Connie Kalincak asked:


Moms and dads (wahms/wahds) who are working from home are growing in popularity. Many men and women want to be able to spend more time with their families. By having one parent stay home helps to save on day care and so on, yet a second income may be necessary.

Whether or not you work from home is not always an easy decision to make though. Before you do make the decision you will need to take into account a few things.

1) Is working from home really the right thing for you and your family?

There are some decent benefits to working from home. You get to set your own hours, you no longer have to commute to and from work, and if the kids need you, you are there for them. However, there is a downside to consider. Some days, juggling family time and work time can be difficult, or should I say, a challenge.

2) Your present financial situation may suffer substantially in the beginning.

Making the wahm decision may involve leaving a high-paying full-time job in order to work part-time from home while you take care of the kids. You will likely find that there will be some financial adjustments. However, you will no longer be paying day care fees, which will save money.

When you think about, if you can at least make the same amount of money or even more by working part-time from home and looking after the kids yourself, it’s worth it to stay home. And what about all the other perks of raising your own kids while still earning money for the household, there are so many. Remember, they’re only young once, and to be able to stay at home with them is one of the top reasons why men and women choose a Wahm or Wahd career.

To be a successful work at home mom or dad you will need to have the following qualities or at the very least learn to develop them.

1) Self-motivation and Discipline

If you decide to work from home, your business will fit into one of two categories. You will work as an independent contractor or you will work for yourself. Whichever category you fit in, you will be responsible for your own work schedule. You will require a great deal of self-motivation and be able to work well without having the presence of dominating leadership in your place of work. Even if you do choose to work from home but for another company, you are still responsible for meeting deadlines etc.

2) Time Management is another good skill to have if you decide to work from home

Each day that you work outside of the home, you know that you are faced with the challenges of what things you will need to get done. For example, laundry, house cleaning, taking the kids from one recreational event to another, the list is endless.

When you are working from home and if you focus too much time on your work, your household duties will suffer and vice versa. Acquiring good time management skills will assist you in tackling the many different challenges of working from home.

A lot of thought and consideration needs to go into making the Wahm decision. If you are thinking of working from home for any reason, be it to spend more time with the family or other financial reasons. Take some time and write down the pros and cons to be considered. Discuss the idea with your family; be sure that you are doing the right thing for the whole family.

There are many resources online for anyone who is looking to learn more about the realities of working from home. Once you have thought-through your position and completed the essential research, you will then be much better equipped to make the right decision for you and your family.



wahm

Susie Cortright asked:


You can stay at home with your children while still advancing in your career. So how do you make it work? Here are seven tips.

1. Control your environment.

A clearly designated office will help you stay on task. And an organized workspace will help minimize distractions and make the most of the limited time you have available.

2. Break work into manageable chunks.

Most WAHMs rely on their “to do” lists. When my three children are awake, I strive to give them my full attention, though I always have such a list on the table. The list just seems to grow all day and when naptime (or bedtime) rolls around, I am focused and ready to tackle the tasks at hand.

3. Make the most of quiet time.

When are you most productive? It may be possible for you to get work done during the day (while your children are napping or at school), but, chances are, the best opportunities for productivity will occur when your children are down for the night. My workday, for example, typically begins at 4 a.m. That way, I can spend uninterrupted, quality time with my kids during the day and remain relatively rested.

4. Remember your priorities.

If you find yourself consistently ignoring your children, they are better off in the care of someone who is less distracted.

5. Get help when you need it.

Lesley Spencer is the founder and director of Home Based Working Moms. “I think it is important to understand it is very difficult to be a successful mom and worker at the same time,” Spencer says. “If you are working, your children are going to need your attention. Of course, you can get by with short amounts of work or phone calls but repeated attempts to work while your children are with you is not fair to them or you,” she says. “I feel it is best to work while your children are asleep or at school. If you are working more than about 10 hours a week, you probably need outside help to give your children the attention they need. Consider part time preschools, Mothers Day Out programs, neighborhood babysitters, family or friends or a babysitting coop to help with your child care needs.”

