Working from home? (Remote Work)

[Canon]

Hey TPU!

So I was wondering if many (or any) of you guys have ever had experience working from your own home, wether that be on a temporary basis or long term? I have done some minor work, really just the sorts of things you will find on FIVERR/upwork etc.

I ask this because in more recent times I have discovered a real love for education again, I've taken upon myself to learn at least one new subject at a higher education level each year, within reason. This obviously has a massive effect on my schedule and availability, but having said that I am at home quite a lot of the time and have various skills within IT and have tried putting them to some use. It seems to be very difficult to find steady work to be carried out remotely these days.


Any success stories?

 

[Bill_Bright]

I've run an IT consulting and custom PC and repair shop out of my home for many years. Note this has never meant to be a big earning venture as I am already retired (twice) and don't need the money. I do it to keep my "head in the game" and to stay current in the latest technologies. So I don't do any advertising and rely solely on "word of mouth" advertising from my clients. This keeps me just busy enough so I can still ride my bike 30 miles per day!

But I am very familiar with working from home concepts and there are many pros and cons.

Pros obviously include saving money on travel expenses going to and from work - including reducing your car insurance premiums, fuel costs, wear and tear on the car. You can work in your underwear and often at your own hours. Not sure about there in the UK but here in the US, you can deduct a percentage of your mortgage/rent expenses and utilities for your "home office" space based on the floorspace you use for your work, and the number of hours per day you work from your income taxes as "business expenses". That can really add up.

Cons include health insurance (at least here in the US where employers pay part of the premiums). If you work for yourself at home, that can get costly. And again here in the US, self employed have to pay more into Social Security too.

One big downside is the lack of interaction with others. Being able to meet new people and friends becomes a challenge when you work from home. Also is the inability to separate work from home life. If you go to work, you can leave the worries of home behind for a few hours. Then when you leave work, you can leave the stresses of work behind for a few hours. That is missed when work and home are the same.

Going to work tends to require more physical activity - always good for better health. And it puts you on a schedule which tends to keep the body "regular" - if you know what I mean.

 

[John Naylor]

I was working 13/14 days every 2 weeks and getting home at 9:30 pm every note when I worked for an ENR500 foirm. I had two kids at that and the only time I saw them, they were asleep. Opened my own consulting practice in early 90s. We grew to 13 people in the late 90s, some would come to my home, some would work from home as was convenient.

Benefits were many,...

Allowed me to be a "class mom" , little league coach / manager, scout master, class trip chaperone, attend recitals, etc. and be involved in my kids lives. Setting your own hours is the biggest benefit, as it's a lot easier to get up and go to work when you don't have to. You also tend to put more hours in as what's the alternative ? .. TV ? In addition, employees tend to put more hours in, I suspect many of which don't wind up on their time sheets.

It does involve some decision making, you can for example deduct part of your home expenses but that can bite you in the butt later when you sell your home. It also can reduce your income which is nice for taxes but again, can bite you when it comes time for Social Security if you are not over the max. In the midst of this, I solicited some work with a local municipality, who preferred that I take a "full" time position whereby I would work for part of the week and work for myself service the rest during the other part. And here's an interesting part, when I left I chose to keep my insurance plan under COBRA and it cost me $27,600 a year. When COBRA ran out, the same plan costs me $12,000 under ACA, the plan had a $3k deductable so net savings was $12,600 a year. I work thru a professional corporation of which I am the only officer / shareholder. I can pay my medical insurance thru the corporation (100% or any % I choose) or individually but it matters little as for tax purposes, me and the PC are one and the same thing.

Since the things I design eventually get built, I am out and about often enough making As-Built Drawings, performing periodic inspections during construction and final As-Builts, meetings etc. As for a downside .... id ya idiot boss fires you, you can collect unemployment insurance.

 

[Bill_Bright]

@John Naylor - do note the OP lives in the UK. Income taxes are entirely different. They don't have Social Security. They have the National Health Service (NHS). COBRA and ACA do not apply.

