Work from home: what it means and how to get one

If you are one of the workers who got fed up with early reveille and inflexibility of your life, then it’s time for serious changes. Stop going to the hated office and begin working from home. Here you will find all essential information to help you get started as a work-from-home employee: Read about searching and getting this kind of job as well as tips on how to avoid scams and how to stay sane in the process.

How to start working from home?

To start working from home you, first of all, need to get a job that allows you to do that. And at this point you have three possible scenarios:

1. you make a deal with your current boss and transfer your work to a home office;
2. you search for new opportunities;
3. you start your own business and lead it from home.

With the first option you can deal yourself. About the last possibility read the next point of this article. Now, let’s focus on getting a new job.

Getting a remote job has become extremely easy in the technologically developed world. But you need time and effort to find the right opportunity. Dedicate all your free time to searching for the best offer. Be ready that you will go through interviews and phone calls.

There are two main ways to get a remote job: through your network or with the help of the internet. Getting a job from someone you know is much easier, but it also has its own baggage: you might experience communication difficulties (you won’t be able to discuss any bothering issues openly in order not to offend your friend or relative) or financial ones (you will be paid less than you deserve, but you won’t be able to discuss the matter). If you choose to get a work from home via networking , be ready for such complications. However, in this case, you have almost no risk of being scammed, which is a great advantage in your case.

If you’re choosing internet as the helper, be prepared. You need a nice looking CV, a cover letter, a motivation letter, and work samples/portfolio (if applicable). After you get the documents in order, go online and look for the job opportunities in local directories, such as Indeed.com, Freelancer.com, AllYou.com, etc. Besides them check opportunities offered by the companies in your city directly on their websites; very often great offers can be found in this way.

How to promote yourself

Now let’s discuss how to promote and start a home-based business if you’re planning to work for yourself, and not for someone. Again, local and personal networking will come in very handy. Tell everyone that you’re starting a home-based business and ask them to spread the word. This is the easiest way to attract first clients.

Besides networking, advertise your services in both physical and online worlds. Physical ads can start from basic flyers in your neighborhood handed to the locals. In terms of online promotion, the easiest and cheapest ways to get seen and hired by people is by getting listed. Go to online services like Telecommute.org or HireRush.com and post your services there. Ensure that you give all essential contact information so that potential clients can contact you. Besides directories, create social media profiles for your business and try to monitor and add content regularly to keep your audience interested in what you do.

3 basic tips to stay sane while searching for a home-based job

Be Flexible

Flexibility is essential for work-from-home workers. Agree to non-working hours, consider not a contract, but a freelance based employment, work part-time at two places simultaneously if it’s manageable. In the world of work from home jobs you decide how to work and how much to work, but if you’d like it to be your main income item, then be ready to comply with the rules of employers.

Be patient

Getting a job in an office is much easier than getting a well-paid and interesting job offer for a remote collaboration. You might not get any response even after 5 days of sending your resumes and registering your service. So be ready that the starlit hour comes later.

Never pay upfront

All scams begin with the offer for you to pay some small amount of money to continue some kind of work. This scheme is as old as the hills, so don’t get hooked on it. No reputable employer will ask you to pay for any job-related issue upfront. Remember it! However, be ready that some work-offering websites might require some small registration fee.

List of best and worst home-based job offers

Best

1. Salesperson

Working as a consultant allows you the biggest flexibility in everything. As a rule, such offers provide percentage from your sales (about 20-40%); so the more you sell, the more you earn. And there are no deadlines or working schedule. You work in your free time and when it’s best for you. The only thing you need is a phone in this line of work.

2. Virtual assistant

Virtual assistants earn about $10-15 per hour, which is a great salary considering that you can do it while lying on your sofa. The duties in most cases are similar to office assistant’s ones: you reply to emails, manage work schedules, and help with social media profiles.

3. Website tester

All you need to do is evaluate whether a particular website is intuitive and user-friendly. Everything you don’t like you write down and send to your employer. For every test, you get about $10-20, while the test itself takes about 10-15 minutes.

4. Writer/editor

As a native English speaker, you will experience no difficulties with proofreading some French student’s essay or editing Macedonian pupil’s homework. Depending on the level of English and complexity of text structure for proofreading and writing you can get from $10 and up to $100 per piece.

5. Online tutor

Again, you’re a native English speaker so you can teach some student from a different country to speak English better and more confident. If you love history, then you can teach it as well. Basically, you offer private tutoring via Skype, for example. And in this respect, you can be self-employed as well as hired by some corporation overseas. The starting salary for corporates is about $30,000 per year.

Worst

It’s almost impossible to make a list of the worst distant jobs , so here are the categories of jobs that you should avoid.

1. Data entry jobs very often require you to make a test for free. As a result, you are likely to make several tests, spend time, and get nothing in return. If you agree to any data entry job, then make sure that you get paid for it beforehand.

2. Ads posting positions have flooded the online world. Very often you will be paid not for the actual posting, but only if someone clicks on the ad or signs up, which might never happen.

3. MLM (multi-level marketing) is one of the worst muddy puddles you can get into. All you will be doing is trying to get new people to sign up for this in order to take their money. While this job is in most cases non-profitable, keep also in mind that there are thousands of similar people doing the same. Furthermore, this job offers no salary guarantees.

4. Claims processing involves some specific equipment. Very often you will have to buy this equipment first, which is already a scam in the beginning.

How to avoid work from home scams?

There is an ocean of opportunities in the net that offer easy and fast money for simple jobs. Yet, you should keep in mind that there are many ugly hyenas who are only waiting for you to lose the vigilance and to take all your money. They will take not only your money but your time and force as well. Here are several tips on how not to end up empty-handed.

Check the listings

Before you agree to any job offer, make sure to verify that it’s listed. Moreover, check all information about the position: if you’ll get a salary or some commission, frequency of payments (once a week/once a month), ask if any additional equipment is needed and if you need to buy it yourself. And don’t agree to the last scenario.

No fast money

Don’t get hooked on the listings that guarantee fast wealth and easy financial success. The better a utopian world looks on paper, the worse it will be in reality. Remember that you can’t get high income for part-time jobs. Reliable offers will promise nothing from above.

No money sending

You’re looking for a way to earn money, not to lose them. Never send any contribution fees because legitimate employers never charge anything to hire you.

Always double-check

Even though you’re looking for a job online, remember the best rule of word of mouth. Always read reviews and recommendations for every perspective offer because even if there are a couple of fake comments, a hundred of them can’t be. And keep in mind the simple rule: no reviews or references, no job.

And the final point.When looking for a work from home opportunity consider what you want to do, what you can offer to a potential employer, and what you would like to receive in return. Always ensure that you’re accepting a legitimate offer and don’t expect to get rich in a day. Be patient, yet persistent. Rome wasn’t built in a day.