Jenni asked:


I will be having a baby at the end of May and am not going to be working for the entire summer. I’ve seen things on careerbuilder.com for working at home, but there’s always a fee to sign up. Does anyone know of any company that doesn’t make you pay to work from home or if these companies that ask you to pay are legitimate?

Laura

Terence Young asked:


Thanks to technological advancements, people have decided to make lifestyle changes and have flocked by their thousands to start home based businesses. Home based businesses is the largest growing segment of small businesses today and unlike previous decades anyone who has a computer and internet connection has the ability to start their own home based business literally overnight.

Home based businesses can afford greater flexibility over our lives and can really give us a sense of freedom. With this sense of freedom there are also pitfalls that many home based business owners make that can really set them back.

Here are 7 stupid things people do working from home that can be disastrous to your new found freedom and financial well being.

1. Taking their new found freedom to literally. Your now the boss, you’ve been waiting for this moment. No more boss to report to and no stuffy corporate environment to inhibit and hold you back. Instead of taking this as a chance to stretch yourself you instead take the new freedom to literally and spend countless hours watching day time soaps instead of working. You get distracted by household chores and go on endless errands during work hours because you can. The reality is that just because you have your home business doesn’t mean you can slack off and work when you feel like it. The reality is that unlike in the workplace where you can work to the barest minimum expectation and still get paid, here if you don’t work hard you don’t get paid. Eventually your sloppiness is going to catch up and you are going to struggle to pay the bills. So before you get excited you need to realize that you are going to have to work harder than you did for your boss only this time you will reap the rewards.

2. They go overboard with the work. You started a home based business for a reason, maybe it was so that you can spend quality time with your family, maybe it was to enable you to stay at home with your young children or maybe it was for a better lifestyle choice. So a few months into the new home business you see these very people working twice the hours they used to when they were working only now instead of taking their work home with them they have the work with them at home 24 hours a day. These people can’t seem to switch off from their business because there is always something to do and never seems to be enough time to get them done. Don’t let that be you. Learn to switch off completely from work and set up scheduled times when you will work and when you will spend with your family so that you don’t feel guilty for spending time with your loved ones.

3. They don’t know how to delegate. If you look at your former workplace you weren’t expected to do everything. They had people doing a particular task and others doing another task. The reality is that all good businesses know how to delegate tasks and functions to people who are going to do them best. This isn’t going to be the case with a new startup home based business simply because you may not have the financial resources to delegate everything that you want to. However you can do some simple things to delegate things to people if you realize how much you can save by doing it. For example if it is going to take you 6 hours to get your monthly bookkeeping records up to date but it will cost 3 hours and $600 to delegate to the bookkeeper you can decide can you make better use of your six hours and will you in that period make more than $600 to pay for the bookkeeper. If so then delegate. The more you focus on your core competences and delegate the rest the better off you will be and your business. Not only will you be doing things you enjoy and keep your enthusiasm for your business high you are also giving opportunities to help others do what they are competent at.

4. They buy themselves a job instead of building a business. The point of going into business is so that you can create some sense of financial freedom and to provide a product or service to your target market. However many people who start home based businesses soon realize that it just isn’t economically viable and instead of calling it a day and start a different business with better prospects or go back to the workforce they instead hold onto their dream like it’s the last glamour of hope in their lives. You can spot these people because they keep pumping their savings into a business or they get their loved one who has worked hard for their paycheck to invest into their business. They hold onto the hope that one day the business will grow but it generally never does. If your business isn’t viable then all you have is you have bought yourself a job where you are overworked and for some people they may even be volunteering for the pleasure of owning a business because they can’t even draw an income. Sure during the startup period many businesses owners choose to reinvest the profits back into their business and sure some business takes longer than others to break even but you know after time whether the business is going to work and because you are home based there isn’t any reason why you can’t start again with another venture after all you have now learnt some valuable lessons. Don’t hold onto an empty dream if it isn’t performing.

5. The dream to small and settle. You might have a home based business but that doesn’t mean you have to think small. The greatest shame is seeing home based business owners who only think small because they see themselves as a small business owner. The reality is that many great well known companies started out in dorm rooms, in someone’s garage or on the kitchen table. There is no reason to create limitations on yourself if you want to create a large company. Great things can start off small, just dream big and take one day at a time.



Jerome

Home Remodelers Group asked:


A backyard isn’t the same as it used to be – a place to grill, where kids play ball, or just an extra spot to mow. Now the trend is to make the backyard an outdoor retreat or an extension to the house. The Home Remodelers Group® can help transform your outdoors into a beautiful year round sunroom, a deck for entertaining or even an outdoor kitchen.

As reported in the May 2006 Consumer Reports, designing and furnishing an outdoor room is the second most likely home-remodeling project to do. Specifically, approximately 1.2 million U.S. households will install a fully functional outdoor kitchen, according to a study by the industry research company inquiry.

