you work from home, you won’t have all those expenses. You’ll save on gas, wear and tear, tolls, parking, and premiums. The area of work clothes is another way that you’ll be able to save money by working at home.
Depending on the type of work that you do, you’ll have to spend a lot of money buying a nice wardrobe.
You may have to buy suits or corporate attire. These often require a separate way of cleaning them rather than taking care of them yourself.
So you’ll end up spending money on dry cleaning to take care of some of these outfits, which in turn adds the cost of more travel due to running that errand. It means that you’ll spend more gas and it’ll eat up more of your time.
Besides the expense of nice office attire, there’s also the cost of nice shoes to go with the outfits. You won’t have these issues when you’re working from home.
Because when your office is in your home, you get to be the boss and determine what you’ll wear to work.
Your office attire can be whatever you want it to be. You can dress up or down. You can work in jeans and a t-shirt or whatever you choose.
Even if you don’t spend a lot of money for work clothes, you’ll still save money on clothing by working at home.
There’s less wear and tear on the clothes, less need for dry cleaning, plus, you won’t need as many outfits. Eating out is another expense that you’ll save by working from home.
Studies have shown that people who work outside the home spend well over $100 a month just on coffee and snacks. That doesn’t include whatever you buy for your lunch meal.
You save money because you won’t be paying for the expensive coffees. You also won’t have the cost of buying a lunch out or even packing it if that’s what you’d normally do.
Instead of making sure you buy lunch suitable foods, you can eat cheaper at home by having a dish of what you had the previous night for dinner.
Plus, a long day at work combined with a draining commute can be enough to make even the most determined person skip making a meal at home and instead grabbing food out.
That cost also adds up. A lot of people who work outside the home have to spend money on child care. You save money by being able to have your children at home.
Even if you have to occasionally pay for someone to watch them if you have a meeting, you’ll still spend a lot less.
Studies found that in some states, the cost of child care can be more than $20,000 per year. This cost can be more depending on where you live and how many children are in child care.
If you want to figure out what you’ll save, multiply what you spend per week on this expense by the number of weeks in the year.
Don’t forget too to add in the mileage and amount you spend in gas traveling to drop the children off and pick them up.
You’ll save time by working from home. You won’t have the time drain of traveling back and forth to work.
You won’t have to spend the time you normally would preparing meals for work, stopping to buy coffee for work and more.
With the time that you’ll save, you’ll have more time to devote to your work at home.
Or, you’ll be able to use the time that you gain for the things that you really enjoy doing. You’ll be able to save money by eating at home.
You’ll save money by being able to do the things yourself that you normally have to hire other people to do.
Something that’s often overlooked when discussing how you’ll save money by working from home is health.
When you work outside the home, you have more stress. Depending on what kind of job you have and what type of office environment you’re in, that stress could be pretty significant.
By subjecting yourself to weekly stress, it impacts your health. Stress can lead to headaches, gastrointestinal issues, and insomnia.
A constant barrage of stress can impact your adrenal glands and lead to issues there.
Stress is known to cause anxiety, depression and can affect relationships. When you’re working at home, you won’t have to deal with that kind of stress. It’ll feel like the stress of the world just rolled off your shoulders.
Getting rid of the stress will go a long way toward helping ease the symptoms of a chronic condition, too. Because you’ll gain time, you’ll be able to practice better self care.
You’ll be able to eat better and exercise, which can cut down on weight gain and the problems that go along with an unhealthy lifestyle.
Having the time to take care of yourself means you’ll be spending less time at the doctor’s office.
You won’t be paying the costs of co-pays or whatever you have to pay because stress, or a lack of exercise or an unhealthy diet has made you ill.
You’ll save a lot of money because you’ll have time to address whatever is making a chronic condition worse.
When it comes time to deal with taxes, you’ll also save money. By working from home, you’ll be able to claim certain deductions that you can’t claim if you commuted to work.
For example, you don’t get to count the mileage to and from a regular job because this is not a deductible expense.
However, when you work from home and you have to travel to go to a meeting or have lunch with a client, you do get to count that expense.
If you have to use your vehicle a lot in the course of your work at home job, you could also deduct the depreciation.
You’ll be able to save money by deducting what you need to use in order to work from home. This could be things such as part of your internet bill, or your phone bill.
