The Advantages of Working from your Home with Your Customer Service Job - Part 2

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As I mentioned in my last blog, one of the ways you can open up your career options for a customer service job, is to work from your home. The first advantage we mentioned is that it saves you the amount of time it would take you to commute to work each day. In most cases driving 60 minutes round trip, each day, adds up to over 2,500 hours per year that you spend in your car going back and forth to work.

The next advantage of working from home I would like to bring to your attention is that it saves you what you would spend on gasoline for your personal vehicle. According to the Department of Transportation, Metro Transit Division located in Seattle Washington, if you drive forty miles per day (round trip), twenty days per month, and your vehicle gets an average of 21 miles per gallon @ $3.80 per gallon, and factor in parking at $35 per month, it costs you $187 per month or $2,244 per year (50 weeks). If you multiply that times twenty years, you are spending approximately $45,000, on fuel costs, all just for the privilege of driving back and forth to work each day. And this does not take into account the additional cost of auto insurance and repair.

What could you do with $45,000 if you invested it? According to the Department of Labor, “Stocks averaged an 11.3 annual return since 1928. One dollar invested in stocks in 1928 would have grown to $6,495.” How well you could do with your accrued savings of $45,000 over the next twenty years depends on your investment strategy. But the fact remains you have to have it to invest it.

Something else you can add to this approach of working from your home, could be positioning yourself as an independent contractor. I mention all of this to help you expand your thinking toward the advantage of working from your home. It is much easier than many people think to become an independent contractor. When you stop to consider the amount of additional savings you can gain from tax write offs of being an independent contractor, you can see that just saving money on gasoline is the tip of the iceberg. It can be very desirable to approach your customer service career in this way.

Some of the tax write offs to being an independent contractor include: going into business expenses, business entertainment expenses, legal fees, new equipment, software, office supplies, continuing education, travel expenses to and from conferences, hotel and meals, charitable donations, advertising and marketing fees.

Yes, working from home can be a distinct advantage, and if you add to the mix, being an independent contractor with your customer service job, it can be a winning combination for you.

Tom Borg is a consultant in leadership management, team building and customer service. Please see more of his blogs at csjobsblog.com and businessworkforceblog.com To view additional job postings at Nexxt
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