The View From My Office

What do you need to get started working from home? Part 3

Let's talk phones and headsets. There are a lot of choices these days when it comes to your phone carrier. Digital, analog, VOIP, cable, etc. Your choice in phone service can impact which companies you can perform services for. Choose wisely.

Many work at home call center positions will require a dedicated landline free of any additional services such as call-waiting. Now before you start thinking you need to install a whole new phone line, think about your options. If you currently have a landline, you might be able to have that number assigned to your cell phone or an IP phone service such as Vonage and just establish a new phone number on your currently installed line. This will most likely be the economical solution. Also, when obtaining a new phone line, think hard about what you say to the phone company. Using the words 'business line' will cost more. Trust me on this.

You will need a good headset. There are a number of different headsets available. I prefer a cordless headset which allows me to walk throughout my home without missing a call. Think carefully about your phone usage when making your selection. Be sure to choose a noise-canceling headset. I am partial to Plantronics.

What do you need to get started working from home? Part 2

You've made the decision to work from home. You might be working as an employee, and independent contractor, or you might be self-employed. In any event there are certain things you should have in place to ensure success.

In an ideal world, you will have a home office. We all know we don't exist in an ideal world. If we did, I would have won the lottery last weekend and be on my way to Key West. So let's be realistic. You need a space to work. Hopefully this can be some sort of permanent space so you aren't setting up and cleaning up each day. I know some people who work in a walk-in closet. Do what you can to make this happen. If you can stay out of your kitchen, your waist line and family will thank you.

Background noise can literally be a career killer. Barking dogs, meowing cats, and crying children scream un-professionalism. Along the same vein, police sirens and school buses aren't much help. Think about the location of your work space and the ambient noise. Also have a contingency plan. The company I work for allows dogs in the office (pretty awesome company). As such, I am always ready to explain we have a dog-friendly workplace if either of my pups should happen to bark while I am working form home.

Your choice in phone is extremely important. Even if you are doing transcription or bookkeeping, there is a good chance you will have to speak with people via phone. Think this through. You are on the phone, speaking with a customer, typing information into the computer. How many hands do you have free? Um, none. You need a headset and a phone which is compatible. Not only that, you need to make sure that headset is comfortable because you might be wearing it for 8 hours a day.

Ok - that's a few things to think about. Tomorrow I will give you some headset recommendations.

What do you need to get started working from home? Part 1

In one form or another I have been working form home and/or self-employed for 15 years. Holy cow. This does not mean I have been successful at it. All it mean is I have, for the past 15 years, attempted to earn some portion of my income working from home.

The most frequent question I am asked is how do I keep from being isolated? For me, I leave my house every single day. Maybe I go for a quick bike ride to the store, or maybe I walk around the Walmart realizing that no matter how poorly I am dressed, there is always someone at Walmart wearing pajamas and curlers. The woman who monitors the self-checkout stands at my local grocery store knows me by name and knows I work from home. Come to think of it, almost all the people at the 4 local grocery stores I frequent  know me. So my secret is doing my grocery shopping throughout the week, not all at once.

The second question is what equipment is needed? I think the biggest consideration for working from home is high-speed internet and a dedicated phone line. You probably cannot use your current phone line because an incoming call (even if you turn off call waiting) can disrupt a work call. High-speed internet is an absolute necessity. Even if you did not do phone work but other types of contracting, most require an integration with their software which will be impossible without high-speed. Also the age and operating system of your computer will impact which companies will contract you. The good news here is you can get a perfectly adequate laptop for $300 which will do everything you need and let you work while in bed. There is more, but this is the basics to get you started.

Part 2 will discuss additional equipment and work environment.

Free Website Builder for non-technical people

DevHub is a free website builder, hosting, publishing platform and content editor. It is quick and easy and anyone can do it. DevHub even provides free hosting. You can literally have a website up and running in less than 10 minutes.

DevHub provides an initial 10 free websites to each user. As you develop your sites, adding content and pages, move free websites will become available to you. Most of the content sections are monetized. Building websites is done easily by dragging and dropping various modules onto the page.

Check it out. With a very small time investment, you could be making some extra money each month.

Work from home opportunities

Over the next few days I will be posting links to companies which are believed to hire home-based workers.

Disclaimer: It is important to note I cannot vouch for these companies. It is not possible for me to check out each potential opportunity. Do your due dilligence before signing up for any program.

O'Currance Teleservices, www.ocurrance.com (Utah)
onpoint@home – www.onpointathome.com
RepsForRent, www.repsforrent.com
Secure Call Management, www.sciathome.com
Service 800, www.service800.com
Sterling Testing Systems, www.Sterlingtesting.com
Support Freaks, www.supportfreaks.com
Teletech - https://teletech.com
Thor, www.thor24.com
Time Communications, www.timecommunication.com (St Paul, MN)
Unlimited Conferencing, www.unlimitedconferencing.com
Ver-A-Fast Corporation, www.Verafast.com
VIPdesk, www.Vipdesk.com
VoiceLog, www.Voicelog.com
West at Home, www.Workathomeagents.com
Willow, www.Willowcsn.com
Working Solutions, www.Workingsol.com
XAct Telesolutions, www.Xactservices.com

Companies Hiring Home Workers

Over the next few days I will be posting links to companies which are believed to hire home-based workers.