You can even deduct a portion of the cost of your electric bill and save money working from home.
If you have a space that’s dedicated solely as your home office, you get to claim a deduction for that on your taxes and save money as well.
When You Work from Home, Nutrition Is a Breeze
Good nutrition is the cornerstone for good health.
Yet, it’s something that a lot of people just don’t have the time for.
It’s not that they don’t want to eat right and have a healthy lifestyle.
It’s just that at the end of the day, all their other responsibilities have had to be a higher priority.
This happens often when you have a job.
Because of the commute you have to take to and from home, the amount of hours spent sometimes working late, you’re always running to try and catch up.
You feel caught up in a rat race but you have to stay in it because you have bills to pay. You have responsibilities that you can’t just shun. So you stay on the constant treadmill of working, rushing home, and not having time to prepare what you want.
That’s something that plays out in homes all across the world. Really, though, it’s not your fault. You wanting to have the time to fix good dinners shows your concern for yourself and for your family.
You believe that the right foods are key to good health but what you want to do, what you know is best for you and your family gets put on the back burner time and again.
The overwhelm is simply too much for you to overcome because you’re not super-human.
You can’t make good dinners when you simply don’t have enough hours in the day for your commitments. Something has to give and it usually comes down to giving up nutrition.
When time is something that you’re short on, you’ll develop different coping strategies for your family. It’s just what happens.
You’ll find that you get into a routine that becomes a habit because it’s your way of trying to deal with a cycle of what you don’t have time to change.
When there’s no time to make a good dinner, one of two things usually happens. One, you’ll end up skipping the dinner meal to have meals you scrounge together.
This means eating whatever you find in the pantry or refrigerator that you don’t have to cook.
Sometimes this ends up being a bowl of cereal. While it might fill you up, it doesn’t satisfy you nutritionally.
Plus, if you have a family or children, you might feel guilty that you don’t have the time to cook something.
Or two, you’ll grab dinner to bring home on the way from work, which of course, uses up even more of your time.
The amount of time you “save” by buying dinner out, you lose driving to the restaurant and waiting for it to be prepared.
The lack of time to make a good dinner is common. It happens on a regular basis at the end of a busy day.
The start of the day isn’t really any better for many of those who have to rush out the door to get to work.
Many of these people end up skipping breakfast because there’s not enough time to make something.
In fact, some people are so pressed for time that they have to choose between giving up some much needed sleep or eating breakfast.
When that happens, you can find yourself at work with your stomach growling, and you’re unable to concentrate.
Or, you get to work and immediately hit the vending machine for a pack of cookies and a soda.
It’s a sad cycle. You’re working to provide good food, but the time it costs you between work and commuting means everyone is eating less healthy. Skipping breakfast can have a negative impact on your health.
It can lead to weight gain, obesity and diabetes. That’s because when you don’t eat after you get up, your body has no fuel. The hunger pangs hit, which is a natural survival instinct.
This then drives you to eat whatever you can find. If you don’t hit the vending machine, your hungry will only grow and then find yourself making up for the food deficit at lunch by overeating.
All of this boils down to a lack of time. It can leave you feeling frustrated because while you can always make more money, you can’t create time.
A lack of time is often cited as the number one reason why people don’t have time to prepare lunch when they work in an office.
Your morning starts off fast-paced and you try to keep up. You hurry through showering and dressing and making sure you have what you need to get out the door.
If you have a family, you try to hurry them through what they need so that you can get out the door.
There’s no time for breakfast so you skip that. No time to prepare a lunch so you skip that. What you end up doing is buying lunch out.
So you grab whatever is closest to work so that you can get back to the grind.
You can’t afford to be late returning to your desk. If you don’t have any restaurants close to where you work, then it’s back to the vending machine.
You might have a lot of healthy food at home but you can’t seem to get around to fixing it in time to take it to work.
You could prepare it the night before but many foods wilt or turn a lot less appetizing even in airtight dishes. There’s always taking leftovers for lunch.
Except, you didn’t have time to make dinner the night before so there aren’t any leftovers.
This lack of a nutritionally lunch then leads you feel like you just can’t even to eat.
You might always feel hungry or you’re always snacking because you’re trying to compensate for that lack of food.
