Looks idyllic, right?
Who doesn’t want to work from home, if their job allows?
Nobody, which is why so many people are so giddy with the prospect of starting the day in pajamas, working all day in pajamas, and working from bed in the same pajamas. Every publication, online and in print, is rife with advice on managing your time, not eating at your desk, communicating with co-workers via teleconference and Slack, and wearing pants.
Mastering your time, taming the refrigerator, maintaining boundaries with family, neighbors and pets: that’s half the battle of working from home, right?
No. It’s not.
If you’re working a traditional day job from home, you are transferring your corporate culture to your personal space. You will learn invaluable skills for virtual collaboration, managing by results, and prioritizing tasks.
But you will not be tackling the single most important thing you must have to be self-employed, and that is, winning clients.
To be self-employed, you have to have clients. It’s that simple and that scary.
Clients are great. I love mine. But they can harsh the mellow of working from home. Deadlines, and all that. Invoicing. Calls. Finding new ones. Keeping old ones. They’re high-maintenance.
By all means, make the most of your time at home. But don’t think that you can expense your pajamas as a start-up cost. To be successfully self-employed, you’re going to have to put on pants. And leave the house. And get clients.
You can do it! The upcoming Career Lattice online course, Staff to Self-Employment, will show you how.
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