Added on Dec 18: We won 2nd Place in the New Way to Work competition! Check out the Elance blog for more details!

Added on Dec 10: Our story is now a Top 10 finalist in Elance’s New Way to Work Contest. Thank you all so much for your appreciation and support!

Follow your passion – make meaningful connections – be fulfilled!

Although I work really hard every day, it never feels like work to me because I’m constantly doing things that I really truly love. I love being with my family, I love writing, I love making money, I love building my business, I love reaching out to help others and I love making valued connections!

My New Way To Work video shows that working online, freelancing and outsourcing are not simply jobs or career choices. The new way to work – with greater control, flexibility, options and freedom – is now a conscious lifestyle choice.

Thanks to embracing this lifestyle and utilizing all the tools and resources available at my disposal, I am able to enjoy a full life – a life with quality family time and the natural high of helping others succeed in their online business ventures.

Today when I tell people that I run an online content development company from home, I get puzzled looks. The concept of being an internet entrepreneur with flexible timings is difficult to grasp and not very prevalent, especially where I live. Thanks to Elance, there is now a huge scope in the market for professionals to freelance and businesses to outsource. I do both. I freelance for Elance, but I have a team of specialist writers based all over Pakistan and abroad who I outsource projects to. Everyone in my company, WordPL, works from home and enjoys the triple benefits of financial freedom, flexible work hours and no commute time.

Two years ago, if someone told me that I could work with international clients and team members without ever having to leave home, I would have probably laughed at them. Today this concept is a reality. Cultural differences, physical locations and geographical boundaries no longer separate the two arms of business: buyers and sellers. The lifestyle opportunities that technology and companies harnessing that technology, like Elance, offer are both overwhelming and awe-inspiring all at once.

Most people want to find international clients but don’t know how to do so or where to find them. Elance has put it all at our fingertips. Now with a click of a mouse button, I can browse through a seemingly endless list of buyers specifically seeking exactly what I offer and immediately connect with them. That is nothing less than magical.

If I, someone from a developing country with limited resources, and grave security and safety concerns, can build a sustainable life around the world of outsourcing and freelancing, then really anyone can! It just takes a lot of determination and the will to succeed.

I’d like to add my heartfelt gratitude for people who either directly or indirectly have helped make my online business dreams a reality and have truly inspired me:

• My husband Ali who helped film and edit my new way to work video and is my soul partner and moral compass in all that I strive to do.
• My parents for babysitting duties whenever I asked them and for supporting me in every way possible.
• Author Joanna Penn of The Creative Penn for giving me my first break on Elance and who continues to inspire me on Twitter.
• Self-made millionaire Gill Fielding who helped me think out of the box by saying “statistically financially successful people are not normal”.
• All my excellent clients on Elance for their professional standards and for believing in my work.
• Elance itself for making my new lifestyle choice possible. And a special thanks to Elance Alex for promptly and courteously responding to my mails in a professional manner.

If there’s any one thing you can take away from my story, it’s that “Do what you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life” – Confucius.