Work From Home Is More Realistic Than Ever

Years ago, the idea that someone could work from home and support a family was more of a pipe dream than a reality. There was no such thing as blogging, social media marketing, content marketing, or ecommerce websites. If you wanted to work for yourself, your choices were limited to options like door to door sales or producing & selling your own products. Through advances in technology and the Internet boom, options to work from home are now virtually endless.

As a stay at home dad, I have explored many work from home ventures. I needed to find a way to make money from home, support my 5 children and my wife, and be around as a dad. The idea of walking around saying, “I do this for you” but never actually seeing my family wasn’t something I was interested in. I have explored working in direct sales, blogging, running , and playing music. The best part about all of these opportunities are that they are legitimate businesses and have great earning potential (with the possible exception of . I do that because I really love it.). Through some trial and plenty of error I have discovered which of these work from home opportunities work for me. Others might find success or excitement in these or completely different ventures.

As a self-proclaimed “dad-preneur,” I feel that the Internet has brought about some incredible income generating opportunities for stay at home, full time parents. Although the there have been plenty of negative events, I believe the positive benefits of working from home far outweigh them.

For me, the biggest benefit while raising my kids was that I was able to stay involved in their lives while building my businesses. I didn’t have to miss important life events. I was able to coach my sons in basketball and not only listen to my daughter’s recitals, but perform with her as well. Those are moments I wouldn’t trade for anything.

These days, the kids are all grown up and moved out. I love visiting with them and I enjoy being able to focus my work efforts on building my businesses.

Despite what you may think, you do not need to be a hard-core entrepreneur in order to work from home. There are options to telecommute as an employee for large companies that hire work from home employees. For example, hires people answering calls and helping customers with various requests from the comfort of a home office.

Many employment opportunities like this also include benefits, which when you have a family to take care of are a huge plus. Typically they ask that you don’t have your children around you while you are working, because that can be a distraction.

The biggest  to most work from home opportunities is that the income is often not guaranteed or stable. As a , I am limited to the number of performances I can schedule during the week. If I have an “off” week, then I will not see any gig money coming into my bank account. If sales are off for any of my internet marketing companies, my income drops, as well. This is the reason most people have a hard time taking the leap from an traditional job to working from home. I made some big mistakes early on. I recommend keeping your regular job and working your business in the evenings, on the weekend, or between shifts while you are starting out.

I have always felt the desire to “be my own boss”. I understand completely the difficulties you may face working for  someone else. You don’t get to set your own hours. You are told what to do. Your are told how to do it. In most cases, even if you do an amazing job, your pay is already set so there is very little financial motivation to work harder or faster.

Don’t be afraid to explore your options. Most people can find something that both they enjoy and can get paid for. The internet is an amazing place, and you may be surprised at what career choices you may find. Start by taking a look around this site to see what may interest you.