It’s bad enough if you can’t find the time to eat breakfast and there’s also no time to make anything to take with you for lunch.
But on top of all this, you have to contend with what many offices often have plenty of.
You’ll often be able to find an abundance of foods that aren’t good for you - foods that can easily pack on the pounds and offer nothing in way of nutritional value. Many offices have donuts in the break room.
Loaded with sugar, carbs and able to raise, then abruptly drop your glucose level, these treats are focus-busters.
Or there will be plates of cookies and if you’re like most people, no one eats one single cookie.
They take two or several. More than once throughout the day. Studies have shown that most office workers consume enough extra calories in a work week to equal 1,300 calories or more.
So there’s a good reason why your clothes may be starting to feel a little snug. Working from home can erase every single one of these issues that are hurting you nutritionally.
In fact, when you do work from home, eating right is one of the easiest things you’ll be able to do.
You’ll be able to get up and have a good breakfast, regardless of whatever’s on your schedule for the day.
You can take the time to sit and enjoy your food. If you want to cook something elaborate for breakfast, you have that option.
You can prepare oatmeal and fruit. You have time to make a fresh fruit smoothie.
If you want to make French toast, you’ll have time. Whatever you want, you’ll be able to make.
It’s the same for lunch.
No more seeking snacks as meals out the vending machine. Instead, you’ll be able to prepare nutritionally sound lunches. You can broil chicken and make a salad. You can have a lettuce wrap.
You could make sushi or have grilled fish. Your choices can be whatever you put on the menu and time won’t be something that holds you back.
In the evening, you won’t have to hit up the fast food place in order to be able to feed your family.
Instead, you’ll have the time to prepare a nice meal for yourself and your loved ones. You won’t have to scrounge around for something to eat and go to bed still feeling like you didn’t get to eat.
You can make your favorite meals for dinner. Or you’ll have enough time to try out new recipes.
You’ll be able to eat a leisurely dinner with your family and spend time with the ones that you love after a meal.
Your family will enjoy dinner again and you’ll be making meals that you can feel good about.
There’s No Income Ceiling with a Work at Home Career
Everyone knows that jobs come with an earning ceiling. When you hit that ceiling, you’re stuck. Nothing that you do will push past it. So you’re forced to stay at the same income level.
If you want to go higher or you need to earn more income, you’ll have to resign and hope to find a job that raises that income potential. But there is another option. You can create a work at home career and there’s never an upper limit.
The amount of money that you earn can grow each month, each quarter, each year. It’s all up to you. If you decide that you’re going to bring in more money, you just work more.
You won’t have to ask for overtime. You won’t have to check with a boss. You simply decide and then you implement it. Of course, working more is just one way to make whatever amount you want to earn from home.
Another way is to set your own price points. You no longer have to adhere to what someone else says is the value of your time and expertise. Instead, you get to decide the worth of what you do.
You can charge whatever it is that you want to charge for what you do. What to do in order to have no income ceiling is up to you. If you choose to, you can develop courses for others.
This could be something like creating courses for other entrepreneurs using your knowledge. There are so many ways that you can do this. You plan out the different modules featuring the information.
Or, you write up a step by step plan for others to implement and then you sell those plans. With the skills that you have, you can create a course that lets others have access to those skills.
For example, if you know how to do online ads for marketing, you can create a course where you’re showing other people what they need to know.
You could cover which keywords they need to use or how to optimize those ads so they get in front of the right audience.
Whatever is that you’ve successfully put to work in your own business, you can turn around and sell as a course to other people. It could be that you’d like to offer coaching.
Even if you have no previous experience in this area, it’s still something that you can do.
What you have to look at are the problems that you’ve had, that others have experienced when trying to work at home, create a business or whatever it is that you’re good at in your home based work.
You coach other people on how to find the answers that they’re looking for. That’s the basic foundation for any type of coaching whether it’s diet, fitness, personal growth or business related.
Once you see someone’s pain, frustration, or hopes or have them yourself that’s what you can create a coaching business around. You decide the niche that you’re going to coach in, then create the answer that offers results for others.
The good thing too about there being no income ceiling when it comes to working from home is that you don’t have to just stick to one business. You don’t have to choose what you think you’d like to do best.
