Working From Home Is a Blessing To Our Family
Hello everyone and welcome September! Time flies so fast and the next thing we know, it's Christmas already! Before going to the 'holiday season feels', I would like to share a big blessing that we have received recently. If you have been in this blog, you'll notice changes on it, and if you are one of my friends, you knew that we have come to a turning point where I gave up my career to be with my family.
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| photo edited, not mine |
WORKING FROM HOME : THE BEGINNING
In the beginning of 2016, I have already posted about my hopes in becoming a work-from-home-mom, but you see it didn't happen immediately. I have a lot to consider : our financial status, our upcoming relocation and the fear of starting an unknown venture.
Why do I want to work-from-home?
Well, like most of our reasons: More time with my family. Especially that we are really having a hard time looking for someone to take care of my kids while me and hubby are working. I no longer want to go home from a tiring day at work without the kids because they had to stay to my parent's place, somewhere away from us. And also, my family needs me more than money. Although I know that it is a necessity, I'd be working from home to take care of them and earn at the same time. That's my ideal goal.
Last July 2017, I have took a leap of faith and finally resigned from my more-than-5-years-job. The reasons?
1. When we moved in Laguna, the travel going to work has been a struggle. Because of the distance, I have sacrificed my time and sleep which eventually affected my health. I got insomnia and I became anemic. I felt physically, mentally and emotionally drained EVERY.DAY.
2. My expenses going to work is higher than the money I am getting after paying all the bills. What about the mouths that I need to feed?
3. My marriage has been suffering, too! And we have almost decided to get separated - and I don't wanna do that.
Before I tell you what have I done to start working from home, let me share first MY FEARS:
1. We don't have any savings nor emergency funds. In fact, we are heavily in debt and we don't know how to re-pay. I am just so grateful that the people I owe money from are very understanding of our situation.
2. I don't know what's in store for us. Weighing the pros and cons, I still am worried if this will be the wisest decision I can make for my family. Like for instance, the company-provided health card for me and my kids, that was very helpful and that's one of the benefits I'll no longer have once I decided to shift to working from home.
3. I don't know what I can bring to the table. I know I can brag about my extensive experience in customer service, but the competition is really tough and it will be as if starting from scratch again.
But I still believed, and here are the actions I have taken to make it possible:
1. I can't do anything about our financial status, so I prayed and I prayed really hard.
Where God guides, God provides
And I know this is where I am supposed to be, because home is where mom is, right? So I really took a leap of faith, even if a lot of people is questioning my decision, my capability and the risk that I am taking. As Kim of Mom On Duty said, "Just start..." and so I did.
2. I know that I lack skills and that I don't have so much to present in the jungle of freelancing world, so I educated myself. Self-learning is the key! There are so many resources and tools that we could take advantage of, and some of them are free. For instance, I have joined a lot of Facebook groups that support work-from-home-people. They are providing free webinars and tips to get started. There are also sites that offer free courses, like Udemy. It's a tough competition, but if you wanna make it happen, then make it happen.
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| this was when I am having my "trial" |
3. I have created my beginner's kit : CV, cover letter, skill set and confidence, and the technical side : desktop, reliable internet connection, headset with noise cancellation feature and I borrowed my sister's laptop for back up (since our desktop is the only entertainment we have at home).
4. Since I don't know if this plan will work, I've tested my hypothesis. I have created profiles in some (legit) sites like Upwork (formerly oDesk), Online Jobs Ph, Freelancer Ph and Elance. I have also taken some assessments to qualify and so I can start applying. And after a couple of months applying and waiting, I finally got a client! I started as a part time marketing specialist for this Australian client and that's when I told myself "This is it!". I have resigned from my job when his offer became stable.
Now, a lot has been asking me, "Is the pay good?" Well, I am still not earning my corporate salary yet, but our expenses have been cut in half since I stayed at home! Plus, I am still able to do side jobs like transcribing audios and article writing.
WORKING FROM HOME IS A BLESSING
Indeed! This has been an answered prayer. If you have been following me in IG and FB, you'll knew there was a time when our family experienced being away from each other - it was really insane! When after a very tiring day from work, I'll go home in an empty house, I will just cry. That was my great motivation. I don't want my kids to be away, physically, emotionally and mentally. I don't want them calling others "Mom" because that should only be me. I don't want to argue with my husband with little things and suffer emotional stress just because I need to travel long hours to be in my job.
I know God wants the best for us. But if we will not open our eyes, we won't see the blessings He is offering us. Remember that if we ask, it will be given. Hence, if we did not ask, we will not know and it won't be given to us.
Now, let me use this opportunity to re-introduce Graceful Musings XYZ.
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| my new logo! |
And hooray, a new domain! Along with the blessing of working from home, I now have more time to blog! If you have been following my blog, you will recognize changes on it. From the logo, the theme and template.
From a personal blog, I am intending to turn this into a hub where I can inspire moms to start believing in their dreams, to step out of fear and live their dreams. I am still not deleting my old posts, but my new posts will be centered into giving tips and sharing experiences as a work from home mom. If I come across opportunities, I'll also share it here. Most likely, I am wanting to create a personal branding site and create a community of dreamer moms!
