Monday, March 27, 2006

Tips for Avoiding Work at Home SCAMS

# Know who you’re dealing with. The company may not be offering to employ you directly, only to sell you training and materials and to find customers for your work.

# Don’t believe that you can make big profits easily. Operating a home-based business is just like any other business – it requires hard work, skill, good products or services, and time to make a profit.

# Be cautious about emails offering work-at-home opportunities. Many unsolicited emails are fraudulent.

# Get all the details before you pay. A legitimate company will be happy to give you information about exactly what you will be doing and for whom.

# Find out if there is really a market for your work. Claims that there are customers for work such as medical billing and craft making may not be true. If the company says it has customers waiting, ask who they are and contact them to confirm. You can also ask likely customers in your area (such as doctors for medical billing services) if they actually employ people to do that work from home.

# Get references for other people who are doing the work. Ask them if the company kept its promises.

# Be aware of legal requirements. To do some types of work, such as medical billing, you may need a license or certificate. Check with your state attorney general’s office. Ask your local zoning board if there are any restrictions on operating a business from your home. Some types of work cannot be done at home under federal law. Look for the nearest U.S. Department of Labor in the government listings of your phone book.

# Know the refund policy. If you have to buy equipment or supplies, ask whether and under what circumstances you can return them for a refund.

# Beware of the old “envelope stuffing” scheme. In this classic scam, instead of getting materials to send out on behalf of a company, you get instructions to place an ad like the one you saw, asking people to send you money for information about working at home. This is an illegal pyramid scheme because there is no real product or service being offered. You won’t get rich, and you could be prosecuted for fraud.

# Be wary of offers to send you an “advance” on your “pay.” Some con artists use this ploy to build trust and get money from your bank. They send you a check for part of your first month’s “pay.” You deposit it, and the bank tells you the check has cleared because the normal time has passed to be notified that checks have bounced. Then the crook contacts you to say that you were mistakenly paid the wrong amount or that you need to return a portion of the payment for some other reason. After you send the money back, the check that you deposited finally bounces because it turned out to be an elaborate fake. Now the crooks have your payment, and you’re left owing your bank the amount that you withdrew.

# Do your own research about work-at-home opportunities. The “Work-At-Home Sourcebook” and other resources that may be available in your local library provide good advice and lists of legitimate companies that hire people to work for them at home. You may discover that these companies hire only local people and that there is nothing available in your area.

Source & courtesy: http://www.fraud.org

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Once you start looking into work at home jobs...

Once you start looking into work at home jobs, you need to be able to sort out which jobs are legitimate and which ones are scams. People may be telling you to avoid affiliate or MLM programs, telling you that they are pyramid scams, but for the most part they are legitimate business programs. The key is to find the program that will work best for you and your skills. Not all programs are equal, so if you are looking for affiliate programs, you may need to try out a few programs before you are successful. This also means that you want to join programs that require little to no money to start up.

If you are looking at different work at home jobs, remember to ask a lot of questions. The more informed you are, the less likely you will fall victim to a scam. If a company is not willing to give you answers or they are consistently vague, you should be skeptical. Be sure that the work at home jobs fit what you enjoy. Remember, you are trying to find work at home jobs that are enjoyable. If the work at home jobs feel like a chore, then you might as well stay in your office job. As you explore work at home jobs, try to focus on the positions that use your best skills and fit your needs

Tips on How to Start and Manage a Home Based Business

# You should plan your routine. Set your time frame immaculately. Decide on what time you will start and finish your work at home. Do not forget to include your break time.

# Plan your day well. If necessary you should prepare yourself a “to do list” so that you will be guided in all your activities while working at home. Organize your tasks.

# In order for you to work properly in your home, be sure that you have the appropriate tools or things you needed to be able to work peacefully. Make sure that you are comfortable with your chair and table. In addition, you can even make your home office look like a real office.

Ideas and tips to get you started

Make sure you check into registrations and licenses, taxation, and insurance for your home business. If this seems foreign to you, find someone knowledgeable in each area.

Dress appropriately? Yes. Potential customers or clients are more likely to take you and your business seriously if you are dressed professionally. When deciding on how to dress appropriately and professionally, consider your line of work and how often you come into personal contact with your clients.

Make sure you promote yourself and your business. When running a home business, take into consideration all advertising possibilities within your reach. You may want to purchase web space, create business cards, and link up with other related business websites and useful ways of networking.

Effectively running a home business can be difficult, especially if you are just starting out. As with any business, you should research and plan accordingly. Taking care of legal matters, being professional, dressing appropriately, and promoting yourself will get you on the right track.

