One MORE thing I love about working from home – different projects

Another one of the things I love about working from home is the variety of work.

You don’t have to just do the same thing day in and day out. Again, you get to choose your work so the possibilities are endless. I do so many different things that I never really get bored and I’m always learning something new and adding new skills. This also helps my marketability.

I have done everything from data entry to transcription, customer service, typing, paralegal work, video creations, article writing, writing auto-responder messages, research on all type of fun topics, office management (which I currently do online), blog posting (for people I work with), and a hundred other types of work.

I have a ton more skills than I started out with when I first began my online venture and I’ve learned so much along my journey.

So now not only do I have a lot more knowledge that I can work with but I am also able to market myself more widely because my skills just keep piling up.

It’s a lot different than doing the same exact thing day in and day out for years at my old job. Not much ever really changed, just the date.

Now it’s always something new.

If you’re not already working from home, here’s just ONE MORE reason why you should be and why you’ll love it so much more than your 9-5.

K

What equipment do you need to start working from home?

Not much. You can get started with nothing more than a computer and an Internet connection.

Some jobs require you have a land line phone for making and taking calls, setting up appts, etc. Some jobs require you have specific types of programs or software to use with their position, If you don’t already have these and can’t afford them right now – pass those jobs up, there are thousands more you can do.

What you’ll need depends on the job you choose and since there are so many jobs to choose from, pick the ones that fit what you already have to work with. Then move up to a land line phone, more software programs, etc. if you want and when you’ve made some money that you can reinvest into your business.

I started with a computer, an Internet connection and a printer. I eventually got some transcription equipment from eBay when I was in my transcription phase but other than adding software programs to my arsenal along the way, I haven’t really added much more to my office – haven’t needed to!

Don’t ever think you can’t work online from home because you don’t have this or that. There is something for everyone no matter what you do or don’t have.

K

Working at home can get lonely

Something you need to keep in mind and plan for is the fact that working from home can get a bit lonely at times.

I don’t really mind it because I can be a social butterfly or a flat out hermit and be happy – that’s just me. I have grown to love the peace and quiet (kids and dogs aside!) of my home. Most of the time, I prefer it over the social scene.

But it is something you need to be aware of and plan for when deciding to work from home full-time.

There’s no more chit-chatting with different people in the office, office luncheons, lunch with co-workers, etc.

It’s just you and your computer.

There are several ways you can combat this.

• Plan lunch with a friend once a week (or more if you like)
• Instant Messaging! – Love It! I have a couple of friends that I IM with throughout the day. We chit-chat, gossip, pass jokes, etc.
• Take a break if you’re working a full day and go somewhere. To the gas station, the grocery store, run some errands, get your nails done – whatever. Just some sort of break to break the mundaneness for a little while. You’ll feel refreshed and ready to focus again when you get home.
• If you have a dog, take her for a walk. This is always nice for me. Me and my dogs get out for a little while, walk, play and enjoy the fresh air.
• Get out of your work area for lunch even if you don’t go anywhere. Don’t burn yourself out, take that break. Maybe call a friend and talk for a few minutes. Just break your mind off of work for a few.
• Go to a coffee shop and have some coffee if you’re a coffee drinker. You can even take your laptop and work there for a bit if you have one and they have wireless Internet (which most do, even fast food restaurants are picking up this trend).

Get creative, there are a lots of way to combat it but those are a few ideas to keep you from getting bored, lonely or feeling too detached from the rest of the world before long.

K

OMG Nightmare online employer

Okay, I’ve been SO lucky to work with some of the best people ever but there are some nightmare employers out there and I finally had the pleasure (cough) of working with one.

The woman is crazy, period, and she wonders why she keeps going through freelancers – it’s always them of course. I wonder how many it will take for her to wonder if it’s actually HER? With her Godlike syndrome, probably never. She’s perfect in every aspect when she looks in the mirror – mirror, mirror on the wall, why are you telling the biggest tale of ALL?

