All my friends, relatives, and neighbors know that I work from home and it sounds like an ideal situation to many of them. They’d love not to have to deal with a long commute, outrageous gas prices, demanding bosses, and obnoxious co-workers on a daily basis. They’re also curious about what it takes to work from home, and often ask me a lot of questions.
The first thing I tell them, besides making sure they’re financially prepared to handle the fluctuation in earnings as well as the increased expenses of carrying private insurance, is to make sure their prospective workspace is conducive to success. This means having a designated work area (preferably with a door for privacy) as well as all the computing equipment needed to handle anything that might come up.
In addition to a good desktop computer, I also recommend having a laptop for portability (and as a backup in case something should go wrong with the primary computer). I also talk about the advantages of setting up a wireless network at home and recommend putting a wireless router at the top of your list of computing equipment to buy. A wireless router plus a laptop will then give you the freedom to work from any room in your home — something that I know you’ll come to appreciate soon enough. You can even work out on your deck if you’re still within range, which is something that I do quite frequently in the mild spring or fall weather.
Beyond those basics, I think it’s important to get a lot of support from your spouse or significant other. In my case, I wouldn’t be able to do this for very long if my husband thought I was merely fooling around on the Internet all day. He knows I’m making money, so he just gives me my space and lets me do my thing.
This is just the tip of the iceberg as far as working from home goes, but hopefully I’ve given you someplace to start. I’m sure you’ll love working from home as much as I do… In fact, I can’t imagine going back to office life ever again!