The Work from Home Landscape

What would be better than pursuing your dream of writing and supplementing it with a part time job that allows you to set your own hours or utilize your own personal skill set? Let's welcome B. K. (Brenda) Jackson as she opens the discussion on juggling your dream of writing with the very real obligation of paying the bills.

Take it away, B. K. (Brenda) Jackson...

I once spoke with a writer at a Western Writers of America conference who told me he wrote his first draft manuscripts in three weeks! He did not indicate how long the revision process took afterward, but I would suspect that like me, most authors need considerably longer to write a manuscript draft. One of the reasons it takes longer is because of our “day job”.

I work at a hospital in the Phoenix metro area as an Administrative Assistant/Scheduler. My 8 hour a day job typically costs me 13-14 hours a day, plus I’m in school at night, so during the week days, being up 19-20 hours a day is typical (and those hours don’t include time for writing).

This scenario is not ideal for many reasons. Desperate for alternatives, I wondered about work from home jobs—not only to save several hours’ time out of my day and to improve my health, but because I have office space in my apartment that is to die for, and I’d like to be able to use it.

Don’t you just love all the natural light that fills this office?  I do!

I have found the whole work-from-home scenario to be absolutely mystifying. In day to day life, I come across people who work from home. When I watch HGTV reno shows, almost every couple who is going through a house reno has one or both adults working from home.

Where do all these mystical, magical work from home opportunities come from? I posed this question to a writer’s loop back in October to get feedback. I gained several good insights into the work from home market as well as emails from many others who were as frustrated as I about nailing down legitimate opportunities for work from home jobs.

Responses to my inquiry boiled down to two main categories of work from home:

First, people who moved into work from home positions at companies for whom they’d worked for a number of years and the opportunity became available. The typical types of jobs in this category included people who worked in:

·       Direct sales

·       IT

·       HR

·       Medical Billing

·       Government field rep

·       Test grading

·       Banking related jobs/analysis

The second category of work from home jobs comes from those who are freelance/entrepreneurs:

·       Photography

·       Freelance writing/copywriting/editing/reviewing

·       IT (ad sales, web design, etc.)

·       Consultants of various types

·       Teaching music

·       Corporate trainer

·       Virtual assistant

The first category would seem to be the most dependable financially, especially for people like myself who are our own sole source of income. Unfortunately, not all industries lend themselves to the forward thinking concept of work from home.  In healthcare, the closest you will get are experienced coders, but transcription opportunities are dwindling as technological changes occur. And while the work I do as an Administrative Assistant and Scheduler could easily be done from home, healthcare will never be able to make that leap.

The wonderful, tranquil view from my apartment—you should see those desert sunsets!

Freelance work seems to be on the rise and has great rewards—if you can manage the financial ebb and flow endemic to that career path.

Also as I have learned in my own searches, you have to be very careful when searching online for work from home jobs because the majority of them are scams. Someone recommended checking Monster or Indeed. I also checked into another website someone had forwarded to me but reading about them on the Better Business Bureau website left me with mixed feelings. Even those who use websites to search for any type of work get scammed—instead of legitimate opportunities, they get emails pressuring them to enroll in various colleges and rack up consumer debt.

A couple of the respondents to my query thoughtfully summarized that they felt the best opportunities to work from home probably fell among these instances:

* Web related work - coding and design

* Accounting

* Artistic work - painting, Photoshop, Etsy, Fiverr, 99designs, etc.

* High paid short burst work that takes lots of unpaid prep time - e.g. training

* EBay trading - buy low, sell high

* Daycare

The two most interesting responses I got were from one person who worked as a doula (I had to look that one up) and one who did some agricultural related work (goat cheese, handmade soap etc.)  How cool is that?

While it is not work from home, I also know someone who garners a nice side income as a house-sitter and she has really developed her business. 

For what it’s worth, here’s a link to a news video with work-from-home opportunities and websites (I cannot vouch for their validity): Legitimate Work from Home Jobs that Really Pay

For me, it boils down to changing the industry within which I work, or going freelance and taking the associated financial risks. I still have no definitive answers.

What about you? Have you dipped your toes into the work from home life to make more time for writing and other things? I’d love to hear your insights.

If being self-employed or working from home is just a glimmer in your eye, check out these 50 Self-Employed Business Ideas, then come back to Seekerville and let us know which one is the perfect shoe-in for you and your unique skills.

And, to get your creative juices flowing, Seekerville is giving away FIVE copies of the ebook 130 Work From Home Career Ideas. Mention in the comments that you'd like a copy of the ebook.

B.K. Jackson is an author of Arizona-based historical fiction as well as devotionals and screenplays. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers. Her co-authored screenplay, Esperanza, was a 2004 quarter-finalist in the national Fade In Awards. In 2008, her devotional work appeared in the compilation book Devotions For Writers.  In 2010, Principle Engagement won the Historical Fiction category in ACFW’s Genesis Contest.