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.

Online Freelancing: The Time Is Now

Here's an interesting post: Renzie Baluyut of The Life & Times of The Renzie Man, a blog on Wordpress, had this to say about working from home:

Seriously, give me a reason why you shouldn't be considering this.

The idea hit me just earlier this year. I was working for my third radio station in fifteen years. Let's just say that I had an epiphany of sorts: there was no way I was going to go beyond my current position- the company will squeeze me dry of my talent, ideas and creativity and, well let's face it- keep me in a continual state of dependency on them for income.

I will have to say that most companies in the Philippines are traditional set-ups: family businesses that really live off the labor of its underpaid and overworked employees. Rare is the company that actually nurtures its employees to be all they can be, encourages work-life balance, and sees every human resource as what they really are: people.

Given my experience, talent and passion, I genuinely feel that I could make it on my own. So in March of 2008, I decided to do what others considered unthinkable: quit my job and focus on working from home.

Forcing yourself on this kind of death-ground scenario can either make or break you. It's not easy. But I didn't go down this path without a plan or just on a whim. The internet and a reliable enough PC workstation, combined with a network of contacts and partners can provide a wealth of opportunities for anyone brave enough to be a work-at-home entrepreneur.

And look on the bright side: you don't waste all the time on a commute, which only means you have more time for yourself and the people important to you. Traveling less means less fuel consumption- and that's just a good thing with rising gas prices. Your only boss is yourself, which means only you can stress yourself out.

Most importantly for me, it's a good exercise in developing your independence and entrepreneurial spirit. No longer will you be a slave to any company, and you take ownership of your own destiny- so you become the architect of your own success.

Cheers, everyone.

Renzie is one of the many who have decided to get out of the rat race and spend more time freelancing online. Now, more than ever, working at home seems to be a very appealing prospect.

Don't you think it's about time you should do the same?

A Blogger's Insight on Making Money Online.

Here's an excerpt from a blog post we saw on Online Entrepreneurship. The author offers an insight on making money online, and has this to share:

It's not easy. There are literally thousands of posts, forums and blogs talking about the pros and cons of making money online, or more specifically, through your blogs. Most of them are all about personal experiences, but there are still many others trying to "persuade" you into signing up for a program you don't even need.

In fact, a lot of people out there are misguided into thinking that it's easy to make money through blogs. Just like any business venture, you have to seriously put time, effort and even money in developing blogs. But more importantly, if you don't have a passion for writing and a discipline for regularly coming up with quality content, then you're just wasting your time.

Online Entrepreneurship is not easy- there's no sure-fire way to success, no step-by-step formula to make lots of money. The truth is, you might even fail in a few efforts before tasting just the smallest bit of success. You have to treat it like you would any other business venture. There will be risks, there will be losses, but ultimately,there will be rewards.

You can read the rest of the post here. So there you have it- what can we learn from all this? Be wary of online scams. Don't be misled- online projects can definitely be worth your while, but you have to put in the time and effort just like any job. There are no shortcuts to success.