Greatest Challenge working from home?

Hello,
I am new here also new to working from home.
Just curious if my challenges with working form home are unique.

What are or were your biggest challenge when you started working from home vs working at the office?

Look forward to hearing from you all.
Louis

I didn't have many challenges initially, working from home, but as time marched on these last two years; I did encounter some difficulties. One big one is the cabin fever. When you sign up to work at home full time, you don't think about how much you will want to get out of the house!

Also, in moving a couple of time, I found that ISP's are not always the most understanding when it comes to work at home individuals. They feel that if you are not one of their business customers, then your complaints about serivce issues are not as important, and they don't take priority. Never mind that you may make about the same amount of money as they do and can't afford their business class service, your internet is supposed to be for entertainment if you don't upgrade, and they can take their sweet time in getting you even the service that you've signed up for.

Drk,

I was thinking maybe I am the only one who gets lonely working from home.
I am trying to get out more to coffee shop's and meetup, that seems to help some.
But I am still thinking of ways to get over the cabin fever

The biggest challenge for me is avoiding interuptions. When you work at home, sometimes people don't realize you are busy and actually doing work, lol.

My biggest challenge was that I enjoyed talking too much to people and helping my team!
In the Home Business world, one must always Be Active Everyday Doing Income-Generating Activities.
Be careful that you don't spend too much time just talking and visiting!

Yea I get that a lot why don't you quite playing on your computer and come help me with the kid Guess what I am not playing actually trying to make $. Good point
For sure it's easy to waist all day and not get any income generating activities done.

Thanks for the great discussion!

Still trying to balance it all

Next step is to figure out the whole "how to make money "

Hi Louis,

You know I have been a lot about this conversation since looking at this yesterday and have concluded that really the best income generating activity is to talk to people, and a lot of people. It is nice to think that all we have to do is work at the computer, and that is great! But talking to people is the key! I think that is the hole!!!

My personal biggest challenge was just staying focused and making sure I was utilizing my time wisely. Sometimes I would find myself caught up in social networking while I was supposed to be learning traffic technics.

Another problem of mine was information overload and learning to avoid scammers pretending they could teach me the skills I need to become successful. Things started to look up when I started to follow this method, E.U.I.

E.U.I. is educating, understanding, and then implementing. When I was introduced to this method it opened a whole new door for me and I've been doing phenomenal since!

Kind Regards

First of all welcome Louis, and I hope you're getting on ok. I think my biggest challenge working from home is motivation. I have done this for many years, so I know all of the logical arguments for focusing on certain things. But emotionally, it can be hard to wake yourself up at a specific time each day and finish the things on your task list. I normally work with my fiance on our ventures, but he is away from home right now so it's even harder. I don't have my regular sounding board and support. My family is supportive in general, but not being involved in business it can be hard to bounce ideas off of them in a way that is helpful.

That's why forums like this are so helpful. While I don't have my business partner with me, I can still chat with others who are experiencing the same things and get their insight and share ideas.

Claudette,
Thanks for sharing that tip. Coming from a brick and mortar business meeting people came natural. "they walked in the door" I totally agree I need to set times to leave the computer and just get out and talk with people.
TK, The E.U.I looks very interesting I wanted to read more about it, but it looks like it isn't a link. I think even from the 3 words there. I learned something valuable. Thanks! But if you have a link please share.
Ina,
Thanks for welcoming to the forum! I joined the forum for the same reason. Actually I think this is the first forum I joined.
And I am really enjoying it! It isn't so lonely when there are others to share with!
Thanks to you all!
Have a wonderful day!

Hi Louis, welcome to the forum.

My biggest challenge was trying not to get bogged down doing so many different tasks that I was busy all day, but when the dust settled, I hadn't really accomplished much. In my excitement I found myself biting off more than I could chew.

Eventually I figured out that I should focus first on those tasks that would generate income and grow my business, and then attend to other matters in descending order of importance.

I made many mistake in those early days, but today I'm wiser and much better off because of them.

Hermas

I agree Louis. I'll be glad when my fiance is back in town so that I have my business partner back! But until then, this and other forums have been very helpful in confirming certain things I was thinking about doing or not doing and getting a beat on what entrepreneurs are really thinking.

I guess if I had to choose a second biggest challenge, it would be funding. I am like most entrepreneurs who fund everything out of their own pockets. Because of this it can be hard to determine exactly what does and doesn't need to be invested it. It isn't so much of a problem once you have a little income coming in from the opportunity because you can simply reinvest. But having to choose between certain services because there isn't a lot of money for funding isn't so easy.

One solution I've found to this is very close to home. Both my sister and her fiance have S-Corporations due to their contracting statuses. This makes it easy for them to invest in something and write it off as an expense. My sister has agree to become an investor for a little while to help things get off the ground. That takes care of the monthly expenses of running the business so that I can invest what income I do have or gain in marketing and advertising. It's nice to know that she'll get that back if for some reason I can't pay it back later. Anyone who is having the funding issue might try talking to folks they know who own businesses and seeing if they'd be willing to do something similar. That may not be a solution for everyone, but you'd be surprised. These days we tend to know more business owners than we think we do!

Great thread here. Love reading everyone's responses. My biggest challenge has been not having a great schedule or list to check off. Getting my to do list in home business prioritized and a time set apart to get those tasks done has been my biggest challenge to manage.

