Author Topic: Working from home?  (Read 9665 times)

Sassy

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Working from home?
« on: February 09, 2015, 08:52:41 PM »
I want to be self employed and work from home so I don't have to send my daughter to daycare. Does anyone here do online buy and sell? Or things of that nature. Any other ideas.

nawhite

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Re: Working from home?
« Reply #1 on: February 09, 2015, 09:17:18 PM »
My employer is almost always looking for people to do customer service phone support from home. Pays somewhere around $13 per hour but don't quote me on that. They are pretty flexible for people with new kids but do expect a full time commitment. PM me if you'd like to know more.

Meggslynn

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Re: Working from home?
« Reply #2 on: February 10, 2015, 12:05:45 PM »
If you need a full time wage I would stay away from being a rep or multi level marketing. 99.9% of the time you make a puny amount and you ostracize your friends in the process.
 
Sorry I don't have any useful ideas  .... just what to stay away from.


ShoulderThingThatGoesUp

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Re: Working from home?
« Reply #3 on: February 10, 2015, 12:14:50 PM »
If you're doing anything that will get you decent income, you won't be able to take care of your daughter at the same time. Making money requires effort and taking care of a child is a lot of effort!

My wife's pre-child employer kept her on part-time from home after our daughter was born, and my wife can do most of it during our daughter's naps, or now that she's a little older, when she's feeling independent. But that gets us around $10k/year - nice to have, but not huge. And it's only possible because of a previous relationship.

road_to_freedom

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Re: Working from home?
« Reply #4 on: February 10, 2015, 01:48:13 PM »
Try www.oDesk.com. Depending on your skills and the time you're willing to commit per week - you can find people who will pay for remote work.

Sassy

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Re: Working from home?
« Reply #5 on: February 11, 2015, 12:27:44 PM »
Well I guess I really only need to bring in about $1000 to make everything work out. Childcare here is so expensive that I would have to pay $1200 a month just to go to work and I only take home $1800

iamadummy

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Re: Working from home?
« Reply #6 on: February 11, 2015, 12:43:10 PM »
just beware of scams. wfh is rampant

Sassy

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Re: Working from home?
« Reply #7 on: February 17, 2015, 08:00:05 AM »
I am going to try out selling used books on Amazon. I still have 3 months until my Mat leave is up so I can take it for a dry run. Any suggestions? Or tips? I have about 400 books in the house currently so I have a decent jumping off point.

julez916

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Re: Working from home?
« Reply #8 on: February 17, 2015, 08:39:10 AM »
I've sold quite a few books on amazon, although never enough to make $1000/month. A lot of titles aren't really worth the effort of selling, IMO, and you have to be very meticulous about how you describe and package an item if it could be considered collectible. The only time I had a problem with a buyer was when I was selling a signed first edition chuck palahniuk book. I listed it according to Amazon's condition description and it either for damaged in the mail, or the buyer had much higher expectations of what good meant than Amazon and I did. I ended up letting them keep the book and doing a partial refund, but it was a huge pain and I haven't sold anything on amazon since.

I will say, though, that of you have enough focus and drive you can make something like that work. I had a friend who used to sell dvds and pop culture memorabilia on ebay and made plenty of money to live on doing it. He was very serious about it and used to scour thrift stores, especially when they were having discount days. Out always send too hard core to me... I don't think I could overcast that kind of energy with a kiddo to take care of ( have a one month old daughter). But if you already have the books and still have some maternity leave left, why not try it out?

MoneyCat

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Re: Working from home?
« Reply #9 on: February 17, 2015, 08:51:41 AM »
Have you tried Leapforce at Home?  They pay something around $13/hr and you pretty much set your own hours.

Janie

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Re: Working from home?
« Reply #10 on: February 17, 2015, 10:02:41 AM »
Well I guess I really only need to bring in about $1000 to make everything work out. Childcare here is so expensive that I would have to pay $1200 a month just to go to work and I only take home $1800

Have you considered providing in-home child care? It would be hard work and a significant commitment, but it might fit well with your goal to remain at home with your child.

