Work at home job search tip:  use the term “telecommute” versus “work at home” when searching for jobs.  It’s more likely to produce legitimate results. 

The first database is a quick way to search across multiple craiglists ads for telecommuting listings  http://www.telecommutejoblist.com/.  Now sometimes people post ads to craigslist that they are looking for telecommuting work (and they place it in the wrong category) so this search will pick those up too.

The second database has been around for years.  It’s http://www.genuinejobs.com/.

Happy job hunting. 

I’ve received some questions about finding work at home jobs and even if they are “worth it.”  Well, it depends on what you are looking for - don’t you just hate that answer <grin>

Seriously though if you think working from home is easy, that there is someone out there willing to pay you lots of money on a consistent basis, to answer surveys or make craft items, or stuff envelops, well then you’ll probably become a victim of a scammer.  If it sounds too good to be true, well then…

If you think you can work half the hours you put in at your job outside the home, but make twice as much, then no, you probably won’t find it “worth it.”

NOW, if you realize someone is paying you to WORK, and you need or would like to make money, but also need flexibility, and need or would like to work from home, then yes, you’ll probably be satisfied with the results working at home will provide you.

Tomorrow I’ll post a couple of job search sites to find work from home jobs.

Why it’s important to have a roadmap to success.  See when you’re driving down the road you can only go straight, or turn left, or turn right.  You can’t go in more than one direction at once.  Think of the chaos on the roadways you would cause if you could simply start driving backwards, or make U-turns, or complete stops in the middle of the road at will. 

Many self employed and entrepreneurial types are prone to having so many ideas that they don’t know where to go.  Going back to the car analogy you need to realize that you can go to more than one place BUT not all at the same time.  You really won’t get anywhere if you start out headed to Florida, but then decide you’d like to do something else in Toledo, and then a potential client calls and you’re off to Albuquerque.  Now all you’ve done is drive in circles, you’re out of gas (literally and figuratively) and you haven’t really accomplished anything. 

If you’re new to looking into working for yourself, or new to the idea that there are legitimate work from home jobs then you can easily reach information saturation.  (Shameless plug, if you are new to looking for work at home jobs check out my ebook, Phone Jobs From Home.)You’re not sure where to go but you’re really in a hurry to go somewhere, so you start this program, then build this website, then oh, wait a minute but you really want to do this other thing.  I AM SO GUILTY of this.  I truly envy those with a single minded determination, purpose and passion.  For it is those people who are less likely to be distracted and therefore more likely to be successful.

But for the rest of us who supposedly could do anything we wanted, if only we knew what the heck it was, I suggest instead of widening the net to find that one just right thing, we narrow our options.  Force ourselves into a choice between a handful of things for NOW (remember it’s only one trip, if it’s a total disaster and the bridge is out we could turn around later).  But we need to make a commitment to ONE trip at a time. 

Necessity is the mother of invention.  Limiting yourself to what is immediately attainable or artificially imposing limitations, could lead to some creative and successful choices that you would have overlooked if you left your options wide open.  For example, when Dr. Seuss wrote Green Eggs and Ham he was limited to no more than 50 words.  The book was the result of a dare issued by his editor Bennett Cerf.  Green Eggs and Ham (published in 1960) was the fourth best selling children’s book of all time, according to Publishers Weekly. Not bad for a book limited to 50 words.

I purchased the first season of Little House on the Prairie for my oldest kids (7 and 10) to watch this summer for both education and entertainment purposes.  It’s gone over quite well as they actually ask to watch it and I have been requested to order Season Two as they’ve already finished the entire first season.  

Anyways, in the very first episode the policy of “cash on the barrel” was talked about and throughout the different episodes you see how the family and town at times, pull together to manage different income streams, farming, teaching, working at a saw mill, and selling extra chicken eggs.  In one episode Mrs. Oleson informs Mrs. Ingles that she’s going to start paying her less for her brown eggs (got to love that Mrs. Oleson).  But having more than one egg in your basket is a common saying in the work at home community.  

To the self employed having more eggs means more than one income stream.  Although, in today’s times it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea for those employed outside the home to be thinking of another income stream and if you’re not interested in starting your own business from scratch telecommuting is a viable option.  

With tomorrow being Fourth of July thought I’d link to this bit of news from InsideCRM.com, The Call Center Moves Back Home:

“Offshoring sounds like a good idea, but it isn’t. Savings from low overhead have been offset by the dismal customer-satisfaction ratings for offshore call centers, mostly due to lack of needed expertise, cultural differences and poor communication skills.”

“Bringing call-center operations into the homes of U.S.-based agents (often known as “homeshoring”) has provided a way for managers to lower costs, as well as improve customer and employee satisfaction.”

According to the article, which you can read here, companies, employees and customers all win with homeshoring. 

