So You Want to Work at Home

A growing trend in the US is working from home. It is one of the largest growing work forces in today's economy. There are many ways and methods to accomplish this and many avenues to explore. Take a look around and evaluate your options and you will find somewhere that you will fit into your niche. My one piece of advice right at the get go is to network. You will be surprised at the options you find just by someone you know telling you of a great opportunity!

1. Start your own business - Have something you are really good at? Maybe you are a graphic designer or a computer repair person? These all have value in the world and people are willing to pay money for others to help them out. These businesses' can also be run from your desk at home. There are personal organizers and life coaches out there too. More than likely any business you can think of you can find a way to run it from your home office.

2. Find a company that has an established work at home option - I recently saw a news blip that talked about Best Buy and how they have a system called ROWE, Result Only Work Environment. Best Buy employees that are participating in this pilot program can work where ever and when ever they choice as long as their job gets done. Other companies are also catching on to this trend. A great place to find work at home jobs is to check out www.wahm.com/jobs.html and www.craigslist.org

3. Become an Independent Contractor - This is also a viable work at home option for many and one that many companies are getting involved in. Companies will contract you to do various things from customer service, virtual assistance, telephone inbound and outbound work. Again good places to start to look for these are work at home options are www.wahm.com and www.wplh.com

4. Virtual Assistant and Office Work Services - There are all sorts of services out there that will help you to find work at home jobs. They can find jobs for you as employees and as independent contractors. The trick here is to be very careful and avoid the scammers. It is a good rule of thumb that you should never have to pay for a job. Several businesses' out there that will help you are www.teamdoubleclick.com , www.amethystjunction.com, www.workaho
lics4hire.com , and www.virtualassistantjobs.com . But make sure you do your homework and consider wisely before going with any company. Your best option is to be well informed.

5. Mystery Shoppers - Technically is not a work at home job, since you go out and about to do it. It is a job that you do on your own at your own pace in your own time though. You enter your findings at home on your computer. So it does falls into the work at home category. Companies will hire you to go into their establishments and rate them on cleanliness, service and other things. You get paid to eat out and shop, watch movies and other fun things.

6. Direct Sales - I know this brings back images of the Avon Lady. But have you seen how she has caught up with the times? Wow is all I can say. Along with Avon is a host of other direct sales opportunities to include www.pamperedchef.com , www.creativememories.com and www.tupperware.com to just name a few. These are great work at home jobs if you are a person who can sell thing and approach people. Here again while the majority of your work is done at home, you do have to go out and do parties and sales.

7. The little things count also - Let's not forget the little work at home jobs here and there. My parents always taught me a penny saved is a penny earned and those pennies add up. You can find great places to write and get paid; right here at www.associatedcontent.com is a great place to get started for that. You can also find places where you can post to forums and get paid to do so, one such place is www.forumelves.com. Another great idea is www.chacha.com there you can work as a guide for a search engine and help people find their searched for key words. Pennies at a time do add up for work at home jobs, some you just have to be a bit more persistent at.

I hope this has given you some ideas on where to start looking for your work at home job. There are lots of places to start your search. But as with any thing else be wary of scammers and the deals that seem too good to be true. They may just be. It pays to do your homework and find just the right place for you. Working at home may just be a plausible option to your work search!