Work From Home???
TV ClubHouse: archives: Work From Home???
Whoami | Thursday, July 11, 2002 - 11:30 pm     Does anyone work from home? I'm thinking of trying to find some way to work from home, so I can be around for my mom (for those who don't know, she suffered a stroke last week). Check out my folder for details if you wish). I tried one internet site, indicating interest a long time ago. But all I got was a bunch of spam, and "send us 300$ for a starter kit..." kind of crap. So, what is a legit way to look into a work from home thing? For those of you who have done it, how did you get into it? And do you make a fair living? Any companies out there that can use a person who has a computer, knows Word, Excel, and if fairly good on a computer? Just fishing, and not even sure what are the right questions to ask.... |
Gail | Friday, July 12, 2002 - 04:41 am     I have a friend who has been trying that work at home thing - I believe what she is working with is HerbaLife. I had never heard of it until she started doing it. Her and her husband have been putting a lot of effort into it - (her husband is a commercial electrician and they can "survive" on his income). The wife was working part time for over a year and it was just a crap job. She wanted a job where she could make a little extra money and still have the freedom to do some volunteer work. I think they started this about 3 months ago or so. I don't think they are "in the black yet" but it seems like things are going okay with this. Some of the expenses are buying the kit, getting a web page set up, buying a fax/scanner/printer. I think you have to buy something so you can do credit card sales, and an 800 number, etc. Alot of her work so far has been finding ways to place advertisements - via the net, radio, etc - she does not sell the product (though I guess if I wanted some of this stuff, I could buy through her) she hires on distributors I think. I don't know all the details - this is not something I could do as I am not into selling stuff and you have to spend a little time on the phone. I know there have been a few times where the wife was kind of discouraged (wanting to see more success earlier) and worried about going into debt while they were on just the husband's income but the husband kept saying lets just keep with it for a while longer. There is a huge support system with this whole thing. My friends have coaches they talk to several times a week. I know that if someone signs up and decides they don't like it, it is pretty easy to get a refund on what you have not used. My friend said that they don't want people who don't want to be there. She has turned people down on the phone that don't seem enthusiastic. Anyways, like I said they have been some work into this but not like a full time job yet. I think they are close to breaking even but I don't know what it will take for this to be a profitable venture for them. But, like I said, they have only been at this for about 3 months. |
Enbwife | Friday, July 12, 2002 - 07:28 am     Whoami - sorry to hear about your Mom. Working from home sounds great. I'd love to get some ideas too. Wouldn't that be a dream to set your own hours and work out of your own comfortable environment. I know Neil is always trying to make a go of that but he has many different talents... I'll keep my eye on this thread! |
Kaili | Friday, July 12, 2002 - 07:47 am     This girl I knew in high school- her mom worked at home. I'm not sure really what she did, but she worked for the hospital. Some kind of medical transcriptionist thing. I think you need some certificate or degree in that though since it's on the commercials for going to school at home. Don't know if that helps you much, but there are always possibilities! |
Whit4you | Friday, July 12, 2002 - 09:05 am     You can try the secret shopper thing - Pay aint that good but you get alot of free stuff ;) |
Karuuna | Friday, July 12, 2002 - 09:24 am     Of course, there's a website for everything! In 1994, I decided I wanted to work at home so I could be a stay-at-home mom. Unfortunately (or fortunately) my business became so successful, it became impossible to run it from home, so I had to move back to an office! At any rate, the folks I found inspiring, and who are the foremost experts in the field are Paul and Sarah Edwards. They've been writing about working at home for 15 years or so. Here's their website... lots of good ideas, and lots of good advice! www.workingfromhome.com |
Juju2bigdog | Friday, July 12, 2002 - 11:58 am     Whoami, I don't want to discourage you too much, but there are LOTS of scams in the work-at-home field. I know because I put quite a few of them out of business when I was working and sent a few of the operators to jail. Right now the biggest work-at-home scammer in the history of the world is out of jail and back in the work-at-home scam business. Be very, very, very careful of any offerings that ask you to send money upfront. These are almost always scams. Here is a website that will give you some of the basics of the typical scams that are out there: work-at-home scams If you see something that you are just dying to try, and you are really tempted to send them money, email me at juju2bigdog@yahoo.com (tell me who you are, of course, so I don't delete your message), and if I can't help you, I can probably refer you to somebody who can. Remember: That $24.95 you are tempted to send off for that work-at-home job which turns out to be a scam could pay for THREE MONTHS of live feeds.
