American Politics

American Politics  » Balancing Your Priorities with Your Search for At-Home Work

Balancing Your Priorities with Your Search for At-Home Work

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

Today's Popular Articles

• How to Market to Mars and Venus!

• Know The Color Basics

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.