Work at Home Jobs That are not Scams
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Working from home can be very beneficial especially for certain lifestyles. As a stay-at-home-work-from-home mother I am very familiar with the trials and tribulations of searching for legitimate work from home jobs. After several years of figuring out that most were scams (some very scary scams that led to innocent people being jailed) I have also found some very legitimate companies and jobs.
SKILL SET - The first thing you have to be aware of is that it is important to understand what skill set you have to offer a company and see if that skill is needed by a company. You can also improve your skill sets in various ways to make you more valuable to any company.
YOUR CURRENT EMPLOYER - If you are already with a company it would be beneficial to see if that company is a telecommute-friendly company. Your company might offer part time telecommuting or certain positions might be more telecommute-friendly. Under either of these situations it might be possible to simply transfer you're your work office to your home office. So check with your company first and see what they have to offer.
TELECOMMUTE-FRIENDLY COMPANIES - Some companies offer telecommute positions usually after a certain amount of training from a few weeks to a few months. There are many big named companies that are known to be telecommute-friendly such as AT&T, 1-800-Flowers and U-Haul to name just a few. Some of these companies are also location specific so make sure you find a company that is in your area.
There are many different types of work from home positions a few that come to mind immediately are tutoring, data entry, and customer service.
- Tutoring - This is somewhat specialized but if you have teaching experience or a degree you can tutor and there are many different tutoring companies out there.
- Data Entry - Data entry is a highly coveted position so the jobs are few and far between but if you happen to luck up on one keep it.
- Customer Service- There are many different customer service positions with numerous companies as long as you have a computer and phone (specifications depends on the company) then you are all set to go.
- Call Centers - Similar to customer service there are many different call center companies looking for work from home workers. Again if you have a computer and a phone set up, most ask for Cable or DSL as well as a second phone line with nothing else on it.
- Others - There are many other types of positions out there and companies looking for stay-at-home moms and dads, disabled peoples, students and other specifications for their positions.
BEWARE OF -
- Pay - The important thing to remember is that you should NEVER pay to work for a company. Trust me I have run into many people who have spent thousands of dollars to get information on work from home jobs. Please do not waste your money do your own research most of those listings are outdated and the others are fraudulent. The few times that you might have to pay is for a background check and possible for training but you should not have to pay until you sign a contract.
- Give out personal information - You should never give out personal information such as your banking information unless you have been hired by a company and signed a contract. If the online application asks for your social security number, enter all zeros to protect yourself. If you are submitting a resume give limited personal information only put your city and state no address. Give your first initial and last name. These few steps will help save you from giving out unnecessary information to scammers. You can even go a step further and make a special email address just for your job searches so that your current email does not become spam central.
- If it is too good to be true - Remember if the pay or the job seems too good to be true it probably is. You are not going to make millions working from home unless you have some specialized skill.
After a while of searching you will be able to spot a scam pretty quickly using the techniques above. Most of the postings are under the "too good to be true" or "pay" categories and those you can weed out quickly. To be honest the scammers are becoming trickier so be careful and protect yourself. Happy Hunting!!!
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Congratulations on your first!! I wish your wife much luck with finding a work from home job, there are really a lot of options out there, be vigilant and careful. Got to hate those scammers they are everywhere so be very careful.
I would like to work form home with better pay. I am still searching! Thanks for the hub!
This is a nice, honest hub, and you've included some ideas that people might not have thought of. Working from home jobs are very difficult to find, and it's great to hear some new ideas.
I'm looking for something I can do from home, and have decided to try out some freelancing sites, like oDesk.com or Getafreelancer, contact my old company to see if they have any jobs I can do from home, and/or retrain so that I can tutor someday and be truly independent. I've decided it's best to hedge my bets!
Thank you Moon Daisy. It is difficult finding good quality work from home jobs. Good luck with your search another freelance site is guru.com you can actually join for free, I have heard that once you pay you get a better chance of landing freelance jobs. Of course I think that if you have the right skill set you should be able to get freelance jobs without paying.
Have you considered offering secretarial services that you could do at home, such as word processing, mailing, enveloping, etc?
Great suggestion 2patricias!! Offering up any services that you can provide that is helpful to a company is great. There are many companies looking for virtual assistants in many different capacities. I do financial work and have found that there are several companies that can utilize my help. That is why I feel it is important to find your skill set and then you can provide a service for numerous companies.
