So you want to work from home…(Part 1)

First you need to make a few decisions.  Do you want a Job that you do from home?  Or do you an entrepreneurial spirit and want to start a business?

Work from Home Jobs

In today’s market there is a growing opportunity for moms have a job that allows them to work at home while raising the kids.  Legitimate work from home jobs can be a bit trickier to find.  There are a lot of scams on the Internet that you need to avoid. 

In my opinion, you should avoid anything that says you can make money doing online surveys.  The reason I say this is because in my early Internet days.  I tried one of these “jobs”.  You do get to fill out surveys, but instead of making any money from them, your name gets entered into a draw or you get so many points towards buying valuable merchandise.  Not ever making any real amount of cash.

Other areas to avoid would be envelope stuffing, product assembly of any kind, or mystery shopping. Although not tested personally, most of these sites are scams from the word go.  Take a look at what   Scam Busters has to say about these work from home ops.

Some research needs to be done as to what types of jobs are available and what suites your specific talents:

~ Are you a natural born salesperson?

~ Can you type a gazillion words/minute?

~ Is accounting and bookkeeping where you’re at?

~ Are you a writer?

Here are some places that you can look for home employment opportunities, this is by no means an exhaustive list:

~ Your Local Newspaper or job banks.

~ Use the search engines to narrow down the companies that may have work for you by being very specific with the keywords you use to search on.  For example, if you want to try your hand at writing content for websites you might search on the keyword phrase “ghostwriting companies”.

~ Search online Forums that may have a job board.

~ Look into online job bank like Monster.com or HomeJobStop.com

There are many places you can go to find legitimate work at home.  However be very careful and do your research.  If it is a JOB ~ meaning you are working as an employee or on a contract basis for a company, you should NEVER have to pay anything to do so.  You are selling your services to them not vise versa.

In today’s world it is becoming more common for mom’s to want to stay at home and raise the family while making an honest living.  Childcare costs, commuting costs and HUGE cost of being away from our children our making many moms take a step back and decide to take the plunge into home employment. Take the time to find something that you will be happy doing everyday.  Besides meeting the criteria of being a job you can do at home, you need to find something that will be fulfilling for you.  You will likely be spending a fair amount of time doing it so don’t go into ghostwriting for example if your love is of numbers and you should be a bookkeeper instead.

You can do both!  Be home to raise your babies and have a rewarding career!Good luck with your job search.

First off, we’ve had quite a dump of snow the last few days and COLD.  It can stop anytime.  I’m already tired of shoveling and we aren’t even at the end of November yet.  It does look pretty when you’re sitting inside with a warm cup of coffee though.

Well, we got the decorations put up tonight.  I say decoration because I have decided NOT to go with a Christmas tree this year…

My sweet puppy Takara (I’ll post her Santa picture when it comes back from the Humane Society this week.) would have that thing ripped apart in a matter of minutes!  It was hard enough putting up the decorations and having them all in one piece.  Everything is up really high, on top of the wall unit and shelving units, hanging from the ceiling fan (not kidding), wall plaques up really high.

My son was quite shocked when I told him we wouldn’t be having a tree this year.  He said “But Mommy ~~ Are we still gonna have presents?!?”  I had to re-assure him that yes in fact we would still be having presents and explained that with Takara being a puppy and really into that chewing stage, the tree would just not be safe for her.

I’m not exactly sure how we’re going to manage the Christmas presents yet…

Boy is he gonna be pissed if  she eats all his presents.

Awhile back I stumbled upon a website that has really helped me and I wanted to share it.

Bring Your Buddy is the program I use and it costs just $10 a month, that’s all just 10 bucks.
It’s a package of tools everyone needs anyway that offers much more value than they ask for in return. Even then all the proceeds go right back to the members, that’s right 100% of all fees collected. These small commissions add up fast and keep on coming.

This is a great community of like minded internet marketers sharing ideas and inspiration.  Our Team Leader Warren is great.  He really cares about helping you succeed. I’ve had several questions for him, and he’s always there to lend a hand.

So what do you get for that if you’re on our team?

~ Really valuable training.  Included in your ten bucks, you get a whole video training series on how to make a basic website.  Plus, they have weekly team calls to give you even more training and ideas!

~ The latest benefit is your own Cpanel Mini-Website (like this one) so you can not only use it to promote with, but learn how to administer a web host before you spend money for your own.

