Being able to work from home can be a dream if you have a long commute each day. Not only do you only commute to the next room, but you can be in control of your working hours and decide what you will be doing for work. Flexible working is becoming bigger and bigger for many companies, so you could still be employed and work from home. But if you want to go it alone, then you need to know that you will have enough clients and interest to pay your bills. After all, that is what work is for. So, where to start?

First of all, you need to play to your strengths. It can be hard to start a career out of nowhere if you have no idea what to do, or choosing something that you have no experience of. So it makes sense to look at what you’ve been doing already; how can you take it to the next level and work for yourself? If you want to work from home as you’re keen to do something new, then think about what you have experience of. You don’t need to have formal qualifications in something to do a good job. Take something like graphic design or photography, for example. They are both great examples of things that you could have been doing as a hobby, and you will have evidence of, without any formal qualifications. But if you’ve got a portfolio of work, then it can be all you need to help get clients if they like what you do.

So think about your experience and also your passions. You may have dabbled in the stock market and investing before, so have an idea of what to do to help others to do the same. This is something that you could quite easily do from home, especially if you were to use an automated trading platform to help. Then, all you are going to be doing is to sell your services to others to help them. It can for as much or as little as you want too, it just needs to be enough to make it worthwhile for you. So getting some quotes from your competitors can be a good idea, so you know roughly that they are charging. It really is a fine line; too much and you’ll get very few clients. Too little and you could take on more work than you can handle and end up being overworked.

If the thought of going completely solo seems like a little too much at the moment, then you could look for work through freelance sites like Upwork or Fiverr. There are sites that you can pitch to for work, and can be a good way of building up some references and experience. So to start with, may be just what you need. You can also sign up to focus group sites and review sites, where you get paid for filling in some information or answering questions. It can be a quick way to get yourself onto the freelance ladder.

When you break it down, freelance work shouldn’t be overwhelming. Just take time, make a plan, and make it work for you.