Instead, you can have multiple businesses all running at the same time. Because many businesses have crossover aspects, it’s not difficult to have several going or even more if that’s what you’d prefer to do.
You can have a business where you have info product launches. You just see if there’s a market for your product.
One way to do that is by checking out where the potential audience hangs out.
If you want to launch a product that’s going to help new moms, but you haven’t yet narrowed down your idea, then you’d check out groups, blogs, forums, social media sites, etc. where these women hang out online.
You’d check magazines and e-zines to see what problems new moms are experiencing and what needs aren’t being met. Those unmet needs are problems that the audience wants solved.
Once you establish that there’s a need for your info product, then you’d set a deadline for your creation, implement ads directed at your specific audience that was aimed at whatever issue new moms are experiencing.
Another business branch that you can create is in the area of fiction writing.
There is no income ceiling with writing because it’s constantly evolving. You can write books that you self-publish.
These don’t have to be full length novels, either. Nearly every genre has novellas, which are shorter works that you can publish faster. You can also write serial fiction also known as installment writing.
This is fiction that can be shorter than novellas and are written much like a television series is.
There are also many different genres in the serial fiction market. Plus, you can have more than one type of serial selling at a time.
You could tap into the romance market, the science fiction one, young adult and more.
In these short books, you would have a main character or group of characters that expands the entire length of the series.
One of the key issues to keep in mind when creating serials is that you would need an overarching plot line.
The serials would all feed into that plot. Each serial would be an episode and you’d write it much like a television show episode is written.
Each of your installments would conclude an episode, further enrich or complicate the storyline and would leave an ending that hooked the reader so that they would continue on to the next episode.
Serials can then be placed in “seasons” and sold as a box set if desired. You earn money per individual serials that you publish as well as the season.
In addition to creating serial fiction, you could start a business involving affiliate income.
This is income that you get as part of a commission. The way that you earn it is by encouraging people to buy a product that you choose to promote.
You can promote multiple products at one time so that you diversify this income stream.
There are different places that you can find these products. You can find them on sites such as ClickBank, Amazon, and more.
You can promote both tangible products like televisions, computers, etc. or digital products such as information products, software, graphics, eBooks, etc.
If you want to offer a service such as a virtual assistant service, you can do that, too. You could have varied accounts under this category.
You might offer services to professional in different types of businesses that are creative such as helping with website issues.
Or, it might be technical. Your services could be something like handling correspondence, arranging schedules, assisting with product launches, or creating webinar material.
The type of work you do would depend on who your client is. When you work for yourself, you’ll never again have an income ceiling.
You won’t be limited by the days of the week or have to stay within a certain time frame in order to earn what you’d like to make.
There will be absolutely no limits and once you get set up and running, you’ll realize that.
As your own boss, you won’t have your income controlled by a supervisor, a boss, or a corporation.
So that means no more working for years and having to beg for a raise from a boss - one that no doubt that you deserve well before you even think about asking.
You can make the amount of money that you want to - the kind you’ve always dreamed about earning.
When you remove the income ceiling from your life, you’ll see a lot of great changes take place. You’ll be able to have more money to spend on the things that you and your family want in life.
That means money for a vacation or a trip. You can go anywhere and because you’re the boss, you can go when you want to go.
As the owner of a work at home business, you can let your family experience a lot of great adventures.
You can earn while you’re at home. While you’re out of the country.
You’ll be able to give your family the material things you’ve always wanted to but you’ll also be able to open up more time to spend with them and just enjoy life.
Merge Your Creativity and Commitments with a Work at Home Career
There’s work and then there’s what you really enjoy doing.
Many people have hobbies that they love.
They spend money to feed the hobby and as soon as the weekend rolls around, they jump into doing what they love because it’s fun for them.
It’s relaxing and they’d do it all day, every week if they could. You can.
There’s no need to believe that your hobby is something that just won’t pay the bills because it can.
In fact, that hobby that you love could make more money for you than working at your job will ever be able to.
You don’t have to be stuck. You don’t have to keep trudging into the office and giving your life away to a job that you only stay around for because of the paycheck. Most people are in a job where they feel that to leave would be foolish.
It’s the pay that keeps them feeling like they have to show up because they’re afraid not to.
Or, they continue to head to the office day in and day out because they feel some sort of obligation, like they made a choice and now they can’t go back.
