Your current job might be the best way to embark on your new work-from-home lifestyle. Even if it’s not a common practice at your company.
But you can’t just stand up on your desk one Friday afternoon and declare, “From now on, I will work from home!”
Everyone will think you’re a weirdo, and building security will usher you out of the office.
The key is this: If you’re great at what you do, you have A LOT more leverage than you think.
To put everything into perspective, you’re not just a body they hired. They had to screen hundreds of resumes, conduct 30+ phone interviews, and then invite a handful of people to meet in person.
Many people forget this.
So if your manager gives you a glowing performance review, it’s the perfect time to bring up the idea of working from home.
Don’t give any ultimatums. That can lead to confrontation, which never works out well.
Instead, offer to do it on a trial basis. You can use what I call the ARMS techniques to make it easy to get your boss’s stamp of approval.
Those four letters stand for:
Agree
Reframe
Make Your Case
Shut Up
The important thing to remember is that you’re proving the concept for now. Once your boss agrees to this small request, and it works out well, they’re more likely to agree to you working from home regularly.
If your company is set in their ways, and you’re set on working from home, don’t worry.
There are tons of jobs that you can do remotely now.
Here are some of the most common ones:
Virtual Assistant
First off, let me be clear. A virtual assistant isn’t just some peon doing menial tasks. This is a demanding job. A great assistant is one of the best tools executives and business owners can have.
If you’re highly organized, can prioritize tasks, and keep confidential information (you may have access to credit cards and other personal info), this might be a great job Later that day… 25 for you. You can make anywhere between $20K to $75K a year. It depends on the responsibilities of the role and whether you’re doing it full- or part-time.
Writer/Editor
Companies need blog posts, brochures, annual reports, sales letters, case studies, and technical papers. These things don’t write themselves. If you can churn out quality work with deadlines looming around the corner, I guarantee there’s a company out there who would love to hire you as their go-to writer.
Editors and proofreaders are also in demand. It’s difficult for writers to proofread their own work, and a great editor or proofreader can reassure companies that they’re publishing quality materials.
Salaries for these jobs range from $40K to over 6 figures, depending on your experience and specialty.
Teacher
It used to be that teachers had to show up in a classroom to lecture in front of a room full of students. That’s no longer the case. High-speed internet and webcams have given way to distance learning. Now teachers can give lessons right from the comfort of their own homes.
Universities as well as public and private schools all have roles for people to teach remotely.
The pay varies. If you’re a full-time teacher for a distance learning program, you can expect what an average teacher in a similar classroom role would make. If you’re parttime, you’ll probably get a check for the hours you’re teaching. Tutoring is another good opportunity to teach and work from home.
Tech Support
Are you the person who all your friends and family come to whenever their computer craps out on them? If so, you might find yourself at home working tech support for a company.
You could be doing anything from troubleshooting tech issues or walking people through how to install software. The average salary is $34K a year.
Customer Service
Somewhere along the line, a bunch of customers got pissed because all their calls were routed overseas. People can only speak to someone named “Mark Jackson” who talks 26 with a heavy accent so many times before they get frustrated and slam the phone on the floor.
As a result, companies are bringing customer service back home. But instead of renting expensive call centers, they’re giving people headsets and letting them work from home.
Heck, lots of customer service is done via email these days, so they might not even need headsets. Expect to make $30K as a full-time customer service rep.
Web Developer
Business owners and managers want to focus on their jobs — not deal with headaches that come with maintaining and updating their websites. Knowing about WordPress plugins, HTML, CSS, and other website tools can be your ticket to a job that pays $63K a year working from home.
Designer
Great design isn’t just a “nice thing to have” anymore. It’s a business strategy. Think about buying an Apple computer. You get a beautiful white box that makes you feel like royalty when you open it to fetch your new computer.
Companies need people who know Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. These jobs typically pay $40K a year.
Sales Rep
If you’re great at sales, any company would be thrilled to have you. And since you’re making the company money, you get to call the shots. You could ask to be set up with a home office where you make all your calls and answer emails. You only travel for inperson sales calls if the job requires it.
The average salary is $55K. But for people who are really good, the sky’s the limit. Commissions and bonuses can add up. It’s not uncommon for top sales reps to be the highest paid people in a company earning multiple 6-figure paychecks. They can even make more than the CEO.
Marketing Specialist
Marketing taught in schools is all about branding, market research, and strategy. But the internet has created niche jobs that you don’t need a special degree to get. If you know SEO, PPC, affiliate, or email marketing really well, companies of all sizes need you right now.
You can make anywhere from $50K – $60K and work from home depending on your 27 experience.
Database Manager
Just a few years ago, companies used to have dark air-conditioned rooms filled with computers where they backed everything up. That’s not the case anymore. Thanks to cloud computing, you can access data from anywhere in the world now.
The boom in big data means this isn’t slowing down anytime soon. If you can run SQL queries like nobody’s business, you may be able to command a $70K job working from wherever you want.
