Working From Home- The Challenges

CHALLENGES OF WORKING AT HOME

After the introductions, critique of employment and the several reasons why many opt to work from home, you might be motivated to go out there and give it your best shot. 

Now before you do anything rash you must make sure you could really handle it.  Running your own show does offer a lot of advantages, but working at home has a few pitfalls as well.

The truth is that it has many challenges. Probably more than most “regular” jobs. Those who work at home confront new puzzels every day. How much to pay in quarterly taxes and how.  Shopping for new equipment during cash flow problems.  How to resist the allure of the television and its siren song at ten a.m.  How to muster the energy to stay up a little later to get that project done tonight. 

The struggles are many.

That laundry list of challenges just scratches the surface.  There are so many challenges, and so many variations of each that it would be impossible to list them all.  Most of those challenges, however, tend to fall into one of two categories.  Let’s take a look at them.

 RISK AND INSECURITY

When you are out in the workforce punching a clock, some things are almost guaranteed.  You will have at least one co-worker who drives you crazy.  There will be a few things about the way the operation is run that will annoy you at all times.  At least one of your superiors will seem to have a personal axe to grind with your name emblazoned on the handle. 

Oh, and you will receive your paycheck in a blue envelope or via direct deposit every two weeks.

The water fountain will almost always work. Someone will pay the electric bill even after Schmidt loses the Anderson account. If you lean back too far in your swivel chair again and break it, someone from maintenance will magically make a new one appear. Your insurance card will work when you go to the doctor and, again, that paycheck will arrive like clockwork right on schedule.

Although being part of the great herd of employees has many horrifying drawbacks, it does come with consistency and some level of security. You know what to expect and what you will get in exchange for your time and effort. 

You may not get enough, but you will know what you are getting.  That kind of security does have value.

Those who work at home have to be a bit more adventurous, because they can no longer work with those creature comforts in place. If you don’t do business with your work at home operation, you don’t have money.  If you blow the Anderson deal, you suffer even worse than Schmidt would back at the office for doing the same thing. Water is your responsibility. If you break your swivel chair, you might find yourself working from a kitchen chair. And that paycheck? That’s completely in your hands. No one else will make sure it arrives. That’s up to you as well.

Those who have particularly risk-aversive personalities are usually a poor match for working at home. The risk of failure is real and so is the lack of any traditional job security. 

One may argue that today’s economy leaves everyone a bit insecure, but nothing quite compares to having your whole livelihood in your own hands. Yes, that provides opportunity, but it also creates a lot of risk.

 HARD WORK

Many people coast through their day jobs. The tasks aren’t that challenging and after awhile, they can be accomplished without a great deal of thought or real effort. The trick to being a good employee, some have joked, is showing up. The rest, one way or another, tends to take care of itself.

Admittedly, some jobs are particularly difficult. Take a look at those road crews the next time you are driving across town on a hundred degree August afternoon and you will see that. 

In many ways, however, working from home is probably more difficult than doing asphalt work while staving off a heat stroke.

Those who run their own work at home businesses have to learn so many new things. They have to learn the business itself, of course, but they also have to learn how to run a business. 

They have to learn about marketing, pricing, customer service, and a host of other things in addition to what they actually do to produce income.  It can be overwhelming for many people.

When you work without a net, the way many of those working from home do, you are often required to exert more energy and to keep longer hours than those who are just out punching clocks five days a week before hitting the bars. 

Running a work at home business requires unrivaled dedication and a serious work ethic. Anyone lacking those traits will probably find their home business flopping very quickly.

Once one has built their work at home business up and has mastered their “system,” things do tend to run more smoothly. However, every great work at home success story has its roots in a period of some very serious work.  Working at home provides many benefits, but they don’t come free.  The price is often hard work.
Next time we will ask a few serious questions that you should ask yourself before embarking on the home business band wagon.