The upside is that you have true control over your job. Although the list of benefits varies depending on your personality and goals, there are some universals:

o You set your own hours.
o You have full control over meeting or not meeting your goals.
o You have the ability to work for several different companies, so there’s always variety.
o You can spend more time with your kids, your pets, yourself.
o You can work at 10:00 a.m. or midnight.
o You have a five-minute commute.
o You don’t need to budget for work clothes or lunches, and pajamas are quite affordable!
o And of course, there’s a certain satisfaction that one can only get from working for themselves.

The biggest upsides for me are that I can travel whenever I want. I can spoil my dogs and cats rotten whenever I feel like it. And there are many days when rather than changing out of my jammies, I just change into a new pair of them.

But it’s no fairy tale. There are some very unique challenges.

1. You don’t know how much you’ll make from month to month. Especially in the beginning, you may be rejected for 20 jobs before you find even a short-term one. Also, freelancing is very “feast or famine.” You could make $5,00 one month, then $300 the next. Once you’ve built a steady client base or contracted with several companies, you can have a clearer idea of what your income will be. However, until then, you must be in a financial position to handle those low or no-income periods.

2. Working from home really does mean working alone.

Home workers often find themselves feeling isolated. There’s no gossip in the breakroom, no company Christmas parties, no interaction whatsoever except with your clients (and that’s often via email).

While many people are well-suited to this type of work and work best completely on their own, others may start feeling like they live in a vacuum. It’s important to have friends you can call or visit when you start feeling this way. Maybe you could take a class or join a gym.

If you’re people-oriented and others-driven, you really do need to find an alternative outlet or you will never, ever be happy working at home. If you’re like me and that office gossip sent you off hatchet shopping, you’ve hit the jackpot.

3. What’s the biggest challenge? Self-discipline.

I’m going to spend quite a bit of time on this one because it’s absolutely crucial, both to your success as a transcriptionist and your happiness in life.

You’re not punching a time clock. There’s no one looking over your shoulder to make sure you get your work done. It’s all up to you. Sometimes it can be easy to miss a deadline or wait until the last minute and only put halfhearted effort into a project. You’re sick, have something better to do, or just don’t feel like doing anything at all. I cannot stress enough what a killer that attitude can be!

If you’re serious about working for yourself, whether you plan to do it two hours a week or 60, you have to be serious about both your work and your clients. There is a LOT of competition out there. You must be committed to constantly under-promising and over-delivering or you will fail.

On a mo