Starting your own home based business is exciting, but like any business, it has its ups and downs.
After working at home for about ten years, I’m fairly certain that I have come up with enough information to help you make an educated decision on whether working from home is right for you.
I also have some suggestions that may make your life working from home more enjoyable. In fact, my number one suggestion is NOT to work from home. More on that later.
Motivation
When working from home, make sure that you really enjoy the job you’re doing. If you’re an affiliate marketing agent, then make sure you’re promoting products that you actually like. If not, then you may get bored and lack the motivation required to be persistent. When you like the product you’re selling, then you’re often more interested in pushing your project to the next level. No interest = no motivation = no sales.
If you don’t care for the product you’re marketing, but the conversion rates are super high, and you really enjoy sales, then that’s ok too. You know darn well that checking your stats and seeing a high sales rate is extremely enjoyable, which offers as much motivational support as your genuine interest does.
Location and Setup
If you’re working at home, then have a premium setup. Don’t cramp yourself in a little tiny room just because that room is designated as “your office.” Forget that. You want to be comfortable. Put your desk in your living room, near a TV, so you can enjoy the best of both worlds. If you’re cramped in a small space all day, you will probably go nuts. I’ve placed my desk on the side of my living room, it’s not intrusive at all, and doesn’t look bad to guests, and I spend many days working while sports, tv shows, or movies play in the background. I don’t feel cramped, and I don’t feel like I’m stuck in a room with nothing but me and a PC.
My other suggestion is to NOT work at home. Can you share an office with someone? Is there anyone in your area who does affiliate marketing or runs a computer based home business? If so, then rent cheap office space with them. It will feel like you’re actually going to work and put you in the working mode. This is a good idea for people who can’t be around distractions at home. Then again, I would have the same setup in a shared office space.
Office space is also a great idea because you get to have physical interaction with real people. Now you can actually talk to a person IN PERSON. One thing I disliked about working from home was that there was no real interpersonal interaction with other people. It was me talking to clients all day via chat modules. Not that exciting! You can’t do many office pranks or host an office based fantasy football league with a cat at home…just saying.
Office space with like minded people is a great idea.
Scheduling
If you don’t have office space, then you may feel like I did when I focused strictly on working at home – I felt that when my workday was over that it was time to go out and do something. Although, not everyone was up for a night out during the week. They still had to get up early and be somewhere, whereas I could wake up and work whenever since I set my own schedule.
This drove me nuts because no one else shared the same schedule. My solution was to put myself on my friends schedule so that we were all on the same page. Instead of waking up at 2 or 3 pm and working till 7, I began waking up around 8 or 9 and working till the afternoon. It was actually refreshing to be up early, but I needed to find something to fill the rest of my day. At that point, I worked in more gym visits and also began new projects. It filled my day with work and exercise, then by 5pm my day was done, and if I wanted to grab dinner and a drink with a friend around that time, then it was more likely than doing it at 10pm.
Things to Think About
Do I like the project I’m working on enough that it will keep me motivated to strive for the next level?
Will I enjoy working from home, or will I be more successful if I share office space with some friends?
If I’m working at home, am I comfortable and able to manage the freedom to do as I please?
If I’m sharing office space, do the people I share space with work in the same field so that we can talk and trade tips, tricks, etc? Or do they work in a completely different field, so different that we barely speak to each other and it’s like working with a mute person?
Will I regulate my schedule so that it comfortably matches that of my friends and family, so that I am not the only one awake at 4am listening to 80s music and can still have an active social life?
