[Guest Post] Finding a Work from Home Job
Today’s guest Post is from Career Step, a leading voice in online business education. Do enjoy reading and leave a comment
Just imagine how good life would be if instead of weaving your way through daily traffic to reach your office, all you needed to do was to walk a few steps to the next room.
What would it mean for your family if you had more time to spend with them? How impressed would your boss be to notice a sudden spurt in your productivity because all the time and energy you save on commute, meetings and idle office chat is now spent on actual work?
What about moms who never have it easy whether they decide to work or stay at home? What if these stay at home parents could care for their babies, while making a financial contribution and feeling mentally alive?
All the above situations may sound too good to be true, but they’re not. “Work from home” are the three magic words that can turn these dream situations into reality!
But before we go any further, it must be said that finding legitimate work from home opportunities may actually turn out to be harder than finding an office job. Why, you ask? Simply because for every genuine work at home job, there is scam waiting in the wings ready to make a meal of innocent folk.
So, here are some steps you can take to find real work from home job opportunities without falling prey to online scams:
Negotiate with your employer
The best place to start searching for home-based job opportunities is your current workplace. You may be surprised how receptive employers can be to the idea of working from home provided your profile allows telecommuting. They have as much to gain from it as you, so don’t hesitate to broach the subject with them.
Be honest about your situation and explain why you need to work from home. It’s possible that to begin with you will need to convince your employer of your trustworthiness. You can offer to telecommute for a couple of days in a week to start with and gradually move to a full-time work from home arrangement.
Change your approach to job search
Before you start looking for work at home opportunities, you should know that you may have to change your approach to job search.
Broad job search engines like Monster.com or Simplyhired.com are great for finding regular office jobs, but may not be very fruitful as far as work at home options are concerned. You should focus on websites that post work from home jobs or freelance opportunities exclusively.
You can also use keywords like “telecommuting,” “freelancing,” “consulting,” and “work from home” jobs on search engines like Google or Live to find work. However, be wary of the results that are thrown up as a lot of them could be scams.
Use the power of Internet to network
Internet is probably one of the best gifts of man to mankind! Cyber space is exploding with information and communication of all kinds and you can use it to your benefit when it comes to looking for home-based work.
Become a member of industry-specific discussion forums to network with professionals with similar backgrounds and interests. Some of these platforms may also host job listings, so that may work to your advantage.
You can also use professional networking websites like LinkedIn to connect with potential employers or recruiters. Make sure your CV is updated on such websites to harness best opportunities.
Get vocational training
At times, the field or the profile you’re in may not allow telecommuting. Does that mean you give up on your dream of working from home? Not necessarily. If you are willing to invest some time and little money into a vocational training program, it’s possible to start over.
This may work the best for people who are not the main breadwinners in the family as starting over would mean lower wages to begin with.
Some work from home options that can be explored after completing a vocational training program are in fields like medical transcription, medical billing and coding, graphic design, virtual assistance, legal transcription, technical writing, web development, etc.
Other work from home jobs like customer support, data entry, sales and telemarketing may not require specific training, but generic skills like communication, problem-solving, convincing power, typing speed, etc.
And if you’re lucky enough to have a talent for something like painting, photography, cooking, or music, you can turn your craft into a full time home-based business!
Just bear in mind that if you go out looking for home-based careers without any vocational trainingor experience, all you will find is trash!
About Career Step
Career Step is a leading vocational school with almost 20 years of experience in providing online career training specifically designed to help students acquire knowledge and skills needed to quickly transition to a successful career after graduation.
#1 Reason To Have a Facebook Strategy
Facebook is the hub of online social networking; it has well over 350m registered users. A large percentage of users are permanently logged on daily. I dare say that majority of these users haven’t got a clue as to what they are doing on facebook. Their activity is basically surfing from one profile page to another without an agenda or purpose.
Facebook has long transformed from being just a place to reconnect with long lost family and friends. Facebook has become a business tool which has transformed the way people do business online. Millions are made daily by business owners. Wouldn’t you like to be part of this new breed of business owners who run business successfully on facebook? Wouldn’t you rather be conducting your business on facebook than moving from one person’s profile to another without an aim?
To make the best use of your time on facebook you must be clear as to why you are plugged to this social media.
1. What is your motivate for using facebook is it for business, personal or both?
2. How many hours are you logged on to it daily?
3. What do you share with the people you are connected with?
In the early days, people posted all sorts on their wall not knowing that other people could access their profile and up dates. Word of advice always check your security settings and be sure of what you have enabled. Be careful what you share and who you accept as friends.
Some people have lost their jobs as a result of what they have said on facebook. Ignorance is no more an excuse when using facebook. It is very important that you have some basic understanding of how facebook work and what is allowed.
Productivity is a good reason to have an agenda/purpose for your use of facebook. Try and avoid spending your productive day logged on without achieving anything tangible. It is very important to have a strategy. If you are strictly on facebook for friends and family break your time into three time slots of 15minutes each. In the morning post a message/greetings. Read at least 3 friends/ family updates and leave a comment. Make sure you log out after 15 minutes and don’t forget to use a timer. At lunch time read and respond to messages/comment sent to you. Repeat the same process at night. It is good to keep the relationships in your life but don’t spend the whole day on an activity that will eat into your job /other important activities.
