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Hi Ladies!
I have to introduce you to an extraordinary woman – Jessie DSouza who started the group – Work From Home Divas India to support women who are looking for work from home opportunities in India.
She is an amazing force and I love her dedication in helping women.
Let’s get to know her better and take her advice on the options available in India, building confidence and dealing with the challenges that come with this line of work.
WFHDI stands for Work From Home Divas India.
It’s a group that I started back in April 2012. Actually I wanted to name it as Virtual Assistants. But, in 2012 nobody knew the word virtual assistants, so to make it more friendly for Indian women I used WFHDI. I started working as a freelancer in 2010 when my first child was 6 months old. I went on doing general admin, web research, project management, writing, customer support and social media management. And at the same time I started this group to support Indian women who were looking for WFH opportunities. I started giving them tips to work from home, got connected with many Indian entrepreneurs who wanted to hire freelancers and they started posting opportunities on my group. And many women started benefiting from the group. Now I provide paid consultation to those who want my personal guidance to start their WFH career.
2. WHAT ARE THE WORK FROM HOME OPTIONS ABUNDANTLY AVAILABLE IN INDIA? AND HOW MUCH CAN A PERSON EXPECT TO EARN?
Abundance is over-flowing in Online Industry and there are countless opportunities for anyone in India if they have a clear cut path to success. They need to know what capabilities they have, what skills they need to master and then dedicate at least 2 hours a day to master some tools which are essential to work from home. Connecting with potential clients online is imperative for success.
There is absolutely no restriction on how much one can earn. The earning depends on individual’s skills, experience and expertise. A general admin can earn $25-$30 per hour if she has at least 5 years of virtual experience. And a newbie can earn $10/hour without any experience, but with skills. Experience is not at all necessary to work from home, BUT skills. You cannot get any work if you don’t have any skills.
[bctt tweet=”Experience is not at all necessary to work from home, BUT skills.” username=”shreya_sharan”]
(note from moi:) I have also shared a post on some work from home opportunities available in India along with how to prepare for them. You can read the post here.
3. WHAT SKILLS DO WOMEN NEED TO LEARN TO WORK FROM HOME AND WHERE CAN THEY GET TRAINED?
This is a tough questions to answer. The skills depends on what services they want to offer or what work they want to do. If someone is starting as a newbie without any corporate experience, can start doing general admin work such as web research, data compilation, customer support, email management and calendar management. If someone has great interest in content writing then they can go for blog writing, content writing and copywriting.
If someone wants to work from home in any field they need to know a wide variety of tools. I have listed them on my website Work From Home Divas India.
I do provide paid consultation to people and in my individual consultation I help them choose services, learn the list of tools required to provide specific services. I am also developing courses for newbies to start as a Virtual Assistants. And if someone is interested, then can join the wait list here. This course will be out in the first week of May.
4. HOW CAN WOMEN BUILD MORE CONFIDENCE TO START WORKING INDEPENDENTLY?
It’s about mindset. Women need to change their mindset first. They always feel that they are dependent on others and when they don’t have financial independence this adds fuel to the fire.
They can read books on developing self confidence and need to start believing in themselves that they can achieve it.
They need to take one step at time. There might be times where they need to compromise a few things in order to achieve something. For example : They may need to arrange for a daycare for few hours a day or arrange someone to take care of their kids so that they can do productive learning or work. Women are not ready to do this because they feel guilty about it. So they need to understand their WHY in depth. Why have they chosen to work from home. If they want to achieve their WHY they need to make these temporary arrangements so that they can achieve their goal.
To develop confidence, take WFH seriously. It’s not a side gig. It’s a serious career where they can make more money than they would make in their corporate career [if they are committed to achieve their goals].
So if they can invest they should go for paid consultation or coaching so they don’t waste time on figuring out everything themselves. If they cannot invest then they should set aside a few hours everyday to research right information to make a progress in their WFH career.
5. HOW CAN SOMEONE WHO IS STARTING OUT GET MORE SALES?
It’s all about connections, engagement and conversion.
You have to talk to people, make connections, provide solutions to people’s problems on social media platform so that you create an authority in your niche. People will definitely look out for you when they have real requirements. It’s easy to convert them into sales.
Provide pro-bono services to get good feedback and testimonials from people. Go an extra mile to help them so they can boast about you online with everyone. It will give you free publicity and more and more connections in the pipeline.
While choosing social media platforms, choose the only best suited for your services.
6. WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS AND DRAWBACKS OF WORKING FROM HOME IN INDIA?
There are countless benefits when you work from home and a few drawbacks in work from home industry.
The Benefits are:
You are the Boss
You get to choose when you work and with whom you work.
You can take any number of vacations. You are not answerable to anyone.
You can earn any figure income. The income isn’t restricted to your title.
You can work with any number of clients
You can be with your kids when they need you the most.
You can work from ANYWHERE 🙂
The drawbacks are actually none if we carefully create a plan that suits our situation.
I could say we have challenges but we can definitely overcome them.
Nuclear family, no family support while you work from home.
Unstable income due to constant changes in the businesses.
Difficulty separating home and life
Distractions and constant interruptions while working from home
Loneliness while working from home
7. HOW CAN WOMEN OVERCOME THE DRAWBACKS?
Take support from extended family or find a daycare or a nanny so you can do some hours of productive work.
To make consistent income, at least have 2 big clients and 3 small clients and keep on adding more clients to your pipeline so that you can scale your business and generate more income every single month.
Have strict hours for your work. And refrain doing any kind of work during non-office hours.
Talk about your expectations and your work situations with your family. Let everyone in your family know that YOUR work is as important as anyone’s who works at a corporate office. Set boundaries with family members so you can be more productive. It’s difficult initially, but when you are firm at your decision everyone around you will get it.
Build a community or join a community in your local area who work from home and meet regularly so you can get rid of boredom.
Work From Home can be a great option if we know how to use it productively to reap maximum benefits from it. One needs to know her skills and certain online tools to find the best opportunity. There are plenty of websites online who provide information about working from home. It can be overwhelming to read and process everything.
So I have created a page where I have explained what’s virtual assistance [working from home]? And how one can choose services and what tools to learn. If anyone is interested, can go to this page and read the information.
I hope it’s helpful to start your work from home career. And if you have specific questions let me know in the comments.