Don’t be taken advantage of by any employer.

This lady wanted way too much for free. Now I’m a nice person and really easy to work with, extremely fair in my billing, etc. but I need her to get a grip! Well, it doesn’t really matter if she does because I called it quits but she’d do well to get a grip.

She really didn’t pay too well as it is, not terrible, but not to my standards but she sounded decent, had some interesting work that I wanted to get involved in and promised more money once we got a few things going. Okay, fair enough – and again, I was really interested in some of the stuff she had going and wanted to learn more so I figured it would be good experience for me.

Next thing I know it’s “can you do this real quick”, “can you do that real quick”. I did a couple of things without billing her, they were just quick few minutes things. No big deal. Um, until it started adding up. There were so many small things that those minutes started adding up to hours by the end of the week.

Plus she kept me on IM for LENGTHY amounts of time. Literally. She was online pinging me when I woke up and would be there all day and all night pinging me. And be annoyed when I wasn’t there. If I wasn’t online, she’d call me…no matter what time it was or if we had been working all day. Lady, I have a life. This is why I work at home – for flexibility. Unless you are paying me a LARGE amount of money, I am not at your beck and call day and night.

I eventually started billing her for some of this stuff.

Sorry but I can’t keep losing that much time, now you’re totally taking advantage of me and my kindness – please don’t mistake it for weakness.

She got irritated that I was billing her for things that only took a few minutes – never mind the fact there were a s&$! load of “few minute tasks” that accumulated to HOURS. Sorry but I don’t work for free.

Then she asked me to take on a higher position part-time because it needed to be filled and I was interested in it. So if it worked out, I’d take that position and we’d fill my current position with someone else. Now mind you the pay for this higher position paid more, and it should, I am not getting ‘flipping burgers pay’ for management – yeah right.

So I billed her separately. One bill for the original position at the lower hourly rate. One bill for the higher position tasks at the higher position rate. She didn’t like that, she wanted me to do it all for the original position pay.

Okay, this lady is officially crazy and I’m done!

She had told me a million stories about all of the freelancers she had gone through and at this point I know exactly why.

On top of trying to be flat out cheap but want top quality work, and someone to babysit her at ALL times, she was way too arrogant, thought she knew EVERYTHING and no one else knew anything.

The woman once told me “I don’t think you understand how email works”. Ummm, did you really just say that? My knowledge of the Internet goes WELL beyond how email works! And I’m quite sure this was evidenced in the highly commended work I did for her. But she’s just one of those people that feels superior to everyone – oh, I’m sorry, since you’re God can you answer my prayers (I’ll keep what my prayer was to myself!)

Anyways, just wanted to rant for a minute I guess LOL and say don’t ever let someone take advantage of you. If they aren’t fair and want something for nothing, it’s going to turn all bad. Your work and time is valuable and you should treat it as so even if someone else doesn’t.

After all of this happened, I went back and read reviews on her, wish I would have read them first. I’ve just never had a bad experience with an employer so live and learn. She had a ton of negative reviews – people she hadn’t paid, people saying exactly what I said, people addressing her condescending attitude, her wanting too much for free, etc.

If you can check out an employer, do so. If you read a ton of bad stuff, pass them up. That’s one of the treasures of working online, you CAN be choosy.

Remember, you work for YOURSELF. Don’t let anyone devalue you or your time. ‘We aren’t in Corporate America anymore Toto’ – you can’t work my fingers to the bone for slave pay and be a jerk too!

K

P.S. – I’ve since seen her post that same position and others a hundred times LOL, guess she still can’t keep anyone. I’ve thought about telling her why but I don’t know if I’ll bother.

I’m sorry but are you working JUST to put gas in your car these days?

Geez, the cost of gas just continues to rise and it doesn’t look like there’s any relief in sight!

I went to get gas and I thought, yanno if I was still working at my old law firm, a nice chunk of my salary would be dedicated just to getting to and from work! I don’t do a ton of driving anymore since I work from home and I still feel sick to my stomach when filling up!

