What Are Your Benefits?

When talking about the benefits of working from home, we also need to discuss your reasons for working from home.  In fact, without something to motivate you to step out of the box, you probably won't.

So, why are so many people deciding to work out of their home? In many cases, there may be multiple incentives. In the following list of most common reasons people go the home working route, there's a good chance many home-based workers would say they were motivated by more than one of the reasons.

Common reasons why a few million people chose to work from home:

• Tired of the commute to work, especially in big cities

• Wanted to have at least one parent home with young children rather than letting someone else raise the kids

• Child care was too expensive, didn't make working outside the home very profitable

• Lost or would be losing their job because of corporate downsizing or lay-off

• Self-employment was a better alternative than working for someone else

• Felt they could make more money by working from home

• Having people looking over their shoulder was annoying, much more productive working when not being "watched" (by Big Brother?)

• To do something for a living that they enjoy, such as making use of a special skill (writing?) or turning a hobby into a business

These are all good incentives for working from home, and it's likely that one or more of them applied to you. There may even be a few more that I didn't think of.

Though the above reasons are usually the motivation for making the change in work location, there can also be other reasons that will spur the desire to work from home, mostly due to your own individual situation.

Family-Oriented Incentives

You may have read in johnny2k's Previous Experience about our own personal challenges. After my wife began experiencing fainting spells, I found it difficult to balance my personal life with my career. I couldn't just leave my wife alone, to lay there with a cut or broken bones, or whatever could have happened, when she passed out. The emotional stress was difficult to endure, for both of us. There were additional affects cascading through our lives that we won't go into here.

There were other options that we considered, but working home was the option that we felt the most comfortable with. We understood the financial risk of starting our home-based business, having very little in savings and having very little income to count on in the immediate future. Yet we chose the working from home path over the other alternatives. We were motivated by the desire to live our lives together.

Family-oriented incentives are not limited to staying home with your children.  There is always the possibility that you may feel it would be in your best interest to stay home to care for someone that is disabled or elderly.

Inability to Leave Home to Work

For many people with disabilities, getting out of the home to go to work can be an extremely overwhelming task, yet many of them are able to do it. And I am overwhelmed by their courage and reluctance to let their challenges stop them from being productive.

Recently, I actually heard someone say, on a national news broadcast, that it wouldn't be a good idea for the disabled to work from home. The person said that getting out of the house is good for people with disabilities so that wouldn't become anti-social.  There is some validity to that argument. However, I also feel that the disabled could actually see a benefit by not being as dependent on other people if they work on their own from home.

If leaving home to work is a great challenge, the disabled person might also be more productive working from home without the additional struggle of going to work outside of their home.

Working from home ideas may open some great opportunities for the disabled, and should be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Benefits From the Employer's Perspective

Are teleworkers a good thing for employers? Can outsourcing a project to a contractor be more efficient than doing it in-house?

The answer is, "Absolutely!" to both questions. Here is a summary of benefits for the employers:

• Lower employment taxes when outsourcing work to a contracted home-based worker (self-employed people have to pay their own employment taxes).

• Lower cost of facilities when hiring telecommuters (teleworkers) or home-based contractors. Less office space is needed. Some employers actually provide the equipment to the teleworker and still come out way ahead. 

• In many cases, the telecommuting workers aren't required to live in the geographical area of the company, thus diminishing the effect of a local labor shortage.

• Short-term or temporary projects can be done by telecommuters or contracted home workers without the burden of higher unemployment taxes or additional training expenses that vaporize when the project is completed.

• Outsourcing short- or long-term projects to a home business could eliminate the need to purchase or lease special equipment.

• Employee moral could be enhanced by offering telecommuting positions (at virtually any level from line workers to upper management). Click here to see why telecommuting can help your employees be happier!

Benefits to Society

Teleworking and outsourcing home-based businesses - people working from home - are emerging as a new influence on the global economy.  Because of the abilities of the internet, the numbers of home workers is expected to grow faster than ever before.

It is a debatable topic when discussing the social impact of massive numbers of people evolving to a work from home environment. I can imagine that sociologists would argue that the lack of having people around, or the solitude of working alone at home, would be detrimental to society. Maybe it would be best for us to leave this one alone for now.. 

However, think of the environmental good from all those home workers NOT commuting into the city!  Home workers may not save the planet, but less commuting will definitely decrease air pollution in the cities.  

What could be a huge benefit to society may be when considering the current high prices at the gas pump, and an emerging global energy crisis. Home working begins to look like a tremendous opportunity for many more people!

YOUR BENEFITS

Just remember the fact that the benefits aren't going to be there unless you choose to find your reasons, and make those reasons  your motivation to overcome any of the obstacles that will face you!

Then, and only then, will those reasons for working from home become your benefits.

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