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Home › Articles › Career Matters › Working from Home

Working from Home

It's Not As Easy As It Looks

By Kelly D. Burgess

Pages:  1  2  3  4  5  

Working from home when you have small children can be broken down into two big pros and cons:

Pro: The kids are home, and you're there with them.

Con: The kids are home, and you're there with them.

OK, so that's an old joke, but as someone who has worked from home for 18 years while raising three children, I know it's also true.

What to Do
Writing is a fairly straightforward profession to operate out of the home. It's a way for me to use my particular talent and training to bring in some extra income. Other women I know do the same thing using their talents and training. One of my neighbors is a much in demand part-time decorator. She not only gives advice and does targeted shopping, butalso makes custom window treatments and silk flower arrangements.

Another acquaintance of mine is a trained CPA who keeps the books for several small businesses. Yet another is a dog groomer who works in her friends' homes or picks up their pets, grooms them at her house and takes them back home. I know several women who operate small hair salons from their homes as well as two who offer sewing services, tailoring and costume making for local community theaters and theater schools.

For those who may not have such obvious opportunities, Loriann Hoff Oberlin, author of Working at Home While the Kids Are There, Too (Career Press, 1997), says to look around your community and try to find a need. Here are some of her ideas: