How to make money from home?

2024 has been an eye-opening year for the companies to see the benefits of letting their employees work from home. The number of workers taking advantage of the comfort of their homes and being at their “office” in just a matter of seconds has proven to boost motivation. At the same time, some have challenges working from home, whether due to lack of discipline or their environment, but the general public’s opinion on working from home is very positive overall. 

This article will create a general outline for those that want to work from home and give essential tips. 

Look for work from home jobs

If you want to start working from home, your job needs to allow that in the first place. It’s not like you can work from home and do everything if you’re working in wildlife rescue or any other job that requires you to be out in the field. So, it’s important to see whether or not your job allows you to work from home. It might be time to switch jobs if it doesn’t. 

It’s not to say that every position out there will have a work from home opportunity. It generally depends on the company policy, and when looking for a job, you should see whether or not they allow their employees to work from home. 

Your profession

Not all of us have a profession that could allow us to work from home. This point is somewhat relevant to the above as you can’t really work from home if you’re working in a field that doesn’t allow you to do so, like construction, being a real estate agent, etc. 

Luckily, there are countless tools and resources out there where you can pick up new skills and focus on getting better so that people would pay for those skills. The most popular work from home jobs you can dive into quickly are tutoring, writing, customer service, translation, website testing, and the list goes on and on. It really comes down to the type of skillset you already have and what you’re willing to do with it. For example, if you were good with computers early on, why not related fields a try?

Freelancing or full-time

Many find it challenging to decide if they should freelance all the way or pick up a full-time job. It all comes down to your preferences. The days of drought and overwhelmingly increased work are expected with freelancing. Since this directly correlates to how much one can earn, some might find a full-time position less risky due to the steady paycheck.

Again, this is still relevant to what you’re doing. It’s hard to be a freelance engineer as many companies want their engineers to work for them full-time rather than on a project basis, but freelancing is more suitable if you’re a web designer. That said, take a look at the area of work you’re in to see if most companies favor hiring freelancers as opposed to full-time employees. The bigger the market, the bigger the share for you.

Where to find clients

It’s pretty straightforward when you plan on working full-time for a company as you need to apply for jobs, but many get lost in the earlier stages of freelancing. This is mainly due to not knowing where to find clients as freelancers. 

Since freelancing has become a massive thing on its own, there are many places to look for clients. Some of these places are freelancing platforms where clients find freelancers or the other way around. Here are some of these freelancing platforms you can utilize to find clients, to name a few.

• Fiverr
• Upwork
• People Per Hour
• Guru
• Truelancer

Other than these, use social media pages related to your profession. For example, if you’re a kitchen writer, look for communities associated with that and see if people need your assistance. The chances are you will find a lucky few that could use your services.

Don’t forget taxes

Someone that chooses to go the freelance route to work from home needs to consider a few things about taxes. Freelancing means being self-employed, which means handling most of your taxes. 

When you work for an employer, you pay federal income taxes through the taxes withheld from your paycheck. Take the employer out of the picture; you must pay your taxes by estimating them. You need to calculate taxes for every quarter and pay the IRS accordingly. Note that the same as federal income tax withholding, you should pay slightly above your estimation as underpaying comes with penalties, even if you pay extra for the next quarter.

Learn more about estimated tax payments.