Most of us today view career opportunities very differently than past generations. We don’t depend on one company for our entire lives, and instead opt for new and different ways to use the skills we’re continually developing.

We also tend to look for flexibility in our jobs, often shying away from more traditional 9-5, punch a clock and go home positions. In fact, many of us are looking for career opportunities that let us work from home!

And why shouldn’t we? Everything can be done online these days, and working from home gives us the ultimate flexibility.

It’s not for everyone, particularly if you need to be around people to motivate yourself to work. But if you think this flexibility (and quiet time) could be a good fit for you, here are 9 career opportunities that let you work from home. Let’s take a look!

1. Customer Service Representative

Being a customer service representative might not sound like the most exciting opportunity, but there are a lot more perks to it than you’d think. Thanks to email, online live chat, and VOIP calling, you could do this job from the comfort of your own home, or even from a Cabo tiki bar!

Major companies like Apple and Amazon are constantly looking for employees to fill these remote positions, and full-time employees get benefits, along with the chance to work your way up the corporate ladder!

Smaller business need remote workers to help them with customer service, too. You can check out these opportunities on sites like Proven and ZipRecruiter.

2. Freelance Career

It’s surprisingly easy to start a freelancing business! You can follow this step-by-step guide by the Small Business Association to set it up, and here’s how you can get clients or customers.

Whether you’re a writer, designer, developer, marketer, photographer, editor, voice actor, or anything else that might come to mind as a freelance option, there is someone out there who needs your services. You just have to make it easy for them to find you!

Online hubs like Upwork, Crew, Freelancer, and ClearVoice are good places to start. Even LinkedIn might help! It will also be good for you to have a website and/or portfolio to share around to prove what you can do.

The real benefit in becoming a freelancer is that you get about as much freedom as is possible. You get to be your own boss, choose when you work, and – after a time – even who you work with!

3. Online Store Owner

To create and run an online store, you don’t have to worry about getting hired. You’re the boss! You’ll also have the flexibility to work when you want from wherever you want.

Ecommerce can be a great career opportunity, too, because the world is still moving more and more to online shopping. Thankfully, there are only 3 main steps to setup your store.

Step 1: Create your website

Step 2: Decide what to sell and find a supplier

Step 3: Promote your site to start driving traffic

Ecommerce is such a large industry with several major platforms, but I don’t know anyone who makes each of these steps easier than Shopify.

4. Operations Manager

Becoming an operations manager gives you the opportunity to collaborate with a team while working from home.

Sales, marketing, product, or customer service operations managers are typically responsible for making sure everyone’s work goes smoothly and that various strategies are being implemented properly. This isn’t something you have to be in the office for!

Normally, you can do all of this work with a few reports and emails. Though, whether you’ll be able to do it from home will depend on the particular company. For these positions, check out LinkedIn, Proven, and ZipRecruiter.

5. Virtual Assistant

Depending on the company, a virtual assistant is like a typical secretary, assistant, or customer service rep, except you get to work from home instead of in a cubicle. This career opportunity also comes with a couple of options.

You can work remotely for one employer full-time, or you can work a few hours every week for several employers. Either way, Upwork is a great place to look for virtual assistant opportunities.

If you start out part-time for someone and prove yourself, you might even get a full-time opportunity down the road! And when companies bring people on full-time from contract work, they normally offer a lot of perks, too.

6. Transcriptionist

Having grown up in the digital era, many of us are decent (or really good) typists. Why not turn that skill into a paycheck?

Companies like Rev are constantly looking for new people to help them transcribe video and audio content. And Upwork – yet again – is a good place to search for remote transcriptionist opportunities.

As a transcriptionist, you’ll get paid decently, and enjoy the freedom to work from home for as many hours as you want!

7. Social Media Manager

Depending on the brand, you might not need to be in the office to be a social media manager. In fact, many prefer that you be out and about creating interesting content!

The job is mostly creating and curating posts for Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, and other social media sites. Your goals are to drive engagement and (probably) sales through social media.

You’ll be expected to be available outside of business hours, so that you can quickly respond to comments and questions as they come in, which inevitably means you’ll work from. This also means you’re likely to have more freedom during typical business hours!

Good places to look for social media manager positions are LinkedIn, Proven, and ZipRecruiter.

8. Life or Career Coach

If you’ve done something well, there’s an opportunity for you to become someone’s personal Tony Robbins! You’ll be able to work from home, and help clients achieve their goals.

To get clients, follow a few simple steps. Create a website that describes you, your experience, and the value you can bring to others. Then start guest posting on various sites, sharing helpful information. People who want more from you will reach out through the info in your bio (which should include your website, too), and you’ll start gaining clients!

Life or career coaching is probably one of the more rewarding work from home career opportunities, because your results are shown through the lives of others. That’s pretty cool!

9. Ebook Author

Writing and selling ebooks might not be as glamorous as having a printed book featured in Barnes & Noble, but with the right output it can be a perfectly viable career!

One perk of authoring ebooks is that your sales ought to increase with each self-published work. So if one ebook sales 10 copies a day, 2 ought to sell 20 a day, and so forth. The numbers are more art than science, but you should make more money as you publish more.

Whether you write novellas, how-to books, or something in between, you can sell your ebooks through Amazon and Nook, which get millions of visitors every day!

WRAPPING UP

There are plenty of career opportunities that let you work from home, so that you can enjoy all the freedom of self-employment and fulfillment of hard work. That’s the best of both worlds!

If you’re not entirely sure which opportunity is right for you, just try one or two and see how it goes. Who knows, you might find a new passion, and it might lead you to other and better opportunities down the road!