~ Our team supplies a template to make it easy to get your first site up and running fast.

~ You get 15 professional grade autoresponders that are worth $39 to $69 a month if you get them somewhere else, but they are included as part of our package.

~ You get an ad tracker to keep tabs on what’s working with anything you promote and do a little BYB bar ad underneath as a bonus.

~ You get an audio postcard system to email audio messages or include them on your website.

~ The biggest benefit is you get to showcase your talent and interest in others to build any other opportunity you want to support. This is huge and the tools are in your back office to carry it off. You can’t buy an ezine ad that works that well for 10 bucks!

For even more info, or to get started today click here

This morning we woke up to cold of-20 Celcius and snow.  Too bad I couldn’t just stay home (like I do many other days) and not worry about the weather. 

Today at our local Humane Society, you could get a picture of your pet taken with Santa (Mrs. Clause).  All the time and supplies for this event were donated so the price you paid was 100% for the animals. 

I took Takara down to get her picture done.  You know, that Mrs. Clause was so great she took the picture with Takara on her knee.  Takara is only 5 months old and already weighs 45 pounds!  I heard that last year a Great Dane sat on Santa’s knee!

I think it’s a great idea to support your local Humane Society.  What a wonderful organization.  Even if you are not the “get involved type” this is something that is easy to do.  And hey, who wouldn’t want a picture of their little sweetie on Santa’s knee?

To find out information about Christmas ideas available from the HSC click here

My son came home from school the other day and came into my office.  He was showing me what they had learned in school.  They had been working on the internet and he showed me how to look something up on google (thanks son, I was wondering how that worked!).  Then he started talking about what is dangerous about the internet, his teacher told him not to talk to anybody online because you don’t know who they are.  This is very true, but it got me to thinking and talking more in depth with my son about internet safety tips for kids.  

What can children do to protect themselves online?

~ Never give out personal information.  Things like where     they live, go to school, sports teams, parents names.

~ Never put a picture of themselves online.

~ NEVER EVER meet in person anyone that you are talking to online.

~ Always tell your parents of what you are doing online, escpecially if someone is trying to get information about you or your family.

What can parents do to help protect kids from an internet predator?

~ Talk to our kids about online predators to help them become aware that there are a lot of people online that are not who they say they are.  Some of these people want to hurt them.

~ Make an agreement with your child before you allow them to go on the computer, set the rules right from the start.

~ You home computer should be set up in a place that you can easily monitor the activites of your kids.  Be around and check what they are doing while online.

~ Limit the amount of time spent online. 

~ Do not allow your child to use chat room’s or instant messaging programs like msn unless it can be monitored by you.

~ It is also VERY important to get an internet filter program like Safe Eyes  (See my complete review this product on my Kids page).

The internet is a wonderful tool it does bring the world to your fingertips from the comfort of your own home.  It is very important though that we as adults educate ourselves and our children on how to use it to our advantage and how to be safe.

I’ve had this link on my site for a while, but I took the time this morning to stop and actually read what Alice Seba has to say…

I have to admit she is absolutely correct in what she is writing about in this guide.  When we have kids and are busy and running all the time, it’s really easy to let ourselves go.  When I worked outside the home, I got up got ready full make-up on and out the door I went.  Now that I’m at home, it is rare that I actually take the time to take care of myself.

I do admire my sister for this.  Growing up, it wasn’t really an admiration.  In fact I had a nickname for her of “Miss Priss”, I thought she spent way too much time in front of the mirror - LOL.  She has been married for close to twenty years.  She is a very busy SAHM of 4 kids and she still takes the time to make herself feel pretty, bravo to you Marilyn.

Now I’m certainly not here to promote being flashy or superficial or getting dressed in a business suit to do laundry and scrub toilets.  However, taking that few extra minutes a day or getting your hair done sure can go along way to help your self-image and it will come across to every one in your world. 

When we take the time to take care of ourselves and become “Hot Mama’s” we have more confidence.  Your kids will benefit from having a self-confident mom, your business will thrive and your loved ones will certainly notice your new self-image.

I don’t want to give away too much of what’s in the Hot Mama Makeover.  Just click the link below and sign up for yourself.  It won’t cost you a dime, but it may just give you and your self-image the kick in the pants you’ve been needing!!