The View From My Office

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.

Working from Home with Dogs

One of my biggest work at home job challenges is my dogs. I've spent almost my entire adult life with dogs and if there is a way to make a living playing with my dogs I would surely be a millionaire by now.

My work environment has to be entirely background noise free. This is one of the fundamental rules of my work at home telemarketer job. No doorbells, no crying babies, no barking dogs. The first two are no problem, the dogs have presented a unique set of challenges.

Once I converted a spare bedroom into an office I still had to figure out a way to keep the dogs from making noise. Closing the door was a big mistake because this just freaked out the dogs causing them to bark and scratch. So I moved a twin bed into my office and set it up with the dogs favorite pillows and blankets and 90 percent of the time they just hang out and sleep.

On the few occasions when one of my fine dogs has barked while I am on a call, I just explain to the caller that it is 'bring your dog to work day' and someone in my call center is having trouble controlling their pet. An accurate statement to say the least.