Working at home may seem like a dream come true at first: you get to set your own hours, work at your own pace, take time off whenever you want. However, if you are looking at only the supposed benefits of working at home, you’re seeing only half the picture.

Working at home is a lot like starting your own business. On top of tracking your own hours and generating business expenses (and reporting self employment taxes), you will be doing a lot of grunt work to get your money-making idea up and running. You will very likely be dedicating a lot more time and effort to your home-based business than you ever dedicated to your employer’s business. You will also probably not have very much income to show for all your efforts. 

This is not meant to discourage you, but to keep you realistic about the demands of the work-at-home lifestyle. This ain’t no vacation from regular work- if anything, working at home will demonstrate just how easy you may have had it at your old employer.

However, the benefits of working at home are enormous. For starters, in these uncertain economic times, being your own boss means that you will never again fear for the future of your job. Second, if you have a particularly lucrative idea, all the profits from your idea go to you, not your boss or corporation. Decisions about how the business should be run will be made by you, and not your idiot boss. As you develop your business, you will be able to let it run on autopilot from time to time, allowing you to take vacations and days off without worry. Finally, you will have the satisfaction of owning and running your own business.