 

[Canon]

Yeah, certain things like that don't apply here. However both interesting perspectives on the pros and cons. I'd be interested what platforms (if any) you used to find work ( I know word of mouth has also been mentioned) ?

 

[cadaveca]

Hey TPU!

So I was wondering if many (or any) of you guys have ever had experience working from your own home, wether that be on a temporary basis or long term? I have done some minor work, really just the sorts of things you will find on FIVERR/upwork etc.

I ask this because in more recent times I have discovered a real love for education again, I've taken upon myself to learn at least one new subject at a higher education level each year, within reason. This obviously has a massive effect on my schedule and availability, but having said that I am at home quite a lot of the time and have various skills within IT and have tried putting them to some use. It seems to be very difficult to find steady work to be carried out remotely these days.


Any success stories?

The one common thing about successful business people is a large circle of friends. Word of mouth is KEY in starting anything. Being involved in community groups and building a reputation are oh-so-important too. I think this is why so many business owners end up in politics... you just naturally end up in that situation as things grow.

I've been helping small and medium businesses get their web and social media presence established, and that's gone really well for me, but we are at the point now where the market is really saturated, and it's mostly only maintenance that provides income these days for me. I knew this was coming though, so I was very secretive about what I did for the longest time, because how you actually generate that income is always going to be a secret that most will not disclose.

But no matter how hard you try, if you're a loaner and don't get out and talk to people, it's not very easy to do anything at all. That "in person" part of telling people what you do is what really works. You literally need to get people to hand you money, so you have to have some serious people skills in order to get started, or find someone with a lot of faith and more money than brains... which does happen often too, because you don't need brains to make money... you just need to be likeable.

 

[JRMBelgium]

Pro:

The office environment:

 

[Bill_Bright]

One problem with word of mouth is it can kill you too. There's the old saying, "One ah sh!t will wipe out a 1000 ataboys!"

Speaking of networking, one thing that helped me build my business was being willing to pull in help from my competitors. If I needed more technicians to get the job done faster (thus happy customer), getting help from my competitors did that, and in return, I got offered to help them out on bigger contracts too.

 

[cadaveca]

One problem with word of mouth is it can kill you too. There's the old saying, "One ah sh!t will wipe out a 1000 ataboys!"

Speaking of networking, one thing that helped me build my business was being willing to pull in help from my competitors. If I needed more technicians to get the job done faster (thus happy customer), getting help from my competitors did that, and in return, I got offered to help them out on bigger contracts too.

Trying to do anything by yourself is hard. But relying on friends for work can destroy that relationship, so it's actually better to go to an "enemy" for work cooperation since you both have money-love in common. I understand the business-side of things pretty well, but I couldn't write decent code for anything, so I'm always paying someone to do the work I might have done myself if I was capable. I tried to go to school for this stuff and really struggled. Might have been my worst schooling experience. When things go right, that favor often gets returned in some way or another, so you've got to involve yourself with others really in a big way. The true hard part is breaking into the community really, since there really is plenty of money to go around for everyone.

Anyway, you know, this sort of stuff is what "life coaching" is about as well. People do pay for this sort of stuff all the time, and in essence, that's what you are paying for. Exposing yourself to large groups of people and starting conversations with strangers is a skill all on its own that not everyone has naturally.

 

[Bill_Bright]

FTR, I never suggested I hired or went into business with friends. I said "competitors". That said, if I was unable to do the work a client requested, I sure would recommend a competitor I would trust to work on my own stuff - otherwise, that would not make me look good either. So there is a friendly rivalry there.

And another problem is there are, sadly, many unscrupulous computer techs out there who could give the rest of us honest techs a bad rap. So again, it is good to remain on friendly terms with the competition - for the greater good of the business.

 

[MatGrow]

For sure it depends on your personality.
My experience was not so good. If you are hard working person and not so lazy, you may have working remotely.
For some people it's difficult to get concentration for some hours as you have freedom not to do in the moment what you have to do. It's about procrastination, you know.