Valuable Lessons Learned When Working From Home

Many of our work at home entrepreneurs are a success from many hard lessons learned. Unfortunately, that is an unattractive lesson learned. Advice to newbies can be very useful to avoid many of the pitfalls related to beginning your own home based business. If you don’t have to take the punches, why would you? These are lessons that have been learned and shared by veterans to home based business opportunities and prospects.

Excellent communication skills are vital to a business that prospers

Communication skills are needed and will make your business a success. This is true no matter what your business is. Even if you spend minimal time with clients face to face you still need to be able to communicate via emails, phone or other forms of contact. Ideas, information and instructions needs to be exchanged. 

Sometimes simple updates concerning a project to all parties involved could make the difference in thousands of dollars or the failure of a business and its overall success.

If you feel you have issues or problems with communication skills you need to invest in the tools and techniques to improve or develop these immediately.

Invest in a separate phone line for your business

Whether you get a cell phone or a separate line into your home, invest in a separate line for your business. This is great on several levels. For those with children in the house you won’t have your toddler speaking with a client for 20 minutes before anyone realizes he is on the line. You won’t miss a client’s call because your teenager had your phone line tied up and when you do receive family and friend calls you know they are personal because they are calling on your personal line.

Cell phones are more advantages than land lines. In addition to the privacy of a land line a cell phone guarantees you will receive your calls anywhere you happen to be as well receiving calls when the electricity is out. A cell phone allows you more freedom if your business requires travel or more time outside of the home than in.

Be certain you separate work from home and home from work

It’s very easy to blur the lines with home and work when working from home. Make certain you separate your family life from your work. It’s easy to work extended hours you would see if you went to the office and overwork yourself at the expense of having your home life suffer. The opposite is also true. You may leave work because you need to do your laundry or cook supper and miss an important client’s deadline.

Isolation is a negative side effect

A negative side to working from home as a team of one is finding you are isolated. In an office environment with coworkers, a boss, meetings and an office get together you do a lot of socializing. Many new workers at home find themselves unintentionally isolating themselves. There may be few interactions personally with others depending upon your work. Make sure you get socialized. One way to help with this issue is to join community groups related to your work. Network around your city or town personally, find a way outside of the computer or cyber world.

These are important lessons that have been learned by those that have already put their foot in the door of a home based business. Allow these veterans to pass on this invaluable information and help you avoid the potholes in the business world.

pic is courtesy of jaimesoriano.net

other posts of interest

http://workathomeinus-smcopywrite.blogspot.com/2011/07/busting-web-scams-and-scammers-using.html

http://workathomeinus-smcopywrite.blogspot.com/2011/07/spotting-work-from-home-scam.html

Top 10 Reasons to Work At Home

Many people that elect to work from home do so for a multitude of reasons. Although income is certainly a popular factor to choose to work from home there are certainly other motives involved in the decision to work from home.

These are the top 10 reasons that people that work from home give that motivates them to elect to have their office space at the same place as their home address.

1.       More flexibility

More flexibility doesn’t mean you can goof off all day. It does mean that you are able to set your work hours, vacation and keep production and quality where it needs to be. You don’t have overtime if you don’t want it and find you can spend more quality time with the people in your life you care about.

2.       You are the boss

This is an advantage or disadvantage depending upon the work you do and your work ethic. Being your own boss for many is liberating. For those that are able to work independently and flourish this is ideal.  For someone that cannot stay on task and focused this can potentially turn into a disaster that is simply waiting to happen.

Along with being your own boss, the buck will stop with you.  You are responsible for everything and everyone. If there is success or failure you will be accountable for it.

3.       Freedom to do what you want

Freedom to do work you are vested in with passion is something that cannot be discounted. Many workers that don’t enjoy their job will not commit the same energy or creativity that can be seen in something that a worker loves or appreciates. However, that same worker in an environment that they relish will thrive and their work will most certainly reflect it.

4.       You have a voice

A lot of employees, especially for large organizations, admit they feel they aren’t being heard nor have a voice in administration decisions and choices as well as the work itself. When you work from home you are the voice. If you determine a better way to handle an issue or procedure it’s done as soon as you want it done. Having a voice gives you the feeling of power and makes your investment in the work so much more.

5.       Power over your income

Working for someone else limits the amount of income you are able to enjoy. You are constrained by what salary is offered or given to you. When you are your own boss, the sky is the limit for your income. You are only limited by how much you want to make or can earn.  You can retire when you want or work until you feel you no longer want to.

