I’ve been blogging for 8 years now, and my career has completely changed because I started writing. I now write for various other sites, offer copy-writing services and even do some marketing and social media management work, all of which allows me to earn a living from home, which for me is ideal. I did a few different things before I became a blogger and I thought I’d let you in on some of them:
Accounts Assistant and Payroll Clerk
My main career before blogging was in the financial sector and I had various jobs across private accountancy firms and the NHS. I spent a lot of time dealing with people’s pay, tax codes, VAT, end of year accounts and all sorts of other things. These days it’s easier to do a lot of this yourself online, and companies like Talk Tax make it easier to find the phone numbers for the more hard-to-reach departments of HMRC that might be able to help you with your queries.
Lettings Assistant
My first full time job after leaving college was within a residential letting agency, and it’s probably the thing that sparked my passionate nosiness for looking inside house! I used to love looking at the photos from the appraisals, although all the audio typing I did wasn’t so fun. It was a really varied job and gave me a really good insight into what working in an office was really like.
Retail
Before I left school, I did a couple of different retail roles, one as Staff Receptionist in a major supermarket and another as a store assistant for a women’s clothes outlet. I have to say, I didn’t find either job particularly engaging, and the hours for retail generally SUCK, but when you’re 17, it’s all much of a muchness in terms of part time jobs!
I’ve done a few other odd jobs here and there, but my work history is pretty similar before blogging. One of the things I love about working for myself is being able to set my own hours and work around the kids – we’ve saved a fortune on childcare with me working from home. The only downside to freelance work is the uncertainty – one month I might have loads of work coming in and other months are like virtual tumbleweed, so if you’re considering a leap into self-employment, make sure you think hard about whether you can sustain it during the troughs as well as the peaks.
Limited liability companies are a great way to start your business, especially when you are starting off small as it is the least complex in comparison of the other business structures. However, even as a small company or a company of one, yourself, you still need to get a limited liability company tax ID. An 
