When I first decided to quit my day job and freelance full time I had this naïve vision about how glamorous working from home would be. I still see blog posts like this floating around. While working from home hands down beats any day job I’ve ever had, it’s not all puppies and rainbows.
In all reality I absolutely love what I do and wouldn’t want to do anything else. But that doesn’t mean what I do isn’t work.
Inspired from family and friends who keep telling me “it must be nice to sit around all day and get paid” or who make comments like “I wish I could play on the computer all day.” Or “can you teach me what you’re doing, it seems so easy.” I thought I’d give a totally realistic view of both the pros and cons of working from home online.
This post is in no way meant to be complain-y or ever discourage anyone from working from home (like I said it’s way better than a day job) I just want to paint a realistic picture of what things are like from my point of view.
The Pros of Working From Home
Let’s start on a high note and go over all the wonderful things about what I do.
I’m In a Position Where I Can Be Picky About Who I Work With – When I first started freelancing I took just about any and every job I could. Now that I have built up more of a name for myself I don’t have to do that. In fact at the end of the year I went down to only working with two different people.
I love that. I don’t feel like I’m all over the place anymore and it’s been easier to get into a routine and stay focused.
My Income Is Unlimited – My income potential is unlimited. The better I get at what I do, the more strategic I am, and the smarter I work, the more money I can make. This month is going to be my highest month yet and I’m pretty stoked about it.
I Have More Job Security Than Someone with a Day Job – I think it’s pretty crazy that some people don’t like the instability of freelancing. Sure, you have to learn how to budget your money in lump sums rather than weekly or biweekly amounts, but as far as job security it can’t get any better.
My income is diversified. I am one hundred percent confident that if I ever lost one stream of income I could replace it in a month. And since my income comes from so many different places I’m pretty safe.
I Am Flexible – If I had a sick kid I wouldn’t have to call into work or figure out where to send her, she’d be able to stay home with me. If I lost a babysitter, which I just did, I don’t have to scramble to send my daughter to the first place I find.
I Genuinely Enjoy What I Do – I think this is best part of the work from home gig. I really love what I do. I don’t dread going to work. I wake up and (most days) am ready to jump on my computer and see what has come in for the day.
I Have Grown Leaps and Bounds as a Person – Pushing myself out of my comfort zone is something that I have done a TON of since I started building up a work from home business. I feel like I have grown so fast as a person in the past two years. I feel so much more confident.
I Have Met the Absolute Best People – I am from a small town, there’s not many like-minded people around here. And to be honest I’ve never had many female friends. Working online has changed that. I have met so many women who I genuinely care about and who I am happy to call my friends.
The Cons of Working From Home
As you can see for me the pros are pretty great but that doesn’t mean working from home doesn’t have its down side too.
There is No Down Time, You Get Paid For What You Do – I get a lot of comments about how it must be nice to sit around the house and do nothing. As you can imagine it frustrates the hell out of me. When you are freelancing you get paid for what you do. Period. If you don’t work you don’t get paid.
It Takes Hard Work and A lot of Time to Build Up an Online Business – I can’t even count how many hours I’ve worked unpaid. (Hello, blogging.) But that’s what it usually takes to build up an online business. This isn’t for the faint of heart. There’s no such thing as an overnight success. It takes massive work!
You Have to Be Self-Motivated – There’s no boss standing over your shoulder telling you what to do. If you’re not excited about the projects you’re working on you’re not going to do them.
Coming up with New Ideas Every Day Can be Hard – This is only true to the writing aspect of the business. After two years and hundreds of blog posts coming up with blog post ideas can at times be challenging.
You HAVE to Have a Schedule – I think this is the biggest misconception I had prior to freelancing full time. You hear all these stories of the “laptop lifestyle” and while it’s true that you can travel the world and work online, you’ll crash and burn if you don’t have a schedule.
Taxes- Yuck. It kills me to transfer those large amounts into savings for taxes each month. When you are self-employed you have to pay not only income taxes, but also Social Security and Medicare which comes to 15.3% That equals the amount you’d pay working a day job plus the employers match. It sucks.
You’re Always at Work – When you work from home you’re always at work. It can be hard to resist the urge to pick up the computer and work every spare minute you have. While I’ve gotten better at this (I rarely work on the weekends I have the girls) there are many nights where I just can’t fall asleep because I have some amazing work related idea floating around in my head! Another downside is being lonely when working from home!
Working with People in Different Time Zones – This isn’t a complaint for me but I think it’s something that a lot of people might not like. When you’re working with people from different time zones (which is now everyone that I work with) you have to be able to find a time to have team meetings. This happens to be 8 or 8:30 pm for me.
It’s Not a One Sided Story
I read a lot of articles where self-employment is either made out to be this 4 Hour Work Week type of fairy tale or it’s made out to be the worst thing ever. Really, it’s neither.
