Working from home …Convincing your family and friends that you can do it

I wrote recently about how I have a dearly loved much older friend who is far from convinced that I can make it as a self-employed person working from home. This is perhaps unusual as she and her husband owned a business. However, it was different in as much as they had a shop and were selling a service that people needed …sign making. Working from home as a freelance writer , or freelance anything else , a  telemarketer for example , is seen by her and I suspect many others as a different matter entirely .Even though I have health issues affecting the type of work I can do and the location of places I can get to , she remains absolutely convinced that I could and can get a job and go to it , and her constant concern and questions about freelancing being as I see it the ideal solution , is ‘ Do they pay everything for you that they should ? ‘Meaning pensions, holiday entitlement and sick pay , and is it a proper job, where you have an interview, with a person you get to meet,  in an office and go to work every day ? And this is the crucial point, many freelancers have no doubt had their plans greeted with ‘Can’t you get a proper job? ‘

Nobody should try to tell anyone that working from home is easy and that you will get rich quickly, even though there are plenty of those claims all over the internet, Do NOT believe them !!! It is a long and often difficult journey to financial security, often not helped by the most important people in your life, whom you do not want to worry about you, being against it and so worried. The idea of not having a stable, regular income and the security of holiday and sickness pay and a pension makes them worry for you, so try not to get irritated with them . You may well have a very sound business plan and know that your vision will work, but they don’t.

This is a time in your life when you most want those you love to have faith in your plans, but do try to understand how they feel and how you too worry for them, when you see them taking risks.it might seem odd for me to be advising you to try to understand people who are opposing you, but it actually may help to ease the conflict.

At least appear to understand and respect their concern for you , tell them things like, I know you care for me, love me and want what is best for me., I understand what you’re saying. In any argument in life, to speak in a non-confrontational way, often helps to ease the tension.

Work hard and apply yourself to your plans to freelance, if you want to be believed, then show yourself to be believable and that you can do it!!!

Break down the resistance and doubts of those who care for you, not with force and arguments but with understanding and proof that you can do it.

Valerie Hedges