VirtualVocations

Lessons Learned

For me, working from home is a dream come true, but the experience hasn’t been without its nightmarish moments.  Here are a few lessons I’ve learned the hard way:

A stitch in time saves a whole lot of trouble.  We all have loose ends in our work-at-home lives, from calls that need returning to checkbooks that need balancing.  In my case, I once ran out of media to back up my files and kept putting off a trip to the store.  When my computer crashed, I lost several articles ready for publication, many rough drafts, and two chapters of a novel, all because I hadn’t stitched up a small gap in my data backup practices.

Don’t count your paychecks before they’re cashed.  Have you ever sat at your desk and calculated your projected income for the upcoming month?  I used to do this and once even paid for some items on a charge card, feeling confident my projected earnings would pay off the balance.  At the time, I was a real estate agent, and when a big closing fell apart, I was left with a big bill and no way to pay it.  Unfortunately, deals can fall apart, products can get returned, and articles can be killed.

You can judge a book by its cover.  When searching for work-at-home jobs or evaluating new clients, trust your instincts.  If something looks like a scam, it probably is.  If the warning bells go off with a particular client based on their tone or mannerisms, don’t do business with them.  I once took on a writing job for a client who seemed a little on the shady side, and sure enough, they were the only client who ever stiffed me.

Beauty is in the eye of the one who needs new glasses.  I tend to fall in love with my own work and ideas.  Egotistical, yes, but most of us who work for ourselves need big egos to survive.  Still, it’s wise to listen to our critics and see if there is an element of truth to their words.  When I was selling beauty products, I once wanted to stockpile a new product because I was sure it would be a big seller.  Fortunately, my husband pointed out the downside to this item, and when the product tanked, I wasn’t left sitting with a pile of worthless inventory.

Never put off until tomorrow what you should have done last week.  It took me a while to catch on to the fact that if I didn’t do my work, no one else who was going to do it for me.  I used to put off projects and then scramble like mad to meet deadlines.  Once, I ended up having to work all night with a raging fever because of procrastination.  These days, I work according to a schedule, whether I want to or not. 

You can teach an old dog new tricks.  I stuck my head in the sand when it came to educating myself about some key changes in the writing industry, and now I’m playing catch up.  While I’d rather not have to learn about social media, keyword stuffing, and article placement directories, this old dog needs to learn these, and many other new tricks.   

We all end up learning a few things the hard way in our work-at-home lives, but hopefully you can save yourself expense and frustration by learning from my mistakes.    

Posted:Monday, February 04, 2008