So you want to work at home. Congratulations! We’ve asked several experts to lend us some of their most valuable advice on getting started and what they wished they knew when they began their own careers from home.
Billie Jean Bateson, Manager of Amazing Wristbands has these great ideas to get your adventure started.
- Inform all your relatives, friends, and their friends about your business.
- Start learning about the SEO and make your own website.. The WordPress is the perfect solution because you can do it yourself by following simple step-by-step instructions.
- Open social media accounts for business on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, G+, Instagram, Reddit, Digg. Write presentation text and posts and start promoting your business shamelessly.
Conrado Lamas is the CMO at Carts Guru suggests focusing on what you know and love to do, and going on from there.
- Become a real expert on what you do. It’s easier to determine your work conditions, including the possibility of working from home, if you can show real results of what you do best. Good work references are important as well..
- Look for opportunities that demand or offer remote work in their job ads. Fortunately, it’s becoming more and more common that companies, especially online ones, see the advantages of having someone working outside their offices, sometimes no matter which country they are from.
- Take care of your online reputation. When you don’t work physically with a team, the information they can find about you on website and social media is key. Pay special attention to professional profiles such as LinkedIn.
Benjamin Shanbrom is from the company, Nation1099. His advice is all about networking! Get your name out there and get recognized!
- Create a consistent schedule that sets you up for success – hold yourself to the same strict routine and deadlines you would if you were still working in an office environment.
- Create (or have a trusted web developer make you) a professional website with an optimized landing page to quickly establish your credibility in the online space.
- Build relationships online with authorities in your niche – engage with them on social media, share their material, tweet to them, strike up a friendly conversation via email and get their feedback on your work.
Jennifer Myers Ward, CEO of ebove & beyond, inc. advises that preparation and networking is vital to getting started off on the right foot!
- Set Boundaries: Create a space dedicated to work and only work. Be sure that you put your business “hat” on when you enter that space and avoid other distractions. It’s equally as important to leave work in that space when you are ready to switch over to family time.
- Don’t Skip the Formalities: Be sure to get all of the formalities of starting a business in place. This includes things such as establishing the type of business (Sole proprietorship, LLC, s-corp, etc.), getting business insurance, hiring a CPA for your taxes and bookkeeping, obtaining any necessary contracts for client engagement, setting up specific business bank accounts, etc.
- Network, Network, Network:The key to working from home and being able to successfully grow your business depends on your ability to attract clients and get the word out about your business. When working gat home, the likelihood of bumping into someone who may need your product or service is minimal, at best. It is imperative to use every possible outlet you have to network, whether it means joining a local professional group, reaching out to personal contacts you know in the business, attending industry conferences, mining for opportunities on LinkedIn, becoming active in social media, and the list goes on. Be sure to make new contacts and also keep up with comet acts you have had for year, things have a funny way of going full circle!
Tips from Leslie:
- Find the right work-at-home option for you. To many people jump online and search “work at home” for something fast and easy, but more often than not, that will lead you to scams. Nearly everyone I know who works at home does something they already knew, did or loved.
- Make the commitment. You can find success working at home during commercial breaks and nap time. It takes consistant focused effort, and a willingness to go the distance.
- Make a plan. Roadmaps will get you where you want to go much faster than winging it. To make a plan, you need to know where you want to go and how to get there, two more important aspects to achieving work-at-home success.
- Always be learning. The world is changing fast. To keep up in the job or business markets, you need to stay on top of trends, research and resources.
