Lessons Learned From My Career Change to Work From Home

How I Went From Social Worker to Small Business Owner…

I used to work five days a week, nine to five, as a social worker helping domestic and family violence survivors. Meetings, client calls, case notes, debriefs with my team leader, then family time from 5pm if I was lucky. It sounds manageable written down like that. It wasn’t. Case notes had to be written the same day or you’d forget the detail. Plenty of nights I was back on the laptop after everyone else had gone to bed, finishing what the day hadn’t left room for.

Why I Needed a Career Change to Work From Home

The stressful part wasn’t the workload; it was the people. I was working with complex clients who were often in crisis, and part of the job was sitting with them while they unloaded trauma, then helping de-escalate when things got overwhelming. Sometimes that meant being yelled at. Sometimes it meant someone crying on the phone. I absorbed a lot of that. There were eligibility requirements for the financial assistance program I worked in too, so when a client didn’t meet the criteria and I had to refer them elsewhere, they’d sometimes get agitated. I was there to help. It didn’t always feel safe.

I thought about leaving more times than I can count. It wasn’t that I didn’t care. I really did, and I still miss the caring side of that work.

However, caring for people who are in crisis, week after week, takes something out of you that doesn’t come back on its own.

Starting From Zero

Before my husband introduced me to the idea of building an online business, I knew nothing about this space.

I’d met freelancers travelling years earlier and wondered how on earth they made money from a laptop, but I never looked into it properly. He started a digital investors course in early 2023, working on it in early mornings and late nights, but I couldn’t join him. I was still in my social work job, and we had Kailani, one year old at the time. I’m not someone who can do two serious things at once. Learning web development requires proper focus, and I didn’t have any spare.

If that sounds familiar, SuperWAHM has a good piece on how to change your career and work from home that covers a lot of the same ground, working part-time as you build something of your own before you leap.

The Scariest Part Of My Career Change

For me, the scariest part was definitely the money. I remember asking Murray what would happen to us if we both left stable, qualified work for something with no guarantees.

There’s definitely some anxiety from not knowing if the thing you’re building will actually work out.

It helped when I recognised how much I already had to bring to what we were building. Years spent using CRMs and case management systems, including Salesforce at Telstra Health, meant that learning web platforms wasn’t as outside my experience as I expected. Also, human services work is personal; it’s related to connection and people’s stories, which I now get to use through Really Traveling instead. That storytelling instinct didn’t disappear when I left social work. It just found a new outlet.

The First Three Months of Working From Home Were Rough

I won’t pretend it was a smooth transition. I remember when we first launched our digital agency business in Queensland. I built the first OceanSky Digital website on Astra, hitting wall after wall, and eventually sitting on the bathroom floor in tears because nothing was working the way I needed it to.

Financially, there was still that fear, what if the clients don’t come? What if this doesn’t work? Murray kept reassuring me that the first year is a learning year, and looking back, he was right. These days, I can build a page in a day or two. Back then, it appeared impossible.

If You’re Thinking About Making the Same Career Change to Work From Home

If you’re in a caring profession right now, nursing, teaching, social work, anything where you give a lot of yourself, and you’re wondering how to start, my honest advice to any work from home mum in that position is to learn digital skills in your spare time while you’re still employed. If you can manage it. Don’t rush it.

Learning takes months, sometimes a year. That’s normal. It’s not a sign you’re doing something wrong.

I’ll be honest though, that’s not how it worked for me personally. I’m not someone who can properly focus on two big, serious things at once, learning web development while working full time and caring for a toddler just wasn’t realistic for me. My real learning happened after we’d already left our jobs and I could give it my complete attention.

So take the general advice for what it’s worth, and be honest with yourself about which approach actually suits how you work. For more on getting started from scratch, this story about starting from nothing and building a digital agency is worth a read too.

Be kind to yourself while you’re learning. I put a lot of pressure on myself early on, telling myself I should already know things because I’m naturally curious. Sitting with that and reminding myself that everyone starts at zero made a real difference.

Proof It Was Worth It

Some validation came from a place I didn’t expect. Kailani and I entered a storytelling competition through South Bank Corporation, one of Brisbane’s major tourism boards, just a simple video of our usual day out together. We won. Over $14,000 in experiences for our family, and proof that the skills I’d learned actually worked, on my own, with my own family, doing something creative. I spent most of my working life taking direction from managers and team leaders. Winning felt like real confirmation that I could build something myself.

Questions I’m Often Asked Around My Career Change

Can you really make a career change to work from home without any digital experience?

Yes, though how you get there matters. I started with zero knowledge, but for me, the real learning only happened once I’d actually left my job and could give it my full focus. I’m not someone who can properly learn a big new skill while also working full time and caring for a toddler. Trying to do both at once wasn’t realistic for me. It’s different for everyone though. Some people really can build skills alongside a job, and if that’s you, it’s worth trying.

How long did it take before it felt sustainable?

Roughly a year before it felt sustainable rather than constantly overwhelming. The first three months were the hardest by far. But today, we work with some amazing clients, helping them to build high performing websites for their businesses. It’s very rewarding!

What if I can’t quit my job straight away?

If you’re able to learn while you work, do it. That’s what Murray did before we left, and it’s solid advice. For me, it worked differently; I needed to leave first and give it my complete attention before anything really clicked. Neither approach is wrong. It depends on whether you’re someone who can focus on two big things at once.

Are You Thinking of Making A Career Change To Work From Home?

A career change to work from home isn’t a straight line, and for me, it hasn’t been quick. It meant leaving a job I was good at but couldn’t sustain, learning something entirely new while exhausted, and slowly discovering I was capable of more than I’d given myself credit for. If you’re standing where I was, overwhelmed, uncertain, wondering if it’s even possible, it is. Just give yourself the time it actually takes.