This info was really helpful.. I am a single mom advocate. I like to help single moms understand they can make it, and build a future for themself and their kids; whether through education, business, or self-development. So, when the next partner comes along; they will be in the relationship because they want to; not becuase they need to... Lookng forward to reading more from you..... Jacqi Price
Wow we need more people like you around Jacqi. Thank you!
Thanks for the info. Also started to work form home and you are right. they are good opportunities but so many SCAM. Really need to be selective and careful. Take the time to study every opportunity and don't rush.
Nat014 yes I would agree not rushing into anything is important and study study study.
Besides the IT field where there is some flexibility for women to take care of their family I guess tutoring is another alternative. Global scholar is decent company for being a tutor. Good hub certainly a thumbs up from me.
See some good suggestions. Timely and needed hub! I would suggest one good work from home income that is a good steady income once you get it going -- selling used books online. Buy books at local estate auctions, thrift store auctions (not generally advertised but several times a week in larger communities), thrift shops, yard sales, etc. Resell on Amazon.com and E-bay. Have been able to pull in between $400 to $700 weekly for years. It's a little labor intensive in the sorting, but only takes a couple of hours a day for listing, packing and shipping once you get going. Just make sure you are accurate and honest in descriptions and ship promptly.
Jerilee thanks for the suggestion this is something that I have never heard of. I mean of course selling on E-bay but not on a consistent basis like you describe. I would love to hear more about this.
Hi Triplet Mom, I was gonna write triple mum but anyways nice hub. Babysitting, sewing at home, ironing servies are work at home non techinical jobs that just about anyone can do. There are legit work at home jobs available. Good work though.
Amreen I even answer to Hey You! lol. Yes those are some great ideas and I would include daycare as well. There are really all sorts of ideas you just have to find that niche. I simply do not want anymore people being taken for a ride from scammers. Great suggestions thank you!
Great info and cautions, Triplet Mom!
I write for a couple of work from home blogs and I see posts in their forums every week about someone being scammed. It pays to join a forum or two and ask if anyone has worked with or heard of the company you're thinking of applying to. They'll tell you pretty quick if you should avoid it. I've even run into a writing site that was a scam, they were farming articles for free. These guys will go to great lengths for pulling their scams, too. They advertise, list phoney numbers and such.
It really pays to be cautious these days! It's so good that you brought attention to it!
Thank you Shirley. It is really scary out there if you do not know what to look for. And now companies are using other well known company names and logos to hide behind. The scammers are getting craftier and that is scary. I wish some people would come to me before they get burned instead of afterwards. You are right if they would just ask in any forum I am sure they would hear right away about the scam.
This is very important information. I'm pinging the hub for you.
Thank you Shirley I really appreciate that!! I feel it is extremely important and if it stops at least one person from getting scammed (hopefully many more) it is well worth it.
Hi Triplet Mom,
Etsy.com is a great place to start up your own business. Lots of stay-at-home-moms open shop there and have seen a good outcome. You can sell handmade items, vintage items, food, etc.. There are so many possibilities, just think of your talents and hobbies and go from there. :) It's free to open a shop, but it does cost .20 to list an item and Etsy takes 3.5% of each sale. I opened my first shop in April '09 and have had nothing but positive experiences since! Good luck in your search!
Thanks K - Etsy.com is a good source although I would not consider it a work from home job. It is good for those that have things to sell.
Thank you so much for this! Just using your ideas and some of the posts I found one job posting. You're right that there isn't a lot of legit options out there. Either way, I applied and we shall see!
Michelle - Good luck in your search. Just keep at it and be very cautious in your search. Thanks for your comments.
I would like to work form home with better pay. I am still searching! Thanks for the hub!
onlinetask - Good luck with your search and be careful out there.
Free resources and methods to catch in $100-300/month.
I write for an online website but I could never live off of what I make there. Would love to find a data entry job though where I could work from home. There are so many scams out there from what I have found. So true that one has to be careful. Good info in your article. Thanks.
Thank you for your comments Susan! There are way too many scams out there and data entry jobs are so hard to come by.
Excellent hub. Wish knew more 10 yrs ago.scammers are out there to get you...and get your hard earned money. Thumbs up!
mikeq107 Level 5 Commenter 3 years ago
Hi Tripletmom :0)
Thank you so much for your honest hub!!!!! My wife is expecting our first and wants to work from home. Triplets what a blessing :0) I have had 2 other response`s and both were scammers. Looking forward to reading you hubs....mike:0)