Working From Home? Take It Seriously

Working from home is a great way to earn money doing something you love. You can make your own schedule, choose your clients, and work at your passion. It’s a dream that many freelancers, professionals, and independent contractors want to achieve, and it’s becoming much more possible thanks to the internet, teleconferencing, and VoIP phones.

Man working from home

If you’re going to work at home, it’s important you do it right. Taking it seriously is the only way you’ll be a productive professional, so here are some things you’ll need:

Fast Internet Connection - A good internet connection is a must if you’re working from home. Most of the communication, job hunting, and marketing that you do will be online, so you’ll have to be able to access the internet from your home. The average speed of internet connections in the U.S. is 4.93 mbps, which is more than enough to work from home. However, not all phone companies provide equal services, so make sure that you contract the most reliable internet service to guarantee consistent, speedy internet.

Safe, Secure Home Office - If you’re working at home, all of your goods, equipment, and machinery will be at home, as well as any money you earn. You want your home office to be secure against robbery or break-ins, so it may be time to improve your home security. A good set of locks and deadbolts from http://www.homesecuritysystems.com/adt-security on your home office door can improve your safety, and a good home security system may be a good investment in order to ensure your home office is safe.

Ergonomic Workstation - No doubt your work at home will require you to spend long hours sitting at a computer, especially if you are a writer, blogger, graphic designer, accountant, or programmer. You need to get a good chair that will provide back support, a keyboard and mouse that will not strain your wrist after long hours of use, and a desk that is sized to fit your frame. An ergonomic workstation will promote productivity, but an uncomfortable work area can impact your health negatively.

Accountant -­ Tax season comes faithfully every year, and being a freelancer doesn’t exempt you from paying taxes. In fact, being a freelancer means you have to be more faithful with keeping track of all of your income and expenses, as the IRS is much stricter on freelancers than those with regular employment. You should definitely hire an accountant to help you with your taxes each month, as well as filing your annual tax returns. Unless you’re an accountant yourself, it’s better to leave the work of calculating your taxes to a professionally-trained tax accountant.

Reliable Computer - Most of your work is likely going to be done on a computer, which means you’ll need a reliable machine to work on. You don’t want to have to be worried about the machine breaking, and you’ll want plenty of RAM, hard disk space, and CPU speed to handle any task you will do on the computer. You may want to consider a desktop if you don’t anticipate the need to move the computer around a lot, or a laptop can be the perfect tool to help you work on the go.

Working from home doesn’t make you any less professional, and you should treat your work the same way you would any other job. With the right tools for the task, you can be a lot more productive at home than you would be at a regular job. If you take your work seriously, you’ll be much more likely to succeed as a home-based professional.

Vijayraj Reddy
Vijayraj Reddy is founder & editor-in-chief of Startmysalary.com, a financial blog which helps people to earn money, invest money and save money. You can find him on Facebook & Twitter or send him email at [email protected]

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