Hi Theresa! I don't know if you've tried this already or if it'll help, but here are a few things I do to help myself set a schedule and to-do list.

To me, communication and follow up are most important. So I set the early part of my day to responding to forum comments and blog comments (but NOT tweets or other social networking), emails and support requests and any other kinds of request for communication. Voicemails are responded to first so that I don't manage to call someone to close to lunch time and miss them. As a note, the early part of the morning (between 8am and 11:30am) is when most other people are communicating, commenting on and sharing blog posts, retweeting etc. So I want to handle my communications during that time because I'm more likely to get immediate responses, answered phone calls etc. Also, we tend to promise people that we'll look into things and get back to them first thing in the morning. If you're the type of person who does this then it only makes sense to set the majority of your communication activities in the morning.

If I have finished my communications and have time before 12pm (lunch for me), I try to get in at least 1 blog post. They usually only take me about 15 to 20 min if there are no distractions, so it's possible to get 2 in before lunch. If I don't have time left before lunch, I set aside time to write up and schedule in 2 blog posts right after lunch.

As the above suggests, I handle tasks that don't require as much concentration and allow me to easily flit between one thing or the next after lunch. After blog posts are written, I read because my concentration isn't completely gone yet. Then I do a bit of social networking and finish the day off with any audios I need to listen to (such as conference calls or teleclasses) and finally I gather what I need to work on the next day and leave each thing up in a tab on my web browser. That way I can start off the next day moving from tab to tab knowing exactly what I need to address. I like to be done with my own work for the day by about 5pm or 6pm.

So, with that kind of schedule I've managed to handle communications & follow-up, marketing, self-enrichment and prep for the next day. I feel that if I can hit those 4 categories in a day that I've done what I need to do for my business. Of course this schedule won't work every day as you'll need to attend meetings or networking events sometimes, train others etc. If this is the case, still try to keep to the general framework of the schedule. Keep meetings & networking events in the morning during your communications time. If I run over into lunch, I'll sometimes blog while I'm eating to make up my time. If you have to train others, I'd also try to set that in the morning because you'll all be fresher. If not, you might have to set it for late when they're off work, done with dinner, time has been spent with family and kids are in bed so that there are less distractions for you and for them.

I hope that gives some ideas on scheduling. I prioritize according to expectations and my own mental state. People expect to hear back about things they were waiting on in the morning. If you work a job at any point during the day, then just fall in line with where you would be in the schedule. If you work from morning until afternoon, then pick up with the afternoon tasks in the schedule. Try getting up a little earlier to at least respond to emails or voicemails before you leave for work. If you work at night, then follow the schedule up until you need to prepare for work. On off days and weekends (if you want) you can do the full schedule (yes, as someone who works from home I like to take advantage of the weekends).

I notice that my picture is in the corner of Louis Thread! Can anyone tell me what I did! Sorry Louis! I have no idea what I did to have it there!!! Smiles!

Hi all and welcome Theresa,

Ina - I found your last post on this thread particularly interesting with some great tips. Beginning the day with a 'communication period' is a great and as you explain completely logical approach.

I also believe that the discipline of using your last daily task as a time to plan your next day is such a valuable tool. In my view this simple routine plays two key roles;

1) It signifies closure or the end of the days work time therefore opening the door to meaningful rest and relaxation, our ability to truly switch off.

2) It helps retain the focus of each day within the context of your bigger agenda or plan.

I think this last point addresses an issue which a number of people have raised in this thread.

Indeed, on my part my biggest difficulty to date (and I haven't travelled very far on this journey) has been finding my direction or path. There are so many opportunities and approaches to creating an income online from home that as a newbie the exploration was exciting, confusing, engaging, overwhelming and time-consuming.

During this drawn out period I have made decisions, been indecisive about those decisions, wandered off and explored different avenues and generally agonised. It has taken me a very long time to develop a true belief in the process and approach I have decided to embark on.

Now I'm here I wonder what my next greatest challenge will be....

Jack

Claudette, I believe the mini thumbnail that appears in the lower right corner of Louis' avatar is simply to indicate that you have made a response to his post. The program does that automatically.

Hermas

That is to shows it is a thread you have commented in, only you can see it.

Welcome also Jackie! I'm glad you found some of that helpful. I'm a big believer these days in having closure at the end of a work-from-home day. I learned what happens when you don't have it the hard way early on in my online career. You end up doing spotty work on and off throughout the rest of the day but don't actually accomplish much of anything. And in the process you might start things that you end up not finishing and having to carry over into the next day. When I work, I like to fully complete my daily tasks or at least find a logical stopping point. I never like to start a day working on the same thing I was working on before going to bed. It makes me feel as if I haven't gotten anywhere and throws off my concentration for the rest of the day. I have that problem a lot when working on websites for myself or clients, so I try to always find a logical stopping point where I've at least finished a particular task (such as content for a page or blog post) so that I can start on a new page of the site, a new blog post or some other task that contributes to the website project the next day.

I'm glad that you've figured out part of your journey. Since you're in that mid point right now, perhaps this would be the best time to plan out your schedule so that getting things done from day to day won't become one of your challenges in the future. If you feel you need any help talking out the options for directions you can take, feel free to post and perhaps many of us here can join in and offer insight. Good luck to you, and to every one as you continue on your journeys!