Should You Work From Home?

Sure, we'd all love to work from home. The pros are so positive and the cons so insignificant that anyone who had the ability would be a moron to not take the opportunity, right? Not necessarily. Here's a quick list of pros and cons for you to think about when you're considering making home your full-time office.

Pros:

• Flexible schedule
• No boss, maybe
• No childcare costs, maybe
• Getting to spend time with your children 24/7
• Taxable deductions
• Growing demand
• Set your own pay
• Work in your pajamas!
• Convenience

Cons:

• Work is often scheduled around the family
• It's hard work, finding clients
• With smaller children, you may need a part-time parent's helper or daycare, still
• Lack of autonomy when you're always with your children
• No employer contributions
• A large year-end tax bill
• Competition
• Client meetings can be spontaneous to arrange and provide for
• Adjustment

So, you can see: the pros can actually be balanced or exceeded by the cons, depending on your persuasion. Let's go a little more in-depth...

Working from home can sometimes mean that you get to pick your own schedule, you can work when the kids are in bed or when they're spending time with their other parent; it can be in the middle of the night or early in the morning, before the birds are chirping. Conversely, sometimes you may have a deadline to meet which means working around the clock, regardless of the other commitments in your life. You also may not have the choice and still may work a typical shift at a typical time. This can be hard to deal with, when the comfort of a warm bed or the drama of a sick child calls.

You might be one of those people who takes on self-employment, therefore having no boss, and only clients to "answer to." This is a kind of freedom most of us have craved at some point or another, but for some without the risk-taking personality, the work of recruiting clients to work for and the discipline it takes to do so can be more trouble than it's worth.

If you have the opportunity to work efficiently around your kids' schedules, you'll save a huge chunk of money in childcare costs. Except for those pressing deadline times, of course. Conversely, if you're working the typical employee hours, you may still be in need of part time help, or even daycare for you kids. School-aged children provide a lot more flexibility than their younger counterparts, of course, since they're away for most of the day and after-school programs exist in all kinds of spectrums.

For some of us, the thought of getting to be with our kids all the time is a blessing and something we've dreamed of since the first time we had to leave their sides after parental leave ended. The rest of us, we honestly look forward to the time away from our children that working outside of the home or full-time childcare provides. We look forward to seeing them more when they return, it makes our time together with them that much more special, and well, we get more stuff done! For some, this is our only source of autonomy.

Tax implications of being a self-employed individual are numerous. Tax deductions in the form of business expenses can be surmounting, sometimes leaving you with little to no taxable income - a great plus! But in situations where that isn't the case, it can be quite daunting to have a large tax bill at the end of the year - it's not like you can put it on the back-burner.

Another taxation factor is the lack of contributions by an employer. Employees all over the world have retirement, unemployment, medical and dental and income taxes paid via their employer. They get a paycheque and the deductions applicable have already gone and there's little to be done about it. Some companies even contribute their own funds towards these contributions, meeting your own. Great and secure and leaves little room for surprises. Self-employed individuals don't have this help and so must be diligent at setting aside fund for future expenses in taxation, retirement, health care and unemployment. This is too easy to lose focus on for most.

The work at home business is growing rapidly, especially in light of the blogging and web-publishing boom. Anyone can get a free or low-cost website, find a niche and some advertisers and spend their days thinking up content and cashing out their paypal accounts.Mom-preneurs are on the rise as well - when mothers, fresh from maternity leave, start their own businesses. This is so positive because it's not a struggle to find peers, education and resources to get started.

The negative factor is that demand and increasing participation mean competition. Five years ago, you may have been able to work as an administrative aide and charge nearly whatever you wanted because it was harder for clients to find someone cheaper than you. Nowadays, everyone's doing it, it seems, and so rates are getting lower and marketing tactics more creative. This is stressful, in the least.

The thought of working in your pajamas, without makeup or shaving, with your favourite coffee mug at your side and music blasting is a great one, isn't it? Now, what if you get a call from a client who's going to be in the neighbourhood and thought it'd be a good time to pop over to check out your progress or talk about future projects? They're where? Eleven blocks away and there's absolutely no traffic? Oh, that's just great. This is a reality when you work "with" clients - they can demand the worst things, at the least wonderful times and when you're completely unprepared for it.

Worse yet is the emergency meeting your client has called you about, when your babysitter is sick, your back up is on vacation, and you've got an infant. What do you do, then? Risk being inattentive to your client because, well, infants require 100% of your attention; you could leave them with a neighbour, hoping the two foot bong that you spied on your way in to "ask a favour" doesn't have any bearing on their attentiveness to your child; or you could reschedule for a time when you'll have childcare available, risking the wrath of your client who feels as if you should be working for them, really, not with them. Do that too many times, and you may have to look for a new client, again!

Getting into the swing of working on your own, without a boss breathing down your neck can be tough for a lot of stay at home parents. There aren't enough hours in the day, it seems, and with a work load on top of spending time with your children, errands and housework, it can be tough to get off of the couch when work calls but your exhausted from the past week of summer vacation.

Work that sits in piles on your kitchen table or desk can grow without ever seeming to shrink and you can fall horribly behind, seeming never to be able to catch up barring some immaculate intervention. Motivation, diligence and forward thinking are integral to your success. Lists, goals and sticky notes will be your tools. The couch or bed will be your nemesis - okay, that's a little harsh. How about the boyfriend your parents didn't want you to date in high school - the one who was a bad influence on you, that you enjoyed dating more than any other guy? That's your couch.

Lastly, if there's a chance or the likelihood that one day you'll be going back to working for someone, in their space and being a corporate drone, of sorts, this can be a huge adjustment, too. After having a lot of freedom, even as simple things like being able to do laundry while you analyze sales' figures and eat a freshly prepared meal can lead to resentment of your new role. You'll have to find the time, energy and money to do those things outside of work that you got so used to doing while working. And that hurts and leads to an exhaustion that some haven't felt since their children were newborns.

The convenience of working from home can totally outweigh the hassle. But does the hassle and risk of working from home make it worth it to you?