This obligation stems from them pursuing the work right out of high school or college. So they think they have to stay there.
They believe that their life’s course is set. Or, they studied a certain degree in college and feel obligated to make use of it.
Then they graduated and they’re working in the job in the field they spent all that money to be able to get.
They end up feeling like they have to remain because otherwise they would have wasted those college years and that degree.
But don’t stay where you are if you have a hobby that you really love and believe it could enable you to earn the income that you need. You owe it to yourself to give your hobby a chance.
There are so many different hobbies that are great money makers. One of these hobbies is gardening. With this hobby, many people think of just selling the produce or flowers that someone can grow.
While it’s true that you can work from home to sell or promote the plants, seeds, and tools that are part of gardening, there are many more ways that you can earn a great income with gardening.
You can teach how-to classes on gardening through courses, webinars, or podcasts. You can create an eBook series about gardening. To earn good money on this hobby, you can create a blog that’s all about gardening.
You can write for other gardening sites and share success tips, or you can talk about products that you recommend.
You can create recipes involving the foods that you grow in your garden and share those on your blog or create a gardening recipe book.
If you’re able to take great photos, you can sell images of your plants growing or you can take step-by-step how-to photos and sell those online.
You can become a gardening consultant and advise people on what’s wrong with their garden or help them learn how they can turn their garden into an earning adventure.
If your hobby is painting, you can sell your images online. You can teach an online art workshop or license your paintings to be rented by businesses.
If you decide to teach painting online, you can also use links or promote digital or tangible products on your website.
Then you’ll get paid each time someone orders supplies from your links.
Or, you can create your own digital or tangible products centered around your hobby, then allow affiliates who can help promote your art as well as the resources you teach earn a commission.
When you license your artwork, you’ll get paid by others for use by either an agreed upon fee or by royalty payments. The license will say where, when and how your artwork can be used.
You can do the same thing if your hobby is any type of artwork. If you enjoy drawing, you can teach lessons online as well as sell products that are associated with the hobby.
Photography is another hobby that you can turn into a work at home career. As with painting, you can license your work.
You can also sell or promote photography related items on your own site or you can sell a license for use directly from your own site.
You can sell your images to stock photo sites as well as to businesses looking to brand with an image.
Your photography hobby can be turned into an income stream by selling the images to go on tangible products like T-shirts, journals, coffee mugs and more.
You might be someone who loves to bake and that’s the hobby you most enjoy. There’s great income potential in this area, too because the hobby covers so many different types of creating.
For example, you can specialize in baking and decorating cakes. You could then make videos teaching step-by-step decorating skills and sell these videos as part of a course.
You can bake products like cookies, or brownies or pies to sell or teach others how to bake them and turn their creations into profit.
You can review baking related products and get paid to promote certain products.
You can create a website devoted to baking, sell books featuring your own recipes and more.
Crafts are a huge money maker for work at home businesses and with so many different niches, you can bet that your hobby would help you earn money at home.
For example, if your hobby was making your own jewelry, you could sell your designs or teach others how to create beautiful pieces of jewelry and earn money from your teaching.
Some people enjoy making decorative or natural soap as a hobby. Not only could you see soap on your own website, on social media and online craft shops but you could sell to local businesses in your area as well.
If your creativity leans toward musical instruments, there’s a great market for making money on that hobby, too.
When you know how to play an instrument and you love doing that in your spare time, you can turn it into a business by showing other people how to play that instrument.
You can design sheet music and sell that online as well as in music stores or on online distribution platforms wherever books and eBooks are sold.
To earn even more money, you could then use your website to provide links to items that music lovers will need.
This could be guitar picks or guitar cases. If you loved playing the drums and that’s what you wanted to earn money doing, you can sell a how-to eBook. Plus, you could create online tutorials on video sharing sites.
You can promote associated products such as drumsticks, drumstick bags, drum books, and ear plugs.
You might be someone who only plays one instrument but that doesn’t mean that you have to focus your selling power just on that instrument.
You could focus on teaching lessons and sharing tutorials based on the instrument that you know but you can still sell other music related items.
Or, you could use your site to promote products for other musical items and earn a commission by doing that.
