Working from home: Pros & Cons & Where to Start

I’ve been working from home for over 4 years now so I figured it was time to share a little bit of my own experience with working in the same place I call home.

If you’re new to the blog here, I have been in real estate for almost 4 years and have had some form of home-based work ever since. I graduated college with a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications thinking I would go into the world of news back in 2011. Well, as you can tell–that didn’t quite happen. 

I decided that style of work just wasn’t my cup of tea after my internship my senior year of college. So, I ended up working various office jobs in the banking world and the legal world too. I found out, after many-a cubicle trial and error that I was not made for your typical 8-5 style job.

The very first job I had working from home was summarizing medical records (or a form of transcription) for the law firm I used to work for full-time. I took it on alongside my first few years in real estate and actually really didn’t mind the work. I found out so much about myself during that time, one important factor being that I actually was very capable of being self-motivated to get up and get to work every single day–without an actual office or boss. It was the freedom my personality desperately needed and thrived off of. (#introvertsunite)

Once that ship sailed, and the work ran dry I found myself back into an office job for a short period in digital marketing as a Social Media Manager. From there, once again and not surprisingly I wanted O-U-T. I couldn’t be stuffed into my desk in between those four walls any longer and hit the door running as fast as possible. Now, don’t get me wrong–it absolutely wasn’t because of the work itself. I actually LOVED my job in digital marketing, which you’ll find out more on later in this post. It was the being stuck in one place all the day long staring at a wall for 8 hours that was draining me mentally and physically every single day by 5:00pm. I couldn’t be creative, and I simply was unhappy feeling so stuck all day every day. It certainly didn’t help that Nick was self-employed and has been for over 10 years now so his schedule was wide open leaving me suffering from serious FOMO.

That brings me to the current “now” state that I’m in. I started tapping into my inner journalism love from college and found my way into freelance writing and social media management. A few sites like “UpWork”, “Scripted” and “Writers Access”, among many others were my ticket to freelancing and I haven’t looked back since.

Again, don’t get me wrong here either and think I’m telling you freelancing is the ticket to millions because it’s by far the opposite. It’s not easy, and still plenty of brain use required but it’s something I’ve found real love in doing. I’ve worked for various companies throughout the country from writing blog posts, creating social content and graphics and so much more! It’s been such a fun ride and it couldn’t fit me and my introverted yet creative personality any better. I truly loved my job in digital marketing and social media but just needed to find a way to be able to take it outside of 8-5 hours and on my own terms. I really felt like I found my passion in creativity (which is why I started this blog in the first place) and was able to put it into action.

Not everyone will understand this type of thinking but I know from personal experience that I’m definitely not alone. I love the freedom of being my own boss, making my schedule (whether that’s waking up at 5:00am on a Tuesday to write content or working to 8:00pm on a Saturday), and most of all being able to take my work with me wherever I need to go. I’ve taken my work with me to the beach, in the car, and downstairs to the fluffy blue couch right next to my furry co-workers/children. It’s literally been everywhere.

Working from home definitely has its perks, but it also has a few negatives that go along with it, as does every single job out there. Some of the cons, in my opinion, would be you can get a little lonely at times. You don’t have that office comradery that you do when you stumble in exhausted on a Monday for an 8:00am meeting discussing how everyone’s weekend went and what the plan for the rest of the day would be. You certainly miss the lunch dates and the general small talk that goes along with working in a typical office. But, the hardest part in my opinion when you choose to go the freelancing route with working from home would have to be the inconsistency of a paycheck. Where my experience comes into play here, would be that’s not very new to me as real estate is the exact same way. In the life of an average realtor, you don’t count your eggs until they’re hatched and that means all the signatures are on the dotted lines and that check is deposited into your bank account. This can mean jumping through a TON of hoops in order to just get paid for the work you did for 6+ months sometimes. That’s another story for a different day though.

I say all of this to tell you that if you’re looking for a way to change up your day to day and escape your 8-5 the same way I did, maybe you could look into the various forms of freelancing too! It really is a giant world out there with endless possibilities and you never know, you may just find what you were missing all along! Take the risk and just put yourself out there and see if any fish bite. It certainly won’t hurt if you just dip your toe in the water. See what you can find and then maybe one day you’ll be able to jump in headfirst and swim off into the sunset. Okay, that was a bit dramatic but you get the point. 

I hope this helps if you’ve ever considered working for yourself as a freelancer or starting your own home based business! Feel free to leave your questions or comments below and I’ll be happy to help in any way that I can!

Questions for you:

Have you ever worked from home? If yes, did you like it? What did you do?

Do you love your day job right now? If yes, what do you do? 

What was your very first job?