Real Tips for Mom’s looking to work from home

If you are anything like me, you have spent as many years as the age of your oldest child trying to work from home. It’s an ancient struggle, earning enough to live and having enough time to enjoy your children while they are young. I have been at this for 7 years and I have some practical tips and suggestions.

I know, I know, everyone reads the ads that promise riches and you think… Then you get to the website and they urge you to make a small investment. And you think, “Well, I gotta spend a little money to earn a lot of money sounds ok” Actually, if you think about it, it doesn’t make any sense. Would you normally pay someone to let you work? No, they pay you. If you are required to pay for anything… then you are getting scammed. ESPECIALLY, if you are paying to get a list of “opportunities”. Let’s face it, the only one that is going to actually make money is the person selling the list.

Have you checked:
http://www.hotjobs.com/
http://www.careerbuilder.com/
http://www.monster.com/

Yup, those are the sites people looking for jobs usually try. The difference is, if you are looking to work from home you would use different keywords. You would search “Telecommute” or “Telecommuting” or “Telework”. Go ahead, try it. The nice thing about looking for Telecommuting work is that you are not bound by locality. You could live in Florida and work for a company out of Idaho.

You will find a lot of the “scam” companies or educational companies place ads for these types of positions and once you access the link you will find they want you to pay for the training required to get the position. But there are several positions that are ALWAYS available to telecommuters.

The two biggest categories are Sales and Customer Service. I hate sales. I despise calling people and trying to sell them something. That’s what sales people do, as much as I despise it… it’s really where the money is. Most sales positions are paid on commission, that means the more calls, the better your chances of making money. I prefer having customers or clients call me… that is generally customer service. Since I’m a bit of a computer geek, I also apply to the technical analyst or help desk support ads. Customer service positions generally are either paid per call or hourly. Not as lucrative as Sales, but not as stressful either.

Here’s the other thing. As a mother of three small children I have spent the last 7 years dipping into various opportunities and almost all of them are a no go with young kids. If you have to spend any time on the phone, you just can’t. As you know, you will have 30 possible 45 minutes of nice quiet time PROVIDED you haven’t picked up the phone. As soon as you pick up the phone to take or make a call, all of the kids that that opportunity to either start fighting or they all need to discuss something…with you… simultaneously… very loudly.

The trick is to find something that you can do at home that doesn’t involve phone calls. Start by making a list of things you can offer a perspective employer:

Legal Transcription – Typing Legal Documents from Tapes (if an attorney’s office has extra work it usually means the attorney has recorded documents to be typed on tapes. The secretary listens to the words using a transcriber machine. If you pick up work from an attorney, they will probably lend you a machine with the tapes

Collection Letters – if this is done properly, you can have a series of letter templates that you would just plug in the addresses and print out the letters and envelopes. If you are writing the letters on behalf of a company, then you can save the documents on a disk or flash drive and let them print them out. If you are collection the money for a commission, there may be added expense for P.O. Box and postage and what not.

Data Entry – Could be anything from entering amounts and dates into a spreadsheet to accessing the company database and entering customer information directly into their proprietary system.

You get the idea right? Think about all of the things that you are qualified to do in an office. Then think about how you would be able to do them at home.

So, once you have compiled your list of things you can do from home, you need to plan your strategy. Start close to home, check your yellow pages and compile your list of local companies that may need secretarial help or check your local job opportunities.

Your introduction letter needs to sell your services to your perspective employer. Your letter need to explain how the employer will benefit from hiring you, how qualified you are for the position and allude to a money saving aspect without stating how much you want to earn.

Save the rest for the interview.

I have one last comment before I say, “good Luck” and that is… Spell check your introduction letter AND PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make sure the letter is formatted professionally.

Good Luck