The internet has allowed millions of people to work at home and make money online. It’s great because talents that were not easy to share before are now much more marketable. People make money doing everything from working as a virtual personal assistant to writing and recording custom commercial jingles. But whatever your particular work-from-home niche, actually making money at it is a matter of discipline and commitment.
When you work for yourself, time is your most precious asset. One of the great things about working from home is that you can adopt a schedule that works with your personal preferences. If you’re a night owl, you can almost always create a schedule that will let you use your most productive hours for work. Even virtual assistants can do this by strategically choosing the time zones of their clients.
But actually having a schedule is important, because even in a quiet household you’re surrounded by distractions. Allow time for the unexpected. Even the best freelancers will have projects that will require modification, and if you’re good, you will probably receive your share of last minute assignments from clients who have come to rely on you. If you end up not using this “padding” in your schedule for work, you can always use it for tasks like backing up files, updating online profiles on professional sites, and following up with potential new clients. Or you can use this time to get ahead for the next day, which is a great use of found time.
Use your calendar, whether it’s on your desk or on your computer. Prioritize tasks and stick with your list of tasks as closely as you can. If you have a lot of tasks, organize them on a spreadsheet and check them off as you do them. This can help you with client billing too. You do not have to buy expensive software for this because Google Calendar and Google Docs have all the functionality most people need, and are free.
Learn to handle outside distractions. People seem to have the idea that people who work from home have an endlessly flexible schedule. While you do have more flexibility than someone who punches a time clock, you still have a schedule and you have a number of tasks you have to accomplish each day. You may have to firmly but politely remind well-meaning friends and relatives what your work hours are and ask that they respect those just as if you were commuting to an office every day.
And finally, you have to take yourself seriously. Remind yourself each day, “This is what I do. This is my profession.” Meeting and exceeding client or customer expectations is how you keep the work coming in. At some point you may need to hire someone to take over some of the more tedious tasks. If you reach this point, then consider yourself a success! Just don’t forget the hard work that got you there, because nobody who wants to make money online can afford to coast on reputation for too long in the competitive online world.
