The Prospect of Working From Home

You must have heard about it: some friend of yours, or a friend of a friend must be making good money working in the comfort of his own home.

Given today's rising gas prices, long commutes, office politics, and the need for some people to stay at home more, work-at-home jobs have never been more popular.

There are a lot of viable options for anyone looking to start a steady work-at-home career. Some of the jobs available out there: medical transcription, blogging, billing and coding, proofreading and editing, copy writing, graphics design, telemarketing, rebate processing and running a travel agency are just a few of the gigs available to you.

Many companies also have options for employees to telecommute- a way for traditionally-employed individuals to work from home. It's so much easier these days with broadband internet connections at home and computers that can easily network with the office from anywhere, and interface with anyone you need online.

According to Bureau of Labor Statistics (2005), about one-third of persons who usually worked at home were self-employed. Out of these 7 million individuals, some 4.5 million, or two-thirds, operate a home-based business, working an average of 25 hours per week at home.

Sure beats the eight-hour daily grind and commute.

While working from home sounds like a great idea, you still need a certain kind of discipline and work ethic to handle a steady work-at-home gig, even if you own your own company based at home.

True there are a lot of advantages to working at home: you own your time, you work when you feel like it, you save a lot on gas, dry cleaning and work attire, etc. But the bottom line is that, work is still work. And you only reap what you put in.

Check out our resources for work-at-home freelancers here.