Posted on 09/19/2006 4:50:45 AM PDT by hsmomx3
There are so many work at home links when doing a search that my head is spinning.
I am at the point of wanting to know if any of you know what might be legitimate.
I do not want to do medical transcription but I can utilize secretarial skills in other ways.
My kids need me at home at this time in their lives.
Most WAHMs that I know do Pampered Chef, Mary Kay or run small businesses making baby/children things (mostly slings, accessories, etc.).
I'm in the same boat as you. Desperately want to stay home with my little one because I know its best. But we won't be at that point financially for a couple of years.
Most of the moms that I know that WAH do a MLM type of business. I sell Southern Living, but mostly as a hobby. I have a very good friend that sells Tupperware that makes darn good money. She has 4 kids and works around their schedule. MLM can really work for you--if you work it as a business. I would stick with a well-known company, b/c they already have the business module that works.
It's not just you. A whole LOT of people are interested in this. I hope we see some good suggestions.
Used to work at home (I am a programmer). I recommend going through a big name company that you recognize.
As nuts as it sounds I always sort of wanted to hand raise exotic birds or ball pythons. They are both demanding of your time and have their requirements. Plus you'd have to get going very well to switch to actually making a living from it.
This is an honest question, not meant to be obnoxious, just really wondering. If you "desperately want to stay home with" your children while they're young, why did you have a baby "a couple of years" before you could afford to do that? I just really don't get why people put themselves in this position.
There are some of us who have had to put our kids in school rather than continue homeschooling because a spouse has left the home. As a result, working in the home seems like it would benefit all of us.
Sometimes life throws you a curve ball and preventions you take fail, and all the plans you set change.
Do you own your home, if so do have a large backyard?
do YOU have
I've worked from home for many years. Currently in worldwide marketing for a huge computer corporation; a large percentage of their gigantic employee force works from home, as well.
Companies save a LOT of money, and workers tend to be far more productive (in a sense, I'm ALWAYS 'at work'). I will never go back to a cubicle. Ever.
Highly recommend it.
At least in my profession, you can not look at it as an alternative to daycare. This is especially true with young children. Just because my office happens to be in my spare bedroom, does not mean that I still do not have to work 40 hours a week, and I do have a quota that must be met (I am on my morning break right now). Another piece of advice, Make sure you are working for an established company. There are many "fly by night" companies out there. The company I work for has been in business for 20 years, they have established contracts, they pay all of expenses, provide computer and material, etc. and they carry liability on me.
Good luck!
Yes, I realize that one parent's departure or debilitating injury/illness can cause a dramatic change of plans. elc's post, however, sounded like that wasn't the case for her.
As for working at home, opportunities are obviously limited unless you already had an established profession that you can shift to doing from home (a friend of mine was well-established as a senior paralegal at a Philadelphia law firm, got married and moved to Australia with her husband, and kept the job!). And scams abound. One non-scam I read about a couple of years ago (in the NYT, I believe) was about a franchise-type business which checked medical bills for errors in exchange for a cut of the savings on charges which were dropped. I can't recall the name of the company, and there may be imitators by now, but it seemed to involve very little upfront investment, and provided a course in how to do the bill-checking and how to get clients (mostly insurance companies, as I recall). Sounded like a lot of the work was calling/e-mailing patients to ask what they really had done, and calling/e-mailing hospitals and doctors for explanations and evidence for suspicious charges. The article said a number of people were making quite a lot of money at this, due to the massive volume of errors and outright fraud in medical billing.
Billing would not be a problem. The fun is trying to find who is legit. and who is not.
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