In 2004, Better Homes and Gardens magazine received survey responses from nearly 60,000 Americans describing home improvement projects and future home-building aspirations. Better Homes and Gardens found that people want indoor/outdoor livability, technological innovations, flexibility for family needs and a kitchen-centric focus. (REMODELING Magazine, September 1, 2005)

Homeowners are seeking ways to make the outdoors a functional part of the living area. To accomplish that, the barriers between outdoors and indoors, such as walls and solid doors, are going away. As cited in “A Simple Way to Increase Outdoor Living Space” at HGPgal.com, for homeowners looking to add to their living space, improve their lifestyle and increase the resale value of their home, the perfect solution is to extend living areas outdoors through the addition of decks, patios, outdoor kitchens and entertainment areas.

“The line between the house and the outdoor space continues to disintegrate,” says Julie D. Taylor, author of Outdoor Rooms. “Many designers are using the same, or similar, materials both on the interior and exterior to extend the house to the outdoors. It breaks down the barrier and gives a feeling of a larger house.”

Alternatively, instead of thinking of the barriers disintegrating, another solution is effective indoor-outdoor connections. These connections can include French doors opening up onto a porch, or the addition of a window to expose a lovely view. Indoor-outdoor connections can be as simple as adding a mudroom between the garage and the home, or more complex, such as an outdoor entertainment area placed just outside the doors of a home’s main gathering space. Adding visual connections to the outdoors, such as through the addition of glass doors or enlarging a window, adds value to your home by making its interior space appear larger than it actually is. (“Connect Inside of Your House with the Beauty Outdoors,” Ann Robinson, Deseret News, April 2005)

To create the outdoor living space that you want, start by determining your budget and your desires.

Consumer Reports provides some tips about what to consider for building room extensions or outdoor entertainment areas:

* Determine how you will use your space

* Consider location

* Be sure to weatherproof

* Incorporate lighting and heat

* Consider safety

No matter what extension you decide to make, it will undoubtedly add value to your home. As cited by Ann Robinson in Deseret News, “Exterior living space adds usable square footage to your home without costing you the $120-plus per square foot you’d spend for the construction of an addition.”

The Home Remodelers Group® can work with you to determine your indoor-outdoor remodeling desires. We have many gorgous sunroom plans and other renovating features available on our website at www.homeremodelersgroup.com. So, if you need a new area to relax and enjoy reading your favorite book, a place to create a new home gym, a place to add a spa to create your own special oasis, or an area for entertaining family and friends, a new sunroom, deck, or outdoor kitchen may be the perfect solution. We can help bring the outdoors in or take your family out in a comfortable and relaxing setting.

For more information visit: http://www.homeremodelersgroup.com/?source=articles



Melinda

Jerry Work asked:


If you are drowning in consumer debt, as many American families are these days, then you may be considering a consolidation loan, using your home as security. This will have the benefit of combining all of your loan payments into one payment, and that single payment may be less than the combined payments you currently have. However, there are serious dangers you need to keep in mind before using your home as collateral for such a loan.

The number one danger is pretty cut and dry: you could lose your home! Remember, when your debt is contained in credit card balances, the credit card companies have no claim to your home or any real property. But if you shift that debt to a bank loan secured by your home, then you’re in a whole new ball park. You can lose everything.

Although a loan consolidation can reduce your monthly payment, it may actually increase the total amount of money you have to pay back. And you may be paying back your loan for more years than if you just made your credit card payments. Scrutinize any loan offer carefully to make sure it is in your best interest to move forward.

Another danger is the temptation to once again start using your credit cards after the debt has been transferred to a consolidation loan. If you wind up running your credit card debt up again, then you could end up much worse off, with both credit card debt AND a bank loan secured by your home. This will put you dangerously close to losing your home. It is greatly advised that, after transferring credit card debt to a secured loan, you concentrate your funds on paying off the new loan as quickly as possible and avoid creating new debt.

A loan secured by your home cannot be remedied through bankruptcy. In other words, even if you file bankruptcy, you can still lose your home. It is possible that you might be better off pursuing bankruptcy or some other action than consolidating your debt with your home as collateral. You need to be sure that you can handle the payments that will be due on the new loan.

Another caveat to using your home for a consolidation loan is that debt owed to credit card companies can often be negotiated to terms similar to what you might get in a consolidation loan secured by your home. If you can take other steps to ease your burden without risking your home, you should definitely do so.

So…can using your home to secure a consolidation loan for credit card debt be a good option for you and your family? The answer, like many things in life, is that it depends. It depends on how confident you are that you will be able to make your monthly payments on-time on the new loan. And it depends on how comfortable you are risking your home. And it depends on whether or not you have other options that might allow you to get control of your debt without risking your home. So think deeply upon these questions and then move forward with confidence. A better future awaits.



