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Want to know one of the most common things I hear in the Work-at-Home Heroes Facebook group? “I want to start working from home, but I don’t know how.”
That’s a common obstacle many of you aspiring work-at-home heroes face. You know you want to work from home and be your own boss, but you don’t know where to start. You might be feeling directionless or stalled at the first hurdle. Maybe you’re worried about finding legitimate work-from-home jobs.
It’s completely normal to feel this way!
To get started, you need to ask yourself some questions:
What are your goals?
“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”
— Benjamin Franklin
Before you begin, you need to know what you’re hoping to achieve, otherwise how will you know what steps you need to take.
- Do you want to create a successful long-term business?
- Do you want to quit your full-time job and work from home or do you just want to start a side hustle to earn extra money?
- Have you always wanted to be a stay-at-home mom, but you also want to contribute to your family’s income?
- Do you need the money for something specific like paying down debt or buying a house?
- Have you always wanted to be your own boss?
Your answers to those questions will help you decide how “all-in” you’re going to go with this business — if it’s just going to be a side hustle or if it’s going to be a long-term, full-time gig.
Understanding what your long-term goals are will help you create an action plan for your business. Keep these goals to the front of your mind; they’re what’s going to keep you moving forward.
Who can you help?
One thing you need to get clear on is who do you want to help? Try to get really specific when you’re thinking about this.
Say you want to be a virtual assistant for health bloggers. “I’m a VA for health bloggers” is simple, but it’s not specific. This is specific: “I help health bloggers simplify their inbox and social media scheduling so they can have more time to create useful content for their audience.”
The more you can hone in on your ideal client, the easier it will be to attract them.
What skills do you have?
Brainstorm a list of the skills you currently have.
- Do you like to read?
- Do you like to design images?
- Are you good with numbers?
- Are you an amazing crafter?
Don’t forget to consider things that other people always tell you you’re good at. Starting with skills you already have can be the fastest way to earn money from home.
What problems can you solve for your ideal client?
Being a successful business owner comes down to one thing: solving problems for others.
But before you can solve their problems, you need to know what they are. What struggles do your ideal clients face?
Do they need to outsource some tasks to free up time to work on growing their business? What tasks are important to their business but they don’t enjoy doing them?
Do you need to develop more skills?
Do you have the skills to help solve the problems your ideal clients are facing? Or do you need to get further training in this area?
This is probably where you start to panic. You don’t have the time or money to go back to school. The good news is you probably don’t need to! Most business skills can be learned online at a much cheaper cost than getting a degree.
These days it’s much easier to learn new skills at the click of a button in your spare time. You don’t need to attend classes at a set time or drop thousands of dollars.
In addition to acquiring the skills to do your job, you’ll also need to develop some business skills.
In Work-At-Home School, you get access to several skill-building courses plus dozens of full-length resources on goal setting, mindset, and overcoming fear and money mental blocks. You develop marketable skills you can use to grow your income. You’ll get and stay organized so you can be productive, happy, and healthy in business. Many programs can teach skills, but very few provide supporting content for everything else you’ll face as you write your own income story.
Know exactly what service you want to offer but need some extra training? Check out the resources page for other courses I recommend.
Can you do more to help your ideal client?
It’s very likely that once you do an excellent job for a client with one service, they’ll want to hire you for other services too.
You can start with one skill and add more as your experience level grows. Adding complementary services to your business is a great way of boosting your income potential.
Mo’ skills = mo’ money!
Do you have the support you need to be successful?
Lastly, you’re going to need support when you work from home. Now’s the time to get family members on board. It’s crucial that they understand that you need time and space to work on your business.
It’s also a good idea to start building a network of “colleagues.” Join Facebook groups and online forums to connect with people in the same business as you. Sure, you don’t actually work together, but these will be the people who really understand what you’re going through.
You could also join a professional society for your industry and start attending networking events.
You don’t have to do this alone!
Our take
That’s a lot of food for thought right there! If you ask yourself those questions and figure out why you want to do this work-at-home career thing, you’ll start your business with a solid foundation.
Your turn
Ready to start working from home? Work-At-Home School will help you get the skills you need to be a Work-at-Home Hero and say goodbye to your day job!