At some time in your working career, you might be tempted to go it alone and work on your own steam. In recent years, with a deep recession, several people have decided to create their own niche, and many, especially women, have chosen to work from home in order to keep tabs with family obligations.
Be ruthless about how you spend your time. Make it clear to other family members and friends that just because you are spending more time at home, does not mean you have all the time in the world- Marika Azzopardi
Working from home may involve more than you had actually bargained for, and unless you are prepared to go that extra mile, it may not be quite what you expected it to be.
Here are some tips that might get you going in the right direction.
• Working from home does require some structure. Sure, you might not have to wear a uniform anymore, may not need to wake up at six every morning, does away with a good deal of daily commuting and allows you to enjoy more free time.
But you need to create some form of structure that keeps you organised enough to produce something regularly, if not each day. In some cases, as work picks up, you may find yourself working harder than ever before.
• You must be disciplined. Whether you choose to work as a service provider or as the producer of a finished product, you must have a timetable that allows you to keep your diary busy enough to pay the rent. If you decide to do take it easy today, you will have to wake up early tomorrow to compensate.
• Another very real danger is to get too involved in what is going on at home. Day after day you keep promising yourself to keep aside a couple of hours to dedicate to work, but each evening you find you spent the day being too busy doing other things. This is a sure-fire failure trap.
Be ruthless about how you spend your time. Make it clear to other family members and friends that just because you are spending more time at home, does not mean you have all the time in the world.
Your day is still 24 hours long, and unless you make sure you dedicate some of those hours to work, you will get no work done.
You may decide it’s best if you work during the early morning or during the late evening – it all depends on your personal rhythm and on your lifestyle. Test what works best for you and stick to that system.
• Do not assume that being your own boss will be easy. You have to issue invoices, issue receipts, go to the bank, purchase your own work-related requirements, control expenses, pay taxes, and keep tabs on the income. Clients may not be too willing to respect payment terms, so you may have to chase some of them sometimes.
• You have to learn something about creating your own PR strategy. Whether you go in for direct advertising through papers, magazines, radio or TV, or opt to use online methods such as your own website, Facebook or a blog, you will need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve.
Some self-sufficient people swear by word-of-mouth custom but this is only achieved by constant and consistent attention to the quality of service and to your clients’ satisfaction over time.
• Watch what the competition is doing. Keep your eyes open for new possibilities and be ready to come up with new ideas all the time. Fresh ideas are crucial to make your work successful, and spending a few hours a week brainstorming, creating mood boards and doing research online will go a long way towards keeping you abreast of new possibilities.
Be flexible in this regard, and if something in your original plan is not working, be prepared to change it accordingly.