Five Reasons to Work From Home

January 21, 2008 | No Comments

With rising gas prices, unsure corporate futures and the advent of telecommuting, working from home is more popular now than ever before. The work at home trend has continued to increase over the years. More and more people are looking for the freedom and the changes in quality of life that they experience when they start to work from home.

Working from home can take many different forms. You can work for a company that specifically hires telecommuting workers. You can negotiate a telecommuting deal with your current employers. You can also start your own business that allows you to work from home. Many people choose to have online businesses so they have very little overhead and maximum flexibility.

No matter how you do it, there are a lot of great reasons to work from home. You may be motivated by one of several of these reasons to work at home or start your own business.

You can be your own boss

Although you can work from home for another company, most people who work from home start and run their own home based business. If you’ve ever done all the work at your traditional job and gotten none of the credit, then you’re probably interested in being your own boss, too. When you work for yourself, you have a whole new set of opportunities. You choose what to work on and how you’ll do your work. The money that you earn for the company goes directly into your pocket or back into the company. You don’t have to beg for a raise or wonder if you’ll get a bonus for all of your hard work.

As your own boss, you dictate the direction that your business, and therefore, your life takes. You make all the decisions. Whenever you need a raise, you just work harder or open up another stream of income from your existing business. It’s the ultimate control.

You’ll save money

Working from home can actually save you money. You won’t have a long commute that eats up your paycheck by paying for tanks of gas. You’ll also save on wear and tear on your car. Instead of getting your oil changed and repair to your engine every few months, you’ll do it twice a year. You often have to spend several hundreds of dollars per year to maintain a work wardrobe. When you work at home, you’ll be able to choose what you wear. It doesn’t have to be any different than your normal clothes. And don’t forget those lunches out when you are working outside of the home. Paying for lunch at a restaurant each day almost makes working outside of the home not worth it.

You’ll have freedom

Working from home gives you a lot of freedom. You can set your own schedule, work the hours that you want and be able to work in your pajamas if you want to. Instead of having your boss define what you’ll do and how you’ll do it, you’ll be making those decisions for yourself. It can be tempting to take advantage of this at first and shrug off your work commitments. But with the freedom you get, you’ll also have to have a good deal of responsibility. As long as you balance your work needs with your personal needs, you’ll have freedom and success.

You can pursue your dreams

When you work for someone else, you are probably not working your dream job. We all have dreams and interests that we’d like to pursue. These normally are outside of the scope of our day jobs. What if you want to do something that is outside of the field you currently work in? While you might have a hard time switching gears if you want to work for someone else, you can easily follow your dreams by owning your own business and working at home.

You’ll have less stress

Working in a fast paced office, doing something that you don’t want to do and being paid peanuts is a sure recipe for stress. Stress can cause you to age faster, it can cause mood problems and it can drastically decrease your quality of life. When you think about how many years of your life you spend at a traditional job, that’s a lot of time spent stressed out. This isn’t to say that you’ll be entirely stress free when you start your business, but your stress levels will be greatly diminished. You won’t have to deal with a commute, annoying coworkers or a boss breathing down your neck. You can take breaks when you need to and set up your work schedule so you can relax.

When you work from home, you’ll have all of these benefits and more. Working from home and owning your own business is the best way to reclaim your life and live for yourself.

Written by Vishal P. Rao of Work at Home Forum.

Posted in Working from Home