The View From My Office

Late for Work

Have you ever been late for work? Maybe you forgot to set the alarm. Maybe you just kept hitting the snooze button. Maybe you decided to linger over breakfast with the spouse. Maybe you just didn't feel like going to work so you were running a bit slow. Whatever the reason, eventually you got in your car and started thinking of the phenomenal yet believable excuse you were going to give your boss.

Traffic is one of the standards. Hard to argue with traffic. Flat tires occasionally work in a bind. Forgot my wallet and ran out of gas. Any of these will do in a pinch.

Well when you are working from home, your commute is probably something like mine. I wake up and turn on my computer, grab some coffee, turn on the morning news. About 45 minutes later I walk into my office as my husband passes me in the hallway on his way to his office to check his mail before leaving for the day. He will then fill up his coffee cup, give both the dogs a scratch on the back and head out the door. This all takes place before I start work at 6:00am. Nothing terribly exciting ever happens and I'm never late for work.

Almost never.

Yesterday morning things were going according to plan. My husband bent over to give the dachshund his normal morning scratch and he turned to me and said 'is it raining? The dog is wet." Well it wasn't raining and the dog was definitely wet. Basically our wonderful Boxer had mistaken our short and easy target dachshund for a bush. The poor guy was covered in pee.

OK, I know. Gross. My husband cleaned himself up and dashed out the door leaving me and the 'wet' dog. The dog had to get a bath and it had to be done immediately. As evidenced in my prior posts, the dogs spend most of the day sleeping on a bed in my office and there was no way I was going to let that happen with one of them 'wet'. I got the dog in the tub, washed him, got him out and toweled him dry and ran into my office to start work. It was 6:15. I was late.

No flat tires or traffic jams for me. Just a 'wet' dog and an amusing story. Thinking about it today, I'm pretty fortunate. I don't worry about running out of gas or having a flat tire. If the worst accident I encounter during my commute to work is a dog 'accident' I have little to complain about.

Lazy Work at Home Co-Workers

This is the view in my office......

I Work in a Call Center in the Southwest

One of the first things which is beaten into your skull when you start doing call center work from home is to never admit you are working from home. When asked where you are located or if you work from home, the standard answer is "I'm in a call center located in (the city you are in or near)". This is of course the truth. As an independent contractor, I am operating my own call center and have been contracted as such. It is sort of strange to answer that way especially when the person on the other end of the line is inquiring because they are interested in employment from home.

The reason for the 'call center' answer is obvious; the caller is probably disclosing personal information and might feel uncomfortable doing so if they know the person they are speaking with is sitting in their jammies. I've always thought this was a bit odd because we undergo a background check and if a person is going to steal information they can do it just as easily in a call center as they can in their own home. Either way, I'm OK with the answer and have no problem giving it.

The funny thing is, I struggled with this the other day when I was the caller. I had to call Cox for an issue I was having with my Internet. I've been aware that Cox uses home agents for quite some time so if the person answering my call worked from home, I would have had no problem with it. It became a problem when the tech support guy I was speaking with neglected to mute his television when he was assisting me.

He also neglected to ask his cat not to meow into the phone. Between the cat meowing and the football game in the background I was getting a little frustrated. So I asked him what the score of the game was and without skipping a beat, he told me. Wow, just wow.

The moral of the story...If you are fortunate enough to secure a work at home job, treat it as such. A work at home job is a job and you need to be professional. When you watch a football game while on a call you are risking not just your job but you are putting all of us who work at home at risk.

There is no Mystery, I Don't Like Shopping

Years ago I spent some time doing mystery shopping. Just like most of the self-employment opportunities found on the Internet you need to wade through a lot of junk to get to the good stuff. When I first started I was pretty reluctant to give away my personal information online. I did extensive research on the various companies and opportunities and found a few which I really enjoyed doing work for.

There are many websites devoted to ways of becoming a mystery shopper. Some charge a fee for access to a database of companies and opportunities. It never made much sense to me to pay for information which could be found with a little research. I also felt strongly that I would not receive objective information by paying for it. Things might have changed in the years since but before you pay for mystery shopping information spend a little time on the search engines.

One thing I did pay for was a MSPA Shopper Certification. I believe it was $10 at the time and I found it totally worth the investment to get a better understanding of what I was potentially getting into. Also, the MSPA has a list of mystery shopping companies on their website. While I cannot vouch for the list or any of the companies it is nice to have the information all in one place.

Some of the assignments involved grocery shopping or visiting a bank. None of it was particularly difficult. Most required some sort of reimbursed out-of-pocket expense. This was especially true of restaurant shops. Be prepared to have to spend some money at first as it might take a few weeks for the payments to post.

I stopped mystery shopping a few months after I started. I suppose one of the major reasons is I just don't really enjoy shopping that much. I can say if you are looking for a fun way to make some extra cash, this can be the way to go.

Your Guide to Internet Millions

BWwwwahahah. Yeah OK. At some unforgivable hour this morning, I saw this infomercial. Now I am all for making millions and I'm especially fond of the concept of doing so on the Internet. Big Internet fan here, bigger millionaire fan.Then I changed the channel and watched the worlds craziest car crashes or something.

You don't need me to tell you that making millions on the Internet is not something you can learn from a 30 minute TV show. It seems everyone has some sort of angle and the latest greatest idea to take the online world by storm. I spent a lot of time reading and researching many different income producing options while searching for employment. I came to the conclusion that I needed to find a steady reliable 'job' and then if I so desired I could supplement my income with Internet activities.

