Many people fantasize about working from home and freelancing. I do both. I was that wide-eyed “I want to do that!” I wanted to know that magic of freelancing from home.
Magic of Freelancing Germination
This idea seeded itself in me when I spoke with a mom in the daycare parking lot back in 1993. Maybe you’re on the edge of your seat hoping to discover the magical formula, just as I was when I listened to her bellyache about getting home to finish a project, pamphlets for a local business.
Eyes wide with wonder.
You work from home!
I didn’t stop there, I was so hungry!
I want to work from home! How do you get started?
The mom pal condescendingly cocked her head and said (something like):
Well, I have a degree in art and advertising design.
Today, I get it. I know why she rolled her eyes.
But my heart sank. I wasn’t an art or ad grad, just an underpaid Liberal Arts PhD. I was teaching at a university but felt unenthused about playing the publish or perish game. I loved teaching (was good at it), but my paycheck barely covered that 45 minute commute each way and daycare. What a dream it would be to work from home.
Less than a year after that condescending cocked head in the parking lot, I received a call from a grad school friend. I didn’t realize it at the time, but that call was my toe in the door of the freelancing world.
Do you think you have what it takes to freelance from home? Stay tuned. Next post: some (sometimes ugly) magic of freelancing truths.
©Copyright Pennie Nichols. All Rights Reserved. 2017
When will you publish Part 2 of your freelancing story? I feel like the end of this post was a cliffhanger. I think the most annoying thing about the “mom pal” who looked at you like you were from Mars and told you about her marketing degree is that she didn’t ask you anything about what skills you might have that might be amenable to freelancing. Whatever, you clearly moved on. I await your next installment.
I didn’t intend for this to be a cliffhanger, but I’m only able to write for myself in spurts and I ran out of steam that day. Since this month I’ve challenged to write a little each day, here it is: . There will be a Part 3, but because it’s more of a confessional and a bigger share, it may be a few days.
I think it’s (freelancing) infinitely more complicated that it seems on first blush but also definitely doable. Here’s a post about my experience: https://spinsucks.com/entrepreneur/solopreneur-pros-cons/
This is the perfect link to include in my next post in this series (if you don’t mind). For me it’s the dark side. The confessional. The ugly truths of working from home.
I always cringe when I hear a woman not trying to empower another… I’m glad you stuck to your guns, liberal arts degree and all.
You know, this didn’t even occur to me. I assumed it was her impatience with that kind of question. Whether she was intentionally “disempowering” me or not, that moment can be a lesson for me when I’m asked the same question. Instead of blowing the question off, I can offer some tips for determining whether or not working at home would be a good fit.