Working From Home: Julia's Story

What follows is a fictional account based on interviews and comments submitted by actual people who were, or are currently working from home. Any similarities between the character, Julia, and any other living person are strictly accidental. Julia is a composite created to observe a hypothetical, work from home, scenario.

Julia is thirty-two. She graduated high school then attended a local community college. Julia finished college in 1998, with an AA in psychology, fully intending to follow a career in social work. However, finding the entry level job market slim in her community, Julia winds up waiting tables at a local pub for tips, where she meets her current husband. After dating a few years, they are married in 2003. In early 2005, she gives birth to their first child. Julia waited tables up until three weeks of her due date before taking maternity leave. Money was tight for the growing family; dreams of being a social worker seemed to be slipping away from her.

Julia checked the classifieds periodically, and applied to some local agencies, hoping for a break. Finally, in 2006, Julia is accepted as an Assistant to the Social Advisor in a senior center. She also begins volunteering her services to the community by working for a local nonprofit organization on the weekends. Though she is now doing what she loves, Julia finds her time consumed by her work. She is driven to succeed at what she had waited for so long. But she felt her family was suffering for her cause.

After only a year, Julia started to feel drained. She had been pushing herself very hard to get ahead in her job. Then one afternoon, quite by accident, while searching on the internet, she came across a web site about moms working from home. It talked about many opportunities for the stay-at-home mom. That was something that had never occurred to her, setting up shop from her own home. This web site sparked some ideas in Julia, but how could it be applied to her field? She began investigating everything she could find on the subject of working from home.

To her amazement, opportunities to work from home were overwhelming in number. It took a lot of homework to weed out the scams from legitimate opportunities. For about a month Julia was working out a plan of action to begin her career at home. Her family and friends wouldn’t take her seriously. And when she began setting her plan into motion, they criticized her for wanting to take such a risk.

Julia’s husband was very understanding of her wishes to continue to earn money to help support the family, while also finding her own independence in the work force. Though he wasn’t entirely onboard, feeling it might be a waste of time. As before, Julia was determined to succeed. At first she didn’t completely quit her outside jobs, but she was able to cut her hours in half while devoting the rest of her time to getting her home-based business off the ground.

She found other ways to supplement her missing half of income by doing odd jobs she had found online. She also placed ads offering services like writing papers, articles, doing research etc. Now things were seeming to come together for her. She was more enthusiastic than ever. Her family, however, thought she just had more time on her hands. Since she was home more, they assumed she had more time to spend doing things with/for them. Her time spent at the computer working wasn’t viewed as actual work to them. Her hours invested in growing her business and income was underappreciated and misunderstood.

Julia’s family couldn’t comprehend that, as with any business, a lot of time and effort are necessary to make it successful, especially in the beginning; working from home was no exception. Now and then she would slack off, giving family and friends the attention which was asked of her. At times she found it hard to keep motivated. Those were the times that hit hardest in the pocketbook. Little time investment meant little paychecks.

With much perseverance and determination, Julia did not give up. She joined support groups online of other women working from home. From them she learned many insightful things about managing her time and her family. Eventually, she came up with the idea of treating herself as her own employee. She scheduled regular work hours and days off, and no working holidays. Every month she issued herself a paycheck, putting any extra into a surplus account, which was able to help compensate for those times when business was slow and pay was little.

Over the months that followed there were many bumps in the road, but she was able to take them in strides, never letting an opportunity to learn new things about managing and growing her home business slip by. Julia is grateful to have choices in her life that would never have been available to her had she not stumbled upon that web site. The advantages have far outweighed the disadvantages of working from home. Being her own boss is not always a picnic, but Julia is happy to face any obstacle to maintain her new found way of life.

Her family still has times when they don’t quite fully understand the dynamics of working from home, but they’re coming around more and more all the time. They certainly cannot argue about the money side of things. Julia’s has been one of a few success stories, in comparison to the thousands of failed ventures every year. Many people do not succeed their first time out. She is truly blessed.

Authors Note: The character of Julia, in no way represents everyone I spoke to for the preparation of this article. She was created to represent a majority of which have been successful in their ventures working from home. I am deeply grateful to all who took the time to offer me their insights and stories. I found many more positive messages within them then negative, and so chose to show the upside of creating a home-based business, a happy ending, if you will.
The message I intend for you to walk away with is simple: If you have determination and the willingness to succeed; if you do your homework first before jumping in with both feet; if your plan of action is well thought out, you too may be successful in your goal to create a business at home.