Work At Home??

[Airwinger]

Hi Folks, I would like a bit of info from you guys if I may. I am disabled with a respitory problem, but need to have more income than my work disability pays, I am allowed to make some income and still keep my ins and benefits, but am having great dificulty in finding something in which I can function. I have a history in retail sales and customer service and have searched the web looking for something I might do "AT HOME", but so far they seem to be scams, which leads me to my lead in question: Are there any legitimate "Work At Home" opportunities out there? I know I can count on all of you at FR to come up with honest and sincere answers to this, and I thank you in advance.

[cyborg]

Good question. I am interested in legit work at home business too.

[elc]

I've been looking as well because I am a new mother. I don't trust most of the stuff I find.

Most of the people (mostly Work at Home Moms) I've talked to managed to convince their jobs to let them telecommute.

[ThePythonicCow]

I work at home -- but I'm a computer programmer with decades of experience, working on Linux, which can be done from any computer in the world with decent internet access.

I suspect a lot of jobs haven't moved to the internet as much as this job.

Good luck.

[conservativehusker]

My wife and I have helped friends sell on E-bay..we ran into a jewelry store with a basement full of stuff he wanted to clear out...we charged hima small percentage 10% and he handles shipping...it's worth a couple hundred to us a month..most months..summer seems alittle slow..but a lot of small businesses have extra stuff they'd like to clear out..

[knittnmom]

This one looks as thought it might be legit ...
http://www.tjobs.com/jobopps.shtml

[Gay State Conservative]

Other than medical transcription...that is,preparing medical reports/notes dictated by doctors...and "telecommuting" jobs with established employers I don't personally know of any.

My understanding is that most,if not all,of the stuff you see in magazines and TV are scams.

But I could be wrong.

Perhaps you might contact hospitals and medical practices near you to inquire about medical transcription. If you choose to go that route,you'll have to take a medical terminology course.

[STARWISE]

I've been working sales from home for over a year, thank God. I'm so grateful, and it's SO doable with today's tech advances. If you're the salesperson type with a track record, I'd advise approaching companies that interest you or products you know and like and approach their companies, if they're looking for sales folks and it's not an "in-person" type sales job.

JetBlue's reservationists all work from home offices .. they have no facilities for sales help.

I have a dedicated work computer, and log on to that network for my work, just like I'm at the office. I also have a KVM switch which allows one monitor, keyboard and mouse to work for the company computer and my computer. 2 flicks of the scroll lock button, and I switch back and forth between computers. It's heaven.

I have a friend who's been working for years for a major national insurance company from home.

My company pays half my phone bill to cover the phone service, internet charges. I get reimbursed when I need copier ink, etc. I also take a train into the main office 2-3 times a month and pick up extra office supplies I may need.

Also, editing and proofreading, if you're language and grammar skilled, are good areas to consider with lawfirms, publishers, PR agencies, etc.

I think there are a lot of opportunities .. but you have to be resourceful, diligent and relentless in getting your skills and interest out there. There's no legitimate business I wouldn't hesitate to contact to ask. If you don't ask and open up the dialogue, you'll never know.

Networking helps, too.

[TNCMAXQ]

Just wondering, how exactly do bloggers make $$? Or do they? ;) Is it from selling advertising on their sites? Just curious.

[Maceman]

I work at home in my own business as a corporate competitive intelligence (CI) consultant to Fortune-1000 companies. I do a fair amount of Internet searching, but mostly I spend my time identifying, contacting and interviewing employees and exectutives at target competitors, suppliers, buyers, industry analysts, government officials, etc.

Essentially I work as a private investigative reporter for hire, and I do projects for corporate clients who want very specific answers to very specific questions about their competitors activities.

I have no business degrees or specialized education in this field, in which I have been working in for the last 13 years. But I do have lots of varied business experience going back to 1985.

The job requires resourcefulness and an investigator's instinct for research. Mostly, you need the cajones to call, say, a Senior VP of Marketing at a large company and attempt to engage him or her in a discussion that yields insights on issues that are important to your clients.

You have to be a quick study to be up to get up to speed on industries and business problems you knew nothing about before being introduced to the project.

I've done everything from candy bars, to chemicals, to space satellites to pharmaceuticals and lots of other sectors.

Excellent telephone, writing and communication skills are obviously important, though verbal eloquence is not necessarily a prerequisite.

You can bill anywhere from $35-$135 an hour, depending on who your clients are, what types of projects you are doing, how many projects you've done, and how good you are at negotiating.

Since you have a background in retail sales, you might consider leveraging that experience and focusing on retail sales projects to start.

It may not be easy to get in, but you may be able to find a CI consulting firm in a pinch that might be willing to try you out on a project with little or no experience, provided that you can impress them with your manner and approach.

That's how I started. I was looking for income and discovered this industry by cold calling business consultants in the local yellow pages. I happened to find a firm that was engaged in this kind of work. They tried me out on a project and things just kind of took off from there. Today I have a small stable of clients who keep me very busy.

Just google "competitive intelligence" and see what pops up.

Don't know if you have the skills and temperment for this work, but since you asked, I thought I'd contribute my two cents.

Good luck.

[STARWISE]

I'm assuming bloggers aren't doing it for $$. But if they grow a fan base, sure .. advertisers are an option, if the site gets a lot of traffic.

I'm in the craft/hobby biz .. a few years ago, a gal in New England .. who loves to sew and is a very accomplished high tech person .. decided to start a little website to ask folks their opinion of the sewing patterns out there BEFORE they decide to buy them.

It grew like topsy, as folks realized they could get first-hand opinions and critiques on garment patterns.

Now .. Joann, Hancock, online fabric places, etc. all advertise there .. and the site has expanded to classes .. reviews of machines, notions, etc. and is a HUGE site, like FR, only for sewers.

Great lesson .. she followed her passion .. and voila!

[girlscout]

A friend of mine is a court reporter transcriber working from home. Training is necessary but I don't know the details on that.

[Nea Wood]

Bump for self.

[Kaylee Frye]

I used to work from home - I'm a programmer. Fields like programming lend themselves to work-from-home, but you have to find a company that is interested. Also, typically work-from-home pays a lot less than a normal office job. Good luck! I have no specific advice for the sales-type fields. You might try starting up your own online business if you can think of a good product to sell.