Oct 22, 2009
Posted by admin on Oct 22, 2009 in business | 0 comments
While work at home opportunities are seen with mistrust due to numerous scams having been unearthed, there is still a great chance of getting the work at home. Here are few important aspects associated with work at home.
You are currently working with a firm and having problems being in office for scheduled hours. You may work out with your employer for a work at home opportunity. If your job can be completed without supervision form the superiors and can have the ingredient of flexibility, convincing your employer about it cannot be a problem. In most cases, you will need a computer and internet connection to execute the task effectively. You may still have to spend few hours in the office on designated days in the week. This is the most ideal work at home setting.
If you are not employed, and still looking for a work at home job, you have good opportunities available in the market place. This market is called virtual market. You need to first of all need your positioning to be designed with clarity. You can’t expect yourself to do everything under the sun. Be specific on your resume about the work that you can handle with utmost proficiency. Don’t forget to mention the projects or tasks completed by you in the past. Information on the systems area can help the prospective employer evaluate you better – type of software you can easily use.
The range of work at home jobs is very large – starting from pure clerical work like data entry, copy paste jobs to virtual assistants. You should be very clear about your ‘fit’ and suitability in this job continuum. If you are not good at communicating with people, don’t look for customer care jobs. However, if you feel that it is the area you want to get into, you should opt for some training in that area. This may come through some formal training or research on the net.
Among the many jobs available in the virtual market place today, the hottest is writing jobs. This has happened due to emergence of internet and its fast paced spread in few years. More websites are coming to the web each day. Each of those web sites needs text. This has stretched writers’ community to its limit. If you are good at writing, whether marketing material or an ebook or an article of your interest area, this will be worth considering for your next work at home opportunity.
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Oct 17, 2009
Posted by admin on Oct 17, 2009 in business | 0 comments
If you want to work at home, step one is understanding the options available to you.
Let’s start with some basics. There are only TWO things you can do at home, yes, only TWO.
You can telecommute or you can run a business. That’s it, TWO.
Telecommuting - This means you have been hired by an employer, and that employer is open to having you work at home anywhere from a few hours a week, to full time. Some folks will work mornings in office, afternoons at home. Afternoons at home, allows them to pick up their kids, start dinner etc, all while working also. Some folks work every other day in office. This allows them bring work in, drop work off, be available for meetings etc.
You are an employee. You are either paid per hour or per week.
The sentence I see most often posted is “I want to work at home, so I have more time with my kids”. Find some folks who do telecommute. Their kids are in daycare, as they need to work. They also end up putting in more than 40 hours per week as they want to make sure they put in their 40 hours and make up for those trips to the store, the trips to pick kids up etc.
Telecommute positions are very tough to find. Most employers are not willing to have employees working unsupervised. Reason is, just look in office. Truly, how many employees give a job their all? How many work hard even when the boss is away? How many come in a few minutes early and leave a few minutes late on a consistent basis? Now let’s compare that to how many make personal calls? How many take a few extra minutes on their lunch? How many stand around the water machine chatting? How many day dream and don’t produce as much as they can/should? So, most employers are not willing to allow employees to work at home.
Again, speak to some folks who work at home. Ask them point blank what they did to get this job. Most will tell you that they had worked for a long time prior to this arrangement. They will tell you that they know their job inside out. They will tell you that they work over 40 hours per week. They will tell you that they do get “lonely” working all alone. And they’ll tell you they do go into the office frequently.
There is no book of companies that allow telecommuting. I’ve seen many many ads for folks to buy a book that is supposed to contain the names of companies that allow telecommuting. Those employers who have allowed telecommuting, have done so with an existing employee. My sister telecommutes for HP. But she had her degree in computer science. She has had tons of company training and she worked there 10 years. So putting HP down in a book and telling you that they hire telecommuters is misleading at best, an out and out lie at worst. And you have to pay for that book.
A business - To start there are only TWO things you can sell. You can sell a product or you can sell a service. Look around YOUR town. What do the businesses in YOUR town sell? They all sell either a product or a service. A home business will be no different, you’ll sell a product or a service. If you want to sell a service, look within. What are your skills? Are you proficient with a word processor? If so, you can consider selling your word processing skills. Remember, proficient means near perfect. I can use MS Word, but I could not sell it as a service.