Disclaimer: It is important to note I cannot vouch for these companies. It is not possible for me to check out each potential opportunity. Do your due dilligence before signing up for any program.

1-800-flowers.com - http://ww4.1800flowers.com/template.do?id=template8&page=9000#18
Accolade Support, www.accoladesupport.com/openings.html
ACD Direct, www.ACDdirect.com
Admission Consultants, www.admissionsconsultants.com
Alpine Access, www.AlpineAccess.com (Arizona, Colorado, Texas & Utah)
American Airlines, www.aa.com
Aquaricon - www.aquaricon.com
Arise - www.arise.com
ARO, www.callcenteroptions.com
ASI - http://www.employmentfromhome.net/
Baby to Bee, www.Babytobee.com (send resume to deena@babytobee.com) *Babytobee does not list thier employment opportunities on their website, but regularly recruits via classifed advertising* Just send them an email if you are interested.
Beyond Marketing Online, www.Beyondmarketingonline.com
BRG Research Services, www.brgathome.com/applyhome1.php
CCI – www.ccicompany.us/career1.aspx

Companies who hire home workers

Over the next few days I will be posting links to companies which are believed to hire home-based workers.

Disclaimer: It is important to note I cannot vouch for these companies. It is not possible for me to check out each potential opportunity. Do your due dilligence before signing up for any program.

Citrix, www.citrix.com
Cloud 10, www.cloud10.com
Connect2Agent, www.Connect2Agent.com
Convergys - http://www.convergysagentanywhere.com/convergys/HAP/HomeAgent.nsf/FAQ?OpenForm
Connect Plus, LLC, www.Connect-dataplus.com
Customer Loyalty Concepts, www.customloyal.com
eCallogy, www.ecallogy.com (Utah Only!)
ESM www.education-sales.net (Colorado Only)
Fonemed – www.fonemed.com - Registered Nurses only
GE - www.gecallcentercareers.com
Greene TeleServices (WA, DC only) www.gteleservices.com
Home Shopping Network - www.hsn.com/corp/jobs/default.aspx?pid=job&jn=006624
JetBlue Airways, www.jetblue.com (Utah )
LiveOps, www.liveops.com
MicahTek, Inc – www.MicahTek.com/jobs.html

Companies Hiring Home-based Workers

Over the next few days I will be posting links to companies which are believed to hire home-based workers.

Disclaimer: It is important to note I cannot vouch for these companies. It is not possible for me to check out each potential opportunity. Do your due dilligence before signing up for any program.

About www.About.com
Elance - www.elance.com
Just Answer - www.justanswer.com/expert.aspx
Kasamba Expert Advice www.Kasamba.com
Remote Work Management: http://www.remote-work.com/fx.remotework/scheme/default.aspx
SaveFinder - www.savefinder.com
LiveWork - www.LiveWork.com
ODesk - www.Odesk.com

 

Work at home scam

A few weeks ago, a friend called to tell me about a great opportunity making $50 an hour posting auction ads. I did not need to do any research, I already knew this was a scam. The hard part was explaining to my friend how I knew and what steps she should take in the future before falling for another scam.

It is challenging to find legitimate opportunities and in this economy the scams outweigh the honest work. You can do some research just by plugging the company name into a search engine. Unfortunately you might not get enough information without doing hours of reading and research.

One of the ways to do a quick legitimacy check is to search one of the many work at home forums. WorkPlaceLikeHome.com and RatRaceRebellion.com are just two of many. Look for forums with a lot of recent activity and many members. Do a search on the name of the opportunity before posting questions in the forum. Most likely others have already posted about it.

There are great work from home companies, you just have to be willing to do the work and research to find the right one for you.

Working from home is not the same as eating bon-bons

My Father-in-law called me the other day at 10:30 AM. He wanted me to tell him how much an antique salt shaker was selling for on eBay. He explained he would have called my husband but he was at work. Hello.

Training people to treat your work at home job like a job is a huge challenge. There is an assumption that working from home means you can drop everything to go to the movies or shop eBay at a moments notice. Sure I suppose not answering the phone would be a solution but there is always a chance the call is an emergency. I'm a worst-case scenario kind of girl.

I make a point of talking about my work day to family and friends. I talk about my routine and how I get dressed for work each day and how the dogs and I proceed to my office. The kitchen is off-limits during work hours and I also stay out of my bed room and living room. 

Part of winning the 'yes, I'm really working" challenge is letting everyone know I treat my job as a job and not some sort of professional snow day.