To pursue other at home options you'll really need focused time even with flexible hours. Bear in mind that with LeapForce, you'll need to pay self-employment taxes on that $13/hour. You'll also need to do uncompensated training before you start. It's flexible, but you're not guaranteed hours. My guess is $1000/month is not realistic. Content writing for Text Broker and similar companies generally pays about $5 an article. Really hard to make much this way in scarce free-time hours while parenting a little one IMO.


Sassy

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Re: Working from home?
« Reply #11 on: February 20, 2015, 07:17:42 PM »
I'm starting to feel a little hopeless like time is closing in on me. We just sold our house and are moving into a smaller less expensive place but it still feels like everything is out of control. With moving, baby and trying to get some other form of work. Guess I am just having a hard day

Primm

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Re: Working from home?
« Reply #12 on: February 20, 2015, 10:21:39 PM »
A friend of mine works as a coordinator for a medical transcription company from home. She used to do the transcribing but now manages the staff.

It doesn't pay huge amounts, but she was able to dictate the jobs she took so that she had a 24 hour turn around time (so if the kids were being feral she could still get the jobs done in a timely fashion). From memory she ended up getting something like $30 an hour.

I don't know the name of the company, but it probably wouldn't help you because they're Australian anyway. But there are legitimate WFH jobs that aren't scams or MLM.

RunHappy

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Re: Working from home?
« Reply #13 on: February 21, 2015, 07:44:27 AM »
I know some people who have become resellers for various products.  One sells yarn, another 3D puzzles, etc.  They obviously need to keep an inventory at home, so it does require space.

Firefly

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Re: Working from home?
« Reply #14 on: February 21, 2015, 09:05:33 PM »
Unfortunately, I don't have any suggestions for a work from home self-employed opportunities, but I just want to caution - if you are planning on working full-time or close to full time it will be impossible to effectively work and care of your kid at the same time  and staying somewhat sane:) . I work from home full time while my son is at school and my 22 mo had to go to day care. She is in day care from 9-3:45 and I always end up doing more work when the kids go to sleep. I second the idea of taking care of someone else's kid or 2 in your house. This way you will be making money and spend time with your baby. Good luck - let us know what you end up doing.

Ricky

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Re: Working from home?
« Reply #15 on: February 21, 2015, 09:37:33 PM »
Babysitting, or...dog sitting! Dovacay.com

JetsettingWelfareMom

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Re: Working from home?
« Reply #16 on: February 22, 2015, 12:00:13 AM »
Well I guess I really only need to bring in about $1000 to make everything work out. Childcare here is so expensive that I would have to pay $1200 a month just to go to work and I only take home $1800
Working at home is more a lifestyle choice than anything. I started when I was pregnant with my first daughter (now 8). I was a contributing writer then already telecommuting and decided to focus my efforts on that instead of my brick and mortar market research job (though she gave me a shot at calling in surveys for her for awhile). Now that it's been close to 10 years without a real job with a physical location, the idea of doing one seems foreign. Who would take care of my kids, for example? The money would probably be less than daycare and the commute, which is not worth it. And what if I want to up and go to Thailand?
So there are real jobs on the Internet to work from home, but a lot of scams to muddle through which is why you are almost always better at angling in from something you already know (and someone too) versus the give us your credit card number and we'll send you a check things that people get fooled on. Remember that the jobs are actually jobs, which requires work that is hard to do with demanding newborns (though they sleep a lot, admittedly)...
Best with it congrats...

Firefly

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Re: Working from home?
« Reply #17 on: February 22, 2015, 06:44:31 PM »
Sassy, what kind of a job you do or did before your mat leave? Is it something you could do from home or does it require you physically being there?

NYCWife

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Re: Working from home?
« Reply #18 on: February 22, 2015, 06:57:14 PM »
Well I guess I really only need to bring in about $1000 to make everything work out. Childcare here is so expensive that I would have to pay $1200 a month just to go to work and I only take home $1800

Have you considered providing in-home child care? It would be hard work and a significant commitment, but it might fit well with your goal to remain at home with your child.

