Did you get the bug? No, no that bug that is shutting down businesses and causing people to smile with their eyes with a mask on, but the working from home bug? When officials said we could go back to the office if we fancy it, were you one that jumped at the chance, or did you say “thanks very much, but no thanks very much”?
If it was more the latter, thinking about the freedom you had to leave your desk, no one timing your bathroom breaks, the lack of restrictive clothing, etc., have you ever considered keeping it going? Maybe you were not given a choice and now are daydreaming of the days when you could roll right out of bed and in front of a laptop?
Maybe it’s time for a change. There are a lot of ways you can keep the working from home train chugging, and we’ve listed the top options down below. See if something takes your fancy.
Influencer
Being an influencer isn’t exactly what one thinks of when you think of working from home. More like, working from wherever you want, be that your home or …Singapore?
The freedom is one of the most appealing parts of being an influencer. That, along with the fact that you are your own boss and can make your own decisions. But we’re starting with influencer because it informs most other self-employed jobs out there. Whether you are an Etsy salesman or a wedding planner, you will need a degree of self-marketing, and that is entirely the point of being an influencer. An influencer is a brand in of themself – and if you were to describe to someone what an influencer actually does, the nearest answer is a marketer.
Plus, being an influencer engages a lot of valuable and transferable skills. Not only are you engaging creative skills like photography, filming and editing (not to mention the skills in whatever your brand is centered around, like writing or crafts), but also business skills, leadership skills, data analytics and self-confidence.
If all of this sounds attractive, but you’re not a fan of being in front of the camera, you can become a social media manager. You can take the photos, edit them, add the caption and post. It will use the same skills as marketing, for introverts.
And to take things even further, you can always work for an influencer or a business doing any one of the listed skills around. Editing, graphic designing, data analysis, etc. are all roles that bigger companies than startups and influencers will need to fill.
Writer
One example of someone who could use a social media presence to fish for work is the writer. If you have a love of writing, you can apply that skillset in many different ways, all working from home.
If you like the idea of being your own boss, you can go into freelance journalism or copywriting. The main difference between the two is intent. Journalism aims to inform, striving (usually) for facts and the most bleeding edge stories, whereas copywriting is more akin to fluff pieces that are created to sell a product. Both will bring in regular income, but they have different priorities and attract different people.
And then there’s blogging. Being an influencer with vastly longer captions, blogging will allow you to build an audience around what you want to talk about, and make money from advertisements and merchandise while you’re at it.
If you’re looking for a challenge and you’re more into the creative side of writing, you can look into ghost writing, or even writing your own book, although both are notoriously difficult.
If you’re someone who prefers reading to writing, you can look into being a freelance editor or a proofreader. A proofreader will need to look over official documents, making sure that everything spelling and grammar-wise is correct, however, sometimes it includes some fact-checking too.
An editor’s job is to take an author’s work and take it from project to professional. That doesn’t just mean the spelling, but working on everything from the research to the themes to the characterization and more.
Graphics designer
Another one that would benefit from a social media presence, if you like drawing, painting, etc. you can apply those talents a number of ways.
The most straightforward way, although, again, difficult is to be an artist and simply sell your art. It’s definitely a career for someone with a passion for what you do – but it fits the bill for staying at home. Set up your studio in a spare room and get started!
For more stable income, you can type “Commissions open” into all your social media account bios and create for whoever is looking for work. Marketers will be looking for graphics to go with their products, influencers will be looking for designs for their merchandise, and fans will be looking for something pretty they can keep forever. There are a lot of avenues to explore. Get started on your portfolio to attract fans and buyers.
Virtual assistant
A virtual assistant has all the responsibilities that an assistant might, but from a laptop. Some people in powerful positions are simply not willing to schedule appointments, invoice clients, etc. and are usually on the move or travelling so aren’t going to come into the office to give you a command. When you have a headset and a laptop, why bother entering the office either?
You can even take on various clients, if filling one man’s calendar isn’t turning out to be stimulating enough, giving you another source of income. Plus, it doesn’t take any specific qualifications to get started.
Some roles require experience in copywriting, social media and even accounting, which could drive the salary up. There is also the option of being a remote bookkeeper. If you know where to find gaps in the budget, how to find cheaper rates or how to avoid all the different types of interest in loans, you could find accounting from home a rewarding result.
An offshoot of the same idea, you can take up customer service from home. Now that office buildings are opening up and people are realizing the benefits of working from home, office managers are noticing a lot of empty desks and are loading up on laptops to accommodate those who aren’t coming back anytime soon.
Coding
Coding is already very common amongst those who like working from home. It was popular to sit at home, or maybe even an internet café, to get their work done. If you have experience in coding your cup runneth over with opportunities to work from home.
There are lots of ways you can go with this. As a web developer, you can test and maintain websites for various clients. Business websites, for example, will be in the hands of managers who will panic when they see that shutting it down and booting it up again didn’t do anything. Nowadays, website developer roles are becoming increasingly found in flexible and remote states, so it will be easy to take on various clients and work around them all.
You can also look into other forms of development, like app and game development. Apps are very popular amongst startups, and they usually are made up of a team that has an idea, but might need developers. You could be making the next Angry Birds from your sofa.