In this post I’m going to introduce you to another person who’s been very successful working from home, Anna Thurman. Anna is the owner of another work at home website, Real Ways to Earn Money Online. Here’s what she had to say about her work at home journey.
How did you get started working from home?
I started off doing little things like answering texts for ChaCha, paid surveys, and stuff like that. Then I discovered how much more money I could make doing freelance writing online, and I stuck with that for a long time. That sort of led to blogging and now I primarily just blog for my home income. * What kinds of problems did you run into when you started looking for work from home jobs? All the scams! When I first began my search back in 2006, it was hard to find anything real. Most of what appeared at the top of Google search back then were bogus things you had to pay for.
Did you ever get pulled into any work from home scams?
No, but there were a few times I came very close.
How did people react when you started working from home – did any of them tell you to “go find a real job”? How did you respond?
Most of my friends were amazed and me to help them find jobs from home, too. Some other people were fairly skeptical and I got the impression maybe they didn’t believe I was really working for home or thought perhaps I was being scammed and didn’t realize it. Now most of them take me very seriously though.
How do you set boundaries with your friends and family so you can accomplish what you need to?
It’s hard. To this day, I still don’t really have a firm boundary set. I tell the kids when I’m working that I need some time to focus but that if they need something I’m still here to help them out. I try to be done working by the time my eldest is home from school, but it doesn’t always work out like that.
How do you keep yourself focused and motivated?
I do some number crunching at the end of each month to see how much I made and what I accomplished as far as the financial goals I set for myself. Meeting the goals, and even not meeting them, makes me want to improve. Looking at the numbers closely really helps motivate me either way.
How do you balance working from home with your other responsibilities?
It’s difficult. I’ve tried different things, but I’ve never stuck to any one plan. Some days it does help me if I go ahead and get most of the house work out of the way before I start working so that way it isn’t staring me in the face while I work.
What do you find most stressful about working from home, and what do you do to relieve stress?
The most stressful thing for me is juggling household responsibilities. No matter what I’m doing, I feel guilty for not doing something else. If I’m working, I feel like I should be cleaning. If I’m cleaning, I feel like I should be working. And of course as a mother it’s hard to tell your kids that you can’t spend time with them right that moment because you’re working, but sometimes you have to do it or money doesn’t get made. That’s why I try to get everything done during the day so I can have the evening entirely “off.” You’ve got to make family time a priority though no matter what doesn’t done. I think I’ve just made peace with the fact that some days just aren’t going to be as productive as others for whatever reason.
What advice would you give to someone who’s thinking about working from home?
So many people give up before they even really start looking because they realize the process isn’t as easy as they first thought. I would probably advise newbies to not let the information available overwhelm them and to start out slowly. Maybe pick up a few smaller “eggs” to do here and there while still hanging onto their day jobs. Work from home isn’t suited to everyone, so it’s probably best to take it in small doses at first before making a major decision to leave a stable, brick and mortar position if you have one. If you don’t have an outside-the-home job, then you’ve got nothing to lose, and I would say go for it — do the research, see what’s out there that matches your skills, and see how it goes.
Anna owns the site Real Ways to Earn Money Online, where she reviews different companies that provide work form home jobs, and also lists different work from home jobs that she finds. You can find a link to her website on my Resources page.
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