If you’re not sure of everything that you could sell, you can do an online search to find out what someone who plays various instruments might need. Sports are an excellent hobby that you can turn into a way to make money at home.
Any type of sport is high demand but especially golf. If you love to golf, you could start a business promoting golf items online to sites for sellers.
This could be things like golf clubs, golf balls, bags, golf tees or sports related clothing.
Or, you could create an e-commerce store and do the same yourself. You could teach golf online by hosting classes, writing a book about it or showing how-to videos and earning money from advertisers.
The hobby that you enjoy more than anything else might be gaming. There are many ways that you can earn money with this. You can beta test or review video games.
Create a website where you talk about the games and give them a score based on interest, difficulty of play and other factors.
On your website, you can share gaming news, or alert readers to any popular deals.
You can also promote resources such as games, consoles, headsets, keyboards, chairs, controllers and more so that whenever anyone uses the link to buy the product, you make money.
You can also get involved with streaming your gameplay. This is done through online video, but you have to give your audience a reason to tune in.
So you’d want to either have the skills, a funny personality or something that would give people a reason to keep watching.
Streaming gameplay can earn you an income based on ad revenue. The more people that tune in, the more money you’ll make.
Any hobby that you love can be turned into a career and you’ll get to spend your days doing what you love.
Getting Started with a Work at Home Career Doesn’t Cost You Anything
There are many people who dream of starting a work at home career.
They wish they could start it today, but one thing holds them back.
They’re afraid of the high cost of starting a business from home.
So they don’t make a move and instead remain right where they are dreaming of the someday of working from home.
Needing a lot of money to have a work at home career is one of the biggest myths that keeps people stuck.
Even if you decided that you absolutely must have a paid website, which you don’t to get started, the most you’d pay out of pocket for your site if you didn’t want a free one would be $15 or less and that includes your hosting and domain name purchase.
If you wanted to get involved with a franchise, then sure, you’d need quite a lot of money.
There are many franchises that charge a fee just to be part of their business. And this fee can be substantial.
It can range from a $10,000 investment up front to nearly half a million dollars.
All that depends on which franchise you’d like to start. Shelling out that kind of money up front just to be your own boss is a lot.
On top of the one time investment fee, which you don’t get back since it’s non-refundable, you’ll have to pay out other costs if you want to be part of a franchise.
Many of these franchises require steep ongoing fees.
This might be a certain percentage that’s written in the contract as a royalty fee or percentage of sales fee. Some of these franchises also require the owners to pay in profit sharing.
While this might be a reasonable request for using the company name, this profit sharing can sometimes be pre-taxed. So if you agree to a 50/50 split but it’s pre-tax, then you won’t see 50% of the earnings.
Plus, you’ll have to pay fees associated with setting up the franchise. In the end, you can expect to pay a lot more than you thought you would.
It’s the same thing if you’d like to open a brick and mortar business.
You can walk into an established location but that can be tricky.
Because location really is everything. If you rent a space that another store vacated, it could be because the location just wasn’t optimal for traffic.
If the people have trouble getting in and out of a place, they’re going to avoid it no matter how great your products or services are. When you start a brick and mortar business, you have all kinds of overhead.
There may be rent costs as well as insurance premiums. You may have to pay utilities and Internet services. If you have employees, you’ll have to pay for the cost of their salaries.
Any repairs that have to be done to the business might come out of your pocket if the building is one that you’re buying.
Something like a water pipe bursting or other emergency could put you out of business temporarily.
If you start a brick and mortar business, you’d be on the hook for the taxes, for the advertising costs and more.
All of these reasons are why most people shy away from starting an entrepreneurial career.
They automatically assume that the expenses are going to be just as high. But nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact, the total amount of money that you’ll have to pay upfront to get your online career off the ground is zero.
It probably sounds too good to be true but it’s not. There are plenty of platforms online that you can use to support your business right from the start and these won’t cost you a penny.
You can use free social networking to house your business. You can use these sites to spread the word about whatever kind of product your offering. Or you can use these sites to sell your digital information.
If you want to start a work at home career and you don’t want to spend any money up front, then create a space for your business by using Facebook.
Facebook is a powerful platform that has the potential to reach hundreds of thousands of people.
You can set up a Facebook business page. You can do this simply by signing into your regular Facebook account.