6.       Helping others

Many people that make the decision to work from home do so to help others. They are in a position to do work that is not so much along the single nature of big business and profits. You can work in a niche that is better for the greater good. You can create a non-profit organization or work to construct grants for the needy. There are thousands of different industry opportunities to help others when you work at home.

7.       Cost savings

Working from home permits many to save money. You can save on the cost of childcare; you save on the cost of transportation and fuel. How about not spending money for lunches out of the office or having a work wardrobe and one wardrobe for home? Thousands could be saved depending upon what it cost for you to work outside of your home. That money can be invested into other things you care about, want or need.

8.       Creativity

Creativeness is a freedom that many desired and have realized when they work from home. Your imagination and ingenuity can be seen with being your own boss. Ideas and concepts that you imagined would never be realized are on the horizon when you are the one calling the shots.

9.       Networking with like-minded people

When you find yourself sitting in the driver’s seat of a business or company you will generally work with others that are in your same working community. Networking is an important part of having a successful business. Knowing what is going on within your industry is a must and communicating with people that are part of your industry helps everyone within the area. No business is a vacuum that works without touching other similar business prospects.

10.   Global footprints

With the internet and the ability to work from home many young entrepreneurs find themselves working with numerous contacts around the world. Whether you are working with a supplier in Argentina or a software engineer from Germany you are on a different level than you imagined when you were sitting in your cubicle in the office.  

For some working globally is a benefit they never anticipated and others envisioned they would work globally to achieve goals for their company. A positive impact can be made when we work globally.

 pic from danimcgrath.com

Guest Post-Legitimate Work From Home Opportunities: Do They Really Exist?

Legitimate Work From Home Opportunities: Do They Really Exist?

Author: Ivina Harborough

Many people today are consistently looking for legitimate work from home opportunities in an effort to help supplement their existing income, and in today's economy, it's really not surprising.

With millions of people currently living paycheck-to-paycheck or unemployed and living on government assistance, the trend is rising for those who are looking for legitimate work from home income.

However, the problem many of them are facing is in determining which of the many opportunities they're presented with are in fact actually going to make them money and not scam them out of their hard earned money!

The last thing you want to do is invest any spare money you may have at your disposal on any opportunity that doesn't deliver on its claim of allowing you to easily generate a sustainable, let alone long-term income.

As a single mother who found herself laid off from her job several years ago, and raising two young boys, I can assure you I know the feeling you're probably faced with right now!

I can't recall how many late nights I spent online researching the various claims of work from home and make money opportunities I came across, or which hit my in-box on a daily basis.

Then one night, by total accident, I came across the very business I now run on a full time basis by sheer and utter luck! It all started because my youngest son's birthday was approaching and he really wanted the latest game for his gaming console, so I went online to Amazon and started looking around. I love Amazon and buy almost everything I own through them, much like a lot of people I know do as well!

While trying to find the lowest price on the particular game he wanted, I noticed something at the bottom of the check-out page that referred to something called the Amazon Associates program, which really is nothing more then being an affiliate for the company.

What's affiliate marketing?

In simple terms, it's just selling someone else's product or service and then being paid a commission once a sale has been made. This was great because I knew Amazon was a legitimate company and I couldn't fathom such a successful company aligning themselves with something illegal or deemed a pyramid scheme.

After further research, I also discovered that Amazon was one of the original companies to launch an affiliate program back when the "net" took off…think early to mid 90's!

Once I completed the online transaction for my son's new game, I immediately started browsing their website for as much information as I could find about their associates program and spent the better part of that night glued to my computer!

To make a long story short, I was able to use the Amazon Associates Program as the foundation for starting my own work from home business and through the forum dedicated to just associates, I was able to ask questions regarding getting started and was always glad when someone gave information!

Within a week I had my business up and running and while getting started in affiliate marketing through the Amazon Associates program can be done with no start-up cash, I decided if I was going to do this and do it right, I needed just a little bit of money, so I sold a few of my personal belongings online and within a few days had over $100 dollars.

Looking back over that one specific night, all I can say is someone must have been looking out for me because I still can't believe I saw that link, but boy, am I glad I did!

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-marketing-articles/legitimate-work-from-home-opportunities-do-they-really-exist-5174966.html

About the Author

To get information about the legitimate work from home opportunity I've used myself to earn a full-time income while only working part-time, click here NOW!