The Truth About Working From Home

The very idea is delicious! You are going to make a living creating art and beauty from the comfort of your home. You are going to put your treasures up on the internet while still in your jammies and sipping your coffee and have all the free time in the world to take care of the house and kids and, ummmm, not exactly.

While many have a wonderful vision of what it means to work from home at a crafting business, the reality is a very different story.  Before you quit your nine to five, take a few minutes to make sure that this business is the one for you to dive into full time.  This is NOT to say you should not make and sell your handmade treasures, but think long and hard about whether or not this business is going to be your full time job or remain a very rewarding side business.

Most people that work from home work much more than a 40 hour week.  Because there is no separation between “work” hours and “home” hours, the two may start to blend together.  You may jump up from your creative project to fold that load of laundry or take that call from a friend which you would not be doing at an office setting….well, unless you have a very laid back office!  If you are going to work from home, you need to be willing to set hours and schedule yourself just like you would an outside job.  You also need to know when to walk away from the business to avoid burning out.

Interruptions are a fact of life, but the interruptions at home may be very different from those at an office.  If you are a mom, you have the ever present little people that seem to not understand that mommy is working!  If your family is not fully on board and supportive of your at home business you are going to be fighting an uphill battle.  Take the time to sit down with your family and explain what it is that you are going to be doing and that it is a JOB.  Come to an understanding regarding when it is OK to interrupt you during the day and when they should wait.  Set office hours that are yours to work on your business and make sure that your family respects those.

You run the risk of becoming a hermit!  Working from home is not like an office where you have daily interactions with real live people, whether you want to or not.  When you run a home business, chances are you will be spending hours alone.  Don’t allow yourself to become a hermit.  Schedule lunch with a friend or an evening out; you need personal interaction, the real person kind not Facebook, to keep in touch with the world and stay sane!  If you realize that you have not seen anyone other than your family for the last few days it is time to get out.

Are you self-motivating?  Some are wonderful at motivating themselves to get work done despite all the distractions of the outside world.  For them, the idea of a deadline is not a problem because they are able to put down the coffee and get off Facebook to get their work done.  For others?  Not so much.  For others, they need a real person behind them to push them to move.

When you are working on a creative business from home, you are going to have to do a number of things that don’t make you immediate money.  These include promotion, creating prototypes and marketing.  While these things will eventually pay off, it is very easy to put those tasks off that you don’t care for.  If you are going to build a successful business from home, you have to be willing and able to force yourself to do those less than pleasant tasks without anyone pushing you from behind.

A creative home business can be so rewarding but you have to make plans and know what you are getting into.  If you think it through and make plans, you can have the best of both worlds!  Take the time to look at your business and yourself before diving in and you will greatly increase your chances of success.

 

Tags: business, craft, Handmade, handmadeartists, home business, ideas, selling, selling tips, tips, working from home

Posted in Handmade, Handmade Artisans, Handmade Mode, Information, Selling Tips