For many families, having one parent stay home is ideal. However, it is not always financially feasible to move to a single income. Working at home provides a compromise. I have been working at home for almost a year now, and have become a sort of go-to person among friends and family. I thought I would share how I got started.
My first work-at-home job was taking inbound customer service calls for West at Home. I provided an office phone and a dedicated phone line, and they forwarded calls to my home. They paid reliably, but ultimately the job did not work out for me. It required a quiet environment in which to take calls, and there simply were not enough hours available when the kids were asleep. Inbound customer service would be ideal with moms of older kids who are at school or who can be entertained quietly. Anyone interested in this type of work can e-mail me for a list of companies that offer virtual call center positions. There are too many to list here.
Next, I found a job I could do any time of the day or night: writing freelance web articles for Demand Media Studios. Most writing assignments require about 400-500 words. Compensation varies by article, and if you’re a quicker writer than I, you could potentially earn $15-25 per hour writing for them. Occasionally, I still write an article, although I have now found more steady work that takes most of my time.
My "regular" gig is with Lionbridge Technologies. For the sake of confidentiality, I am not at liberty to discuss details of the position. I will say that it’s interesting work and that I am fairly compensated. This type of work is a good fit for people who like surfing the 'Net and have a decent command of current events and pop culture. If you want to learn more, I encourage you to apply for any of the positions listed on their careers page. Leapforce at Home offers similar opportunities.
If you’d like to work from home, but none of these jobs are your cup of tea, there are plenty of other legitimate work at home opportunities available for transcriptionists, secret shoppers and more. The best source of information is often others who work at home. You can network with them on message boards such as WAHM.com or Work Place Like Home. You can also create your own opportunity by starting a home-based business. Really, the only limit is your creativity!
As well as it works for us, working at home is not all peaches and cream. It can prove challenging to care for three small children while working. Planning ahead and setting up the environment can help your family life run more smoothly. I have some insight to offer there as well, which I will share in my next post, two weeks from today.
3 comments:
Thanks for your thoughts and insights. I'm an entrepreneur that will be transitioning to a mompreneur within the next year. I've put a lot of thought into how I can restructure my business so that I can be a mom AND work from home. I'm happy that I've decided to add teaching childbirth education classes to the list because I think this provides an ideal setup to be able to teach classes at home when I have small children.
This is awesome! Thank you so much for sharing this! The resources are amazing!
Thank you so much for the information. I have been looking in all directions for a way to make money while staying home with my son. I just finished the Leapforce exams and hope to hear back soon. I really hope I passed! Thanks for the helpful post!
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