Have you done bookkeeping or billing before? If so, this again, is something you can sell as a service. Are your kids older, in school all day? Consider an errand service. Heck, there are many days I feel I live in my car LOL. I always have books with me as I’m forever waiting for someone or something. Do a web search for errand services and view what others are offering and at what fees.
Are you an expert with a sewing machine? If so, offer tailoring and mending as a service. I am only 5′2″ and both my kids are 5′. We need everything altered. I would love to bring it to someone’s home versus having to go to the dry cleaner, change in their icky little bathroom etc.
Prefer to sell a product? You have a few choices, yes, only a few. You can make the product yourself. You can purchase from a wholesaler, or you can purchase from a direct sales company. That’s it, only those few choices.
If you wish to make the products, again, look within. What hobbies do you have? What crafts can you make? Some folks sell hand sewn or hand crocheted items. Some sell homemade soaps and lotions. Some sell homemade jewelry. Are you able to do this?
You can contract with a wholesaler. Look up ________ wholesaler in a search engine. The blank is for whatever product you want to sell. There are wholesalers for just about everything imaginable. Want to contract with a direct sales company? Go to www.dsa.org They have a large database of their members. Their members range from cosmetic companies, to toy companies, to clothing companies and everything in between. You don’t need to pay to access this database.
Now for some scams. Home assembly is a scam. There are exceptions. Occasionally a factory that makes items will advertise for local employees. You’ll go to the factory, fill out the application, meet with them, and get hired. There will NOT be a fee. You’ll drop off and pick up finished products. Assembly at home jobs found on the internet are SCAMS. Don’t believe me? Find me just two people who do this and make money. Just two. From anywhere in the US. Just two 
Transcribing and medical billing are the next areas where the scam artists prey. These are both legitimate professions, however in order to be hired you must have education. The courses offered online may or may not be legitimate. What I can tell is they DO NOT find you jobs. What they do is send you listings from the yellow pages of your city, with doctors names and phone numbers for you to call. If you have a personal doctor, contact him/her. Ask for a consultation. Even if it’s $100 for the consultation, that’s $500 less than the software you might be considering buying. Ask your doctor about his/her medical billing. Do they use someone at home? Would they hire someone who had never worked in office before? See what YOUR doctor tells you. If this is a career you want to pursue, contact your local junior college, local trade college or local business college.
The final scams I want to mention are the process orders, and data entry at home. All those ads for mail from home, order process from home etc are all a variation of the same scam. You pay money. You get directions to place ads like the one you answered. You then receive a percent each time you scam the next person. You TYPE or PROCESS their ORDER. Nice play on words huh? If in fact, typing at home, assembly at home, processing orders at home were legitimate, don’t you think we’d read more about folks doing this successfully?
So, while you do have many options of what to offer to others, there are also many scams out there waiting to take your money.
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Oct 14, 2009
Posted by admin on Oct 14, 2009 in Career | 0 comments
You have graduated high school or college and now you’re ready for your first ‘real’ job. You’ve mailed out résumés and have been called in for your first interview. How can you do well at the interview so you wind up being offered the job?
1. Dress professionally. No midriff shirts, low-cut blouses or flip-flops because you’re going to work and not the beach. While it’s not necessary to buy a suit, it is particularly important to look professional. If you’re trying to get a job in a conservative office such as an accounting firm, don’t dress as if you were going to a concert. If you are applying for a retail position, you have a little more freedom. Rather than list what clothing is and is not acceptable, I would tell you to dress as if you were going to meet one of the most important people in your life- because you are!
2. Make sure you are well-groomed. Don’t look as though you just rolled out of bed and couldn’t bother to take care of basic personal hygiene. Nothing will make the HR Manager bring the interview to a close faster than unwashed hair, dirty fingernails or body odor. As an employee, you will be a reflection of the company and no customer wants to do business with an unkempt person.
3. Be aware of your body language. A firm handshake at the start of the interview shows you are self-confident. Maintain eye contact, stay relaxed and be attentive to the interviewer. Ask questions and listen thoughtfully to the answers. Think before you answer questions from the interviewer- don’t ramble and keep the conversation on the topic.
4. Be prepared for the interview. Research the company beforehand- every business now has a website where you can learn what they do and who their customers are. This shows the interviewer you are interested in the job and took the initiative to find out all you could about the company.
