Working From Home is My Dream Come True

This page about my dream job is meant to inspire you to look for something you can do to make money- a little or a lot- while also using your talents. I believe that we are meant to use our God-given talents to use in this life and it's what will ultimately make us happiest.

I love to draw and be creative with paper and pencils and use graphic programs to design images to sell as stationery and gift products.  I work full time running my business associated with an online print-on-demand company called Zazzle.  Zazzle has given me, and many others, the opportunity to earn money using my artwork and designs.

This is a dream job for me, but it took years to get to this point.

I've worked all my life.  From my first job at the age of 15 working at McDonalds, to my years of being a Para-professional in the Florida school system, I never made more than $6.70 an hour. I didn't need to make a lot of money because my income just supplemented my husbands paycheck.   Without a degree or career I knew that I would never be able to make enough to support myself if I had to, and one day, I had to!

I found an online site called Zazzle.com where my artistic talents could be put to use and I began to build online "stores" where I sold products and made money.  At first, not much money.  Paychecks were small, but increasing all the time, which kept me going.  Five years later I can support myself while I work from home on my own terms, and I am making much more than six dollars an hour! 

I was a middle-aged woman, without a college degree or career when unfortunate circumstances turned my life upside-down.  I could either survive in a small apartment, barely scraping by for the rest of my life, or find a way to improve my life.

I like to think that if someone else can do it, I can too.  And I read in the Zazzle forum that there were store owners on the site who made thousands of dollars a month.  That is all I needed to know.  It was possible to be successful there, and I set out to discover how.

No one is more surprised than I am that I can sit at my computer and earn money.  It did not happen overnight.  I had a lot to learn before I could create images the way I wanted and then the sales picked up.  I still work approximately ten hours a day, seven days a week and my income is steadily increasing.

If you seriously want to earn a living from your home, don't quit your day job without thinking it through.

For one thing it takes time to build up an online business if you want to work for yourself, and even if you will be working for someone else, there can be drawbacks to being home all the time.

I won't list them all here, but feeling isolated could be a problem.  If the tech support guys show up in your office cube each time the computer has a glitch, remember that they won't be available to help you any more.   Also, if your household has many distractions (such as small children, big children, non-supportive spouse, ringing phones, and animals) you could find it almost impossible to get your work done.

On the other hand if you can focus and be committed to making progress each day, working from home can give you all kinds of freedom.

I don't want to be all doom and gloom here, but most people who feel very comfortable in life don't realize how suddenly things can come unglued and disintegrate.  It could happen for a number of reasons and you'll kick yourself maybe for not seeing it coming, but by then it will be too late.

I worked all my life yet nothing I did was moving me forward and I didn't care.  Woman mostly get stuck in this position because the man is still traditionally the one who makes the big bucks.  Polls will show that woman usually make less than men even when they are doing the same jobs.

I think society still looks as us (women) as needing a man to get by, so we can therefore do with less.  That is how I see it, and I don't like it.  Then, when and if, women end up alone, they can't make enough to survive and that is a big problem.

The point I am making is to start thinking now about building up something you can fall back on if you ever need to.  Everyone will say the same thing about earning money online - It doesn't happen overnight!