4 THINGS THAT 'WORK FROM HOME' BUSINESS OWNERS PROBABLY UNDERSTAND

Aug 18

If you are a business owner that works in a legit office with employees and trucks with your logo on them and multiple locations ... I may or may not be talking to you in this post ... depends on your mood, I suppose ... but if you are a 'stay at home' and 'work from home' business owner ... I will probably be talking straight to you. And that includes me.

There is a weird 'pause' or 'shuffle' that happens when people find out I work from home. A sorta: yeesh, what did she fail at 'half second' awkwardness that comes before the: Oh, that's really cool! comment that follows ... it's like I don't have >

A REAL JOB

Do you know that feeling? Even my own parents (sorry mom and dad ... if you're reading this) don't fully get how me playing on my phone or writing a bunch of f*cks and sh*ts in between a bunch of other words on this blog is an actual job. My mom, who I love dearly, tries hard to 'get it' ... her voice jumps up an octave each time we discuss my "job" so that she doesn't sound concerned ... LOVE YOU, MOM!!! ... although, I will say being a website designer is going over much better than when I was a "blog editor" ... omg, being a 'blog editor' was NEVER a real job to anyone in my family ... let's not even get started on that topic ... haha

But for real, even though it's 2017 and starting a 'work from home' gig should be 'normal' ... it's not. Credit checks add the 'own my own business' as part of the process ... and you know as you 'check it' it's not good news to them ... it's a 'red flag' of the:

NON-JOB

As I go through year 14 as a business owner who works from home, I find there are a handful of things that urk me ... even still ...

#1: SIGNIFICANT OTHER AND THEIR EXPECTATIONS OF THE HOUSE

I am home. Therefore, I am here ... physically in our house. All. Damn. Day. This means that I have time to walk around and 'pick up' anything that's just lying around the house ... uhhhhh ... what!!?? Even if they don't 'say it' you know when they walk in the door and it looks just like it was earlier or WORSE (I have kids, so it's always worse) there is a little 'wtf' moment that goes through their brain. A moment of: he or she has been here ALL DAY while I was at work and the house is in absolute chaos. And that moment sucks. If I'm LUCKY, I will have had time to run to the grocery store and keep my kids alive and mostly in 'ok' condition. If I'm SUPER LUCKY, the kids wouldn't be on their iPads the whole time from when they get home from school and would have had some kind of 'activity' that nourished their brains ... but I am rarely lucky enough to be SUPER ...

#2: THE LOOK YOU GET

I touched on it a bit in the beginning of this post ... but I am so tired of 'the look' ... or 'the pause' ... the one where you tell a stranger or a friend of a friend what you do and they don't know how to react. Like, if you tell someone you're a social media influencer ... I feel like their brain does this:

OOF, SHE'S NOT EVEN SMART ENOUGH TO HAVE A REAL JOB ... SH*T, PLAY IT COOL AND SAY SOMETHING NICE ...

^^ right?? You know the look I am talking about. And it's always awkward for me after that ... like, even if I know I am doing well and things are going great for The Editor's Touch, I get sorta squeamish ... like I either have to 'big talk' about my business or quickly change the subject ... I usually change the subject. It's hard to explain to someone that what you do from home is in fact a REAL JOB that does PAY ME MONEY ... so easier to just leave that alone ...

#3: THE FORCED QUESTIONS

If changing the subject doesn't work, the questions that follow are usually pretty weird ... it almost feels like they feel the need to perk you up ... like you are a sad case and if they ask questions it will make you feel better. But the questions always feel forced ... like they don't know what to say.

#4: MAKING JOKES OR TALKING SH*T ABOUT HOW SOCIAL MEDIA ISN'T A "JOB"

OMG, this one drives me INSANE. When I am on social media, whether it be my business account or my personal account << roll your eyes if you want to, but personal stuff is marketing too << I am WORKING. Yes, working. It could be 9:30 at night after 3 margaritas, but I am doing my thing and it's important. It could be rolling out of bed at 5:00 am after a night of margaritas and I need to scroll my personal FB feed to see what other professionals are up to so I can stay on top of my game and support them, help them, keep the relationship strong ... etc, etc, etc. People who don't have a job that requires being on social media seem to look at the rest of us who are literally attached to their phone as pathetic individuals with no real sense of life ... and I'm here to say:

FCK THAT SHT

If my face is in my phone, I am working. If I am in a Pod string on Instagram, I am working. If am am messaging on FB with someone I have a business relationship with, I am working. If I am making an Instagram Story about my lunch, I am working. It's not stupid. It's definitely not a waste of time. And getting the eye-rolls or the hints to 'get off my phone' are super annoying.

All in all, my point??? Creative business owners are awesome, are smart, do have real jobs ... we know the hustle and how it feels to have to keep rocking out rad ideas to stay current and to keep people loving what we've got going on. It's not easy ... so if you are a non-business owner who has business owner 'work from home' friends or if you have a son or daughter that works from home running their own company, it would be awesome if you cut them some slack and accept that what they do is a legit job and that they may even work harder than you ;)

Am I talking to EVERYONE in this post!!??? NO. Per usual this is my point of view and those who read it will have their own reaction based on their own life experiences ;)

XO~ Heather