I know so many people who dream of being able to work at home.  I also know a lot of people who would find it to be an absolute nightmare. How do you know if it’s right for you?

Do You Need to Be Around Other Adults All Day?

Working at home, especially with kids in the house, can be very isolating. You don’t get much time to talk to other adults. For some people that’s not a problem, but for others it’s an absolute deal breaker.

Social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as online forums, take away some of the isolation, but if you really love being around people that may not be enough. They really aren’t the same, although they can be tremendously distracting.

Do You Prefer to Be Supervised?

Some people prefer more supervision when they work than others. I don’t mean boss standing literally over your shoulder type of supervision; I mean the sort where you’re told what to do and when to do it.

Working at home works best when you’re primarily or entirely self motivated. Many work at home jobs require a schedule, but there’s still a lot of self motivation in sticking to that schedule and in really getting things done. It’s very easy to take too many breaks when you’re at home.

It gets even worse if you go the home business route and it’s all up to you. You have to figure out what needs to be done, when it needs to be done and how you’re going to get it done. If you don’t you aren’t going to be very successful in your business.

How Well Do You Cope with Distractions?

Being at home is very distracting. If you have kids, they’re often underfoot and asking questions. The television is right there, and the phone. So is the kitchen and the dirty laundry. Worst of all for some, the internet is waiting to be explored.

If you can’t cope with these distractions and more, you’re going to have a lot of trouble working at home.

Do You Know When to Stop for the Day?

One of the best things about working outside the home is that for many when you come home, that’s it. Your work day is over. Some bring work home with them, but for most the day is over when you’re at home.

When you work at home, doubly so for home business, work is always right there, waiting for you. And if you need extra money it’s going to be really tempting to take on some extra work.

For the sake of your sanity and your family, you need to be able to stop working. Spend time with your loved ones. Quit stressing about what you could be accomplishing and live life a little.

One of the biggest disadvantages to working at home has to be coping with the kids. It’s one of the biggest advantages too, but that’s beside the point just now. I’m talking about the times that you just don’t want the kids underfoot.

Especially if toddlers are involved. Home offices and computers in particular need to be protected from toddlers! They may not be able to accidentally download a virus yet, but the damage they can do just by randomly pounding keys is nothing short of amazing.

A childproofed office makes it easier to be productive. You don’t have to worry as much if the kids come in while you’re working, and you may be able to keep them out entirely. The challenge is making it childproof in the first place.

Close the Door

If your home office has a door, closing it is one of the simplest steps you can take to childproofing your work area. Younger kids can’t open it and older kids can be taught not to go into your home office without permission or need.

If you don’t have a door, you’ll need to do a lot more childproofing. Realistically, even with a door you’ll probably want to take more childproofing steps for those times one of the kids gets in there.

Establish Rules About Your Working Hours

If you’re working when the kids are awake, you’re going to need some rules about when they can interrupt you. Younger kids will need simpler rules, and if you’re the only adult in the house when you’re working you need to expect some interruptions.

As kids get older they get better at entertaining themselves and can deal with stricter rules. Tell them they can only interrupt you for emergencies.

Protect Your Computer

The computer is a major asset to most home businesses. It’s not just the value of the machine. It’s all the information on it. You really don’t want the kids messing with it.

If you have toddlers around, make sure they can’t play with the buttons on the front of the computer itself. I’ve gone so far as to cover them with cardboard when I’ve had a computer in reach of a child. The power button in particular often has pretty lights on or near it that draw a toddler’s attention and makes the button irresistible.

You’ll also need to protect your mouse and keyboard. It’s amazing what a toddler can do by pounding on a keyboard, and sometimes it’s hard to undo what they’ve done.

You can also protect your computer from toddlers by setting a password so that you have to login when you’ve been away for a period of time. Choose the time wisely so it doesn’t drive you nuts when you’re using the computer.

If your kids are allowed to use your business computer, set up rules that will protect your computer. Require approval on downloads. Be in the room whenever possible when your kids are using the computer. Talk to them at age appropriate levels about the hazards of the internet.

Not just for kids, but to protect your computer from the hazards of being a computer you will need antivirus and antispyware software installed on it.

Keep Cords and Outlets Safe

Kids find cords fascinating. Outlets are pretty neat too. You don’t want them messing around with either.

Most times they won’t get hurt. I’ve had kids unplug things on me, and it’s just a distraction, not a danger. But you don’t want your kids messing with cords, wrapping them around their necks, chewing on them as they teethe, you get the idea.

Find a cord organizer that works for you. It doesn’t need to be anything fancy, just something to keep the bulk of the cords out of the reach of children.

As for outlets, simple outlet covers do a pretty good job. You can buy covers that protect outlets while still allowing items to remain plugged in.

Know Your Noise Limits

Sometimes the amount of noise your kids make while you’re working doesn’t matter. Other times it’s a big deal.

Buy a noise cancelling headset for your phone for those times that you can’t have background noise on a call. They’re affordable and a big help when you don’t want background noises to make it on the call. They may not get everything if the kids are being particularly loud, but they’re a big help.

Noise can also be a distraction that makes it harder to be productive. Talk to your family about how much noise you’re comfortable with when you’re working in your office.

