The Challenges Of Working From Home
By: Eric S Burdon
Tags: Self Improvement, Personal Development, Life, Life Lessons, Business

The Challenges Of Working From Home

Behind the glitz and glamour are stories of grit, glory, and greatness. Here is how you can make your story.

It’s a wonderful dream indeed. Making your own hours and being your own boss. A lot of the strong selling points behind working from home are so pivotal to all of us that we often forget the costs behind taking this commitment.

We jump in with practically no hesitation, unsure of the future, but we’re confident we’ll make it work.

This isn’t just for those pursuing a career as a writer. Everything from setting up an online business to delving into a network marketing company. There is always a cycle and it’s heavily influenced by the things that we are exposed to over time.

We hype ourselves up only for reality to sink in and we take it too far and demoralize ourselves. In the end, some of us get stuck in a rut because of it while some will ultimately give up and move on.

For me personally, I’ve been in both of those cases. I’ve been stuck in ruts before as a writer and I’ve also left companies and other opportunities after initially joining them.

But as a writer, I’ve learned some of those challenges and how to actually bounce back from those situations.

Settle For Band-Aids At First

When we typically take the leap into a business it’s normally to fill a void in our lives. With any type of online business, the idea is to provide a sustainable and growing income that you can’t find anywhere else.

The problem is that these types of commitments require a large amount of your time and it can be difficult to find the time for it. For some, they drop their day job to run with this or they drop other commitments to make time for this new venture.

One of the big challenges though is that leaving behind those commitments or opportunities can be costly.

For myself, I left a stable job that was paying me quite a bit to pursue my real career of being a writer. It was a pretty reckless move, but it’s a move I don’t fully regret doing.

But what I did afterwards wasn’t that bright.

While I was working a little bit, I didn’t do what I have been doing now for the past year. That being settling for band-aid fixes.

Because leaving behind commitments are costly and some of them are genuine income streams. When I left my job, I had nothing when I should’ve held onto the job for a bit longer until I figured out what I really wanted to do.

One of the biggest challenges of working from home is that shift and loss of commitments. Absolutely you’ll gain time back amongst some other intangible things, but it can be a struggle to find a way to cover what that income stream or other commitments provided for you.

In those situations, it’s best to find something quick and temporary. For me, that’s been working through Upwork. Yes, it’s a content mill type of place, but the skills I’ve gained and the money I’ve earned is not half bad. It pays to be picky and persistent in a place like that.

Band-aid fixes aren’t always like that though. Some times it’s working part-time at the job you’re at already. Or maybe it’s moving back in with your parents or finding creative ways to minimize costs. Whatever the case is by settling for these band-aid fixes it saves you from entering that vicious cycle so quickly. It provides some level of clarity as you have time to breathe and think things over. Not to mention there is nothing wrong with preparing in various ways for the change you know will happen.

Put Together The Right Network

Another big challenge is gathering a network and having a group that you can fall back on. In today’s society, we don’t often think much about the connections that we have. We often ignore those ties and focus solely on our business and growth.

It has a tendency of happening whenever you are hustling. We believe we’re growing ourselves by growing our business, but we eventually hit a stalling point.

It’s in those moments where we realize how alone we really are and that we’ve neglected to look at ourselves and develop ourselves on a social level.

Self-improvement is great, but the true measure of our success and our growth is based on our commitment to forging bonds and the quality of those bonds.

But building relationships take time and to truly reap the benefits one needs to be extra committed to the growth of it. That being said, here are some quick tips that can help speed things along.

People leverage other people so don’t be afraid to offer deals to other people. Some bonds can be forged out of doing small favours for one another.

Be sure to develop your social skills. Be wary of posture, the tone of voice, making eye contact.

Go above and beyond making typical small talk with people. Don’t be afraid to ask deeper questions.

Have The Right Income Streams

Another big challenge to consider is in the event of you getting sick or injured. In so many cases, the solo entrepreneur will bring their business to a halt when that happens as more often than not, they are an essential part of the daily operations.

And while it’s key for us to be involved in our business early on, it’s also vital that we begin to move some of our income into other streams. Streams that’ll work for us even when we are unable to work.

Depending our entire livelihood on work that’s based on our performance is foolish. It’s necessary for sure, but relying solely on our hustle is akin to dumping all of our money into one company’s stock. It’s incredibly risky and completely unnecessary.

What you want to be focusing on is finding ways to make income long after the work is done. Things like courses, articles, savings accounts, and investing. This creates nets on the short term but eventually become the main source of your wealth.

And like everything else, these things take time to build. Longer than relationships. But the key is to start as early as you can and at a pace that is most comfortable for you.

These challenges are numerous and these are only the tip of the iceberg. But the journey of working from home is a long one and requires a lot of grit. But in the end, these building blocks will form the foundation for greatness and gloriousness.