6. Take time off. When your office is always open (and it is right down the hall), it can be difficult to stop yourself from sneaking in just one more task. Establish office hours for yourself, and try to avoid allowing those hours to expand. It helps me to turn off my computer after a certain time each day.

7. Reflect often on the many ways your children are benefiting from your work at home situation. When I start to feel overwhelmed all the unfinished tasks in both my home and my home office, I think about how I am demonstrating to my children that there are, in fact, ways to balance home and family. The path may be difficult at times, but it is certainly worth the effort. And I hope this is a lesson that they will teach to their own children.



Create a video blog…instantly.

Judith Turner asked:


e scariest things that I have ever done was back in 1996 when I left my full time job to go back to school. in my early thirties at the time, I always had this dream of working from home but had no idea how to get started. So, the first thing I did was enroll in some computer courses and took out a student loan and purchased my first computer. What was supposed to be “an introduction to computers” course left me feeling so intimidated that I almost quit. However I knew that If I was ever going to learn to build a successful business at home I needed to get online and learn all I could.

Fast forward 11 years later and through trial and error I have gone from being totally computer illiterate to following my dream of being a work at home mom (WAHM). I may not be the internet marketing guru bringing in tens of thousands each month but as a stay at home mom who wanted to supplement our family income I am happy. However, there are times when I have lost focus and didn’t accomplish the things that I needed to do. I had so many projects lined up at once that I didn’t know how to prioritize or would get so overwhelmed that I would just procrastinate. Days like that made me crave the stability of a weekly paycheck even if it meant having to go back out and join the rat race.

Many people think that you have a lot of free time on your hands. That’s because when you work outside the home you have no choice but to be focused on the task at hand. You go to work, put in your 8 hour work days and come home to tend to the needs of your family. Is it exhausting? Yes but you know that you have to put in your time or you don’t get paid. However, when you work from home it is so easy to get side tracked and put things off until tomorrow. You may try to focus but can’t help but think about the dirty dishes in the sink. Or, maybe you have small children to take care of and feel guilty that you are not spending enough time with them. Then you have family and friends who ask for favors or drop by unexpectedly because they assume you have nothing better to do. No matter what the reason is, it is easy to get side tracked.

I am always on the look out for books, e-books or other courses that will enhance what I am already doing as well as teach me something new. I hate to think of how much money I have wasted over the years for over-priced e-courses and training videos promising to show me how to make a fortune working at home!). That’s why I was thrilled to come across Dennis Becker’s e-book that focuses on multiple streams of income each bringing in just $5.00 per day. Just do the math and you can see how lucrative this could be.

This is not a get rich quick program. In fact if you are looking for big riches overnight than this is not for you (and good luck finding it). However, if you are looking for some practical tips to get you started in the right direction as well as some great ideas then I would recommend it! It is well written by a successful internet marketer who uses these strategies himself.

Whether you are an experienced marketer or just getting started, these strategies are ideal for anyone. You will also find that his strategies will work for your current online projects as well as give you some great ideas for new ones. Just imagine having multiple streams of income each bringing in just $5.00 per day! And what’s the best part? You can purchase this course for about half the price of a pizza!

Whether you want to earn money through direct sales, affiliate marketing, building niche sites, even off-line it doesn’t matter. This is definitely a must read e-book for anyone who truly wants to work from home. Once you start reading it you wont want to put it down so be sure to print it out, find a comfortable chair and wait for that ah ha! moment to kick in for you. You will also find yourself going back to it from time to time.



Caffeinated Content

catherine heridis asked:


How To Work From Home In California

If you ever wondered how you can actually work from home in California in your pajamas in the comfort of your own home, I am here to inform you that it is possible. The beauty of working from home is that you can dress anyway you like, you don’t have to wake up to an alarm clock, you won’t have to waste valuable time dealing with traffic and deadlines placed upon you from someone else like a boss, and you can usually work at times that best suit you. These are some of the advantages of working from home but you need to know some basics of what working from home entails. Here are 10 basic principles to keep in mind if you want to work from home in California, or anywhere else for that matter:

1. Define your work space. Find a place where you will not be disturbed and only reserved for conducting business. It doesn’t matter if you are indoors or outdoors just as long as you can keep focus on your tasks and not be distracted from others.