One of the big reasons many moms choose to work at home is so that they don’t have to pay for childcare. It’s a huge savings on the face of it. But would paying for a little childcare allow you to earn enough to make up for it?

It’s not something that all moms want to think about when they decide to work at home. You have your goal of being there for your kids, and it’s hard to say “but I’ll pay someone else for just a few hours so I can really work.”

Is It Fair to Your Family?

Depending on just what you’re doing and how many hours a day you really need to focus on working, it can be too much. Sometimes by far. You really need to be able to figure out whether or not you’re being fair to your family.

Working in spurts as the kids let you can mean you spend more time working and less time with your family than you would by paying for a little childcare. You may not have time to build the focus that you need to really get projects done.

You may also be building your frustration level. Believe me, I know exactly how frustrating it is to get interrupted while working on a project. It’s pretty miserable.

It’s not exactly fun for the kids either to have a mom who is grouchy from being interrupted, or to always be told they have to wait. Hearing that sometimes is fine, even a good thing as kids need to learn that they are not the center of the universe. Hearing that all day, every day isn’t so good.

Is It Fair to Your Marriage?

It’s not just the kids you can be unfair to when you work at home. It’s your marriage. Skip out on making time for your marriage isn’t a good plan.

Working all night, every night, plus all weekend, really doesn’t leave you much time to build your marriage, which really needs to be more important than your business. A supportive spouse is a good thing, but you can take their support too much for granted.

No, putting your husband into daycare isn’t the answer. I doubt the daycare provider would appreciate it. But using childcare enough that you have time for your husband and a break from your business is a good thing.

Is It Fair to You?

If you’re working yourself so hard that you don’t have time for anything else, yet you still struggle to get anything done with your business you probably aren’t being fair to yourself either. Using childcare can mean that you get a break for yourself later on.

Is It Fair to Your Business?

No, your business won’t care if you neglect it or are distracted, but it won’t grow as fast. If you have clients, on the other hand, they will care if you aren’t able to complete in a timely manner the work you agreed to perform.

Only you know exactly how much you want to grow your business. Not everyone wants a multi million dollar income from their business. It can sound nice, but if the work required doesn’t fit into your lifestyle, you probably aren’t going to welcome the idea so much.

But if you’re running a home business you need to be able to reach the goals you do have. If you aren’t working toward them because you need more time for your family, are you being fair to your business?

How Do You Find Childcare?

If you don’t already have a provider, finding one can be a bit tricky. There are services such as Sittercity that can help you to find a caregiver. You can also check for ads in the phone book, talk to friends about who they use or check newspaper ads.

What If You Can’t Afford Childcare?

I know this situation well. It’s not cheap to pay for childcare. But if you’re lucky you have options.

Local family is the best. From my own experience, I can state that retired, local and eager grandparents are absolutely the best. One of the hardest things about moving last year was moving away from my inlaws, who had previously taken my kids overnight once a week most weeks. A hard benefit to lose, as it gave me both work time and time alone with my husband.

If local family isn’t available or isn’t willing, it’s time to start looking at trading childcare with friends. Make friends with the parents of your children’s friends and you can make arrangements to trade care. Many families will appreciate the idea.

This means you will sometimes be caring for extra kids, but if they play well together that can mean you get more work time. Busy children don’t need as much direct supervision after a certain age. That means you’re freer to do what you need to get done.

Whatever you do, find the right balance between caring for your family, your marriage, yourself and building your business. It’s a tough balance, but one you need to figure out.

Sometimes working at home is really hard for me. Lately it’s being ridiculously exhausted, but there have been a lot of other challenges too. But that doesn’t mean I let them get to me.

It’s rather like being told “may you live in interesting times” and being grateful for the opportunity, not worried about the potential negatives to being in “interesting times.”

So many things that might have come easy to me have first come with a challenge. When I started out in medical transcription, I was their first Windows XP transcriptionist due to the death of the computer I’d had when I started the application process. I had to wait for their software to be updated to work for me.

Finally we were able to set a start date.

I go to log into the system on my telephone. At that time, most dictation came over the phone lines, not the internet as they generally do now.

No dial tone.

So I call the phone company. They guy says I’ve been disconnected but really doesn’t want to tell me why. Obviously I’m furious, and being rather pregnant at that time, quite capable of saying so.

It took a few calls to finally get someone to send me over to security, who tells me that my line was disconnected for fraud.

Yes, really.

That I’d been paying the bill already didn’t matter. They knew the account was fraudulent because the account had the social security number that belonged to a different customer, name of Stephen Foster. All quite reasonable in light of the fact that they contacted him and he knew nothing of me. It’s a classic way to do that sort of fraud, I gather, to use just a slight variation of the name.

Only problem was, I hadn’t given that number as my SSN. I’d used my own and I knew it. I also knew exactly how the problem had happened as I was a previous employee of the phone company and knew the software used for new accounts. When a name and SSN were punched in for the credit check, and the system didn’t find a match for the SSN, it would bring up similar names with the SSN for that name. I was able to tell security that that was clearly what had happened.

