Working From Home - the Good and the Bad

Set your own hours, be your own boss, no commute. You think working at home is really great? Believe me, there are downsides as well. A million distractions, you're unable to get anything done, there's little interaction with other people. You will need to keep the good and the bad in mind when you start your home business, or sign on to a home based job.

Work at home opportunities are all over the web. Some of them are very good, but lots are just scams to get your money. There are real jobs available, jobs that pay you per hour, along with some excellent business opportunities. You need to be careful of both.

An example of a scam, working from home job is envelope stuffing. The way it works is.... You buy a starter kit from a company who tells you that you will be earning $1,500.00 per week stuffing envelopes. They say you can earn $2.00-$3.00 for every one. When the kit arrives, you find that you will be sending out information on the envelope stuffing business. You are to do the mailings at your own expense, and keep the money from sales of starter kits. The problem is that it costs more to mail the materials than you receive revenue from sales.

One example of a real work from home job is the call center. Many companies are offering work at home jobs handling calls. The typical starting pay is around $8.00 per hour. We've seen this go as high as $15.00 per hour. The Yankee Group estimates that there are over 670,000 people working as phone agents from their home. The companies doing this kind of out-sourcing, have found that people who are working out of their home tend to be better educated and loyal than the employees who work out of a huge call center.

The internet has provided us with some work at home opportunities that will run as a business, and have a decent chance of making good profits. These are not "Get Rich Quick" scams. In fact, if a web site tells you you're going to get rich quick and has hot cars, yachts, cash, and jet planes plastered all over their ads, you need to get away, and quickly.

Working from home in your own business means that you're the boss. This can be both a good and bad thing. You get to set your own hours. You decide what needs to be done, and you do it. However, you will need to have some self-discipline. You will also need a way to get rid of all the distractions that come with working form the home. If you have a family, they will need to be involved in this. Everyone will need to understand that when you are working, you cannot be disturbed except in extreme circumstances.

There are some very successful entrepreneurs doing business from of their home online. The possibilities are almost endless, and you don't really need to know much about technology to be successful. There are many marketing gurus on the internet who will help you get started. The problem is finding the right one. Many will charge for their courses, then you have to buy the up sell course to get useable information. After you do that, you need to purchase a domain name, web hosting, email responders, etc, etc. A couple of thousand dollars later, and you may well be right where you started from.

You will need to do a lot of research on the things you will need to get started. You also have to decide on what kind of business you want. You could choose something you have a real passion about to be the centerpiece of your business, then as it develops, you can build additional revenue streams to sweeten your income.

One great place to learn about selling products on the internet is Maverick Money Makers. You will have all the information and help at your fingertips for a very reasonable monthly fee.

Click here to find out more.

Warm regards,

Rusty Campbell
rustyc@mtisoftware.com
www.RustyCampbell.com