From there, you can set up a business page. Simply click on the word “Create” on your Facebook home page.
You’ll be given the choice to create a business or brand or to create a community or public figure page.
You’ll name your page, identify the category and then once you go through all the steps to complete setting it up, you’re reading to get started.
After your page is up, you’ll be able to share your business information, list your products or services for sale and more. You can engage with customers, share deals, talk about what’s coming up and more.
Of if you’re prefer, you can set your business up on Pinterest. If you think that Pinterest is for sharing images and basically used by women, you’d be wrong.
This social network is a powerhouse when it comes to helping businesses get seen.
Pinterest can be used to point users to your products. To use the site for your business, you just join following the instructions for setting up an account as a business.
Pinterest won’t let you use multiple accounts on one email so if you already have an email associated with a Pinterest account, then you’ll have to use a separate one.
However, you can have more than one business endeavor and still feature all of them on Pinterest.
Most of the people who use Pinterest are there to buy and that’s why you want your business featured on the platform.
You’ll be able to create boards for your business that shares information about your products, services and more.
The site allows you to engage with people, create rich networks and build your business.
YouTube is another free platform that you can use, and a lot of people have used it to create successful work at home careers. To get started, you have to create a channel if you don’t have one.
Since Google owns YouTube, you’ll probably have to sign in to your email to create a channel.
But once you create your channel and fill in your about section, you’re ready to get started uploading your videos.
You can upload these videos about anything you’d like associated with your business.
You can use them for product reviews, for explaining how something works, for introducing your business, as tutorials, etc.
Once you’re ready to upload your videos, you’re going to want to use keywords in both the description and title. These keywords help direct traffic to your videos.
For example, if you wanted to promote golf related stuff, then you’d have a title with the word golf in it.
The key to finding success using YouTube is to be consistent. The more content that you have, the greater your business reach.
Make sure too that you link your YouTube channel to any other social media platforms you have about your business.
If you’re looking to sell items, you can also use platforms like Etsy or Gumroad.
On Etsy, you can set up your shop for free, then you can sell whatever you’ve created, or you can resell crafts.
You’ll choose a name for your shop and then define what it’s about in your description. In this area, you want to share a little bit about yourself to help potential buyers feel like they know you.
Explain how you came to create the items that you enjoy making. Be relatable and friendly.
Also in your section, you’ll have to put how you handle the cost of delivering the product as well as what you’ll do in the event a customer isn’t happy with a purchase.
Some Etsy shop owners have a no return policy while others do allow it.
Take great photos for your listings, then use good keywords in your item titles and tags. This helps people be able to find your stuff when they’re shopping.
Besides Etsy, you can also use Gumroad. This is an online platform where you can have what you want to sell. You can use this site if you’re a musician, tutor, designer, writer, etc.
You’re allowed to sell digital products, physical products, a creative license, memberships and more.
When you create your account, you have the option of listing your item for immediate selling, have it wait as a pre-order or create your recurring memberships.
If you start a home based business selling coaching classes to help people learn a skill or to walk them through something you have knowledge of, then you could set up a recurring membership.
The site allows you to build your audience with the Follows feature. Setting up an account is pretty easy with their step by step guidance.
There are many things to consider when you’re going to go into business for yourself – especially if you’re working from home.
From separating work and personal life issues to managing your time wisely and keeping expenses low, there are many options you have to choose from.
One thing’s for sure, though – working from home will open your world up to many possibilities that you never could have dreamed would be available to you in the offline world.
Important!
Spending too much time at work could take away from your personal life and make you feel like you’re missing out on opportunities to do things you’ve always wanted to do.
Asking your employer for flexible hours could be a solution to your problem, as long as you get all of your work done and utilize your free time to accomplish your personal goals.
Continue to Research
A lot of times finding it difficult to work from home is the result of a lack of knowledge or understanding about how to be effective and organized while you work at home.
A bit of thought about the set up and equipment will give you tons of thoughtful ideas for how to work from home with ease and comfort to achieve the best possible balance in your life and work.
More Resources
Here are some interesting work from home resources and since you can buy online and get it delivered, that takes even more stress off you.
Buying your products online here on these links will usually save you on retail prices and may even include free shipping to your door sometimes.
Read the customer reviews here to save time and legwork when comparing products.
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