As with any aspect in life, there are both pros and cons to working from home. On the plus side is the fact that you don’t have to commute to and from work every day; you don’t have to deal with careless drivers, frayed tempers and traffic snarls; you get to keep your own hours; and you can work without someone peering over your shoulder. But on the downside, you tend to get distracted more easily, people don’t often consider what you do as a real “job” because you’re at home the whole day, and your social skills start to take a backseat because you don’t get to interact with coworkers and colleagues. In general, working from home is an attractive option if you’re ready to learn three important lessons and avoid the following traps:
The “easy” trap
It may be run out of your home, but that does not mean that this business is going to be easy. When you start to believe that it’s going to be a breeze to manage your home business, you’re setting yourself up for failure. You don’t put in the necessary hard work to grow your business and make a success of it. And you begin to find excuses for everything that goes wrong because of your laziness and laidback attitude. Lesson number one – a home business takes much more dedication and effort than a regular business.
The “money” trap
If you’re working on the web, you’re going to be swamped with offers that promise to make you filthy rich in no time and with no effort. They make making money very easy and simple. All you need to do is send in some money, and you’re definitely going to rake in much more than you’ve dreamed of in a few short months, according to the spiels that bombard you through email and website promotional offers. If you want to work from home on the Internet and make a success of it, never ever pay money in exchange for job opportunities. Instead, visit legitimate sites that allow you to sell your services and which regulate payment through escrow accounts so that you have unbiased arbiters to deal with any conflict of interest. Lesson number two – you will make money working from home, but it will take a fair amount of time for you to establish yourself and make enough to quit your regular job.
The “time” trap
And finally, you may wake up every morning thinking you have the whole day ahead to get your work done. But if you don’t set designated hours for work and stick to them, you’re going to find that the day has gone by and you’ve not even done 10 percent of what was scheduled for the day. It’s very easy to get distracted when working from home, what with the television, the Internet, and family distracting you and demanding your time. Lesson number three – unless you set schedules and keep to them, you’re bound to fall behind on your work and miss deadlines when working from home.