Christian Women, Work at Home; Make Your Living Online
- submitted by guest blogger Nicole Beus
Proverbs 31: 10-12 Who can find a virtuous and capable wife? She is worth more than precious rubies. Her husband can trust her, and she will greatly enrich his life. She will not hinder him but help him all her life. (New Living Translation)
Whether you’ve read all of Proverbs 31 or not, you have most likely heard the phrase “be a Proverbs 31 woman”. A Proverbs 31 woman is a hard-worker; she does not rest on yesterday’s work, but provides for her family every day. In biblical times this meant that women got up and directed everything in the daily running of the house; servants, children, clothing, family fields, and worked from dawn through burning the oil late into the night. This was providing for her family.
In today’s world, many women cannot simply “provide” by being a stay-at-home mom. While that is honorable and challenging work and a 24/7/365 job in itself, it doesn’t often pay the bills anymore. Today’s economy is complex and for the past 30+ years, more families are two-income households.
We are blessed to be living in an incredible day and age with the way technology allows us the capability to work at home and make a real living. The biggest challenge to this – finding work that suits you. If you are looking to provide an income while working from home, consider the following:
- What skills and experience do you have? Take into consideration the jobs and responsibilities you’ve had in the past plus your education (things typically listed on your resume/cv), but don’t forget about the passions in your life. For example, you may not get paid for volunteering in the library at your kid’s school or for producing the church newsletter, but you’re passionate about them and do the work well. Those are still marketable skills for working at home. You might be a good book reviewer or blogger, be a great e-Newsletter writer or editor, or even have marketable graphics and layout skills.
- How many hours can you work per week? If you only have 5-15 hours a week, you’ll most likely be looking for freelance opportunities on a project by project basis. If you can work 20-40 hours from home because your kids are in school full-time (or you don’t have children) you might be looking for a work-shifting (aka telecommuting) position with one company. Of course, there is always option three – start a service for yourself and market to many different companies or sole-entrepreneurs and be flexible from week to week on the number of hours you have open.
- Do you prefer to be self-directed and take initiative or are you a great worker bee? Are you an incredible go-getter who can motivate yourself to start and finish projects, take the initiative to hunt for new projects and can sell yourself for the project work listed online? Or are you a hard-worker who completes tasks on time but prefers to be assigned a task? Determining this will make working online an enjoyable and profitable experience. If you don’t like being the point person, you could thrive by finding one company who assigns you projects and gives you the necessary hours per week.
- What kind of technology do you have to work with at home? Take note of the equipment you own at home because most online work won’t provide you with a computer, Internet service, printer, scanner or copier. What software do you own or can afford to buy to be able to work online? Microsoft Office, Google Docs, or other open source office software will be needed in almost any online job, but if you’re planning on doing graphics work or website design make sure you have the software or online programs that will work for you. Most of all, don’t forget to have reliable Internet service and a a good back up plan.
- Where should you look for online work? Let’s face it. It’s easy to get scammed in today’s online work world, so do your homework. There are many reputable sites, that still get the occasional scammer so don’t trust the site alone. You can check out your local newspaper’s websites or job sites like Monster, CareerBuilder, or Hot Jobs. There are also many freelance sites like elance.com and freelance.com (just to name a few). Don’t forget to ask around, there are many other women in the same position as you and they might share how they got started or know of other local resources. You can always go back to previous employers too and see if you can work from home for them. After all, you already have a relationship built there.
However you choose to proceed, sit down, make a plan and share it with your husband/family or your accountability girlfriend. This will help you be a success at making a living online and being a Proverbs 31 Woman.
~ Nicole "Indy" Beus is the owner of Indy's Services a Social Media Management, Graphic Design, and Virtual Assistance company since 2006. To learn more about her, follow online on Twitter: @Indys, Facebook: Indy's Services, or Indy's website indyses.net.