It seems that it is everyone's dream to be self employed, not to have a boss but to "be the boss." In reality, not all people are cut out to be the boss!
Being self employed, owning your own business, takes a lot of self discipline. When working from home, it is important that you set yourself a schedule for working, just as if you were working outside of your home. There is that temptation to go start a load of laundry,run the dishwasher, or make that bed.
You need to remember to treat your home business just like you would a regular position where you have to leave home and clock in and out on a time clock! Granted, you can set your own hours, but when you do, stick to them!
I have worked from home a little over three years now and here are some of the things that I have found to be difficult over the years.
Staying motivated : You have to create your own motivation, there is no one there to pat you on the back and give you an "atta boy" or a compliment now and then. To help with this, set goals for yourself,whether it is wanting to make one more sale today than yesterday, to increasing your paycheck by a certain number of dollars this pay period over last.
Some people enjoy making a goal board, where they take pictures of the goals that they want to obtain. It could be something as simple as wanting to earn enough to buy a new winter coat, something special for someone for Christmas, to a new car or perhaps a trip to Hawaii. Spice up your goal board with both big and small rewards that you want to obtain and as you obtain that goal, remove that picture and put it on a "obtained board" so you can mark your progress.
Working alone day after day is often difficult for someone when they are trying to transition from a position where they interacted with others on a regular basis. If this is something that you struggle with, set aside time during your day to visit with someone either in person or by phone. I find that running across the street to check on an elderly neighbor and chat for a few minutes or calling my daughters to check in on them and the grandchildren brightens my day.
I have a separate room in my home that is my office and I try to put myself into the mindset that once I cross through that door, I am in my work place and to shut out the rest of the world. I close the door, often turn off the ringer on the house phone, knowing that the answering machine will pick up the call. I go in armed with a cup of coffee and a glass of water, knowing that I will need both since I will be on the phone speaking with people and my throat will get dry.
I do have the advantage of being able to set my own hours and personally, I prefer to work in shorter periods of time than maybe some other people do. I find that sitting for long periods of time bothers my back, so if I work for an hour and then take a break for 30 minutes and get up and stretch, I can maintain that pattern of work for a longer period of time than if I tried to sit for two to four hours straight taking calls.
I am also a person who prefers to work in the mid afternoon to late in the evening or the wee hours of the morning. If I get tired of taking calls, I can work transcriptions, which needs no interactions with the customers, just typing of information, which is great if I don't want to talk with people but still want to work.
Some companies, where you are an independent contractor, have either a message board or a forums section on their website where you can interact with other agents and have a sense of community. I will forewarn you though, just as in all work environments, there will always be those who disagree and are unable to discuss their viewpoints in a mature, adult fashion! When I see this happening in a particular discussion, I find it best for me personally to just not even read that "thread." To me there is nothing worse than negativity to try to overcome when you are working alone and when you read it, or get into the mix yourself, it may cost you dearly. It becomes difficult to shrug off and can affect your attitude when dealing with customers later on.
Setting your daily goals: If you are working as an independent contractor, most companies you work for will be paying you by the "talk time minutes" that you are on a phone call with a customer and perhaps extra for any additional merchandise or services that you might sell on that call. Rather than setting a goal of working so many hours per day (because you might not have many calls during a given time period) I find it best to decide how many dollars I want to earn that day. I will stay on the phones or combine it with doing transcriptions until I have reached the dollar amount that I desire for that day.
There are times when I truly will work in my jammies! During the day hours I do dress for work, usually a comfortable pair of sweat pants and a sweat shirt during the days in the winter or a pair of shorts and a shirt in the summer but at night I will work in my jammies! Shoes? To me those are a foreign object! Either socks or slippers or barefoot, depending on the time of year!
As you can see by the time I am posting this blog entry, it is 3AM Central Time and the bewitching hour has struck! I am off to bed folks....and will be at it tomorrow at 1PM!
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