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Working from home has been growing in popularity – whether it’s owning your own business, freelancing, or contracting for a larger company, there are many ways you can start working from home. No more commute, no freezing office, and no annoying cubicle neighbors – sounds awesome, right? While it is really great, it’s not always as easy as it sounds, and these kinds of jobs are competitive. Today I’m sharing some ideas of jobs you can get to work from home.

Even a lot of traditional companies are hiring remote employees now. Businesses are going virtual for a lot of reasons: a smaller team means lower overhead cost for space, and eliminating the commute can also lead to higher employee happiness. Workers are using it as negotiating tools as well when landing a new job: sometimes they’re willing to accept lower pay for a full- or part-time telecommute schedule.

There are a lot of businesses you can start yourself to work from home, but there’s a difference between working for a company and being your own boss. Running your own business has tax implications, requires organization and responsibility that not everyone is inclined toward, not to mention benefits can be lacking vs. a traditional job. Since owning my own business is not my area of expertise, I’m instead focusing (primarily) on types of jobs for companies that hire remote workers.

Web Design/Development:  One of the most popular remote jobs, developers and designers have been working remotely for many years. It takes some training, but with dev bootcamp schools (many available virtually, so you can even learn from home) offering certifications in a few months, it’s not like going back to school for four years to walk away with a new degree. Start now and you could be looking for a remote dev job by the end of summer!

Music Industry Jobs: Many members of road crews might live in Nashville, but it’s not a requirement since there’s no office to check into every day. Crew members like guitar techs, sound engineers, tour managers, merch sellers, and accountants tend to meet up a few days before heading out on the road, meaning they can keep their home bases wherever they’d like. These jobs obviously require extensive travel, but if that’s not your speed, there are other music options – if you have an outgoing personality, a booking agent or promotions position would be great for you. Every performing rights organization hires remote employees as well for jobs ranging from research to licensing sales.

Virtual Assistant: While it’s true that many VAs are self-employed, some of the larger or more successful ones contract out and hire additional employees. You could find a VA position tailored to a specific niche or task, like email marketing or schedule planning, and these types of jobs are typically very flexible with the number of hours you can work every week. If you’re looking for a small side hustle on your lunch break, you could even fit it in then!

Travel Planner: The travel industry is rich with work from home opportunities as well. Travel agencies still exist, and many contract employees out and allow them to telecommute. Even travel companies like Alaska Airlines, Hotels Tonight, or Royal Caribbean hire remote reservation agents – or go for an on-board position, so you even get to travel! (I’ve secretly always dreamed of being a flight attendant.)

Bookkeeping: A lot of organizations now are looking to reduce their costs, which might even mean looking for a bookkeeper or accountant that isn’t based in their office. If you have experience in finance or handling money, you might be a good fit for a company that’s looking to downsize their physical office space and hire outside.

Customer Service: In my opinion, this can be the easiest barrier to entry for most people wanting to transition to the remote work world. Whether it’s a tech-based support job or a phone service position, almost everyone with any work history can apply that experience to a customer service position. Knowing where to find virtual support jobs and how to tailor your resume can help you launch from a traditional job to a home office!

Transcription: There are a lot of industries that require transcriptions: things like closed captioning, interviews, closed captioning and police or courtoom tapes are all typed up by real humans. Another side gig that can be as flexible as you make it (or even a full-time position, if you wanted) transcription jobs can be found in spades on remote job websites and from transcription companies directly.

Account Manager: A lot of marketing and advertising agencies have account managers to keep their clients happy, and you could do this remotely since most of the work with clients is done virtually. Account managers collaborate with brands and creative departments to establish and reach goals, implement strategy, and even recruit new clients. There’s a lot of variety in these kind of jobs, which is great for someone who doesn’t like to do the same thing day in and day out!

Digital Marketing: Similar to account managers, there can be a range of responsibility for digital marketing professionals. Creating content for company blogs, strategizing social media, planning e-mail outreach, or buying media are fundamental tasks in this job – all things that can be done remotely.

Event Planner: Since there can often be a lot of travel involved with event planning whether it’s wedding planning, fundraisers, or other ceremonies, it’s a good reason to be a remote position. Event planning can be a really fun job, but it’s incredibly high pressure, so consider your threshold for stress and desire for good work/life balance before exploring this option.

Sales: One job that I’ll never be well-suited for is sales, but there are a lot of remote sales jobs out there! From appointment setting, to insurance, tech products and software, lead outreach, and more, there are plenty of options if you have a naturally outgoing, persistent personality.

Graphic Design: It’s becoming more and more common for people to learn graphic design aspects in their other jobs – I picked up the bulk of my Adobe knowledge in a marketing position and have continued to build on them through blogging, eventually landing a full-time design job. Because almost all design now is done on computers, it’s another position that is ideal for telecommuting.

Consulting: If you’re an expert at something, there’s probably someone out there who wants to pay for your expertise. Consider launching your own consulting agency – you could even start doing this on the side before you leave a full-time job (just check your contract for any non-compete language.) There are people consulting in things like marketing, home organization, and even sensitivity training.

This is the first in a series on working remotely. Next week I’ll be sharing some resources on how you can start to search for remote jobs with virtual companies. It can feel overwhelming enough when trying to shift to a new job, let alone knowing where to look when there are so many job search websites out there now!

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