Recently I started reading a new (to me) blog, Get Rich Slowly.  He posted a good post this weekend Working from Home: What I’ve Learned in 8 Months as a Professional Blogger.  My situation is a little different in that I recently moved my office out of my home but for many of us these all still ring true.  For me, many of them still do ring true even with my office having moved out of the home.

I’m going to comment on his seven bullet points.

• Working from home saves me money. Surprising to many this is actually extremely true.  When the kitchen is just down the hall it makes sense to go there for lunch instead of running out for something quick.  There’s also the HUGE gas savings with not having to commute to an office every morning and back again at night.  My utilities did go down when I moved my office out of my house since the computer wasn’t running all the time so that could be seen as a small downfall.
• It’s difficult to budget with a variable income.  There are many jobs where this is an issue (commission based jobs, etc.) but when your income relies solely on the amount of work you complete there is a great deal of variability in it.  I noticed this the most earlier this year when I got really sick and wasn’t able to put in a normal work day for almost six weeks.  I think this is where having a second stream of income or have a good savings plan come in very handy and are extremely important.
• I control my own destiny. I think this is one of the biggest advantages of owning your own business.  The full credit for your success is YOURS while conversely the full blame for failure is yours.  But, you really do control your destiny and can make the decision to truly do what your passionate about.
• There’s no way to fake it.  If you don’t produce the work, you don’t get paid.  It’s simple.  Unfortunately in many corporate jobs you can slack off and you still get your paycheck.  So, learning that if I slack off for even a day it directly hits the pocketbook is a huge lesson to learn.
• Balance is essential. I have had more discussions on this topic recently than I can begin to tell you about.  Setting a work schedule is one of the best lessons I learned.  I start work at a certain time and I end work at a certain time and I don’t work weekends.  That doesn’t mean there aren’t time when I need to pull a late night or turn the computer on over the weekend to take care of something but, for the most part, I have learned at a 9-5 Monday – Friday work schedule makes me most productive and happy because, face it, I work for myself so I can enjoy the life I’m making for myself NOT so I can be tied to a desk for every waking moment of the day.
• The perfect is the enemy of the good. You’ll have to read the original post for more on this topic.  But, for me this really means that I don’t have to have all the answers and I don’t have to work through all the possible scenarios before embarking on a new venture.  If it looks good it’s OK to try it and work out the kinks as they come.  That’s not to say I’m going to drop a load of money on a new venture until I’m comfortable that it’s worth it but I don’t have to have every possible problem solved before I’ll take a few steps down that road.
• Social interaction takes effort.  Oh, yeah.  There is no water cooler to stand beside and get a little social interaction.  My biggest pitfall came when I made the 100% move to working at home at the same time that I moved 1,000 miles away from where I’d grown up.  I knew NO ONE and had no coworkers to help smooth the transition.   It’s not impossible.  It’s not like you you won’t have a social life.  It just takes a little more effort on your part than just showing up at work and saying “hi!” to make sure you see a human face every day.

If you have a chance look at his blog.  It’s real and has some cool posts.