Once you've surfed the web, you can't help but notice all
the ads and websites meant to hook the hordes of "work-at-
home wannabes".
Understandably, there's no shortage of people who want to
make their living from home. Many parents want to be able
to stay at home with their children while contributing to
the household expenses. Others want to ditch the world of
long commutes and corporate politics. Still others have
disabilities that may prevent them from working a 'regular'
job.
Regardless of the reasons, "work at home" is undeniably a
hot topic. The International Telework Association and
Council (ITAC) states that 19.6 million teleworked in Q3
1999. By 2003 that's projected to be a whopping 137
million worldwide!
Two ways to pursue a career from home are to either
telecommute for an employer, or start your own home based
business.
As the editor of three newsletters, I regularly come into
contact with people looking for at-home work. A large
percentage of them prefer to work for an employer they
like the idea of having well-defined responsibilities and
a regular pay cheque. They're not interested in the
ups and downs of building a business.
Thus many websites have sprung up claiming to offer
telecommuting jobs. While it's possible to land one of
these highly competitive positions, it's certainly not
easy.
One of the problems is simply oversaturation of the market.
Many people seeking at-home work are looking for clerical
or administrative jobs; yet when I look through posted
telecommuting jobs, I see primarily technical positions
available. That said, would you be willing to go to school
to get an education that may improve your chances of landing
a work-at-home job?
Telecommuting positions are usually 'perks'; something
offered (or hard-won) by employees with proven track
records.
Consider working in an office first in order to reach
your final goal of working from home. If all goes well,
you can present your employer with a telecommuting proposal
after you've established yourself perhaps just one
telecommuting day per week first, then gradually build
up to several days a week. An excellent site for help
on how to create a telecommuting proposal is
http://www.telecommutingproposal.com/.
Of course there are companies that hire telecommuters
from outside as well. Be aware, however, that some of
these companies (not all) may take advantage of the desire
to work from home - for example, with low pay and few or
no benefits.
Keep your options open! You may have to consider jobs
that you otherwise would not. Consider freelance or
contract work in addition to 'permanent full-time' jobs.
An excellent site for freelance jobs can be found at
http://homebasedwork.com/freelance.html.
It all comes down to what your priorities are.
Telecommuting can be a wonderful thing for many people,
but you may have to 'sacrifice' some things in order
to get it. How much work are you willing to put into
your desire to work from home? What are you willing to
give up in order to achieve this goal?
I'm not saying that you can't find rewarding telecommuting
work at a company for which you've never worked before...
far from it! However, it's highly competitive and
employers can afford to be choosy. And if you're the
entrepreneurial type? You may be able to find more
success or satisfaction with your own business.
Be prepared, stay open to new possibilities, and do your
research!
About the Author
Angela Wu is the editor of Online Business Basics, an
exclusive newsletter for eBusiness beginners. Visit her online at
http://onlinebusinessbasics.com/article.html
OR mailto:businessbasics@workyourleads.com for a series
of 10 free reports on building a business on the web.