Duane

Andrew McKinnon asked:


There was a reason that you decided to work for yourself at home. Perhaps you didn’t enjoy your ordinary job, maybe you needed extra money, or different hours from those imposed by regular employment opportunities. Working from home can be rewarding for many reasons, some of which are:

? You’re your own boss

? You get to keep all of the profits

? You can choose your own hours

? You can take time off when you need it

But one of the painful truths about working from home is that it can consume your life. Usually, it’s only you working, often into the small hours for less than the national minimum wage in order to make your business the success you need it to be. This can lead to a lonely lifestyle and because you’re working for yourself, often there are no other employees or people you can turn to for advice.

Can you imagine a job where you got to work from home, you were your own boss, you chose your own hours and organised your own time but you were part of a committed team, with the high level of back up and support, training and assistance? Sounds impossible right? It doesn’t have to be.

ONE: You’re Part of a Team

If you worked home, owned your own business, were your own boss but were still part of a team committed to working together to generate income, wouldn’t that solve so many problems? You’d no longer be as isolated, lonely and stuck for advice. Since you were all in it together, it would mean that you’d share skills, discuss ideas, tackle problems together and overcome obstacles in order to make money and grow your businesses together. Being a one-person home business doesn’t mean being alone. The opportunity exists; it’s already out there.

TWO: Mentorship

In most businesses, you could really use the help and support of a business mentor. Some of the most successful businesses and business entrepreneurs had a strong mentor within their start-up and development processes.

Your family and friends can give you their opinions but they’re often guesses and common sense. The web provides a good source of information and you can receive some free training from business support organisations. However, only a business mentor can share the benefits of their own experience on a regular ongoing basis. Without a business mentor, the journey to success can see a lonely one.

An experienced mentor, who actively seeks to challenge you and help you to develop your business from an idea into a successfully thriving operation, is a rare thing. How often do we have someone we can go to with questions we might feel we should already know the answer to? They’ve been there and they’ve done it, which will often prevent you from making the same mistakes!

THREE: Sharing Skills

The opportunity to share skills is rare enough in the traditional business environment but often non-existent in the home business sector. Everyone tends to be fighting their own little corner of the market and forget everyone else. In a team, you can share skills and rely on the others expertise with confidence. In this type of business environment, you can learn from your colleagues without feeling that you are giving away your advantage. Instead you’re all in this together. Without this type of encouraging skill-sharing opportunity, you end up having to be a jack-of-all-trades, and you know where that leads.

FOUR: Sharing Motivation

Working for yourself at home can be lonely because there’s no one to challenge you and push you towards your goals. In order to get the most out of yourself on a daily basis, you need to constantly be disciplined and that isn’t easy.

If you were to work from home as part of a team or a community of people working together to meet shared targets and then take a share of the profits, you may find yourself motivated to the task in a new and refreshed way.

FIVE: Working Hours

When you work for yourself, you tend to work more hours and not less. However, this can mean you are up half the night alone, working in isolation. Many people try working with the television on, but this often makes for a distraction. Other people try working with the radio on, which is nice for a bit of company but it’s not the same as having someone to regularly chat with - like you might in any other kind of job.

Some home workers even encounter depression due to the isolating nature of the working hours, but it doesn’t have to be like that. When you work as part of a business community online, you’re always going to have someone to keep you company - no matter what time you are working.

SIX: Meet Up

One of the simple things that you miss when working at home is chance social encounter, coffee machine, water fountain or cafeteria banter or chat with colleagues. What’s more you miss the motivating power of successful business meetings.

Your home may well be your place of work, but it doesn’t stop you from meeting up with your team of colleagues for coffee or lunch. What’s more, a team could work towards the goal of earning enough extra cash to hire a room in a hotel and have a business meeting. Just because you work from home doesn’t stop you from using your new community to meet up and work together in person throughout the year. But first, you need to be part of such a community.

SEVEN: Fighting Boredom

Working for yourself from home can lead to boredom, it’s somewhat inevitable. You simply don’t have the kind of stimulation you might find in other working environments. But if you work as part of a team, you can always be in touch. Perhaps you’ll use instant messaging to stay in contact and keep yourself entertained whilst you work together to bring home the bacon.

Working from home is inevitably a lonely type of working experience. Despite the love and attention of friends and family, you will find yourself getting lonely because of the lack of external stimulation. Join a community of home business workers, all working towards the same goal and you’ll find stimulation, encouragement, friendship and joint profit!

To become be part of a community of home businesses, working together towards a common goal, visit www.occupythecity.com/102



Virginia

mus parvus asked:


My situation is that despite applying at several retail locations I have not been hired, nor do I consider it a likely possibility at this time. For that reason I was wondering if there were any opportunities working from home, and how to find them (any forums or job posting boards out there?). I’m not looking to get rich quick. I don’t have a family to support, and if I don’t make 8.00 an hour - well at least I’m making something.

Any advice?

Pearl