The person didn’t believe me at first, but she finally did check into it. I think the pregnancy hormones helped, as I was rather more… insistent… than usual. She came back really apologetic and I got my connection back after making sure they had all my right info.

And my boss had to admit that I had the most unique excuse for not starting work that she had ever heard!

Now I could have given up and just done… I don’t even know what. I don’t process the idea of giving up that well sometimes, even when I think I might want to. Starting to work as a medical transcriptionist should have been quite a bit easier at that point, but it turned into what was at the time a very stressful event. These days it’s funny but back then, anything but!

I look at my business the same way. Some of the things I think I’m going to be able to get done, no problem, turn out to be incredibly difficult because something or other eats away at my time until it’s all gone. That doesn’t mean it’s time to give up. That means it’s time to give the challenges hell until something happens.

It might not be the exact results I want but where in this business do you get the exact results you want anyhow? Only thing I know for sure that I’m getting for finishing this blog post, for example, is a finished blog post. It doesn’t guarantee me readers, income or instant fame.

All I can do is trust that I’m on the right path to steadily building my income to where I want it to be. I’m not there yet, but I will get there. Somehow. Someday.

I think I’m like a lot of work at home moms in that my original reason for working at home was to add to our family finances without needing daycare. Not all that much was needed, as by the time you take out the costs of daycare, transportation, wardrobe, eating out more and so forth, any job I was likely to get at the time wouldn’t be bringing in that much.

Either that or I’d be bringing in enough that we’d complain that my husband’s income was getting entirely eaten up by that stuff. But since I was the one having the baby and having left my job for other reasons at the time, as well as taking training in medical transcription, it just made sense for me to be the one at home.

And sure enough, those first few years I didn’t earn that much. I just worked part time hours on my transcription and dabbled in a couple websites. Nothing serious.

Until the first month that I had a website outearn my husband’s income.

That was quite a flash of insight. Suddenly I realized that there was much more potential in what I had been working on.

These days my sights are higher. I don’t always outearn my husband; matter of fact some months flat out suck. But knowing that I can do that has made me set my sights even higher.

I want to let him work at home.

That’s a tough one, I’ll admit. That means a sufficiently stable income to take that gamble. It means being able to pay for health insurance for a family of five. It means money to invest in whatever it is he wants to do and keep it up while he gets things moving.

After that, the goals get higher yet.

What Do You Expect of Your Home Business?

When you set a goal of just a couple hundred a month, you probably aren’t pushing yourself hard enough. It may be all you need, but is it really enough to motivate you to work as hard as it takes to get things going?

Admittedly the benefit of being there for your family is pretty motivating too. But it’s motivating in a different way than earning money.

Here’s the thing. If you can earn a couple hundred a month, there’s a pretty good chance that you can expand on those same concepts and earn more the same way. It won’t always work; some things just don’t grow that way, but often enough one thing leads to another.

I like having tiers of earning goals. There’s my basic goal of a regular $5000 a month which I’ve hit a couple times, but have yet to reach regularly. And since my lows can be really, really low yet I know I have a good bit of work to do.

But that goal is just the first, and it’s not enough to get my husband working at home. Not in southern California anyhow, and we have no plans at this time to leave the state. Both of our extended families are primarily here.

Set your goals high enough to be challenging but low enough that you know you’ll reach them eventually. You won’t know how long it will take, but make it reasonable and it will happen.

Plan rewards for yourself for each goal. I have rewards planned both for occasional high earnings and for when things start looking regular.

How Do You Get There?

There are a few key factors to reaching your business goals. One quite simple to say – hard work.

Hard work won’t guarantee success, but you’re not likely to get anywhere without it.

But there’s generally more to it. You need to invest time and money into training yourself. How you balance this depends on what you can afford to spend versus how long you’re willing to take to find the right information.

If you’re in network marketing, for example, downloading The 7 Great Lies of Network Marketing and buying The Renegade Network Marketer can be a great place to start. You need to know how to build your business, and trial and error or working your family and friends isn’t always all that effective. It’s better to learn from someone who knows what works.

The resources you pick depend on just what it is you want to do. If you really aren’t into network marketing, those resources aren’t going to do a thing for you. They’d be a waste of time and money.

Pick just one business skill you want to improve. It should be something that helps you to make money, whatever it is. You might want to do more on AdWords and want the latest version of Perry Marshall’s AdWords guide. You might want to learn more about article marketing, blogging, forum marketing… any one of many more skills that you can use to grow your business.

Yes, you’ll probably have to spend money. Buying ebooks or training from reliable sources is very much so worth the expense. You might find the same information for free elsewhere, but you’ll have to dig through a lot of garbage and inaccurate information first. The time saved is worth it most of the time.

Don’t try to improve all your skills at once. You’ll probably just make it harder to improve any of them. Pick one. Get comfortable with it and see how it works for you. Focus on it.

Once you’ve really mastered it or decided that it really isn’t for you, then you can go on to the next thing. Don’t drop anything that works well for you, of course.

Your focus should always be on meeting your goals. While you can have very simple goals, the simple truth is that having higher aspirations can be more motivating than merely wanting enough to get by. Don’t settle for good enough. That can be your first goal, but why let it be your final one?