How to Start Working from Home Today

Work from home jobs are definitely here to stay. According to an infographic by Freelancing Hacks, 43% of American workers in the US will be freelancers by 2020.

Why the sudden shift?

People who work-from-home consider their careers to be more stable with multiple clients, compared to having just one employer.

Meanwhile, the Stanford Graduate School of Business found out that a work-from-home setup enhances work performance by 13% and provides an increase in yearly profits of up to 22%.

How to start working from home today should not even be a question.

But if you’re still undecided and still need more push to jump ship, this article is for you.

Things to Consider Before Working From Home

Before you proceed to article writing, transcribing videos, or other actual remote work, it’s important to conduct a thorough evaluation of these two factors first – your working space at home and your income cycle.

 

Consider your workspace at home

Imagine this: you’ve chosen your family’s dining table as your designated work station.

However, it didn’t take you long to realize that you can hear the television sounds and neighborhood noises on that spot.

Workspaces at home can either be conducive or discouraging. In the above example, it’s the latter.

Set aside a particular area in your house as your workspace. A quiet room that’s isolated from external noises in your household is an ideal one.

Make sure to declutter your space from personal items like electricity bills, books, or various documents that may distract you.

Store them with essential supplies too (e.g., paper, pens, highlighters, etc.), so you don’t have to leave your space often.

More importantly, make your household members commit to the ‘5-minute rule’.

It means that visits to your working area are limited to just five minutes – unless of course if it’s an emergency.

You wouldn’t want your rhythm to be disturbed by frequent knocks on the door or petty house issues.

Instead of wearing sando or pantulog all the time, you may want to dress up too.

There’s a great argument that dressing professionally boosts your mood and sense of image, which translates to a greater productivity and performance.

READ MORE: Need productive workspace ideas? Check out this list by Success With Freelancing.

Consider your pay schedule and flow of expenses

Income for freelancers, especially for beginners, can be unpredictable.

The volume of work at home jobs for moms, for example, may change from time to time.

You may land that big project which lasts for months. But after that, you may be back to square one – searching for new projects with no income.

To avoid this, tap the power of networking. Reconnect with old clients. You’ll never know if a single greeting can turn out into rehire opportunities.

Attend conventions and events in your field, too.

Get acquainted with co-professionals and leverage on how you can promote each other to get more clients.

With each paycheck, set aside a specific portion for your contingency fund. This will help you get through those dry days.

READ ALSO: 3 Money Management Tips for Freelancers

 

 Important tips on how you can start working from home.

 

Get a decent laptop

 Before you can find work from home jobs that are legitimate, find the right laptop first.

A usual, i3-powered laptop with 1,000 GB of hard disk drive is a pretty decent one. But if you’re on a tight budget, Chromebooks come in cheaper without sacrificing performance. This type of laptops is perfect for any online bookkeeping jobs too.

Meanwhile, ultra-thin laptops are available for remote workers that value portability.

For freelance programmers, a laptop with great power capacity and allows multiple programs to run smoothly, like MacBook Pro, is ideal.

For freelance videographers and editors, choose one that has impeccable screen quality since you’ll be dealing with a lot of vivid images.

Needless to say, your laptop’s capabilities and specs should match your work-from-home expertise and workload.

 

Don’t quit your day job – yet

Yes, start working today. But take extreme caution before deciding to quit your day job.

For one, you’ll need that steady source of income.

While you’re starting in your journey to work from home, you may find it hard to search for sustainable online jobs for Filipinos (given the competition and pricing in online job sites).

That is why you will need some form of assurance. It’s best to hold on to your job in the meantime while you’re attempting to grow your freelance skills, clients, and marketing know-how. Looking for online typing jobs for students?

Now if you’ve already left your day job, here are some quick cash fix that can get you through:

• sell your surplus items (at OLX or Sulit.ph)
• check your eligibility for SSS unemployment benefits
• drive for Grab
• simply collect from your forgotten utang.

READ MORE: Are you looking for online jobs in the Philippines for students? We’ve prepared a list for you.

 

Showcase your skills

In our previous post, we listed some legitimate online job sites you can find on the web.

Now it’s time to use those platforms – Upwork, Freelancer, and PeoplePerHour – to find potential clients, get paid, and establish your portfolio.

It all starts with the job board. Narrow your project search by choosing a specific category from the drop-down list.

For instance, select ‘WRITING’ from the main category, then choose ‘WEB CONTENT WRITING’ as the sub category for highly specified results.

When bidding for projects, you’ll be asked to send a foreword to the client. This gives you an opportunity to convince him that you’re the best person for the job. Let your client know how that project will serve as a platform for you to showcase your abilities in that particular expertise.

After a month of working from home, you should already have acquired some quality reviews and high-quality samples up your sleeves.

Use these sterling reviews and work samples to negotiate your way up to higher-paying freelance projects and to boost your online presence.

For instance, you may inform your online friends and followers about your online skills and services. Not all of them can be your clients, but some of them can really make impactful referrals to people they know.

 

Get an online wallet

Most online job sites already serve as a collecting agent for you. Most of these sites have your pay in escrow and won’t be released until you’re done with a task.

Once completed, they will release the funds your Paypal or Payoneer account – which are both leading online merchants that let you send and receive money wherever you are.

Depending on your client, you can also go for check, credit card, debit card, or electronic funds transfer (EFT) payments.

Frequency of payments can be daily, weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly depending on the client. Some do it per milestone.

But the more important thing is you should invoice frequently (i.e., preferably after every completed and reviewed task).

READ MORE: Need help setting up your PayPal account? Read this guide on How to Create a PayPal Account in the Philippines

 

FAQ: How can you check if an online job is a scam?

You can already tell right off the bat that an online job is a scam if you feel some honesty with how your client talks.

If your prospect client becomes  evasive after you opened up the topic about payments, that’s already a red flag. If he can’t answer straight or shifts the topic to the job specifics, shy away from that client.

Also, be mindful of clients that want you to prove your skills by asking you to do samples. Know that your portfolio is enough if he simply wants to get a glimpse of your proficiency and skills.

Now if he wants to you to accomplish an in-house task which he terms as a “sample” without any guarantee of a payment, it’s highly probable that it is a scheme.

Do you have any helpful tips on how other people can kick-start their work-from-home careers? Leave your comments down below!