Are You Work At Home Material?

A few days back I came across a couple of articles belonging to two different work at home dads: Why I hate working from home and Why One Partner Needs to Go Out and Work. They both talk about obstacles that come into the life of a work at home entrepreneur.

I somehow have the feeling that both of the guys might have had second thoughts about the option of working from home, had they known what’s ahead of them. In other words had they made a deep analysis of their personalities and whether this is the right environment for them or not.

Seeing what ignoring such an issue can lead to, I decided to conduct this analysis on myself. I’ve found that I am work at home material and that I would cope quite well with some of the disadvantages that a home business could bring along.

To get to this point, I asked myself a few questions which I’m going to share with you. I hope that by doing so I can help you decide whether you should consider this option or not.

Here they are:

1). Do you hate, or at least dislike something about your job (what you actually have to do at your job, your boss, the commute etc)?
As I said in a previous post there’s folks who just love their job. I admit that if it’s your case, you might not be reading these lines in the first place (as you would not be interested in such a topic), but you never know. We all know how many office folks waste a bunch of time on the internet when they should be working. I don’t dismiss the possibility of some of you spotting a headline that promoted working from home which caught your attention.

Hate towards one’s job is one of the biggest motivations that turns people to the work at home world (or so I understood). It certainly had a big influence on me. It’s true it’s not the case for everyone. However, I believe if there really isn’t anything you dislike about your current job (and I’m not talking about the fact that your office window doesn’t have a nice view, but rather something that makes you hate the fact that you have to go to work every morning) you might have a problem. Why? Because it’s not easy to build a home business. There’s plenty of times when you feel like giving up. If there’s nothing you dislike about your job, there’s one less thing to motivate you to keep on going even when you feel like all your efforts are in vain. I personally hated all the jobs I’ve had so far. Even if this last one is the most enjoyable of them all, I still can’t say it’s perfect, simply because I hate working for someone else. That’s what I hate about my current job: I hate working for someone else. Every incident caused by this, fuels my desire to make it all work.

2). How much of a sociable person are you?
Have you ever met folks who just can’t stand to be alone for one second. I have a friend who hates being alone so much, that he is (almost) constantly on the phone with someone. It happened many times that we were supposed to meet somewhere in about 10-15 minutes and he would call me while driving to our meeting place just so he would have someone to talk to? Is that you? ‘Cause if it is, you’ve got yourself a little problem.

Since I don’t have any brothers or sisters I’ve always been in the position to find stuff to do on my own which taught me to become comfortable with not being around people all the time. Many times I even enjoy a little quiet time by myself. It gives me the chance to put my thoughts in order and so on. Every now and then I have the feeling I enjoy this lonliness too much.

3). How easy do you get distracted?
How many times have you found yourself browsing the net, the TV channels, the newspaper (when you’re already up to date with all the news there is)? How many times have you found yourself engaging in an unproductive conversation at work? Can you say no to such distractions? I’m guilty of some of them. You may be guilty of others. The truth is that if we don’t understand that such distractions can have a huge impact on our business (I would dare say they can make it or brake it) the outcome is not a very happy one. I know it’s hard to overcome these temptations, but, with a little will, discipline and practice they can be defeated. Not necessarily once and for all, but often enough as to keep you focused on your work.

4). Do you need to be pushed from behind to get things done?
Similar to the above: if you lack the self discipline to sit down and work on your projects (even if you still have two more weeks until your deadline) you have a problem.

I remember when I was in school, I hated to study and do my homework. I would always postpone it to the last minute and get myself into very stresful situations. Somehow, it turned out to the best, because apparently I was doing a better job when under pressure. However, every time I was in these situations I hated myself and swore I would not let them happen again. Guess what?

It still happens now with things I don’t enjoy. A home business involves processes we are not very fond of. If you’re anything like me, when time comes for you to deal with them, you might end up postponing them to the point where sometimes a week has passed, and you haven’t done any work, simply because you can’t pull yourself together and deal with these issues. This is another one that needs some will, ambition, self discipline and practice. It’s up to you.

5). Do you love working under pressure?
I used to work as a prep cook/waiter/manager in various restaurants. I used to love it when it was busy. Not only I was making good money, but it gave me the adrenaline. Although the job I have right now is much better than any of those, I still miss the rush they used to give me. And I can only imagine I will never get used to not having that in my life. I have proven to myself that I can live without it, but I guess there’s some folks who can’t. I strongly believe working from home will prove to be a wrong decision for them. Unless they start a business that involves that kind of lifestyle - I can’t imagine what that could be, but I guess you never know.

6). What’s your family’s position on you starting a home business?
I consider it’s very important to make them understand why you’re doing this, what is it that you want to accomplish and maybe even bribe them with giving an attractive answer to the good ol’ question: what’s in it for me? You want them on your side, to support you and understand why you can’t spend so much time with them at the beginning, why they (as well as you) have to make so many sacrifices until you get things rolling. There’s no doubt: you will have to make sacrifices if you want to get it right and not give them the opportunity to hit you with the “told you so” (unless you believe in all the get-rich-quick-schemes promising to make you rich in no time, with no effort, no expenses and no sacrifices).

Well, these are the points I thought are worth considering when deciding whether working from home is for me or not. The truth is I’ve done this evaluation long time ago. However, at that time I didn’t really have a realistic idea of what was waiting for me. That’s why I believe I did a good thing reevaluating the situation.

Any other ideas?

Posted in Life vs. Business, Piece of Advice, Work at Home |