By Heather Plude
So you want to work at home? Maybe you want to work at home because you can be home with your family… maybe you just want to be able to work in your pajamas. Maybe you want to shorten your commute? That five minute commute to the home office is pretty appealing to a lot of people.
In September of 2009, the Small Business Association reported approximately 15 million home-based businesses in the United States alone. Kate Lister, author of “Undress For Success” states at least 2.5 million people are telecommuting in the United States, not including the self-employed.
Many people are not happy with their jobs, their limited income, and the fact that their lives are dependent on a job for security. Others have lost their jobs and are looking for a way to supplement their unemployment benefits or replace lost income.
Whatever your reason is for wanting to work at home, you need to start making money right away so you can maintain your current lifestyle. Then, you need to be able to increase your income so that you can improve your financial situation.
Unfortunately, many people who want to work at home find that making money from home is not as easy as they thought it would be. Nothing is worse than working countless hours for no money… except maybe spending money on bogus business opportunities and trainings that don’t work.
So, how do you distinguish between legitimate work at home jobs and business opportunities and the money sucking junk that is littering the Internet?
Legitimate Work at Home Jobs
Here, we are talking about working for someone else, or telecommuting. The easiest way to start telecommuting is to convince your current employer your job can be done either partially or completely from your home, without any negative effects to the existing business.
There are many jobs which can be done from home: accounts payable, accounts receivable, web design, customer support, marketing and project management are just a few jobs that can be done from home.
If you are good at your current job, you have built trust with your employer, and your job is not reliant on you being in the office (ie. answering phones, greeting customers) your boss may be open to letting you work at home.
Doing a search on Google for legitimate work at home jobs brings back millions of results so be careful and be smart. Research the company offering the job, know how you are going to be paid, and don’t get involved in a job that makes you pay to be hired.
Legitimate Work at Home Business Opportunities
Business Opportunities come in all shapes and sizes, investment levels and earning potentials. There are millions of business opportunities on the Internet. Deciding which business is best for you can be very confusing…even overwhelming.
A business opportunity is not a job, it is a business. A home-based business can be as profitable or more profitable than a franchise or any other brick and mortar business. Most home business opportunities can be started for under $2,000, sometimes they cost little to nothing to start. With such low start up investments, anyone can work at home.
Imagine your investment in your home business is equal to the investment in a McDonalds Franchise. If you invested a million dollars or more to get started, you would take your business seriously. You would follow a business plan and educate yourself on the correct steps and actions to make your business successful. Your business would grow according to predictable, industry standards, due to your hard work, your team, and because McDonalds has a proven system in place.
A business opportunity, like a franchise, will not pay you by the hour, but it will pay you for your efforts, actions, knowledge, skills and determination. Just like the McDonalds franchise, you must follow a proven system. You must do what successful people are doing to become successful.
So how do you determine which business opportunity is the best one for you to invest your time and money into?
Above all, do something you love. Find something you are passionate about, something that you would do even if you never got paid. Then find a way to make money doing it. This is the path to financial freedom. When you play at your work, you are set free from financial worries.
Do your due diligence. Research the company, the products, the industry, the market, and the person who will be your mentor. Find out if there is a proven system, what will your daily, weekly and monthly money making actions be? What type of training is offered by the parent company? What type of training is offered by your mentor?
How, when, and how much do you get paid for your efforts? If you need to replace your current income, what do you have to do to reach that income level? For example, if you are currently making $1,000 a week at your job-how soon can you consistently replace that income? What will it take to double that? Triple it?
Working at home for someone else requires discipline, but working at home for your own business requires a burning desire to succeed, a proven system to get there, and laser focus to keep you on track.