Are your work from home fears holding you back from earning income from home?
Maybe you’re a SAHM mom who wants to earn some extra income while saving on childcare costs and being with your kids.
Or perhaps you work full-time outside the home, but you want to be with your kids more.
Starting anything new can be scary, and working from home may feel overwhelming. I know I felt that way when I explored working from home years ago.
Here’s how I have overcome some of my work from home fears, and some tips for you to feel more confident when you take the plunge to work from home.
The fear that I can’t make money working from home
According to smallbiztrends.com, 3.9 million Americans worked from home at least part-time in 2017. This number may be underreported because it might not include people working less than part-time or business owners who work from home.
The numbers show that a few million people are earning money working from home – and that’s just in the US. The question you need to ask yourself is, “How do I earn money working from home?”
Several years ago I needed to make some income while my husband was in grad school and we had two young kids. I did some research and realized that I could become a transcriptionist and earn $15-$25/hour. That career seemed to be a good fit for me because I’m a perfectionist about grammar, I have a good ear, and I can type fast.
So I spent hours learning how to transcribe and how to find a good company to work with. And within a month or two I was earning a decent part-time income as a transcriptionist. I had found the right job for me that worked with my family.
So how did I overcome my fear of getting started?
I never looked at working from home as a get-rich-quick scheme. I knew it would take time, perhaps a little money to get started, and lots of hard work.
So I took it slow at first. I started with research. I asked myself:
- What are my skills, strengths, and experience?
- How can I work around my kids’ schedules?
- How much income do I need to make?
- What’s the average pay rate for this work and how long would it take me to make the income I need to make?
Once I did my research, I started out small. I did a few small projects to see if transcription was a good fit for me before I invested more time and money.
I found that by taking it slow, doing my research, and having a play that working from home wasn’t quite as scary.
The fear that I’m not skilled enough to earn money
This can be a big, scary fear because it can feel very personal. And I think it’s a common fear for women and mothers, especially if you’ve been out of school or the workforce for many years.
I felt this fear when it came to writing.
In high school and college, I wrote a lot. Between papers, reports, and essays, I was writing all of the time and became very confident in my writing abilities.
Then I had kids and my writing trickled to a stop. I was teaching piano lessons, and working as a transcriptionist, and being a mom, but for a good eight years or so I wasn’t writing.
And I was scared to write. I was scared that among all the sleepless nights, and making meals, and spending most of my day with kids younger than 5 that I had lost my writing skills. I wondered if I was now a terrible writer.
At that time my husband’s company, where I work part-time, was short staffed. They needed my help writing for clients. So I had to step up.
How I overcame my fear of writing
Jumping right in
I knew that the only way to be a good and confident writer was to practice. So I read about how to write well and then wrote a blog post. Then I read some more about writing and wrote another blog post. And after writing enough, I was no longer afraid.
I already had the base skills that I needed. I just needed to refresh them with a bit of skills training and practice.
Shutting down negative self-talk
As women and moms, we can second guess ourselves and our abilities. The truth is? Motherhood has made us strong, and smart, and flexible. It’s taught us to research everything from signs of an earache to how to stretch a meager grocery budget. It’s made us persevere through sleepless nights. And it’s taught us love and compassion and doing hard things.
Perhaps you feel like you’ve lost your skills like I felt with writing. Or you’re nervous that you haven’t had a professional job in ten years.
Remind yourself that you’re a mom and that you have skills and talents.
Just because you haven’t worked in years doesn’t mean you’ve lost all your skills or that you can’t retrain.
It may take time, but you can do it. Even if you don’t believe in yourself at first, just try. Confidence will follow learning and practice.
The fear that I don’t have time to work from home
My life as a mom is very busy, and you probably feel the same way, too. There’s only so many things I can balance at once before either the house gets messy, or we’re eating cereal for dinner too often, or my kids watch too much television.
When I started out I was scared that I wouldn’t have time to do everything I needed. And while I had to say no to some things, I still said yes to the best things and found a way to earn money.
How I find time to work from home with kids
I’ve learned that life doesn’t get less busy as my kids get older. It just changes. If I want to work from home, I have to make the time in a way that works for my family. And sometimes that might mean simples meals, or less time on Facebook, or working only 5-10 hours a week.
Another way I found to fit work in when I’m busy is to break my work down into very small tasks.
When I was creating my transcription courses, I didn’t have hours a day to spend on the courses. Instead, I broke the work down into smaller chunks like writing one script for one video on one day. Another day I would record the audio, and another day I would edit that audio.
By consistently spending 20-30 minutes a day, I completed my courses each time within a few months and started earning money from them. That same technique can apply to researching careers or teaching yourself new skills.
I find that when working is important to me, I make the time.
Ready to overcome your work from home fears? Get my free Work from Home Workbook.
The 20-page Work from Home Workbook will help you set out a detailed plan for the best way for you to start earning income from home.