To pursue other at home options you'll really need focused time even with flexible hours. Bear in mind that with LeapForce, you'll need to pay self-employment taxes on that $13/hour. You'll also need to do uncompensated training before you start. It's flexible, but you're not guaranteed hours. My guess is $1000/month is not realistic. Content writing for Text Broker and similar companies generally pays about $5 an article. Really hard to make much this way in scarce free-time hours while parenting a little one IMO.

+1

My mom was a stay-at-home mom all while I was growing up. She earned a great income by having an "in-home daycare" in our home mostly comprised of teacher's children. That was great because they had pretty consistent hours (arrived early but left before dinner) and had summers off. She also has done/is doing the following:

1. Medical transcription (you can earn a significant amount with this)
2. Website development (pretty easy to teach yourself, using platforms like Weebly)
3. Home organizing (she used to do this on the weekends)

Good luck!

justajane

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Re: Working from home?
« Reply #19 on: February 22, 2015, 07:05:24 PM »
What about a week-end job? Do you have a good eye for photography? Semi-professional wedding photographers can make good money these days. When we married 10 years ago, we paid a SAHM/photographer around $700 for a day of work. Of course, she had to do some work after the fact as well, but you could possibly earn all your money in one week-end. It would be a stressful week-end, but this would enable you to not stress the rest of the month.

Of course, you would need a very good digital camera, a website, and some printing equipment, but it's a thought.

I can make around $1,000 a month doing freelance editing and writing, but I absolutely cannot work with the baby around. I have him in daycare part-time. 

sedura

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Re: Working from home?
« Reply #20 on: February 22, 2015, 11:35:59 PM »
I work from home as a real estate agent and property manager. It's impossible for me to get any work done while my kids are there. Sometimes, I can bang out an email or two while they watch TV, but even that is hard because they still want something every three minutes between the two of them. I ended up putting them in daycare and then going back home to work.

MustardTiger

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Re: Working from home?
« Reply #21 on: February 23, 2015, 08:20:32 AM »
I am looking for something a little different.  My wife plans to stay at home when we have kids and would like something part-time.  Something like 10-20 hours a week making 500-1k a month.  She is extremely introverted but is strong in math/organizational type stuff.  Any ideas?

Sassy

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Re: Working from home?
« Reply #22 on: February 23, 2015, 09:06:49 PM »
I'm a lab tech when not on Mat leave so not something I can do from home. I play the harp so maybe I can do something with that. Not a lot of people pay for live music in their weddings these days.

I went to school for biotechnology so I could apply that to medical transcription maybe. I may just have to go back for awhile and see if I can get a few things up and running in the meantime

RunHappy

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Re: Working from home?
« Reply #23 on: February 24, 2015, 10:53:21 AM »
I'm a lab tech when not on Mat leave so not something I can do from home. I play the harp so maybe I can do something with that. Not a lot of people pay for live music in their weddings these days.

I went to school for biotechnology so I could apply that to medical transcription maybe. I may just have to go back for awhile and see if I can get a few things up and running in the meantime

Is it possible to do virtual music lessons?  or creating tracks of wedding music people can pay to download? Edit: Or other types of downloadable music?
« Last Edit: February 24, 2015, 11:15:03 AM by RunHappy »

justajane

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Re: Working from home?
« Reply #24 on: February 24, 2015, 11:35:17 AM »
I am looking for something a little different.  My wife plans to stay at home when we have kids and would like something part-time.  Something like 10-20 hours a week making 500-1k a month.  She is extremely introverted but is strong in math/organizational type stuff.  Any ideas?

Part-time bookkeeping? I peruse our local Craigslist ads sometimes and regularly see small businesses that are looking for part-time bookkeepers. I imagine a lot of this type of work could even be done from home with a periodic check in a the office.