WAHS Expert Tips: Biggest Obstacles to Work-At-Home Success

It would be nice if achieving success in working at home was a linear route that was easy to follow. Unfortunately, it’s more like a roller coaster ride, with ups and downs. Sometimes things get in the way and stop you in your tracks. As a result, success comes only to those who can overcome set backs and work around obstacles. Here are some issues you might come against. The more you know, the better prepared you’ll be to meet these challenges and move beyond them.

This week’s expert tips question is:

“What is the biggest obstacle to success in working at home?”

Lakeisha Johnson Absolute Solutions

You have to stay focused and realize that you still have a job and need to be working instead of relaxing. It can be very easy to get sucked into TV or take a nap when you actually need to be getting something done.

Ben Fisher ParkCityLifeStyle.com

The biggest obstacle for myself is maintaining focus throughout the workday while I am at my home. There are so many distractions that you can let yourself get away from your work way too often. I make a clear and concise schedule, and stick to it by the hour. This way I have no excuse for not completing tasks I assign for myself.

Shel Horowitz, Green and Profitable

It can get lonely, so for 30 years, I’ve made up for that by participating in lots of business networking activities–from Chamber mixers to professional conferences–as well as numerous online communities where I can both grow professionally and get support. I’ve also been in several mastermind groups over the years.

John White, BestEssayHelp.com

From my personal experience I would say that one of the biggest obstacles when conducting business from one’s domicile is proper planning and organization. In order for your venture to be successful, you need to learn to eliminate all the distractions and procrastination moods that home environment can create. You have to be quite professional even when working from home. Here are a few tips I would suggest:

– Plan in advance – develop a schedule and write down the time when other family members are away, so that you can know for sure when you’ll have time to work along;
– Stay away from the house phone, kitchen and living room while working – tons of distraction in those areas in particular.

Pamela Thompson Smith Smith Ink, LLC

The biggest obstacle to conducting business from my domicile is enforcing time parameters. Sometimes clients/prospective clients call after business hours – 8, 9, 10 p.m. – to discuss projects. Just because I work from home does not mean that I work 24/7. Unless it is an emergency, respect that woman lives not by bread alone.

Sally Murdoch Sally Murdoch Media Relations

Two things: Working from home can provide an array of lovely distractions like laundry, banking, errands, anything. These distractions are business killers and you need really good discipline that you have honed working for someone else to know it’s time to break free. The second obstacle is clutter. Many people think working from home means you can have a messy space since not many will see it. For me, any kind of clutter ruins my chi and literally obstructs progress. You need to work form a room in your house that is uncluttered and makes you feel alive.

Jessie Boone IntegratePR

Making sure that each person that visits our blog knows about all of our cookbooks and accessories is the biggest challenge we face. We are always excited to get a new blog follower, but we also want to convert them over to our website as well so they can learn our full story and hopefully purchase our product if they like it.

Craig Wolfe CelebriDucks

The easy answer is not getting distracted, but the best people who work from home never find that is an issue as they love what they do and are focused like a laser frequently working extra hours. The biggest problem is actually isolation or lack of creative feedback which is why you must have a network of people you work with via outsourcing or trusted friends and business associates that can keep you on course.

Aneesah LaStrape Black Millionaire Media

I enjoy working from home but when trying to separate business from personal finances, it gets tricky. It’s hard fro creditors to take you seriously as well if you don’t have a second address for the business. It’s also hard to focus on work with a family around. I have a big family and they all love to talk and since were so close, I tend to shut business down when they are around. As a workaholic, that can be difficult to do sometimes.

Christine Shuck C’s Cleaning Services

Distractions – from the child, to housecleaning, to the yard and everything in between

Tiffany Powell Sapphire Bookkeeping & Accounting Inc

One of the biggest obstacles I faced starting out was not having an office to meet new clients at. It gets somewhat expensive to always be meeting new clients for lunch or at starbucks when you are trying to build your business.

Nancy Gong, Glass Artist Gong Glass Works

Discipline of time.

From Leslie:
You’ll notice a theme. Distractions and lack of focus are two big obstacles when working from home. In my case, dishes and laundry don’t deter me. Wanting to sleep in or nap does. For me the biggest obstacle was staying the course when things didn’t move as quickly as I wanted or bad things happened. There is a saying that a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. But you have to keep stepping, and that can be hard if it doesn’t feel like you’re getting anywhere or there’s a big boulder in your way. But if you’re going to find success working at home, you have to keep stepping with faith that you are moving forward and have the ability to push the boulder away or walk around it or climb over it.