The Top Myths About Working From Home
I found an article on startupsmart that I couldn’t resist reading and sharing with you. The story is about the top home-based business myths and I know you freelancers out there will be able to connect with at least one of these.
The Hours are Easy
PLEASE! If anything, the hours are harder than working for someone else at their office. When you work for yourself you have to not only do the primary job, you have to handle your own marketing, manage your own sales, handle your bookkeeping, answer the phones or spend money to hire people to do this for you. Many freelancers, especially those just starting out or dealing with a down economy, don’t have the funds to outsource, so all of these duties fall on their shoulders.
Being organized takes a lot of time, leaving less time to do your actual job. Many freelancers who work from home don’t have time for a leisurely lunch, afternoon work out, or even time to throw in a load of laundry.
You Can Sit Back and Get Rich Quickly
Ask any freelancer and they will tell you they work hard for every penny they make. There are a lot of ads out there that tell you that you can earn thousands a week from home—it’s all bunk. When you are a freelancer you have to find your own work, people aren’t beating down your door. It takes time to make and build successful relationships that will turn into a continued profit. There’s nothing “quick” about it.
You Don’t Need to Spend Money on Daycare
Parents might think that working from home is ideal. They can save money on daycare while getting the job done. This entirely depends on how old your children are.
I have a friend who owns his own public relations consulting firm. His wife works in communications, too, and they have worked it out that he will work from home on Monday’s to help take care of their new baby. “I knew it would be hard, but I had no idea,” he told me. A baby eats every few hours, needs to have their diapers changed, and sometimes, wants to be held no matter what. It’s hard to work through a crying baby—especially when it’s yours. He’s not getting as much done at home as he thought.
If your children are older, you need to consider their needs, too. Sure, they may nap for a couple of hours a day, giving you time to get down to work, but when they’re awake, they require your attention. Some children require more attention than others. What will you do when you need to have a meeting or an important telephone call? A screaming child in the background is unprofessional.
It’s Not a Real Job
Yeah—tell the federal government that. You pay taxes on every penny you make as a freelancer, and if that doesn’t make it a real business, I don’t know what does.
All You’re Doing is Moving Your Job to Your Home
If you are starting a freelance career from a full-time job, don’t think you can just keep your same normal working hours and routine. A large corporation makes your routine for you. You have to show up at a certain time, work with your colleagues, and have a boss you can talk to and champion for you. You have a set number of paid sick days and vacation days. Those disappear when you work from your home.
The good news is that you can finally create the schedule that works for you. The hard part is sticking to that schedule when there is no one holding you accountable.
Your Home Life Will Remain Exactly the Same
This is so not true. I found that as a freelancer, I was working more hours and spending less time with my friends, family, and husband.
When you are working a full time job and freelancing on the side, as many of us do, it’s taxing on the people who love and count on us. My husband is understanding—to a point. He needs my attention, too, and we have made concessions that we only work until a certain hour and spend a couple nights a week not working in order to spend quality time together.
Sure, freelancing can bring in more money for your family, but it’s not worth it if you don’t take the time to enjoy them. Find out what works for your family and lay down some ground rules. It will benefit them as much as it will benefit you.
Being at Home All Day is Awesome
I am a social person, and being alone in my office all day with no one to talk to besides my Chihuahua can get to me. That’s why I am involved in my community and volunteer outside of my job. I need to bounce ideas off people, socialize, and yes, sometimes complain. Getting involved outside of your office is a great way to keep from feeling isolated.
Photo credit: Some rights reserved by xilius.
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I agree with everything except the last point. Being a bit of an a-social person I like isolation and working from home was the best step I ever took just because of that. I love the isolation, not having to deal with other people, chit-chatting, small-talk etc.
I went from being a depressive person who was home sick all the time to someone who loves his job just because I have so little interaction with other people.
For me, working at home IS awesome, so I probably think this ‘myth’ is subjective.
For me, the hours are never ending. When I worked in an office setting, the work stayed there. Now, working from home, the work is always just a few feet away. I find myself spending many evenings and weekends working, which I didn’t do before.
I don’t know why I do it. It’s not like I am up against a deadline. It’s just that the work is there.
I also agree with Evert that the isolation has made me much more productive. That being said, non-stop isolation drives me nuts, so I have several groups that I have get-togethers with weekly. I strongly encourage other work from home solopreneurs to find others in a similar position in your community and meet once a month over a pizza and beer(or your food of choice). It is great to spend time with others who know exactly what you are going through.
It’s easy if you have a home office to leave the space and shut the door to help forget about what you could be doing instead of what you are doing—especially if it’s relaxing in front of the TV. The problem with working from home is that you can’t just leave things 20 miles away at the office…frequently that “stuff” is sitting and waiting for you in the next room.
I’ve worked solo from home for over 20 years. I go out for coffee every morning to get socialized, come home and work my butt off until I take a little power nap just before dinner. A quick email/twitter/blogs/social media check and I hit the rack. Weekends are mine, always will be. I spend 3 to 4 weeks every summer on Moorea (think Tahiti), no phone, no fax, no TV, no hitek devices. I go native and then I go home.
That takes one thing. Self discipline.
So True, working for your self is hard, but then again if it was easy everyone would do it and that is what makes you an entrepreneur! cheers!
This is so true! I know most people want to “be their own boss” but in reality, when you freelance you just end up with multiple bosses, AKA customers.