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Work at home - Tips for Success

> Be a salesperson – this is relevant to everyone from the self-employed to permanent staff and freelancers. In today’s competitive market everyone’s expendable - you will need to explain why people should use your services.

> Be organised as it will improve your productivity;

> Structure your work day and keep distractions at bay. Conversely, don’t be in work mode all the time i.e. don’t just check your email when you’re off duty.

> If required, have a professional website for your business and a smart business card.

> Obtain good resources – a reliable (portable) computer, high-speed internet access and a cell phone will help with your productivity.

> Attend trade shows and conferences if you are self-employed.

> Get involved in online communities that focus on your area of work to keep you updated on news and changes in your industry. Also read newspapers and trade journals.

> Network - speak to people in your field (networking) will help you remain focus and motivated.

> Keep up with personal and professional contacts and email regularly as well as call occasionally.

Work from home advantages & disadvantages

Work from home advantages

# No journey to work, saving time and money on fuel/transport costs.
# No office politics and distractions.
# Greater flexibility in your working hours.
# Independence and control in your workday.
# Tax advantages – you are able to claim on utility costs and office equipment.


Work from home disadvantages


# Isolation, loneliness and boredom. There is no social interaction with colleagues or anyone to bounce your ideas off, and there are no invites to after work drinks!
# Lack of technical support.
# Lack of work structure – you could find it difficult to separate work from home life.
# You have to be self motivated and organised.

Tips on how to stay employed at home

Tips on how to stay employed at home

# When you are working on a contract, don't stop looking for the next position! This way, you will rarely experience lack of work.

# Make sure that you regularly update your resume to reflect your recent employment status.

# Make sure you ask for letters of reference from your clients and employers. Create a list of positive comments you have received about your work and don't be afraid to show it to your next employer!

# Decide on what rates you are willing and able to charge. Don't be the cheapest on the block, but be ready to negotiate for a lower rate in the beginning.

# Sell yourself locally. Use a cold call letter and drop it off to local offices. Be ready to answer their questions about your services.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Medical transcription as Home Based Career: Prospects

Medical transcription is the process where one accurately and swiftly transcribes medical records dictated by doctors and others, including history and physical reports, clinic notes, office notes, operative reports, consultation notes, discharge summaries, letters, psychiatric evaluations, laboratory reports, x-ray reports and pathology reports.

It involves receiving dictation by tape, digital system or voice file, and using earphones, a foot pedal for start-stop control and a word processing program. It sometimes includes the use of a printer and sometimes a modem. A variety of word-processing systems are used. It requires good listening and language skills, computer skills and knowledge of medical terms.

With several transcription companies setting up their base in India, medical transcription has become a lucrative and feasible option for those looking for home-based careers.

According to Nasscom, medical transcription is projected as the India's fourth largest foreign exchange earners in about five years. If the figures are to be believed, medical transcription will employ more than 50,000 people by 2008. Very good news for people looking out for flexible home-based careers.

Monday, March 13, 2006

Planning your Home Business

One of the most important things you can do to guarantee the success of your home business is to plan it out beforehand. It's like anything in life. If you go on a camping trip without planning, you're likely to forget important things like bug spray and a first aid kit. If you take a trip to Rome without planning you might forget to wear an outfit with sleeves before you try to enter the conservative churches. Just about any project in life benefits from proper planning. Something as critically important as your income stream deserves that respect!

Look at this as time invested in your future - and in the future of your family. If you are happy in your daily work, it will affect EVERYONE around you, in sort of a snowball like method. The happier you are, the happier that people you interact with are going to be.

Here are some key questions you should answer before starting Home Based Business:

# What skills and experience do you bring into the business?
# What are your fixed costs and expenses?
# How long will it take to make a profit?
# What laws do you need to comply with?
# If you need financing where will you get it?
# Do you need insurance coverage specific to your business?
# What will be the legal structure of your business?

Home Based Business Tips:- You must first have a plan to succeed.

Do you have an idea for a business? Perhaps the only idea you have is that you NEED an idea so you CAN start a business. Before turning any idea into a business, you must first have a plan to succeed.

Work at home and Romance

You work at home. You already know that having the opportunity to work at home is very valuable... you probably enjoy having less stress, having more time for your children and your spouse, more time for youself and a break from the chaos of modern life. But if you work at home and your spouse doesn't, you've got an advantage in the romance department, too. Maybe you've never realized how to use it to your advantage!

