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When I first heard about online business, it sounded like a great idea but I wasn’t sure how to start. It sounded simple enough and I thought I could figure it out on my own.
This was the first mistake I made and one that lead to my first miserable failure.
Not having a clue as to what I was doing made me easy prey to all the people out there who knew how to spin an attractive offer.
I spent lots of money on things I didn’t need and on promises that left me hanging the moment I paid the money.
I was desperate to succeed, and at the time I didn’t feel there was any other viable option to escape a life confined to the four walls of an office building.
That was many years ago and I have since learned the other viable option.
I find that Teleworking is a faster way to work from home compared to Online Business and I will explain why based on my own experience.
Work Structure Is Similar To Current Office Structure – Easier Transition
You really don’t need much training when it comes to transitioning from an office based job to a home based job.
The only real difference involved is getting used to maintaining productivity while nobody is watching you. Even then, this is just a matter of practice.
Compare that to the learning curve involved in trying to start and run a profitable online business. Running an online business require you to be continuously active unlike a job which you can stop and set aside at the end of the day.
When working from home as a Teleworker, you only need to worry about the work that is in front of you in order to get paid.
For Online Business, the process of working and getting paid is not so clear cut.
The Path To Seeing Results Is Clearer
The process to getting a job working from home as a Teleworker is nearly identical to the process of getting a regular office job.
You have your resume and you apply to companies offering Telecommuting as an option.
If you are a freelancer, you have a portfolio and you bid on projects in order to win work.
Compare this to the process of starting an online business. There seem to be 101 ways to build a successful online business ( and the methods continue to evolve).
When it comes to applying for a job or bidding on projects, the path is much more clear cut.
Less Logistics To Worry About
If you are a Telecommuter and work full-time for a company, you only need to do your job and get paid. This is the same as having any regular job.
If you choose to Telework as Freelancer, you may need to handle your own accounts and ensure you submit the correct amount of tax to the tax office every financial year.
You may also need to prepare your own legal contracts when applying for projects, however these contracts are fairly standard and tend to require little modification once you have a template.
As a freelancer, your income depends on the number and the value of the projects you take on. This makes it easier for you to track your potential earnings over the course of the year and allows you to take on or stop work according to your needs.
With an online business, you have the same logistics as a regular business (if you do it right). Registering your business, maintaining your accounts, trademark and copyright issues, legal issues and so on.
Given enough time to dedicate to starting a business, most of these things can be streamlined into an easily manageable system.
The reality though, is that it requires time to learn. Add this to the fact that you need to be continuously active in your efforts to ensure your business stays profitable can create added stress to a person who is used to being sure they will definitely get paid as long as they put in the work.
Online Business Requires More Creative Thought To Succeed
As mentioned, starting and running a successful online business is not a cut and dry process. It requires creative thought at the start and requires ongoing creative thought to keep it running.
This is not necessarily the easiest transition to make, especially when you’re used to getting paid whether you had a creative thought this week or not.
Having a job means that you receive or take on work that you are sure you will be able to do since you have experience in that area of expertise.
The certainty of getting paid a paycheck or receiving payment for a project you do is a comforting certainty that allows you to focus on the work and not worry about the money.
If you have an online business that is already generating income, it might just be a matter of maintenance.
The problem is that until your business starts generating income, you will not be able to work from home and you will need to hold another job to support yourself in the mean time.
Why not kill two birds with one stone and simply get a job that allows you to telecommute so you can work from home now while you decide if you still need or want an online business.
Fairly Consistent Income – You Get A Paycheck or Get Paid A Fixed Amount For The Work You Do
Seeing your online business generate any income let alone a consistent income is a process that could take weeks, months or even years, depending on your ability to persevere through the initial phase where all you do is work on your business without seeing any income.
Doing work and not seeing results is frustrating, even for the most seasoned businessman. For a person who is relying on the success of their online business to support their livelihood and work from home, not seeing any income can become a considerable worry.
There are a few mental transitions that need to take place in order for a person to go from an office worker to a home based online business owner.
One of these transitions is getting used to working from home. Another is getting used to a variable income that cannot be measured consistently based on the amount of work put in.
Teleworking allows you to work from home without needing to change considerably the way you think or work. Working from home in a job is what I believe many people would be satisfied with and are actually aiming for; freedom from the office and having a consistent income.
If from your work from home job you feel ready to take the next step to starting an online business, you’ll be in a much better frame of mind compared to if you tried to do it straight from an office based job.
The reason for this is because once you are already working from home, you are no longer desperate to escape the office.
Summary
Online Business can be the eventual way to go, however I’d recommend getting a Telecommuting Job or to start Freelancing first. It’s a whole new ball game and a fairly big learning curve for those who are unfamiliar with how online business works.
It can also get expensive, especially if you are desperate to make your online business work and you start paying for every online business system promising instant results.
Get your freedom and flexibility first, then leverage your extra time to start building an online business that can either supplement or completely replace your income.
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Yasuo Long believes that all employees should have the right to design their lifestyle according to their needs in order to maintain their health, their relationships and their happiness. In pursuit of this, he quit the 9-to-5 and became a telecommuter to give himself the time and mental freedom to discover what it really means to live with direction and purpose.