I think it is important to distinguish what I'm doing from many of the 'work at home' schemes. I am actually under contract with a real company (so real I have visited their offices and met real live people working there) to provide inbound and outbound phone services. Specifically business consultations for an extremely huge online marketplace. I didn't jump on the Internet Millionaire bandwagon because I had bills to pay and I a somewhat stable foundation im reality.

It is important for me to stress that there are real legitimate work at home job opportunities available. Other than the occasional background check you should be able to secure one of these positions without paying for it. You may have to shake some trees to find one that is right for you and once you do, be sure to research the company so you know it is a legitimate opportunity.

Work at Home Job Resolution

Let's face it; 2007 sucked for me. Major suckage. Here I sit half-past midnight on the first day of the new year. When 2007 started I knew it would be rough but there was no way I could have predicted it would become as rough as it did. My dear husband and I stopped at Home Depot today and realized that 3 of the furniture stores in that shopping center had recently closed. I can only assume the failing real estate market is to blame.

I've never been one to make resolutions. The way I see it, if I'm fat, I need to stop eating so much. If I smoke, I need to quit. I'm not sure making a resolution would actually change the outcome. That being said I quit smoking January 1, 2004 and haven't had a cigarette since (we won't discuss my dependency on nicotine patches). Resolutions or not 2008 has started and I better at least have a goal in mind.

Years ago a businessman I admired said to me 'if this is not the best year of your life, you are moving backward'. 2007 was a big fat stumbling tripping mess of a step backward. For 2008 I will move forward both personally and professionally. I will stop beating myself up for the failing real estate market and start seeing my recent career choices as wins. My business decisions will be based on what is best for my family and for me and will no longer be based on what I think my co-workers and friends would approve of (I've learned the hard way that their approval does not pay the bills).

What will you be doing different in 2008 to make sure you are moving forward and have the best year of your life?

More Work at Home Job Opportunities

Even though I have reached a level of moderate success with my 'work at home infomercial order taker job' it is important to develop other income streams. I am happy doing the business consulting work I'm now involved with but I would be lying if I said the income was great or that I am thrilled with having to work a set schedule. My real estate career spoiled me in that I worked an extremely flexible schedule. While I do set my own schedule now, once I commit to work certain hours I must work them. No more taking a morning or afternoon off to go to the doctor or play hooky.

eBay is always a business I am slowly building. There are many successful with eBay and I know if I chose to, I could probably replace my former income solely with eBay. The one thing holding me back from a full time eBay career is figuring out how to work it in with my full time call center schedule. I'm going to keep plugging away at it and find an eBay niche that works well for me.

Freelance work is very appealing. There are numerous sites touting the availability of freelance jobs in various fields. So far, I've done some freelance research work and found it very rewarding. The downside is the lack of steady income. Once again, this will be something I keep working to see how fruitful it proves to be.

Eventually I am going to find someone willing to pay me to stay home and play with my dogs. Until then, I will keep updating this site with my successes and failures.

Work At Home Job Tools

One of the first things I realized I would need in my new business venture would be a good phone headset. I would also need a regular corded phone in which to plug this headset. Surprisingly this was a much harder task than I had imagined.

After much research, the Plantronics headsets seemed to be the phone headset of choice. What shocked me was how difficult it was to find a corded phone with a jack for a headset. Who would have thought the hardest part of my new ‘work at home infomercial phone order taker job’ was going to be finding the phone?

If you are searching for a phone/headset combination you might want to start your search on eBay. Buy.com is also worth checking as they have been known to have some decent deals. Wherever you purchase your set, be sure it is noise canceling. Nothing is worse then having a caller ask you if you are working from home because they can hear the kids next door playing in their yard.

Work at Home Job Success

My 'work from home infomercial phone order taker' job is still what I am doing today. And I no longer hate it. It is important to note I have not taken a infomercial phone order call since September. Could that be why I no longer hate my job? Maybe. But realistically, I've learned to adjust my expectations not only for the job but for me. I've also begun to diversify and know I will never allow myself to be stuck in a position of relying on one source of income.

Am I back to the income level I earned as a real estate agent? Not hardly. I'm not sure I will ever be at that level again but I've come to terms with it and am slowly but surely changing my life habits to adjust to the much reduced income. Don't get me wrong, I am terribly unhappy with the amount of money I am making and I am barely covering the bills but I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel and I do believe I will eventually come through this.

About the job. While I keep calling it a job I am technically self-employed. Back in August the company I contract with offered me the opportunity to start on a new project. I jumped at the chance. Since then, I went through a certification program and have been doing consulting work as a contractor for a very large Internet site. I spend my day discussing business strategies with Internet entrepreneurs. I love what I do. It makes me think, allows me to 'meet' new people and gives me the opportunity to not have to be bound to a script selling infomercial products.

The infomercial calls will always be there if I need them. As I've said in the past, the pay is decent. I know now that had I dismissed the infomercial calls as boring, below me, or pedestrian, I would never have been offered the project I now so enjoy. Sometimes you have to do things you dislike to get something better.

Office Christmas Party

Last year at this time the real estate company I worked for had a Christmas party. The thing is, some of the people I worked with did not celebrate Christmas. So the Christmas party was renamed a Holiday party. Well that was totally unacceptable as two people in the office had some sort of religious restriction on parties. So the Christmas party was renamed once again. My office had an Employee Appreciation Gathering. Apparently this offended no one. Sort of. The Employee Appreciation Gathering was held at a seafood restaurant. I am extremely allergic to seafood. For some reason we still held the party there. It seems my going into respiratory arrest was a lot less offensive than a Christmas Party.

My work from home office held a Christmas Party this year. I invited myself. I called it a Christmas Party. There was no seafood. I had an adult beverage. I invited my only the co-workers I wanted.

Party hats were worn. And a good time was had by all.