For those of you struggling with your current jobs, nagging bosses, and irksome coworkers, you might be thinking that working at home is a dream come true. Well, in some ways at least, working from home can be an improvement over your current situation. However, it ain’t no vacation from the daily grind.

Forget what you see on TV, where people claim they work just 2 hours a day and then spend the rest of the time on the beach or with their kids. Freelance, at home, and other self-employment requires committent and dedication. You’ll need to not only do your assigned tasks (freelance writing, blogging, programming, etc.), but you’ll also need to be on the lookout for new sales leads, clients, or different ways of presenting your blog.

Don’t believe me? On a personal note, it’s my birthday today and I am sitting here, at 8AM in the morning, writing this blog post. But, those are the breaks of online work.

In any case, many of you probably already know all the hard work and time it takes to achieve a successful online business. On that note, here is the first thing you need to know about working from home:

Don’t quit your day job. Sure, your work at home opportunity sounds much more appealing and easier to do than your current day job. You can feel the inspiration in the early morning, just before you waste all your creative juices at your "real" job. But, let’s face it: until you are meeting or exceeding your current job earnings with your online work (and don’t forget about benefits like health insurance), you simply can’t afford to quit a sure thing. Especially not in this economy.

Currently, I work full-time at a company in town. In my "spare time", I work on this blog, some affiliate marketing sites, and I post articles to Associated Content. I also work with direct clients sent to me via Textbroker. 

Because you can’t quit your day job, how do you find the time to do online or other freelance work? Here’s where the second point of today’s post comes into play:

Say goodbye to your social life. There are only 24 hours in a day, and 8-9 of them will be dedicated to your current job (and hopefully you do have a job). The other 8 are dedicated to sleep. That leaves you a whole 7-8 hours in which you can either spend time with your family, watch TV, go shopping, socialize, run errands, volunteer, etc. Obviously, I am not recommending that you forego your job time, or even your family time. But something will obviously have to be cut down. In most cases, working from home will require that you give up the majority of your social life.

Looking at my own personal experiences with freelance writing, for example, I too thought I could pound out an article every now and then, collect my money, and still hit happy hour by 5PM. No more. Clients are tricky little buggers that will send you jobs at 6AM in the morning, to be done by the end of the day. When I’m not dealing with them, I’m posting to or improving my blogs, or writing articles for Associated Content. And then there’s the guilt factor: if I do find myself out and about, I’m always thinking about the stuff I should really be doing back home.

Does everything I mentioned here dishearten you from working at home? It shouldn’t. Although working at home can be a real chore at times, it can also be a great source of pride and security. I enjoy looking at my blog and published stories, knowing that I was behind their creation. There is a sense of achievement, and a sense of permanence, to what I do online that I simply cannot match at my regular job. And of course, the payments from my work at home gigs don’t hurt either.  

For those of you considering work at home opportunities, and working from home, I say go for it. The dedication levels that are required might be high, but so are the rewards.