My Story - Freelance Programmer Working At Home

by Steven
(Malaysia)

My name is Steven. I am a 30 over guy who work in IT field for around 10 years. My wife is a primary school teacher. We have 2 kids. The elder one is 3 years old and the younger one is less than 2 years old.

The story started about 3 years ago. I resigned my IT manager job from a local company and started my own business as freelance programmer. I still remember that my first project was writing a Credit Sales System for a petrol station. It is mainly use to record the credit sales of the petrol station and generate monthly billing statement for their customers. The owner of the petrol station was quite satisfied with the software and he introduced me to other petrol station. Until now, I still giving support and maintenance services for that particular petrol station.

The main reason why I started my own business is to achieve financial freedom in my life. Besides, working as freelancer, I am quite flexible with my own time. I started as freelance programmer because I have the knowledge and experiences in the related fields. I targeted those business owners who like some customizable software solutions for they business. In today?s world, business processes are very dynamic. A standard software solution always can?t catch up with the changes in the business world. So, I offer my services to the business owners by providing customizable, easy to use software solutions to them.

I started the business with my existing laptop and my programming skill. Become your own boss really feel good at the first place. You no need to wake up earlier to go to work. You never got instructions from your superiors on what to do. You no need do thing you don?t like to do and etc. But the main drawback is you never get pay at the month end from your boss. You will not enjoy any stable monthly income or employee benefits. If you didn?t get any sales for the particular month, you got no income. It is a bad news if you have any commitments like kids, house mortgage, car loan and etc. So, most of the times, you find out that you are working hard to survive in your life.

If you are interested to start your own home business, here are some advises from me. First of all, you must develop your business plan. Secondly, dedicate your time to make your plan working. A good time management skill will helps a lot. Thirdly, asking for help if you encounter any problems related with your business. When your main business start generates positive income for you, try developed other sources of incomes which related to your main business. Be open minded and keep learning new things about your business, make changes if necessary. Good luck to you.