We often think of home as a place of comfort and leisure, a nest of security where you can let loose and enjoy yourself. A select group of people have enhanced their image of home, creating work spaces that enable them to think of their humble abode as a place to create wealth, gain personal growth, prestige, better health and living situations for their family.

Working from home . . . do people really do that? If you're the breadwinner of the house and you have bills outstanding, or you're close to retirement age and wondering how you'll fit in, or if you're a house bound wife with little children to take care of, and in many other cases the someone who tries to get ahead at work and faces a dead end, you might have thought to yourself, "Yes, I deserve something more, something better."

It may be you can't give up the money, health and retirement benefits a full time job can guarantee you. Many people are "moonlighting" part time, doing computer typesetting at home.

It's possible you're thinking, "I don't have any experience in anything." The truth of the matter is very simple, nobody has any experience in what they're about to do, until they do it. Once you start following the suggestions in this book, and begin working your plan of action, you will learn very quickly all that you need to know.

Your needs may be simple; the need to eat to feel better, the need to work to feel secure, the need to play to feel free, and the need to love to feel acceptance and belonging.

The whirl of complexities surrounding each of our needs can be likened to a finely cut prism, spreading colorful patterns and sounds upon the world depending upon the motion of light and breath of wind spinning it around. To be successful you must be like the prism, gathering the many aspects of your business into a frame of reference to be acted upon.

MARKETING SKILLS

If the thought of working from home appeals to you then the next step is to find what marketable skills you have to offer your client. If you only type 40 WPM (words per minute) you have a marketable skill. Many companies would be happy to hire you to work in their office. It will be up to you to educate your client on the benefits that a home service can provide. What can you offer a large company by working from home?

Several large companies have dared to be creative and deserve credit for their outstanding accomplishments in providing a better environment for children with mothers who can now work from home.

In Chicago, Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust; in South Carolina, Blue Cross/Blue Shield; in California, and Heights Information Service of California are showing other companies that they care enough to make a difference. Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust hired a small number of women typists, trained them for two weeks and then sent them home to work. The transcription of letters and other documents was done from a tape recorder. These documents were saved to disk on a company word processing machine and then the information typed was sent back to the bank using a modem. (A modem is used to transmit data over the telephone line.) These women saved a third of their income, carfare, clothing, food, child care and commuting time by working from home. The company saved dollars in space, utilities and health insurance.

Blue Cross/Blue Shield Insurance has keypunch operators working from home. Heights Information Service hires a staff of home workers that are qualified computer programmers, analysts and typists.

What side benefits will there be when you are working from home? As a company employee you don't have to worry about your equipment breaking down. Your employer is expected to supply your software, hardware, and a wage and benefit package. The employer provides the work, but usually takes a hefty profit also.

Perhaps you've decided that there would be more profit in starting your own home based business.  You can take any hobby or interest that you have and turn it into a business. You might well wonder what your initial costs will be and how much success you might expect once you've mastered the necessary skills needed to make your business a success.