Sometimes it’s the best thing ever and sometimes you just don’t feel like working and have to force yourself to do so anyway.
I work harder at this than I have ever done at any day job but I’m completely happy to. Even on the bad days I know the work I’m doing will pay off and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Dear Alexa, I am so thrilled to have found your site! I’very been considering making the switch to freelancing but haven’the been able to save money or start while still working full time. How did you make that initial transition? Was it a total leap of faith? I love your site & writing style! Thank you!
Hi Carolyn thanks so much for the comment! Before I quit my day job I saved up a pretty decent sized emergency fund (which was easy to do since I could funnel all of my freelance income to savings.) Since I wasn’t making much money ($11.50/hour at the day job) I felt like I had nothing to lose. I built my income up to where it covered my minimum expenses and then I quit.
I figured if it didn’t work out I’d have no problem finding another job. 🙂
I LOVE working from home. It’s indeed difficult, especially when you have a small child, but it’s rewarding. Just knowing that I can spend all day with her and enjoy a sunny day for instance, then work a bit in the evening, really makes me happy. I do need to work more to increase my income, but it’s still OK, we can still put food on the table and enjoy our family life.
Yes it is so hard to work from home with a kid! Since I lost my babysitter I’ve been experimenting with my schedule.. Haven’t found the sweet spot just yet but I’ll keep trying!
I’m so glad I found your site! Everyday I read it for inspiration and I just love your posts. I’m not a single mom but still a mom who is determined to work from home. I know it’s hard work but truly satisfying. I hate leaving my kids to rush off to work and depending on my job to provide for my family. Each day I’m getting closer to finding my path to become a freelance writer and build other steams of income. Your posts are honest and refreshing! Keep it up!
Thank you so much! Seriously, means a lot to me! Just keep trying. It took me about a year to build up my income to where it could replace my day job but it was completely worth it.
You’re welcome! Your blog is now one of my favorites that I continuously visit daily and find inspiration from!
I am a single mom and about to make the big transition and I can’t wait to be able to just stay home and be there for my daughter. The military life has been really hard on her and I want her to remember mommy being there. Thank you so much for sharing this. I hope to one day live similiar to the way you do. Thanks for sharing.
Good luck, Petrish! I know you’ll get to where you want to be!
I loved having a home based business. It was great to be flexible and to work on my terms.
Always being at work gets tiring though. Especially when you get phone calls after hours or clients stopping by when you’re not at your most professional.
Yes definitely. I’m glad nobody stops by here. I don’t even wear makeup anymore I’m so used to not leaving the house!
I work a full-time job but am also working on building a career from working at home. My issue is trying to convince friends and family that when I am at home working, it is work and I can’t be disturbed. I used to live with my sister who would come into my office and say, “come shopping with me” or call me to look at a cute video on her computer. It is hard to get them to understand.
It can be really frustrating that nobody really gets it. I’m to the point now where if someone tells me I don’t need a babysitter I tell them to take a four year old to work everyday for a week and see what they get done. Working from home is still hard work!
All valid points! But, the one I suffer with the most is wanting to work every second of the day and not being able to sleep when you have ideas. (My boyfriend has recently brought it to my attention that this is an issue…)
I love this post! I am new here, but already love it. And I totally agree with you – you must have a schedule. I know it. Otherwise you don’t get done anything you had in plan. I have a 9 – 5 job, however, I am also building up my own business to work at home full-time. Whenever I work at home, I have realized some days are more productive than others. It does not only depend on me, but instead of my toddler son. Everyone who has kids knows that there are days when they can play by themselves, while other days they only follow you entire day and wish to play with their mom. And I guess there is another con I sometimes notice – guilt. It is great to work at home, however, sometimes I feel guilty siting on my laptop while my toddler is sad and playing alone. However, I have realized that having a schedule (for instance 8-10 am work; 11-12 playtime) works the best. Working at home can be very challenging, but very rewarding as well. Good job 🙂 And thanks for the post!
I find it rewarding to work from home. I get to spend more time with my son that I never would have had if I had an office job. It’s harder especially when you have small children, but it’s just a matter of finding the right schedule that works. Thanks for the great post!
HI,
I just decided that I wanted to work from home. I thought about it before but I had some concerns.
Now I think I’m ready to start something new. I have a 6 year old daughter , I work full time, and I’m a full time student.
is there any extra advice you can spare with me making this choice.
I had a similar situation, I had the desire of working from home for a while and applied to several jobs on WAHspace and when I found one that I liked and got the job, I tried to keep both jobs (the new WAH job and my regular office job) at the beginning but I had to quit my regular work soon and focus on my new one. Now I feel great and don’t have to waste so much time commuting and I’m saving a lot of money, plus having more time for family.