2. Keep your work place organized, clean and tidy. By looking professional you can feel professional.

3. Choose a fixed time to work. Working from home can be somewhat challenging in terms of time and how to manage it successfully. Self discipline is one of the key basics to work from home in California.

4. Take mini breaks so that you and stretch, get some water, and rest your mind.

5. A major problem for most who work from home is friends and/or family calling you or dropping by when you are at work from your home. Be polite yet firm and explain to them that you are a professional and need to keep certain fixed work times.

6. Keep a list of everything you need to do each day. Strike out items as they are completed. Unfinished items are to be carried over to the next day and highlighted. Too many highlighted items on your list means you are in trouble.

7. If you find that not being able to finish your work in the scheduled time is a regular occurrence, you need to look at time saving techniques. If these do not work, you need to either increase your work time or decrease your work load. Keeping track of your time and making sure it is used productively is one of the most important basics to work from home in California.

8. Most people have one computer they use for both work and their other pursuits. Others have two computers: one for business and the other for personal use. Keep your business and personal areas separate. You will also need to back up all your work as often as is practical.

9. If possible, keep a day or two of buffer time in your projects. If you don’t need them, there is no harm in finishing early. Also plan your holidays in advance so that your work does not suffer.

10. Look after your health. Take walks, and exercise. Eat healthy foods and stay away from junk food. Your energy and productivity depend on it.

In summary, these basic principles as outlined here will surely allow you to successfully work from home in California.



Create a video blog…instantly.

Adalrico Rich asked:


How many of us are really happy doing a 9 to 5 job, especially during these economically trying times? Every now and then, we are scared to lose our jobs and are burdened with excess work to meet the demands. No wonder many people are quitting their jobs and switching over to work at home opportunities. Well, to those who have a zest to work and earn, there are no dearth of opportunities. One has to keep his eyes and ears open to comprehend the varied jobs that you can do right from the comforts of your home.

For your better understanding and ease of search, we have listed here top 5 work at home jobs that you may find useful:

(1) Process Rebates: This is one of the top home based jobs available today. You have to just process every rebate right from the comforts of your home. Well, no home based job is possible without active efforts from your side and therefore, your hard work will definitely pay off in process rebate work too. You will also be provided complete details and guidelines about the working process so that it is not difficult for you to handle any situations. This is like marketing for a certain product or service for a particular company and therefore the returns are pretty good and worth giving more time. Also being easy, you need not take any special training for doing this home based job.

(2) Craigslist Profit: Those people who want to earn legitimately and consistently should try their hand at Craigslist. By getting involved into the untapped business market, craigslist opens a new work at home opportunity for you who wants to earn hefty sums, and want to enjoy their work. Well, but it is not similar to rebate processing and will require more efforts on your part to comprehend the details of craigslist. Then only you can succeed in your job and earn massive sums within short periods of time.

(3) Online Data Institute: Typing data and ads is what you do in online data institute. Your success to earn more money depends upon your speed and hard work though. However, remember that if you choose any other typing jobs out there, you may not be earning as much as you do with online data institute.

(4) Data Entry at home: This is one of the home based jobs that many people try their hands at after initially starting their jobs. There are lterally several companies that require online data entry job personnel and they may hire you. Though no special skills are needed, you must be equipped to work hard to earn more.

(5) Online Form Typing: many companies hire individuals for filling up their online forms. The pay varies with the nature and length of the form, though it is not hard to earn at least $5-15 per form. You can work hard to earn more and the work schedule can be variable.

