Meet Dani, an international teacher and a family travel blogger at ababyabroad.com who quit her job as a school teacher to spend more quality time with her son. Check out her interview below…
1. Please introduce yourself.
My name is Dani and I live in Shanghai, China. I am from Chile, I am married, have a 2 and half year old son and I’m currently expecting my second son.
2. When did you start working from home? What inspired the change?
About a year ago I quit my job as a teacher in a school because I wanted to spend more time with my son. I was seeing him very little and felt I was missing out on too many things.
3. What different ways have you tried to earn an income working from home? What do you do now to earn money?
I do some freelance work for an International Education organisation, which involves me having to travel short distances to visit schools and lead workshops for other teachers, as well as facilitate online workshops.
I also have a blog where I write about traveling with a baby and living as an expatriate.
4. How long did it take you to earn enough money to quit your day job?
Fortunately, I was able to start making money out of my freelance work for this International Education organisation as soon as I started working for them.
As for my blog, I am still not making any money, and it is already 2 years old.
5. How much do you earn in an average month now?
On an average month I make around 800 USD. However, this amount is not steady as some months are better than others.
6. What tips would you give yourself if you could go back in time to when you first started working at home?
I would start monetizing my blog from the start, even it’s just for a few pennies. I am just starting to work on that and not being very successful, but if I would have started monetizing at the beginning, I’d already be 2 years into it!
7. What has been the secret to your success?
I’ve discovered it’s best to do what you already know how to do, rather than try to learn something or start something that is totally new to you. I tried setting up an online clothing store for children, and this was a huge fail. Then I decided to stick with my area of expertise, which is international education, and which is what has mostly brought me money. Stick to what you’re already good at, and focus on that.
8. What mistakes have you made along the way?
Like I said above, wasting energy on things that you do not necessarily have the skills for, was a mistake. I’m not saying you shouldn’t try new things or take risks like that, but I feel most times the secret to success is right under your nose and you don’t even realize it.
9. What is the best part about working from home?
Managing my own schedule.
10. What is the worst part about working from home?
Managing my own schedule! Although it’s great to be able to take vacations whenever I want and not have to worry about following someone else timings, it is challenging to get organised and make the most of the time I have.
Having a two year old around doesn’t help, and most of the time I end up working early in the morning before anyone has woken up yet, or very late at night when everyone is already asleep.
11. What advice do you have for anyone starting out?
Get organised and find something or someone you have to be accountable to. This helps take things seriously.