And if it seems like I post a lot about customer service jobs it’s because I’m in the process of writing a book regarding entry level jobs from home and am currently researching customer service positions.   

Gas is expensive, so let’s cut bus service, an article from the local Knox News Sentinel which as of this posting has over 55 responses to it.  Not one response about telecommuting though. 

Not everyone that currently “goes” to work is in a job that requires them to physically be there.  Call centers are a prime example; a commenter mentioned that a route near South Knoxville’s call centers would be good as these are low wage positions.  If your job can be done via phone and the internet you don’t really need to sit in a cubicle to work.  Think about it, if someone in India can do your job it’s probably a job that can be done from your home as well.  

A couple posts back, I listed two call centers that hire US workers, who work from their own homes.  There’s no reason why many employers in Knoxville cannot offer telecommute options to workers, or why workers cannot seek out telecommuting options elsewhere.  

Okay, that’s one of those sayings that when you really stop to think about it, it doesn’t make any sense UNTIL you wake up one morning realizing your little one has been unusually quiet this morning - and well has been up to some diaper shenanigans that include playing with poop, smearing poop in ways that make it seem impossible to clean, and grinning from ear to ear at his ingenuity with the slight tale tell signs that he has even tasted um, the fruit of his labor. 

From: The Free Dictionary http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/shit-eating+grin

a shit-eating grin (American, taboo)

a look of extreme satisfaction on someone’s face that is annoying to other people who are less happy.

Yes, in this case junior was extremely pleased with his creative play and mom it would be an understatement to say was “less happy.” 

Chalk it up to one more reason why it’s good to be a WAHM, I don’t have to call in late to work and explain that excuse J

Note to self:  This is probably not the post to mention your future plans to share some frugal recipes. 

Many people are used to the 8-5 hourly pay with insurance and think working from home means they can find a job, doing roughly the same thing they currently do, get paid the same, except now they can work in their sweats and maybe secretly work less hours.  The reality is while there are hourly jobs out there, the majority of work from home jobs, or telecommute positions, are a paid for performance type situation and the worker is classified as an independent contractor or IC. 

Like all things there are pros and cons in the traditional employee vs. IC equation.  Employees are paid by the hour or on a salary and may have benefits.  However as an employee you’re told when to work and often are not free to work for more than one company in the same field.  And as an IC you are free to choose the hours you work, provided you complete your work in time, you’re usually working to a deadline, you are free to work for as many different companies as you can manage even in the same line of work; however, you are only paid for what you produce and not likely to have benefits. 

You can look at the IRS classification of employee for greater detail on the IRS page titled, “Independent Contractor (Self-Employed) or Employee?”  http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=99921,00.html

Many of the IC work from home positions are gained the same way as a traditional outside the home job in that you fill out an application, provide a resume, and maybe go through some testing, and while you are still technically self employed it’s usually an easier option than pursing your own business entirely. 

Common work from home positions that have both employee and IC status are customer service phone type positions.  I’ll be adding more information to this site as it grows but an example of a customer service company that hires work from home employees is, West http://www.westathome.com/ and a customer service company that hires contractors is Arise http://www.arise.com/Content/work-at-home.asp. 

No particular order here and by no means exhaustive.

1.         My kids.

2.         Save money on:  gas, work clothes, day care, food (less meals out and convenience foods).

3.         Better for the environment.  Not commuting everyday.  If companies

            are interested in going green they should embrace telecommuting (working from home), it would result in getting lots of cars off the road and they could

            operate in much smaller, more efficient office spaces.

4.         If you currently work a regular bricks and mortar full time job, you can work from

            home evenings and weekends to make some extra money.

5.         Flexibility of schedule.

6.         No commute, no rush hour traffic.

7.         No cubicles.

8.         No office politics.

9.         Not being chained to a desk with artificial plants (er, co-workers). 

And my number one reason, if I had to choose, is the versatility being self employed has

brought me.  I am not the type of person who could do one job or one thing forever, I

love variety and am often doing many different jobs at once, and as long as I’m making

money (and not breaking the law), my husband and kids are happy.

The title “Self Employed” covers lots of area on a resume.

I’ve been tuned into the WAHM community in some fashion since 1997 so sometimes it’s hard for me to realize some people don’t know what WAHM is.  It’s an acronym for Work At Home Mom. 

For a while I was a part-time WAHM and full-time B&M worker (WAHM speak for bricks and mortar referring to a regular outside the house job) and I made the move to full-time WAHM several years ago.  I’ve done a variety of things to earn money from home and it is my intention to share legitimate work from home jobs and business ideas as well as what the life of a work at home parent is like balancing (perhaps precariously) work, family, home, finances…

So if your goal is to work from home to spend more time with your family, to beat the rising cost of gas, if you’re currently a stay at home parent considering heading back to work but looking for an alternative, or if you just want to work from home for whatever reason, hopefully you’ll find something useful here.