I think I’d have to ask for a gas allowance if I was still commuting! Seriously, that’s not even a joke. I can’t work JUST to get to and from work to make someone else rich, no thanks.

Okay, nothing earth shattering today (or maybe it is), just something that was on my mind.

My Virtually Freelancing eGuide

I have written a short and simple Guide to Virtually Freelancing. I’m adding a few things and I’ll give you the link to it then.

I have helped a few people start their work-at-home business and they are now working full-time from home comfortably. Each of them just used the information, tips and tricks I gave them and started getting work immediately…most of them had already been trying to get this venture off the ground for a while and it just wasn’t working out for them.

They’ve all said I should write a guide on this topic so I finally decided to do so. I have the knowledge of being a successful online freelancer and also an online employer so I know both sides quite well.

This is something that maybe a few people will get right off – but for most of us, it takes a lot of trial and error, searching all over the web, research and a lot of time (that we aren’t getting paid!) to figure it out and really make it work well enough to make a comfortable living at home without worrying if we’ll be able to pay our rent.

I’ve been providing consultation on this subject for a while so why not put it all it written form so that others can do what I do?

Again, it will be short and simple…to the point. A layout of what you need to know, need to do, need not to do, pros and cons, memberships vs. not having memberships, billing tips, etc.

And I plan to add a few extras like how and where to find work in any field. The places I’ve used in the past and the places I recommend. You should basically be able to take this Guide and get started; I’m going to give you the very simple formula I used to become successful.

Feel free to contact me if you have specific information, answers or guidance you’d like too see in the Guide.

How much money can you make working from home?

As much as you want. It’s up to you.

You have the flexibility to choose the jobs you take and negotiate the pay. Online jobs range anywhere from minimum wage to $50+ an hour. Some even pay quite a bit more than that.

I started out making anywhere from $10-20 per hour depending on the type of job and the employers…some pay more than others and some jobs are worth more than others.

Now I easily make $50/100+ an hour for a lot of my projects – and they aren’t really hard work and most of them I quite enjoy doing.

You can make way more than at your 40 hour gig if you do it right…and in less than 40 hours.

The sky is the limit, you are the one who determines how much will be hitting your bank account.

Freelancing Facts

So last time we talked about common myths of freelancing.

Now let’s talk about some facts…

• Employers of virtual freelancers look for different things than employers of onsite employees when hiring.
• Your resume alone WILL NOT sell you for an online position.
• It can take you months to years to perfect your online job landing skills.
• Employers of freelancers generally have TONS of proposals to sift through and choose from.
• Only 1 out of 10, and that’s being generous, of most proposals are worth even reading.

In handling the hiring process for a client who I act as Virtual Office Manager for, I was ASTOUNDED at the slim pickins out there for Customer Service Reps…a job that requires fairly simple and common skills.

I honestly couldn’t believe my eyes. I don’t remember offhand how many proposals we had for the job but it was between 100 and 200. We went with process of elimination…if they don’t do “xxx” or if they do “xxx” or X, Y, or Z factor, hit DELETE and don’t read any further.

I found myself having maybe one submission left every few days.

I couldn’t believe the amount of people who got themselves eliminated…often within the first couple of sentences of their proposal, that I knew HAD to be qualified for this position. But they didn’t do the simple little things that are important when writing a proposal OR they did the things that shouldn’t be done.

I was in the process of writing my Virtual Freelance Guide eReport at the time so I did a little research. For the next week, those that were getting the “DELETE” button…I would glance over their resume and previous projects. What I found was that they likely very well had the skills and ability to handle this position and even positions that required more skill and technical level BUT they lose the employer with the proposal.

I say this over and over again because it is a FACT – most employers WILL not look at your resume, your prior experience, etc. UNLESS you sell them on your proposal. (Sometimes they don’t even look then, I’ve worked with clients who never review resumes at all.)