Your work at home career can help you invest in your relationship with your spouse. Because you work at home you have more time in the house alone and more control over your schedule, at least in most cases. Turn that valuable time that you gain from working at home into a deeper and more gratifying satisfaction with your marriage.

Home Based Business Tips: Manage Your Time

Working from home can sometimes mean that we work too much or not enough. It is very easy to become distracted when working in a home office. Manage your time so that you have a schedule in place for ‘work’ time and ‘leisure’ time. When you are ‘off’ avoid the temptation of running to answer the office phone or check your email and when you are working, stay in your office and work. The more disciplined you are, the more successful you will be.

Home based business : Love What You Do

Make sure that whatever you choose for your home based business opportunity; it is something that you love. If it is a service, it should be something that you believe in and find useful. If it is a product, it should be something that you use and think nobody should be without. If you have genuine enthusiasm for what you are doing other people will naturally want to be involved with you.

When you have small children living with you, the best place to work is at home


When you have small children living with you, the best place to work is at home. All the joy of each new day, the adventures, new discoveries, I wouldn't miss that for anything. That is one of the reasons I love my job. I love working at home, owning my own business and the income, well the sky is the limit. I partner with an international wellness company. I do Direct Marketing, advertising, and account set. We never have to Sell, Stock or Deliver any products. You do the work one time and you are paid for it month after month, year after year. Ask me how.

Want to find out more? May visit this website:
http://www.homebasedbusiness.co.in

Top 10 Home Business Opportunities

Best Home-Based Business Opportunities:

1) Home Renovation Services

2) Pet-Based Products

3) Catering Services

4) Cleaning Services

5) Fall Prevention Products

6) Wedding Consultant/Planner Services

7) Dietary Consultant Services

8) In-Home Beauty Services

9) Sewing and Alteration Services

10) Life/Business Coaching Services

Put your talents and skills together and generate home based business ideas.

Put your talents and skills together and generate business ideas.

The procedure I’m outlining here will work for starting any kind of business, but as we’re focusing on home-based businesses, the question is, “With these talents and skills, what kind of home-based business could I start?”

Suppose you’re one of those people who has accounting and organizational skills and the talents to back them. Some of the home business ideas you come up with could include:

Tax preparation
Bookkeeping
Business manager
Professional organizer
And that’s just four ideas from our limited premise here. When you’re doing this exercise, you, of course, have more than one or two skills, so you’ll find that your list of possible home business ideas is much longer.

Don’t censor yourself as you list home business ideas. List all your ideas at this stage; crossing off choices comes later.

Work-at-Home & Home Business Ideas

This is a short list of Work-at-Home & Home Business Ideas:


Accounting Business


Auctions: Sell on eBay and Other Online Auctions


Home-Based Professional Alterations and Seamstress Service


Professional Pet Grooming Service


Answering Service


Bridal and Wedding Consulting Service


Cake Decorator and Custom Cake Design Service


Cleaning Service


Dance Instructor


Child Day Care Service


Desktop Publishing


Family History and Genealogy


Freelance Photographer


Create Custom Gift Baskets


Medical Transcription


Marketing Consultant


Newsletter Service


Internet Research Service


Online Tutoring Service


Proofreading Service


Recruiter


Resume Writing Service


Scrapbooking Business


Selling Your Arts and Crafts


Virtual Assistant Secretarial Service


Web Design Service


Write eBooks

There are many reasons to commence your own home based business:

As an insurance against unexpected dismissal.
Freedom from authority – to be masters of your own destiny, your own space and your own time
To enjoy your work
An overall sense of well being that money can’t buy
Less stress
A challenge to be self reliant
Seeing your own ideas and work succeed
Saving time on travel
The freedom and flexibility to:
Work what hours they please
Put as much (or as little) effort in as they please
Start and stop work when it suits (many with babies work when the baby is asleep)
Feel satisfaction for having achieved something worthwhile by, and for, themselves
Low overheads, allowing them to trial an idea without an enormous loss if it is unsuccessful
To provide themselves with a job, rather than having an external employer

Home based Business: there are many hats to wear


When you're on your own at home, there are many hats to wear, and if you don't want to wear them all, you have to enlist someone else to wear them for you. You are all of the following:

- Boss--the decision-maker
- CFO and bookkeeper
- Communications department, handling e-mail, phone calls and faxes
- IT director
- Director of administration and provider of support services
- Internet researcher and marketer
- Marketing department
- Cleaning crew
- Pricing expert
- PR liaison
- Sales force