There are two ways to work from home: telecommuting and as an independent contractor.
Many regular employees always work from home, or only go into the office on specific days of the week. They still have a boss; they still collect a paycheque. But they can do their jobs remotely from a home office. I’ll call these folks telecommuters.
Others work for themselves. They take on as much or as little work as they desire. They can work on a single contract for months, accept only short-term gigs, or juggle several contracts or revenue streams at once. I’ll call these folks freelancers.
I recently read two great work at home books. Both books are by the same authors, Christine Durst and Michael Haaren, who are quite well known in work at home circles. Their Rat Race Rebellion website, while not pretty to look at, is packed with useful information, including daily, screened work at home opportunities.
Work at Home Now: The No-nonsense Guide to Finding Your Perfect Home-based Job, Avoiding Scams, and Making a Great Living
is their newest book and is a great resource for telecommuters and freelancers. It contains a quiz to help you determine if working at home is good fit for your personality and skills, lists tons of real work at home opportunities in a range of fields (including adult phone worker!), and provides tips on how to avoid scams. It also describes how to best search for work at home opportunities using search engines and on job sites like Monster. They provide concrete information about most of the opportunities they discuss, meaning you can hop online and apply if you’re so inclined.
If you’re a regular employee who prefers to work within the rat race, but you would like to work from home part of the week, you might like the chapter on how to convince your boss that allowing you to work from home is a good idea.
My only niggle with the book is that if you’re not American, some of the information won’t apply to you—not enough to pass on the book, but enough to irritate. If you’re American, this book is as good as it gets.
The 2-Second Commute: Join the Exploding Ranks of Freelance Virtual Assistants is aimed at those who are considering freelancing. The cheeky cover illustration has a map with a dotted line going from the bedroom to the home office. Yeah, that’s the commute. This book is particularly helpful if you’re wondering whether freelancing is a good fit for you, or if you’ve already decided that you want to freelance but don’t know how to start or what services to offer. Topics include self-assessments, setting up your freelance business, marketing, and tips on how to balance freelancing with home life.
I read a lot of non-fiction. Because getting a non-fiction book out there is so much easier now, I’m coming across more and more books that don’t offer much beyond what you could find by surfing the net. Durst and Haaren’s books are old-school. Both books are well worth their cover prices and will save you a lot of time and headaches. If “work from home” is on your radar, check them out.
