The remote working revolution has well and truly started. It took a global pandemic to kick it into action, but here we are. Did you know that right now, 44% of workers aged between 30 and 49 are working from home? That’s a staggering chunk of the working population, but what does this mean for you? As a professional, you should always look for ways to advance and improve your career. Could the work-from-home revolution prove an opportunity to do just that?
If you want a short answer, then it’s a resounding yes! Remote working opens up so many opportunities for professionals to take their careers to the next level. Today, we’ll run through some of the possibilities available and how you can use them to your advantage. Without further ado, let’s see how you can use this revolution to enjoy a more prosperous career!
Starting a business
The beauty of working from home is that it requires no additional costs for a business owner. Your staff work wherever they want, so you have no need to rent office space. For many entrepreneurs, this presents a key opportunity that never existed before. You’ve always wanted to start a small business, but you’ve never been able to make it work financially. The costs of starting your business always held you back, but now you have an alternative approach that’s far friendlier on your wallet.
Remote working means you can build a business and hire employees without worrying about the cost of office space. It can literally knock thousands of pounds off your annual overheads, making your dream seem more achievable.
Not only that, but the fact that more people are working from home means there are new business ideas out there to explore. There’s a whole world of services that can help people work from home with more conviction and efficiency. So, now is a great chance to advance your career by becoming a business owner for the first time.
Expanding a business
Similarly, if you already own a business while this revolution goes on, you can improve your career by expanding your company. The ability to get people to work from home means you can hire more staff to help you increase your workload. One tactic that a lot of business owners have used during the pandemic is they’ve hired staff in different countries. Why? Because it opens the door to expand into different regions without needing to pay for office space. As a result, you tap into a new market and can make more money.
Moreover, there are more outsourcing opportunities than ever before. Loads of people are working from home as self-employed individuals. Quite a lot of people lost their jobs during 2020 and decided to go at it alone from now on. Thus, you’ve got loads of talented individuals that can be outsourced for all kinds of jobs in your business. Consequently, you can get more assistance without needing to pay for full-time staff. It’s a very clever way of helping you grow your business without spending a fortune.
Again, going back to the first point we made, working from home opens up lots of new opportunities for business services. Indeed, plenty of companies expanded and enjoyed growth throughout 2020/21 by pivoting and offering new services. A simple example is a company that now offer online consultations instead of in-person ones. You’ve changed your services to allow more people to enjoy them. Instead of relying on locally-based clientele, you can have clients from all over the country.
Going at it alone
It was touched upon above, but the simple fact is that lots of people moved away from traditional jobs and became self-employed during the remote working revolution. Some people were forced to do so while others did it out of choice. This could be a move you make if you want to improve your career.
Of course, it depends on what you do and can offer other people. If you’re currently working for a company and provide a service that others can benefit from, it might make sense to go at it alone. How will this advance your career? Essentially, you’ll be freed from the shackles of your employer. In your current role, all career advancement and progression is dictated by those above you. If they don’t have the funds to give you a raise, you’ll never earn more money. If they don’t have a role to promote you to, you’ll do the same job for years with no reward.
Contrastingly, becoming a self-employed contractor lets you choose when you work, how you work, and how much you get paid for your jobs. You can pick as many clients as you can get, meaning there’s no cap on what you could earn every year. The remote working revolution has made this idea more possible than it’s ever been before. Lots of new technology makes working from home so much easier, and you also have loads of businesses looking to save money. As a result, they could look for contractors like yourself instead of hiring full-time employees.
If you feel like your career is moving nowhere in your current job, now’s a good time to take the plunge and go at it alone. The world has never been better suited to helping people work from home by themselves.
Making use of extra time to develop skills
One of the benefits of working from home is that it opens up more hours in your day. Before, you might spend 30 minutes driving to work in the morning and 30 minutes driving home. Not only that, but you have to get up early to shower and get dressed. You may even leave home earlier than required, arriving at work super early to avoid traffic. It all adds up to a day that’s full of things you have to do, leaving very little time for yourself.
Remote working has shown just how much time you save by not needing to commute to an office. You can get up later, work flexible hours at home and have more time to spare every evening. If you want to advance your career, you need to take advantage of this extra time to develop your skillset.
An idea that springs to mind is that you train to become something different. Use your spare time to take online courses that earn qualifications – but think about qualifications that can help you make more money in the current climate. Consider some of the most in-demand jobs right now, like teachers. It’s relatively easy to become an online maths and physics tutor nowadays, giving lessons to students online. More and more kids are seeking out online tutors, so there’s a lot of demand for this service. Using your extra free time can help you train to offer these services, giving you another opportunity to make money.
Alternatively, use your free time to develop existing skills and be better at your current job. This could open the door for promotions – or it could help you provide better services as a freelancer, depending on what route you go down.
Starting a side hustle
We’ve discussed the idea of starting a business or becoming a freelancer. However, what if you could do both of these things while still working your current job? The joy of remote working means you can start a side hustle with ease. It’s much easier to keep working your full-time job while also running something on the side.
It doesn’t need to be a business – you can do freelance work in your spare time – but it helps you advance your career by opening up new windows of opportunity. Having dual income sources adds more financial security to your life, putting less stress on your shoulders. You should also reduce work stress because you no longer depend on your full-time job as much. At any given moment, you could decide to quit and pursue your side hustle on a full-time basis.
At this point, you’re back to the first and third points in this article! The main point of a side hustle is that it helps you do multiple things at once. If remote working didn’t become such a popular and easily accessible thing, you may struggle to start a side hustle. Now, it’s something you can do from home – whether your existing job makes you work from home or not.
The moral of the story is that we should take advantage of all the benefits and technology granted to us during this remote working revolution. It is easier than ever before for people to work from home and enjoy success. As a result, there are chances for you to take your career to the next level – however you see fit. For some, this means starting a business for the very first time. For others, it could mean expanding an existing business idea or going down the self-employed route. Even if you use your spare time to develop your skills, it can still help you achieve great things.
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