Almost all apply to my thoughts when first going into freelance, I quickly found out that just because you freelance you do NOT get rich quick and easy it takes hard work and time. Although most of these steps applied to me I still enjoy to freelance.
this video explains the challenges of working from home :
http://youtu.be/co_DNpTMKXk
I agree with all of this. When I was freelancing, it was far from a paradise. I enjoyed it for many, many reasons, but it is not what a lot of people think it is. You get to set your own hours and expectations most of the time, but then you start to realize how hard being the person who sets those things is. You don’t have to be around people as much if you don’t want to, but there’s no one to pick up the slack for you if something happens. Are you sick, exhausted, or just unqualified to do accounting work? Too bad! You’re the entire staff, and the entire staff can’t be out of the office for a whole week with little to no notice. Have a difficult client and incomplete people skills? Guess what, you’re learning some people skills, fast. Is it 5:00 pm and everyone’s posting about the end of the work day on Facebook? Not for you, you started an hour late today, and you know you’ve got more work to do than an 8 hour day will accommodate; you’re working this evening.
Not to mention that if you work from home and spend a lot of time at home, you’re *always* at work. You know that relaxing feeling you get when you drive away from the office and leave all of that stress behind? Not if you work from home. While you’re watching TV or taking care of your kids, your computer’s over there just taunting you, with all of that unfinished work on its hard drive.
Freelancing is an awesome way to have personal freedom, a huge project to work on (your business), material for personal improvement, and the potential to someday be in control of your life at work and off of work in ways regular employees rarely are. However, don’t mistake it for being easy. It’s harder, and in some ways more constricting than a regular job and you’ll work extra for every penny you make. If you’re up for it, though, it’s totally worth it.
Nice article! It is quite accurate, but I must say that all the inconveniences of working at home are nothing compared with the hard challenge of moving through Mexico City, with enormous distances, terrible traffic jams and crowded buses. I thank for have my office at home, no matter how much my children scream. I save four o five hours a day of transportation and that’s priceless.
Yeah, you’re productivity goes through the roof, at least the latest survey says, but hey, guess what, turns out there’s a lot work involved, gee, big surprise there.
The thing is, after you’re doing it for awhile, it becomes the ongoing joke as you know it’ll be probably next to impossible to go back. Maybe you just learn too much, it gets addictive and not just for work, work, work, but basically as you said, you’re doing everything yourself. Next thing you know, you’re making you’re own meade, you’re own this, that and anything else, you’re hooked.
I am trying to build my fledgling freelance business and your article provided some valuable insights.
Good luck, Kevin! Thanks for reading.
AAAAAA-MEN sister!! I especially love the “It must be nice to…” remarks! They’re the awesomest!
They range from “It must be nice to set your own hours” and “It must be nice to get as many vacation days as you want” to “It must be nice to get all those tax deductions.”
I usually respond with, “It is. And it must be nice to bring home a paycheck every week whether you’ve actually worked or not” and “It must be nice to have someone else paying for your health insurance, getting paid when you’re on vacation and stopping work sometime before you eat dinner.”
Don’t misunderstand me… I LOVE being self-employed and wouldn’t trade it for anything, but those kind of comments rub me the wrong way. I betcha couldn’t tell either, huh??
well of course you CAN make thousands a week, and of course some do, just like in other jobs, but most of us don’t
Wow, this is spot on. I have to say – setting a time to stop working so you can spend time with your family is crucial. Many will give you a hard time for doing this, but what good is success if you have no one to share it with?
There is no doubt that ignoring your family for a long period of time will lead to isolation.
Isolation…and possibly divorce! I don’t allow people to give me a hard time about spending time with my family. They are more important to me than any job.
One more misconception is that you’re available to do other people’s errands, stop & chat with people who randomly stop by, serve as room mother at school, etc.
I join some of the others in that I found being home all day awesome, in that I could much more seamlessly integrate my nonwork and work hours and, within some limitations, schedule time off without getting someone else’s approval.
Good post and I agree working from home is not easy. I’ve been freelancing for about 4 years and most of the time I do work from home but I know many people that have tried it and just can’t do it.
It takes alot of discipline and motivation to stay productive at home when no one is there to check on you.
Back when my husband and I opened our first small business, I found a cartoon that I cherished for years:
Image of a guy on the phone. “The best part about being my own boss is that I only have to work *half days.*”
“And I get to CHOOSE which twelve hours!”
So true. It takes time,hardwork and dicipline.
And working at home is really isolation that can drive me nuts.
Oh dear…I can empathize with pretty much all of these. I think the hardest thing about being your own boss is that you can easily become a workaholic…it’s so important to set boundaries and make sure you schedule some “you” time for rest and relaxation.
“Get rich quick”, the root of every problem.
Couldn’t agree with you more on the first point. A lot of people say to me working whenever you want must soooo easy, but I always find myself working till lyk 2am.
People always forget when you work for yourself, you don’t just do the work of your given title. You’ve got to find the work somehow.
Doesn’t mean I don’t love my job though, wouldn’t want it any other way. Gotta love the freedom of setting up my laptop wherever I choose
I have been working from home for 22 years now. I have never looked back, ever. To have the discipline, problem solve, provide good client relations, have good time management skills and be able to multitask can only lead to success!
There are times I feel isolated but that is about 10% of the time and I try and manage it however I can. I feel fortunate to be in this position and have this way of living and working!
Recently I carried out a survey on my site, which provides information for people working from home. The top 4 challenges were:
Being distracted by family, neighbours and housework
Becoming isolated
Working too many hours
Staying motivated
I think often people who start working from home don’t realise these challenges and can get really thrown by them. But the best thing is that you are in charge so you can adapt your routine to tackle any of these challenges – if you’re willing to.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Your article is a great reminder that the grass is not all that green on the other side of the ways-to-work-from-your-home fence. Work from your home is just that…..it’s work.
As a community manager, I appreciate your candid post and will intend to integrate nuggets into the regularly communications.
Rodney
Sit back and get rich quickly.. haha, love the wordings. Just hoping too but there’s no such thing actually.