Benefits Of Working From Home
A growing number of people are opting to work from home these days either on a new home-based business venture that they’ve always dreamt of pursuing or in an arrangement with their existing employer which provides them with the flexibility to work remotely, perhaps for a couple of days a week. Working remotely is not the same as working from home of course. If you have the option to work as a digital nomad, roaming the world with nothing more than your laptop or mobile phone as your principle work tools, then you’ve no need to ever worry about things like investing in an ergonomic office chair for those long hours spent at your home office desk! Chances are, all you need is a reliable alarm clock to wake you up for the next flight as you jet set around the world in pursuit of your next remote working location! Getting back to reality though, dreams of blogging from Bali aside, there are plenty of reasons why working from home is an excellent option and we’re going to look at our top 10 today.
If you’ve been considering making the major life-changing decision to work from home but have been daunted by the prospect. Don’t be! Working from home as so many advantages and while granted, it requires plenty of research, planning, and commitment, the benefits can far outweigh the fears, and it may be even more liberating than you’d ever imagined. So let’s consider 10 reasons working from home could be good for you.
1. You Get To Spend Time Doing The Thing You Love
Perhaps the most significant reason why people decide to make that bold leap to work from home is to pursue a life long passion or dream and to escape what they previously perceived as the rat race of the 9-5 life. Working from home, you get to turn your hobby or passion into your business, and once the profits start to roll in, there is no greater sense of satisfaction. Whether you’re a budding writer, graphic designer or have set up a workshop in your garage, turning your passion into profit is so satisfying.
2. More Time For Parenting Or Personal Pursuits
This point dovetails with our third reason, controlling your schedule, but if you feel like your regular job is just taking up too much of your precious time, then working from home could very well be the answer. Having a flexible schedule which enables you to make time for your kids or even to pursue another passion in conjunction with setting up your home business can be incredibly liberating. So many people today suffer with the work/life balance, and as long as you have proper time and diary time management skills, there’s no reason why you can’t fit it all in!
3. Control Over Your Schedule
This has to be one of the most significant advantages of working from home. There’s no pre-set 9-5 required with an hour of commute either side of the day that involves the setting of an alarm clock at 7am every morning. You can entirely customize your working day to fit in with your own requirements. That’s great if you have parental or other personal obligations which mean that flexibility is something that you crave. As long as you are organized and keep a detailed diary, you can be both proactive, productive as well as fitting in all kinds of other external obligations by working from home. If you fancy a power nap at 3pm or fitting in an extra Pilates class, that’s your prerogative! Just try not to spend too many hours sat staring out of your office window procrastinating about what to do next or cleaning the kitchen floor for the third time this week! To work effectively and efficiently from home requires strong entrepreneurial skills and plenty of skill motivation and organization. It’s definitely not for the easily distracted or those who need lots of company and stimulation.
4. No More Commuting
This in itself might be enough to convince many of you to make the break from the corporate world and switch to a home-based business venture instead. Yay cutting back on the level of commuting you’re not just freeing up time, but you are also freeing up money. Whether that’s travel expenses or more frequent wear and tear and money spent on your car, you could end up saving a decent chunk of money by working from home.
5. Tax Benefits
This is a massive benefit of being self-employed and working from home. If you’re not 100% clear on all of the advantages currently, a good accountant will be able to help you maximize the benefits even further. One of the perks being that you can write off against your income business expenses and equipment that you need to invest in, as well as a portion of your home and car if your legitimately use both of those for your home based business. So if you were worried about the cost of purchasing a new laptop cooling pad or thunderbolt dock, these can actually all be claimed back as expenses against your earnings when you come to do your end of year tax reconciliation.
6. Control Over Your Income
Perhaps one of the most significant fears that individuals have when they do go solo is the worry about making a consistent, viable monthly income. It’s true that you may experience more ebb and flow when you are working for yourself but consider the potential upside too. You are entirely in control of what you charge for your services, you can set your own income goals, manage your own budgets and ultimately are the one who influences what level of profit your business turns over. For some people, that prospect can be frightening, and for others, it’s totally exhilarating.
7. You Have No-One To Answer To But Yourself!
For some people, this is a series draw! Not everyone enjoys being told what to do, especially when there’s a new, younger and well-experienced upstart at work who doesn’t appreciate your wealth of talent or experience. No-one is calling the shots but you. You decide how you want to work, the hours you want to keep when to clock off, and nobody is looking over your shoulder, checking your progress and ensuring you meet company deadlines. If you fancy a lie in, have one! If you are feeling under the weather, there’s no need to phone in sick! That said, there’s also no-one to pick up the slack and deliver the project or you, so strong ethics is called for.
8. If You Want To Wear Pajamas To Work, You Can!
Literally, you can wear whatever you want! No corporate tie and Blazer policy to adhere to, no uniform that needs to be pressed and ironed every Monday morning. If you want to wear your jammies, go ahead and be our guest! One thing we would say though, wearing appropriate attire will actually help motivate you and put you into a better working headspace so while you might not need to dust off the formal suit, adopting what we’d describe as “business casual” will certainly help put you into the right mindset to enjoy a more productive day.
9. You Get To Learn And Develop A Wealth Of New Skills
With no IT department to back you up when things go wrong, or Marketing and PR to create a big buzz when you land that new client, all tasks big and small, fall on your shoulders. Of course, you can choose to outsource a lot of the functions that don’t interest you to another professional remote worker just like yourself, but you can also choose to have a go at learning a whole new set of skills that will help you to grow your business. From desktop publishing to web design, blogging to getting a handle on your social media, you design your own working day and decide upon which elements you want to retain control of.
10. The Levels Of Satisfaction When You Are Successful Are Incomparable!
Everyone knows that there is a direct link between feeling successful and fulfilled and being happy. When you are doing what you love and what you ultimately feel the most passionate about, you are far more likely to be driven towards success, increasing your productivity and to achieving your personal and professional goals. The results will flow and so will the profits, and that brings with it such an overwhelming sense of pride, satisfaction, and self-worth. You might also find that you are generally a much nicer person to be around!
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