I've tried a lot of work at home job opportunities in the
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Posted By: my WAH experience on February 11, 2005 at 11:46:32:
In Reply to: Does anyone do MT and another work-at-home job. posted by Burned out on February 11, 2005 at 11:08:18:
past 15 years. MT is really the only thing I could make any real money at. Here are some of the things I did: Mystery shopping - I found it too much of a hassle scheduling shops and didn't make a lot of money. General transcription - FDCH/eMediaMillworks - It was OK. Direct sales - scented candles, cosmetics - Very time-consuming for the financial return, hassle to deliver products and brochures, phone calls at all hours of the day and night, bad checks, customers who stiffed payment on orders. Avoid those that require minimum purchases or inventory. Freelance writing - have to market yourself, rejection letters, deadlines, hard to get off the ground. Bookkeeping - I did OK at this. I did personal bookkeeping for some elderly people, even got a govt. contract for it. I did payroll and A/R, A/P for small businesses. A lot of travel time dropping off and picking up, many businesses don't want their records leaving their business. Virtual Assistant - Found a few clients. Need to be wary of long-distance customers. There are some "odd ducks" out there. One guy wanted to trade me psychic counseling for typing his manuscript. Avoid sites that charge fees to "recommend" you. Secretarial business - Did OK at this, too. Have to pay a lot to advertise. Need to be picky about customers as businesses pay more than personal. Why waste two hours discussing a one-page letter with a private person when you can be making a database or doing oodles of typing for a business? Feast or famine. Sometimes tough to get paid because of purchase orders and business accounts payable not paying cash on the barrel. Indexing - Requires training, knowledge of formats. Editing/manuscript typing - Tough to get into without references and work samples, need to have knowledge of formats, grammar, etc. Daycare - We won't even go there. I can't stand being trapped at home and having people drop off their sick kids, then play ignorant about it while their child is running a temp and upchucking on my carpet. Online Sales - I sold used books and collectibles on ebay, Half.com and Amazon. I did OK, until Half said they were closing down so I dumped my inventory. They never closed down. Need to have somewhere to store inventory. I got most of my stuff at yard sales. Offer people a few dollars for a box of items, most of the time they'll bite just to get rid of it all. I once paid $12 for 12 boxes of books that I sold for over $1,000. I also tried buying wholesale but you need to purchase in bulk volume to get a decent discount in order to make a profit. Lots of scammers out there claiming to be wholesalers or resellers. There are some other legit WAH jobs. BalanceYourBooks.com for bookkeeping. Sterling Testing is always looking for agents. There are call center, psychic hotlines, background investigators, and other jobs out there. You need to read the WAHM sites, never pay any money for a job or access to listings, and be careful.
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