Remember that online home based jobs are not difficult to find, but finding a legitimate job that meets your demands and fulfill your monetary requirement is necessary. The work at home 99 directory may be extremely useful for the same.



Website content

Wolney Filho asked:


One query about work at home based business opportunity: what is power and function at this kind of opportunity? Many guys at Internet world offer so much business power. It can be a sort of online trade or affiliate programs. And it has a sociological function.

They are two concepts that run confusingly maybe. At my new experience on Internet marketing I have found some tips that made me understand it better and I will share it here.

Power and function are two sociological concepts. Power means a person, organization or country that has control over others, often because of wealth, importance or great military strength. And function is the natural purpose of something or the duty of a person, for instance.

How can we appropriate of these meanings to a work at home based business opportunity? This question is important here to you understand that when you hear that any business functions is going to take power for yourself you must think about another concept. That is relation.

The power of a work at home based business relation of what? Or, the function of a work at home based business relation of what? It does not exist by itself. They, the power and the function of anything or anybody, are ever a relational power and function. It is simple. You will discover many things when you start to think with this sort of categories.

Let me give an example. An Internet work at home take anybody to the power to have a web site own, even if him, her, you have no experience. The web site function is to promote a based business.

However, you will have a lot of link, page rank at your site if you work hard to promote it. The web site by itself has a function and a power in relation to others web sites in the Internet world if you or your webmaster works for that. The web site power is determined by the strategies of submit articles, post in forums, exchange links, search engine optimization and others.

In other words, you will have the power of make money online if you can run your web site thus it can be more visited then the web site of yours competitors. The power is relation yours competitors.

Your web site has the function to sell products, if you are intend to do it. The function is not static. It depends on your work to promote.

Therefore, when you are face to face with those terms, you must think about it. The facts you getting a selling web space do not allow you make money online. Your lesson is to learn about it to have work at home based business and ear money with that opportunity.



work from home

Robert Cacciatore asked:


If you work at home or know someone who works from home then you know the problems faced when balancing business and family time.

Perhaps you are thinking of earning your living working at home. It is a good bet to prepare for the situations when the decision comes to give more time to the business than your family and arranging for childcare could be an answer for you to focus on your business so you have more quality time with your family without any business activities clashing with your family life.

If you allow either to clash then you cannot focus to get the job done. Women are famous for multi-tasking but the truth is very rarely does this technique of trying to do one thing while trying to perform another task succeeds.

So you struggle to get on with those important tasks your business requires to be done and all the while your income goes down as well as the risk of not maintaining your families needs.

Here are 4 creative tips to solve your child care dilemmas

1. If your work is involved in direct sales, then often you will be faced with difficulties with childcare. For instance, you will know that a main portion of direct sales in conducting sales presentations, or perhaps you take part in party planning, it would be most beneficial to schedule a time when someone, perhaps a partner can looker after the children.

But sometimes this is not possible. There comes a time when your partner cannot make the schedule because of work commitments or what about if you’re a lone parent?

There are solutions. For example: You could hire a local high school student to come to the party and be a nanny there and then.

Its a good idea to check with the hostess first, but she may well love the idea, since a sitter is already arranged to look after their children your cusotmers may be more likely to come to the party and that may mean a bigger profits for you.

2. Childcare Group

Perhaps you only need a sitter once in a while. How about setting up a childcare group?

A neigbour, a friend or family member can be designated as a sitter on a particular time on a certain day or perhaps a whole month.

The way it works: Any mom requiring a sitter for the day in mind, simply drops of their children at the sitters home.

The children are then safe. Playing with each other and learning social skills of interaction, while at the same time each mom does not have to worry or pay grossly excessive fees for childcare.

3. Checkout Mom’s Day Out Service

This service may be available from your place of worship. It works simply by dropping off your child for a few hours per day.

This service may require a small service, but sometimes it provided for free.

Check with you local library they may provide “story hours,” you just drop off you kids and listen to children’s storys that is read by the librarian.

There the children can play games, take part in activities or try their hand at some crafts and all the while develop their social skills.