This is just a start. It'll be a more GRACEFUL MUSINGS!
Now, it is your turn... Do tell me what topics you want me to cover or if you have any questions for me, I will be glad to answer them in my capacity - here. :)
P.S. don't forget to subscribe and get access to my free Blog Planner!
Love,
Mommy Grace
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17 comments
Hey gurl, I can totally relate! Thanks for sharing your WAHM journey! :) Wishing you more blessings. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Miss Bel! Thank you so much! I hope to hear yours, too! And thank you for the opportunities. :)
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ReplyDeleteWorking from home has always been an option. It is up to people to see how much they want to earn and to do whatever it takes to make that happen. For that reason, I commend you for recognizing the necessity of self-learning. I see where most freelancers fail, or at best, stay at the entry level - failure to improve and grow themselves.
ReplyDeleteNo, I am not saying that freelancers should improve on their skills across the board. Instead, picking a couple of niches and specializing in that allows for better opportunities. Other skills may come in handy, but that is if they are used to add value to main work.
Congratulations on your growth. There is no such thing as receiving compensation that is half of the previous employment is better than nothing. Keep the attitude of not only matching but exceeding anything else you have had in the past.
Thank you, Robert! Your word is always an inspiration :)
DeleteI wish I know how to start working at home. I am a teacher and I have a baby. As we wish to add another bundle of joy in the family, I am pretty sure that my mother in law w, who watches baby while we're at work will surely complain about taking care of the baby. On my son alone, I often hear complaints already so I am really thinking if I will need to resign and try being a WAHM. I want to learn more about each work at home individuals and how they got the courage to start. I know it's quite fearful at first but you did a good job adjusting to it.
ReplyDeleteLoved your story!!! The way you logically assessed the pros and cons and eventually took the leap is pretty admirable! I'm of the opinion though, that given the current traffic situation, more local companies should encourage their employees to work from home. With google drive, skype and all these technological advances, it's not as difficult to do that anymore. I work from home myself and i feel that not only is it more economical- it actually increases your productivity. Just being able yo immediately go to work without having to go through traffic is already a big help!! Anyway best of luck to you. :) Congratulations also on your fresh new website look:)
ReplyDeleteI also resigned from workband decided to be a full time stay at home mom. Never did I imagine I could earn from home through blogging. Though I am not earning the salary I was receiving before, but then the joy of.being with my boys is more than enough to inspire me and tell myself I did the right decision.
ReplyDeleteYay! Good job, moms! Keep up the good work. God is good all the time talaga :)
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree that working from home is a blessing. I have also been working from home since 2014 and I can't imagine myself going back to the corporate world. I still take a few consultancy projects but I make sure I don't have to report to the office daily.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, goodluck on your freelancing career. It's going to great.
This is such an inspiring post! I used to work in the corporate world before I resigned to pursue my career as a full-time event host. Luckily, I was able to get a lot of clients. Now that I am pregnant though, I can't really host events anymore, which means I don't get to work and earn. I'm thinking of what will happen once I give birth and the months after that. Like you, my family comes first. I would want to be there for my baby and my husband as much as I can. But not having work is scary! That's actually what's bothering me right now... how I'm going to survive and provide for my child. But like what you said, God will always provide. So I am holding on to that promise and thought. You're right, working at home is really a blessing. If I had a choice between earning a lot but being away from family all the time and earning just enough but being around my family, I would choose the latter.
ReplyDeleteWorking from home is really convenient. I mean it really allows you to have more time with your family and yourself. Also, congrats on the job and welcome to freelancing! ✨
ReplyDeleteI notice you got a new domain name, congrats for that!
I am one of those people who wanted to work remotely and ditch the coprorate world; however I am not confident enough if I can make it to this other jungle. Lol. Thanks for sharing your insights and your tips on how to make it, I would try this one out although Im not sure if I can land a job. I want to start part time first and if all is good then I can quit. I am not confident to just quit without a fallback yet.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a mom yet but I have to agree that working from home is a blessing. For me, as a young adult, I get to maximize my time and be more productive with the absence of commute time. Congratulations on being able to work from home and having more time to blog. I like your rebranding :)
ReplyDeleteI really love the idea of having a home-based work to raise my future children right. I've always wanted to homeschool my future kids so I am still praying if that's what God wants me to do when I would have my family after 10 years? Hehe. Well, thank you so much for this post. <3
ReplyDeleteLeap of faith...you nailed it.
ReplyDeleteJust persists with what you are doing, maybe change your work style and timing and everything would straighten out.
Freelancing and working out of home is not an easy thing to do, it requires, first of all deep pockets, and secondly some skills that help you initially. But you will have to build on those skills in order to survive.
Proud WAHM here too! Resigned from my corporate job a few weeks after coming back from ML. Lol! I'm blessed to have a homebased fulltime job and spare time to blog too :-) Kudos to you, mommy! You made the right choice :)
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