On the other hand, if you conduct business on facebook which I earnestly advice people to do, you still need to have a routine /strategy as to how you would conduct your business activity. Don’t spend your day logged on; break your social media time to 30 minutes use, three times a day. You might only post a message or information in the morning and the other social media time will be to react or respond to people’s comment or request about your business. It is very important that you understand the people that are your business page fans and what they respond to. Keep your conversation simple and informative try not to clog people’s inbox with too many mails they might stop being your friend.
Be sure to have a separate account for your business and another for your family and friends. Although I have a group account for my business but I have more people responding on my personal profile this put me on the spot to be careful about what I say as I have mixed messages coming from me.
Learn to stick to your social media allotted time so you can remain productive for the remaining part of the day. Don’t forget that focus brings productivity, and productivity brings success.
To Your Success,
Pamela
Passion and Business
Passion according to Merriam–Webster.com dictionary is an ‘intense emotion, compelling action. It is deeply stirring or ungovernable’.
Passion is an unexplainable feeling that propels own to act with affection for something.
In recent times, it has become a norm to start a business based on those things you are passionate about. Some people have argued that passion based businesses are not 100% foolproof from failure infact, they might just be the first to fail. I quite agree with this.
I am a strong advocate of starting a business based on your passion provided; your idea (Passion) has been;
1. Tested for business viability – • Are there people that require your services or products?
• Is there a market for the idea enough to bring in profit?
• Who is your target market for the business?
• Your idea (passion) a product or service?
2. A good business Model – What services and products are you offering and how do you intend to package it to your customers/Clients.
3. Having a clear business structure: Make sure all documents are in place concerning your business. It is also very important that you get the proper advice on the right business structure you should have at the beginning of your business registration as your taxes are affected by the business structure you have.
In business when everything about running your business becomes difficult and there seems to be no headway, Passion is what motivates and energizes you to stay on track and succeed. Passion removes the word ‘Quit’ from your options. Passion reminds you of the reason why you are in business; which is the love of what value and benefit you bring to the lives of others. The money you get from your business is secondary as an entrepreneur that is passionate about her business.
In conclusion, starting a business based on your passion is not always foolproof that the business will instantly be profitable. The business needs to have a solid foundation just like any other business out there. The major difference between your business and others out there is that you have started your business based on your talent, purpose and passion.
If there is no passion in your life, then have you really lived? Find your passion, whatever it may be. Become it, and let it become you and you will find great things happen FOR you, TO you and BECAUSE of you.
– T. Alan Armstrong
To Your Success
Financial & Tax Tips to Starting A New Business
Starting up a business is usually an exciting and scary time. Once you have a business plan in place and your have secured a source of financing your idea. The following are a few things which one needs to be mindful of:
Accounting
Accounting is by far, one of most important aspects of starting and operating a business. It’s so easy to get caught up in the startup glamorous tasks of designing a business card or choosing a business name, yet without a solid understanding of the numbers you will not survive. Read more
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Now it may seem obvious that every business needs a marketing plan but not every business has one or if they do it’s often not mapped out on their calendar so it never really gets implemented as planned. This means the results are likely to be less than predicted and a lot less than desired so disappointment and frustration is the outcome.
So to be successful, a marketing plan needs planning – followed by implementation! And creating your marketing calendar is the secret to that successful implementation. Read more
Setting Your Goals For 2010
It has been proven that written goals are more likely to be achieved than unwritten goals. People who write down their goals are more successful socially, emotionally and financially than people that don’t have their goals written down.
The much awaited and anticipated New Year for new beginnings – 2010 is here.
What is the difference between a written goal and an unwritten goal you might want to ask? The power of vision cannot be over emphasized. The brain cannot remember all it sees every day no matter how intriguing and spectacular the event might have been. There is always a limit to what you can remember. It is very important that you put down your goals in writing. Read more
Face Reality and Take Action
There has been an ongoing ‘Tsunami’ in the Nigerian banking sector in the past few days. People have been relieved of their jobs… You would have thought that people would be allowed to go through this yuletide season and management will do what they feel is necessary at a convenient time … Is there a convenient time to break bad news?
I greatly empathize with everyone that has been affected. May your eyes of understanding be opened to know that which you would do in the coming days. The loose of a job is not the end of ones’ life but I want you to see it as the beginning of a beautiful chapter in your life. The glass is never half empty but rather half full. Read more
Introduction to Social Media Optimization: A Tool for Business Success
You must have heard about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This is a tool that every successful webmaster knows about and use. It is used simply to increase the rank of their website or blogs on search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, MSN and others. In order to do this, webmasters perform some tasks (such as keywords, internal & external linking, permalinks, design, niche etc) that make search engines to give their website an ‘authority’. Sites or blogs with higher ‘authority’ are the ones you find on the first page of your search engine when you conduct specific searches. Read more