4. Hire a neighborhood teenager

When you need quiet time, your kids can play with the teenager while your working in your office uninterrupted.

In case something should happen your still there to take control of the situation.

Other ideas…

Perhaps you can barter with one of your friends or family to help watch your children and in return you may offer your product or service. They might jump at the offer!

Conclusion

There will be times when working at home doesn’t necessary mean more time with your kids. Just don’t feel guilty because of the prospect of having to use a part time day care service of some kind.

Sometimes you just need to focus totally at the business, and leverage your you’re your business task. When the job is done, you’ll be reward with 100% quality time with your children and partner.



Caffeinated Content

Anthony Funari asked:


There are many misunderstandings, misconceptions and myths about working at home. Understanding the work at home lifestyle is the only way to weed out the rumors and get to the truth about working at home. The work at home lifestyle is about learning how to make working at home work for you.

The work at home lifestyle is highlighted by the freedom you have. Most work at home jobs are going to be freelance positions or independent contracting positions. These include affiliate programs, data entry, surveys and product selling, both commercial products and craft items. What this means is that you are your own boss. You do not work with the company but rather contract jobs through the company.

You choose when you work and how much you work. You may even be able to control how much you earn. It all relates to how much time, effort and money that you invest in your work at home business. Investment of time, energy and diligence equals profits for your small business. If you choose a job that is right for you, then you will find that you are working around your life, not shaping your life around work. That is the ultimate freedom.

The work at home lifestyle is all about control. You are in control. Just as you get freedom from restrictions, you also get control over your new working status. You can choose the job you want and you can choose to work or not work. You can choose a job that lets you be in complete control or you can choose a more structured job.

The beauty of working at home is that you can make it whatever suits you. You are not struck with business hours and you are not stuck in some working mold. The work at home environment is your world to shape as you wish.

Most people want to work at home for the lifestyle. It is intriguing. Before you quit your job through and jump into working at home you have to get prepared. Very few individuals can simply just start working from home. It take time to find the right venue and preparation to start working at home and be successful at it. The key to being successful with a work at home business is research. Forums and social sites can provide valuable information towards the goal of starting a small home business. Get prepared as possible and then you can become a part of the work at home lifestyle.

You also have to understand that the work at home lifestyle is a bit different for each person. It all really depends on your situation and what job you choose. It is important that you do not come into the work at home industry with any preconceived notions or ideas or you could set yourself up for disappointment and possible failure. Careful investigations of any home biz opportunity is vital to your success.

Working from home is not for everyone, but more and more people around the world are turning to the Internet for work from home solutions to the current financial crisis. Understanding the work at home lifestyle will help to understand the truth about the home business industry and will also help you disregard the false information that is out there.



Caffeinated Content

Tracey Anne asked:


Kids play hard, and sometimes that means they play really loud in the midst of exploring their worlds and role playing with siblings and friends. I know with my kids, if I’m not hearing some degree of noise; [i.e. play], from them, it probably means one of them is not feeling well, or they are coming down with a cold. My world is blessed with two very artistic and rambounous boys; 6 years and 3 years old. With their play and with their singing; [they love to sing Country music at the top of their lungs!]; they have the ability to raise the noise level in our house to a “heaven-bending” volume in 9 seconds flat! And while I loved to hear them hard at play, the sporatic and unpredictable noise [play], posed challenges at times when I was doing sales calls, or when clients called with final questions about starting a business relationship with me. Clients don’t wait, when they want to have questions answered and they don’t always call at the best times. Sometimes these calls would come through when the kids were eating or doing activities that were not so noisy. Great! But…. most of the time, they did not! 6 year olds are pretty predictable. You basically know when they are going to make noise. But, if you know anything about the ‘3’s’, you’re already familiar with the unpredictability of when the next scream, or loud laugh will erupt! Some clients understood. I would say: ‘yes I know you can hear kids in the background. That is why I do this business. So I can be at home with them”. For other clients, that was not okay. I had some near misses and some fair size loses in bringing people in, to work with me in my business because of this home-based situation. Over the course of working out of my home, I have had many a conversation with other work at home Moms [WAHMs], and at times have doubled over in laughter at some of the ingenious, and sometimes silly tactics they’ve pulled just to get a moment of quiet when they needed to portray the illusion of “executive-office professionalism” for the really important calls. Some of them would hide in the bathroom. Others would sneak downstairs, or sneak out into the garage. The funniest one I heard was the hiding in the closet trick… so the kids would not be making noise right under-foot. That one really made me laugh, because I have pulled similar tactics just trying to get a moments peace! And, yes, I have to admit, I have used them to make my business workable too! Oh I know… I hear some of you saying… why don’t you just get your kids into daycare, or find a babysitter or a Nanny to take them. Well, that makes perfect sense of course. But for the many WAHMs who have given up jobs to work at home, first, they do not want to be giving the majority of what they earn to those services; although they are very valuable services. And, second, there’s that guilt. The guilt we feel because it was our choice to stop working at jobs and stay at home so we could be with our kids. That was a conscious choice we made. So when we start looking at having to farm our kids out to daycare, babysitters, or bringing in a Nanny, guilt; as to the purpose of why we were staying home in the first place starts to manifest. So what is the solution? Is there really a solution to how to make sales with noisy kids in the house? Well, I don’t know if this solution is for you… But I do believe I found the right solution for me! I don’t have to hide in the closet anymore. I don’t disappear into the bathroom to talk muffled into the towels, lol! I no longer work 5 to 9 hours a day on the phone during play time, or any time, doing follow ups and sales calls. Clients no longer call the house at unpredictable times, or at all for that matter. My kids no longer have to worry about how much noise they make in the house! And, I’ll still make a nice 5-6 figure contribution to my family’s income this year! What did I discover to make my sales business work for everyone in the household? Well…. that’s another story that needs to be explained at another time! My typing time is up – and my kids are calling me to come outside and play water-bomb balloons with them! Got to go ; )!



wahm

Matt Helphrey asked:


There are many honest work at home jobs possible with the internet. Selling digital products or any other products that you want to sell is a great way to earn money. However, you need to consider a few basic facts.

Running an online web store is an honest work at home job but you will need to work tirelessly on promoting and improving it’s visibility. What you need is improve your website traffic and a good search engine page rank.

Article writing and its submission can go a long way in making your website gain top search engine ranking. It is one of the easiest and effective methods of promoting your website and making money in the process. Also, writing articles is in itself a money spinner (another honest work at home job) as it does not require much skill to write an article.

Now what is article submission? Submission refers to submission of article you have written to an online article directory along with a link pointing back to your web page or website. There are number of article directories to choose from and one way of finding out this is by using search engines such as Google.

By submitting your articles to article directories you open your website to heavy traffic. Even if you do not own a website, you can earn by writing articles and submitting them to article directories. When you sell your articles or if someone clicks on the links and makes a purchase you will earn money.

Some basic facts about writing articles and article submission will go a long way in understanding the concept better.

When you are ready to start writing, be sure to consider the keywords of your article. Your keywords should match with the topic of your article. This will enable you to receive more visitors from the search engines using that particular keyword. Be sure not to overuse the keywords in your article. Using your keywords in about 1-3% or up to 5% of your article is ideal.

Choose your topic judiciously. It is imperative to cater towards the reader and know what they want to read. Do not write aimlessly on any topic under the sun. Select niches and then write a mesmerizing article on that particular niche topic.

You must write and submit articles on a regular basis. As articles need to be approved by the directories, it may take some time for the articles to be listed on a particular directory and start earning for you. To increase traffic to your website and make more money, it would be wise to submit on a regular basis.

Although you will be able to do a variety of honest work at home jobs over the internet, the place is also full of con men, and you certainly don’t want to get in to trouble with illegal activities. All you need to do is to be a bit careful and follow the rules.



Create a video blog