Working at home takes time and effort, but often people make it harder than it has to be and take way longer than they need to reach their goal. Working at home isn’t rocket science. At its core, it’s like finding any other career; what are you good at, who needs you to do it, how can you get them to pay you?
If you’re ready to give up the idea you can make a living signing up for surveys or with a click-it-and-cash-it program, then here’s how to REALLY make money at home.
Stop doing this…
The reasons people struggle to find legitimate work at home options is because they waste their time on:
1) Looking for programs they can sign up and start working at home now: The reality is, you can’t sign up today and quit your job tomorrow.
2) Looking for easy programs: You’ll never make a living with three-clicks, surfing the net, or filling out surveys. These options might make you a few bucks, they’re not going to pay your mortgage or rent.
3) Being distracted by shiny objects: Many people, including myself, get distracted by new things that look better, faster, and more profitable. You need to be careful not to be drawn in by these gimmacks. Too often people abandon viable work-at-home options to take on the next great thing, only to find it’s not great or to abandon it for the the next thing.
Do this to start…
1) Learn about working at home. It surprises me how many people want to work at home, but don’t take time to learn what’s involved, how to avoid scams, and research the best option for them. Searching Google to work at home can be dangerous if you don’t know what working at home really involves and how scammers try to dupe you. There is a TON of information here at WAHS and other great resources to give you the real deal on working at home.
2) Figure out what you can do. If you were to get a job in the traditional world, you wouldn’t simply search “jobs” on Google, or look at every job in the classified ads. You’d start with your skills and experience. You want to do the same in working at home. You can expand to also include interests and hobbies. Are you good with people? Then look into customer service. Do you enjoy helping businesses get things done? Consider virtual support. Are you a teacher or nurse? There are many work-at-home jobs in those areas, plus in many other occupations. Or take something you know or are good and create your own career.
3) Research your options. There are two things I see a lot in work-at-home wannabee, one is that they move too quickly from wanting to work at home to joining a program without researching what’s involved and it’s viability. The second is spending too much time in research. Research will save you time and money, and get you to your goal faster. How? For one, you’ll be able to determine if the program or idea is legitimate. Second you’ll know what’s involved (what you need to do and know). Third, you’ll be able to decide if it’s viable for you. For example, eBay is a way to make money at home, but I hate packing and shipping, which means eBay isn’t a good option for me. With that said, at some point you need to act on your research. I’ve run into many people who years later are still searching for work-at-home. It shouldn’t take years to figure out your best options.
4) Make a plan. If I asked you, “What is your plan for for working at hom?” what would you say? If you said, “I’m still looking at options,” I’d ask, “How are you doing that?” Even when you’re researching, you should have a plan. Work-at-home options don’t fall out of the sky and the legitimate ones don’t show up in your email.
Again, sometimes people jump in too quickly without a clear sense of what needs to be done. A plan is basically a checklist. What do you need to do to get from where you are now to making money with your work-at-home option? If you want a job, what do you need to do? If you want to start a home business, what steps do you need to take?
Do this to achieve success…
Thomas Edison is credited with saying, “Genius: one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.” It’s true in working at home too. Despite what the scammers and schemers will tell you, working at home takes work. A lot of it. Here’s what you need to do to be successful. And the more and faster you do it, the quicker you’ll achieve success.
1) Work. It’s called “work” at home not “sign up do nothing” or “fast money” from home. You should expect to work as hard if not harder than you do at your regular job. You can’t make a living without providing something of value. To provide value you need to supply it as a product or service.
2) Work everyday. Tim Ferris can work a 4-hour work week because he has a team of outsourced assistants that put in the bulk of the work hours for him. While he may put in 4 hours a week, the total time put into his business is much more. Your work-at-home dreams needs time put toward it. If you can hire people to do it, then you don’t need to work everyday. But if you’re the only one working on your business or searching for a telecommuting job, then you have to do it, and you can’t make a living working haphazard hours. Even if you can only give an hour a day toward your work-at-home goal, do it. Every little bit gets you closer. Waiting for big blocks of time, for the kids to grow up, or the stars to align will only keep you from working at home.
3) Engage your network. Nobody achieves success without help. Your network can give advice, feedback and connect you with people who can help you. Remember, working with a network isn’t about you begging for help. It’s about you sharing how you can help others.
4) Evaluate. It’s very easy to waste time on activities that don’t bring in money. If you’re applying to jobs and not getting hired, why not? Are you looking at the right jobs? Is your resume as good as it can be? Are you applying to enough jobs? If you started a business, what marketing methods are working and which aren’t? Are clients and customers happy? Evaluating helps you understand what’s working and what’s not so you can put your effort toward the activities that are making money and stop wasting time or tweaking those that don’t.
Build this…
Research has shown that the most successful people aren’t smarter or more talented than unsuccessful people. They don’t necessarily have more time and less hardship. The thing that sets apart those that achieve their goals and those who don’t is determination. If you want to work-at-home or reach any goal you need to build:
1) Grit. Neither Steve Jobs or Bill Gates finished college. Oprah was born in the south and raised by a single parent in the 1950s, and I’m certain if anyone back then said this little African American girl would be one of the richest women in the world, people would have laughed. The poor, women, and minorities had very little opportunities back then. If you want to work at home, you have to WANT to work at home and be a scrapper to achieve it.
2) Tenacity. You will stumble and fall. You’ll face challenges and frustrations. It’s grit, desire and tenacity that keeps you moving forward. Study the life any successful person, and you’ll learn they had to overcome a lot. Steve Jobs was fired from his own company. Bill Gates was sued for anti-trust. Helen Keller became an author and speaker, even though she was deaf, dumb and blind. Imagine if the founding fathers threw their hands up when the British arrived on American shores. What if Edison gave up the first, hundredth or thousandth time his light bulb didn’t work. This is where the rubber meets the road. Do you REALLY want to work at home? Are you willing to do what it takes and overcome the hardships to make it happen? Nearly everyone feels like quitting, but the successful don’t. They find a way to keep moving forward.
3) Confidence. Some people are born with it, but most people have to build it. It’s easy to get with success, but harder to maintain when things don’t go right. That’s where grit and tenacity come in. Building your confidence comes from knowing what you’re doing (research, study, mentorship, etc) and practice.
Over the years, I’ve met many who work at home and not one of them are living the life they want doing surveys, surfing the net for the fast, easy program, or licking envelopes. All of them did their research, found a work-at-home option that fit with their skills, experience or interests, made a plan, worked the plan, and kept on working when things got tough. All of them. All… of… them.
It’s time to take a serious look at your true desire. Do you REALLY want to work at home or would it just be nice to work at home? Are you willing to research and work everyday? Are you willing endure the setbacks and frustrations, and still keep going?
You see… working at home isn’t about the job or business you do, it’s about whether or not you’ve got the stuff inside you to make it happen.
[bctt tweet=”Discover what it REALLY takes to #workathome” username=”@ltruex”]
