The typical dream image of the person working at home almost always involves pink fuzzy slippers, an oversized coffee mug, and a relaxed atmosphere.Yet not all that glitters is gold, and there are some very serious pitfalls that have to be avoided in order to make working at home a profitable reality for anyone who is willing to give it a try. To this end, there are usually two avenues available to anyone ready to give it a go: self employment and telecommuting.

While both of these options will allow you to stay at home in pursuit of profit, they each have their pitfalls, and before you decide to embark on either one of them, make sure that you weight the pros and cons!For example, while so many late night commercials are filled with smiling mothers who are seeing their little ones off to school only to return home at a leisurely pace to sell a product for an international company. Quite often this product is a nutritional supplement for weight loss, beauty, or overall health.

What the commercials fail to mention is the fact that some of these supplements are dangerous to people with certain ailments, and the fear of not making a sale will quite often put blinders on anyone trying to make a living while earning only straight commissions. If you are a self-employed representative for such a supplement company, the odds are good that in case of a problem a customer will come looking to you as well as the company for compensation. Unless you have taken proper legal steps to protect your home and assets, you may end up losing everything you have worked so hard to achieve!

While this may make you now consider telecommuting, keep in mind that this field has its pitfalls as well. For example, while your boss in the office will appreciate your hard work and dedication when she or he sees you burning the midnight oil to get a project finished, she or he will most likely not have a lot of appreciation for you when you do the same thing at home. Conversely, if you do manage to achieve the almost impossible deadlines while telecommuting, the odds are good that you will be facing tighter and tighter deadlines.

Since you are most likely not an hourly employee, this means that you may end up working 20 hours in one day, and still only get paid what you normally would. As you can see, it does not add up to profit.To this end, sit down and find out exactly what it will take to make your work at home dream a profitable reality.

Do not too quickly lunge at an opportunity that at second glance is little more than an anchor weighing you down.You are probably one of the millions of Americans who enjoy their professions and who actually do not mind working for someone else. Sure, the American Dream has always been to set out for yourself into the world of business, make a name for yourself with a product or service that only you have thought of, and then turn your life from rags to riches.

Yet considering that many Americans have families, mortgages, and bills to pay, the number of people who manage to successfully quit their jobs and become self employed is small. Granted, many try it and quite a few have moderate successes. Yet by far greater is the number of people who will go through their life savings, and in the end stand to loose their homes in order to meet financial obligations that went by the wayside and suddenly seem to pile up.

Perhaps you have sat in traffic time and again, bemoaning the fact that you are wasting two or more hours of your time each day simply getting to your job the kind of time that could be put to good use! This is probably also the time that you remember the many articles you have read on telecommuting, and you are wondering if you have what it takes to take this step. After all, if you were to approach your boss with a well thought out plan, the odds are good that she or he would most likely give you a chance to prove yourself.

Yet telecommuting is not for everyone who wants to do it. First and foremost you will have to still consider yourself employed and thus bound by a schedule. While it is tempting to procrastinate on work related items just until you finish that last load of laundry, mow the yard, or groom the dog, you do have to remember that you are on the clock.

Additionally, you will still need to meet deadlines and also work so as to accommodate the work schedules of others in your company. This means that working in the middle of the night so that you can accompany the kids on a field trip the next day might not work. Secondly, you will need to have adequate equipment.

While almost everyone owns a personal computer, there are a myriad of software programs out there that may not be compatible. Test it out before you go to bat with your boss! Additionally, make sure you have all the little peripherals you need to work from home. Will you need a fax machine or a scanner? Maybe you need to change your long distance plan to accommodate long distance calls? It is important to have all your ducks in a row before you start!