Knowing the market

Market demand for various skills is in constant flux. There may be a shortage of graphic designers today, but in half a year, the job market will be flooded with hundreds of bright-eyed hopefuls fresh out of design school all looking for work from home jobs. No matter. Knowing what you are good at and where your strengths lie will still give you the upper hand. When you are certain what you want, and you know how to reach out to clients, your work at home job will take off in a major way. Another bonus of this style of work is that often clients can be from anywhere in the world, meaning your potential client base is nearly limitless.

Killing your fears

Moving from the known into the unknown is frightening for everyone. If it’s not, you should be worried. But you shouldn’t let your fears hold you back from achieving your goals. Self-motivation comes easy if you are confident that what you are doing is right for you, whether it’s starting on your own adventure straight out of school, slowly transitioning from a typical nine-to-five job to working from home or jumping ship at a job you no longer feel fulfilled by. How do you know if it’s the right move to make? Take the quiz and find out. Perhaps it’s a question you have been toying with for a while, but you are still uncertain about. Now is always a good time to let go of your fears.

Finding work from home jobs

If you are freelancing and you don’t have any current jobs, there is only one way to find employment; go out and look for it. A good starting point is for finding work from home jobs are online job boards, of which there are plenty. Also marketing yourself is one of your most powerful tools.

How to market yourself

A lot of practical pointers are given by various veteran work-at-homers. Building an emailing list is something to consider once your further downstream, but to begin with, try networking. This is just business jargon for talking to people. Start with people you know. Tell then what you do and ask if they know anyone who would be interested. Be active on social media. Take the advice of Michelle Goodman, of “The Anti 9-5” fame: “One of my suggestions (is) that creative freelancers – writers, designers, illustrators, photographers and the like – set up an online portfolio as soon as possible.”  Most importantly, do quality work, because word-of-mouth advertising is free. Once you know what the right career is for you, learn how to show this to the world.

Skill building

You’ve taken the quiz and you’ve figured out what appeals to you most, but you have no training or education in this particular field. What now? Not everyone has the option of going to an academy or university. Not to worry, though. Many courses and qualifications, both inexpensive or free, are available online or through local community centers. Increasing your skill set is always a plus and boosts your chances of landing the job you want.

Rules not to break

Freelancing or doing work from home jobs may be less strict than working for a company where you have to answer to a boss, but there are still certain guidelines to follow. Once you know what your skills are, become proficient in them and see where they take you. Do not, however, take on jobs or projects which require skills in which your competency is shaky at best. Be honest about what you are capable of. This helps you to avoid stressful situations where you have to learn an entirely new skill set overnight to meet a pressing deadline. Speaking of deadlines, they exist for a reason and the best way to lose clients and downgrade your hard-earned reputation is to miss them. The importance of meeting deadlines cannot be emphasized enough. Another mistake new freelancers or remote contractors make is taking on more work than they can handle. Having enough work from home jobs is good, having too much of it is stressful, and stress can put a damper on your career happiness, so it’s best to keep it to a minimum. The most important rule by far, though, is never lose hope and never stop trying. Contently agrees that working hard will pay off eventually. “Pitch the editor every day this year. If you find yourself finishing a bottle of champagne next to a pile of 365 rejections at the end of the year, then increase your pitches to twice a day next year.”  Knowing and loving what you do can be a reward in itself.

Working from home – is it for you?

Now that you have a better understanding of what the work from home life is all about, you should be able to determine whether it appeals to you or not.  Either way, your future career is something to look forward to, and with a little help, you will know in which direction your compass points.