So, You Want To Work From Home?

The single most popular request i have noticed among job hunters in our industry is to work from home.  Just look at the Online Media Job Board on Facebook. Regardless of where the employer is located, the first comments you’ll see are interested candidates asking “Can this be remote?” Technically, these job seekers do have a point.  In fact, everything we do to earn money can be done from the comfort of your couch, or even on a beach somewhere. However, there is a very good reason you won’t see more companies changing their views on this particular idea. I will just come out and say it: Not everyone can handle working for a company from home. Moreover, not everyone has earned the right. Let me explain.

Employers aren’t going to pay just anyone a salary to work thousands of miles away. Our industry is still very immature. Most CEOs and Director level types don’t have the time or energy to train someone from the ground up. For this reason, the barrier to entry into internet marketing without some sort of family connection or referral is very high. If you’ve been doing this for a while, you’ve probably built up a decent book of business which is very valuable. However, if you don’t know many people in Affiliate Marketing yet, or haven’t developed any important online client relationships, your chances of getting hired by a company to work remote are about as good as winning the lottery or American Idol. Employers have to be able to trust that the person they are hiring remote can make money from day 1.

Many people simply don’t have what it takes to work from home.  This is not an insult to anyone, merely a fact. Some individuals are motivated by money, others by authority. Certain people want to be told what to do and how to do it. Others lack the self discipline to actually work if they are not in an office and need a clear separation of work and life in order to function effectively. Also,  people who work from home can often feel isolated from their fellow colleagues because of the physical distance and lack of proximity to ask questions and seek advice. The freedom I personally find in working at home is worth it to me. However, I have weighed the pros and cons and thought it through to figure out what’s right for me. Working remote is not exactly a day at the beach either! I wouldn’t go so far to say it’s overrated, but with the freedom also come the constant distractions, lack of support, and imbalance of home and work life.  If you are someone in the industry who has a solid book of business who is also self-disciplined and who thrives in an unsupervised environment, perhaps it could be a fit for you!

Working from home isn’t a right, but a privilege. It’s one thing if you are self-employed (in which case you can do whatever you want), but just because you can do online marketing from the beach, doesn’t mean you will be encouraged to do so on someone Else’s dime. I work with many companies who prefer to have in-house employees, but who are open to a remote situation if there is an exceptional candidate interested. What does this really mean? It means that most companies in in our industry  don’t  really care where an employee is located  if they are worth it to hire. Are you worth the remote hire? Have you earned the right to work for remotely for a company? If you aren’t 100% positive that the answer is yes, it’s time to start earning that privilege. Instead of asking companies if the position can be remote, show them that you are worth it. This means that you should develop the qualities that set you apart in whatever job it is that you do. Some immediate ways to do that  include developing more partnerships and contacts in the industry to gain credibility and working late at the office at least a few nights a week (yes, sometimes on the weekends which will show your boss that you aren’t just a clock puncher). You should never just feel entitled to work from home because it’s physically possible unless it is your own company.