5. Be present in the interview. I’ve interviewed candidates who acted as if they were waiting for a bus. They didn’t ask questions, but instead just listened to me, and I wasn’t really sure if they were paying attention. Be enthusiastic, ask questions and participate in the interview. After listing all the duties required of the position, I asked one candidate if this sounded like something she’d be interested in. Her reply was a quiet, “I can do the job.” She didn’t answer my question, she seemed indifferent, and she didn’t get the job. If you can’t be excited in the interview, you’re not going to be energized in the workplace either.
First impressions count, and you want to let the interviewer know you want the job, are willing to work hard and will do your best. You might not necessarily be the most qualified candidate, but still land the job because you were the most outstanding one. Good luck!
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Oct 8, 2009
Posted by admin on Oct 8, 2009 in Entrepreneur | 0 comments
Franchises – a French word meaning “freedom from servitude” – implies that the dream of being financially independent can come true. Just pay a fee and sign the papers and you become the proud owner of your very own business. Yes, you are the boss, you make the decisions, and you get the earnings. Someone else has done all the ground work, solved the anticipated problems, and is sharing their knowledge and experience with you.
However, thousands of franchisees have lost their life savings and their companies. The innocent purchaser realizes after-the-fact that he has no real choices about how the business will be run.
The rules and procedures that go with the “Name Brand” dictates every tiny aspect of how the business is to be run – color schemes, what is sold and who you buy it from, hours to be open, type of employees to hire and exactly how to train the employees. The innocent purchaser now has a new boss who is a hard task-master. This new boss comes in the form of detailed manuals that must be followed.
Do franchises ever provide true success? Of course they do! There are thousands of happy, successful franchise owners. However, if they are happy it is because they ‘did their homework’ before signing on the dotted line or putting money out. During the 1980s there were hundreds of fraudulent get- rich-quick franchise dreams available, which, because they weren’t all legitimate, gave franchises a bad name. By 1979 the Federal Trade Commission began requiring complete disclosure of all pertinent information pertaining to a franchise business.
Then the public began to have confidence once again in acquiring a dream business which could not fail. Observing McDonald stores opening up around the globe is proof that, even though the product isn’t the healthiest in the world, it still sells and people still head for the golden arches. And someone is making money!
How can one best analyze a potential franchise business? How can people know it’s right for them, even if the paperwork and finances appear intellectually perfect? After asking every conceivable question, and getting the answers that sound right, here’s the best way to really, really know if that business is for you. Go sit in an identical franchise business that is already in operation.
Sit there and watch and listen — from early morning till they close at night. Learn all you can by watching every aspect. Do this for at least ten days straight. If, at the end of ten days you still ‘feel’ excited and ‘really like being there’ then that particular franchise just might be perfect for you.
If by the tenth day you are making excuses for not going that day,or begin showing up later and later, or just downright begrudge being there, then that is a good indication of how you might feel if you own it. If that’s the case, find a different franchise product to invest in.
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Oct 4, 2009
Posted by admin on Oct 4, 2009 in Entrepreneur | 0 comments
A potential business owner that has an interest in purchasing and running a franchise would benefit from the services of a franchise consultant. A franchise consultant can provide expertise and guidance throughout the entire process. Listed below are 12 reasons that it is advantageous to use this service.
1. The service is free to the franchisee, with the franchiser covering the consulting fees.
2. The service is personal and confidential.
3. The consultant guides the potential franchisee through the entire process of deciding whether to become a franchisee, and how to go about it.
4. A detailed profile including an evaluation of the potential owner’s experience, interests, and goals is complied in order to match the new franchisee with the most suitable opportunity.
5. Education is provided on the various types of ownership and investment options.
6. Investigation into the most suitable opportunities that are available is done by the consultant.
7. Initiation of contact with company representatives is part of the service.
8. The consultant helps to verify each company’s success and track record.
9. The potential business owner saves time and money by having the experts perform research on various opportunities.
10. The consultant acts as the one-stop shop, answering questions and referring the potential owner to other resources as necessary, such as financial or legal advisors.
11. The consultant works with all types of franchises, including full-time, part-time, new units, and re-sale franchises.
12. Complications and confusion are virtually eliminated by having an expert perform these services.
Overall, a franchise consultant will help you determine if franchising is right for you and if so, what type of franchise opportunities you are most likely to succeed in.
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