And the FACT is that most people THINK they are writing a good proposal. But that’s so rarely the case. If you aren’t landing AT LEAST half of the jobs or projects you bid on, you aren’t writing a good proposal.

I can say this because I honestly can land just about any project I want. Why? Because after years of perfecting my proposal (and building a reputation), and now managing the hiring process of virtual freelancers, I know what a project-landing proposal consists of.

And you can’t just have the content right either. There is a very specific formula to landing projects and if you don’t follow it, you won’t land the jobs very often. Thing is, it’s actually a very simple formula – people just either overdo it or underdo it.

…I really didn’t even mean to go on a rant about this – I always end up doing that when I write on this topic! I can’t help it. It is truly something that astonishes me. I wish it weren’t wrong for me to post examples of tons of proposals so that I could show you.

So, I’m done. I just wanted to stop in and provide some “Food for Thought” for you when writing your next proposal or trying to get your next freelance gig. And I did that with the five facts I provided at the top of this post.

Zipping my lips,
K

Freelancing Myths

Let’s attack a couple of freelance myths.

1. Your resume will support your proposal – MYTH
The fact is, and I constantly mention this when teaching others about working online, online employers rarely look at your resume; and if they do, it’s only after you have been added to their “favorites”. It’s your proposal you have to rely on.

2. You have to have experience in the particular field to get the job – MYTH
This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Again, your proposal can win an employer over even if you don’t have experience in the particular position they are hiring for. It’s happened to me on numerous occasions.

3. It’s not okay to write a friendly proposal, you must be strictly professional – MYTH
While it’s not okay to use lingo like “LOL” and that sort of thing, most employers want personality. A lot of them are seeking someone they can develop a relationship with and enjoy working with. But there is a fine line in between what’s okay and what’s going overboard.

4. Putting your resume in your proposal will show the employer your skills – MYTH
To the contrary, it shows that your ability to sell yourself lacks because you are trying to cram something down their throat that is already available to them and sell yourself with positions you’ve had before only. Refer back to number 1.

5. It’s easy to write a winning proposal – BIGGEST MYTH OF ALL (unless you know exactly what you are doing which unfortunately most people mistakenly think they do).
SO many people think they are seriously writing a good proposal and, on a good day, 1 out of 10 of them are actually winners. It never fails, every time I post a project I’m drowning in terrible proposals and scrounging for just a few good ones. And I can’t help but assume the people submitting these proposals think they are actually decent proposals…or they wouldn’t have submitted them, right?

Jobs that you can do from home

Because of all the “work at home stuffing envelopes” type scams, there is a misconception still about what type of work you can actually do from home.

The FACT is you can now do ANYTHING online, from home, that you would do at your regular job (obviously with the exception of serving food, etc!).

Employers are always hiring for everything from skilled to unskilled positions. There are tons of jobs, full-time and part-time, short-term and long-term, available every day.

Everything from data entry to typing, transcription, customer service (via phone and/or email), admin assistance (exactly what I do), writing articles, forum posting, video creation, web site management and creation, uploading images or articles to websites, posting ads, accounting and bookkeeping, paralegal, and ON AND ON. If I created an entire list, it would be pages long so to put it simply – EVERYTHING.

Literally, anything you would normally do from an office can and is being done online now. And there are employers that need people to fill these positions.

Over the past decade, tons of employers have gotten hip to the idea of hiring virtual freelancers. There are a lot of benefits for them too they’ve learned. And you now have so many people running their own business from home that they need other people who can work from home for them – attorneys, Internet Marketers, etc.

I’ve been working from home online for about a decade and I’ve never stuffed an envelope or “got paid to read ads” though there are some legit jobs for that out there too.

So don’t underestimate the fields of work out here. Anyone has some skill or ability they can apply online to work from home. Don’t think for two seconds that you don’t have what it takes to work online or that there isn’t a hundred or more jobs out there fit for you. There is, I promise.