 |
Tess | Friday, July 12, 2002 - 01:22 pm     Whoami, unfortunately I can attest to what Juju is saying as I tried several of the "work from home" businesses about 10 years ago and every one of them turned out to be fake. It was horrible and I was out a lot of money. Every business took my money and either that was the last I heard or they sent me a list of supplies I had to buy (which I did) and then I never heard again. I'm thinking a better type of work from home would be through a local business that allows people to telecomute. Something like that. Good luck! I know you want to be around for your mom. |
Dahli | Friday, July 12, 2002 - 02:05 pm     HI Whoami - I do work from home, as do a couple others on the board I remember from a thread last winter... and this set up has its pros and cons... I do have regular hours because I work for a software company out of the US and provide training and tech support for all our users. It is a small company connected to the travel industry which is still going strong it seems. This works mainly because of some great technology, I have high speed access, great little programs like pcAnywhere and Netmeeting which allow me to get into servers and systems thousands of miles away to work with people. The telecommuting suggestion and the medical transcribing are two other good ideas and I've heard of people doing both in order to work out of their homes. Good Luck to you and best to your mom. |
Whoami | Friday, July 12, 2002 - 11:53 pm     OK JuJu, I've just e-mailed you a wierd one that just popped up on Monster.com of all places! Good idea on checking out local businesses to do telecommuting. Will have to figure out how to check it out. Thanks for the link Karuuna. I'll be looking into that one too. So Dahli, who do you work for? Are they looking for help? I have DSL too. Not a real speedy PC (PIII 500), but it gets the job done. |
Knightpatti | Sunday, July 14, 2002 - 09:45 pm     I am sending my best thoughts and prayers to you and your Mom. When my children were in High School, I was home with them most of the time. I worked just Fridays, Sats, and Sun. I was mainly bored so I put an ad in our local free paper for word processing. I received quite a bit of work. I also lived in a large town at the time Orlando, FL. I made quite a few contacts with business people. The one problem with the stay at home job is it takes time for the income to grow. How are your skills for computer graphics and design? I went to a lady for her to design my business logo and she had her business in her home too. This was in Orlando,too. Remmember you will have to advertise somehow if you are going to be your own company. You will also need to check in your city and state laws regarding licenses, too. (I already had my licenses from my other business.) I totally agree about staying away from anything that requires you paying money to them and they will tell you how to become rich. ALso, I have tried the pyrmiad marketing and I have nothing positive to say about any of those businesses. The best of luck to you! |
Rissa | Monday, July 15, 2002 - 10:28 am     Whaomi, Sorry about your mom !!! My sister-in-law has worked from home for years now. She used to be a secretary and what she did was go around to a bunch of big corporations and other companies in her town and offer piece-work typing. She goes once a week and is given a stack of letters, reports, etc. that she takes home, types up and then delivers or emails back to them. It helps the companies by reducing the amount of clerical staff they have to keep full time and also the amount of over-time they pay their present staff. It wasn't anything the companies were doing before, she made up a proposal to show the potential savings and just sold it. |
Marysafan | Monday, July 15, 2002 - 03:01 pm     We own a small businees an dit grew to the point where i could no longer handle all the bookwork. We hired a company that did collections to do our billing for us. It was a godsend. Someone could easily start up a billing service from their home. |
Dahli | Wednesday, July 17, 2002 - 03:39 pm     Who - it's a travel software company out of Ohio, do you have at least twenty years experience in the travel industry??then we just might be ;-)) |
Whoami | Wednesday, July 17, 2002 - 07:21 pm     Well, the first time I traveled was in 1977. I've traveled 5 or six times more since then. Does that count for anything?  |
Dahli | Thursday, July 18, 2002 - 11:35 am     Wish it did Who - that would be cool - but people do ask us that very same question at times. My boss usually replies... if you were in the hospital a lot - could you be a nurse...? LOL Good Luck on your quest, things have a way of working out the way they're sposed to, don't you think? |
|