Telecommuting has become a "rushing wave" of the 21 Century and has also become very competitive. Individuals from all walks of life and with a variety of skill levels have an expressed interest to work from home. There are many different reasons for this interest. Some people have a family, which may include small children and see the need to stay at home with their family. There are others who do not want to be locked into a nine-to-five job. The latter is the most common reason for this new wave of interest in telecommuting.

Ultimately, the reason is the force that begins the desire. In fact, the reason is the motivational process for every individual. The allure of telecommuting has led many down a dead-end road of frustration. Why?

Telecommuting is not for everyone. This is indeed a fact, but some people find this out after the fact. The belief that your skills alone will be your only tool is a myth. To begin working from home, you must evaluate yourself carefully. Here are some questions, you need to ask yourself:

• What are my long-term goals?
   
• What are my short-term goals?
   
• Do I have the right attitude to pursue telecommuting?
   
• Am I easily motivated or do I give up very easily?
   
• What is my attention span?
   
• Am I focused?
   
• Is my communication skill level adequate to tolerate and deal with all kinds of personalities?
   
• Do I listen to instructions and follow them easily?
   
• Can I work without supervision?
   
• Can I meet close deadlines?
   
• What skills or experience do I have?
   
• Do I prioritize?
   
• Can I dedicate my time to telecommuting as I do a full-time job?
   
• Do I have the proper equipment?
   
• Do I have the space to set up a home-office?
   
• What does my family think about this?
   
• Am I ready to quit my job or do I want to begin this as a slow process?
   
• If I have small children, how am I going to telecommute with my child at home?
   
• Do I hire a babysitter?
   
• Can my telecommuting salary pay my bills?
   
• How will I handle the health insurance and benefits that I got from a full-time job?
   
• Do you offer quality work and do you have an aptitude for learning new things?
   
• Do you try to improve yourself and educate yourself on a consistent basis?
   
• Can you manage your time well?

Most "aspiring telecommuters" do not begin this way, primarily because they are often led to believe that their skills will be the only necessity for telecommuting. As was previously indicated, there is much more to telecommuting than skills.

What am I talking about? Motivation, communication, standard of excellence, perseverance, tolerance, attitude, focus and goals are a few attributes that are vitally important in telecommuting success. The successful telecommuter has learned this valuable lesson, some by trial and error and some by following the evaluation process before they begin a telecommuting opportunity.

A telecommuter must be very knowledgeable about the Internet and e-mail because most jobs are done remotely, and the Internet has become a conduit for telecommuting assignments. Most importantly, you will find that there are a lot of telecommuting jobs on the Internet, and you must know how to search for these jobs in a time-efficient manner. The Internet is a place where you do not want to be led from hyperlink to hyperlink. This is a time waster. If you do not know how to search, you can be taken to a dead end.

If your job is researching, you must make sure you know as much as you can about search engines. If you are a medical transcriptionists, you must make sure that you have the proper equipment and always keep abreast of any new developments and software. If you are a word-processor, which is the fancy word for a typist with a computer, you must at least be able to type 45 - 80 WPM. You must have adequate software knowledge and an aptitude to learn new software programs. There are a lot of freeware and shareware sites on the Internet that can be helpful to all telecommuters. To find these, you can go to the search engines and type the keywords: "download," "shareware" and "freeware."

This is also one of the ways to find telecommuting jobs. Go to the search engines and type the keywords: "telecommute," "work from home," "home employment" and "telework." Be careful when the search results for the keyword, "work from home" and "home employment" comes up. There are a lot of work from home and home employment scams out there and there are so many people who are taken advantage of by work from home scams. Anyone who ask you for money up front, beware!

"Telecommute" is the best keyword to use, but that does not mean that a few scams will not pop up. Whatever you do, be careful.

Cheryline Lawson is the creator of the Telecommuting Job Manual packed with secrets and places to find real work at home jobs on the Internet.
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