Being a mom means being able to manage a host of responsibilities. But when you’re a work-at-home mom, it gets even more challenging.
So how do you survive? Here are some practical but effective tips for you:
Choose the right work-at-home-job.
It’s important that you find the work-at-home job that is the perfect fit for you. If you have a home-based job or business, the one thing that will be your stumbling block is the nature of the job you’re doing. Make sure it’s something you know, understand and have the right skills to perform competently.
Start part-time.
Most work-at-home experts recommend that you begin your home-based business when your kids are older. That way, they are more independent and you don’t have to split your time too much on doing house chores and taking care of them.
However, if your kids are still quite young and you want to start on your work-at-home job, do it part-time. Part-time work usually requires only a few hours of your time. It also won’t demand too much of your efforts so you can still perform your duties as a mom.
As your kids grow and as they become more independent, gradually adjust your work to fit the time you have available. Manage your time well because much of what you will be able to do successfully will depend on this skill.
Hire help.
If there’s one secret to how work-at-home moms survive, this is probably it. Having help around when you need it is key to your success, especially when you have to handle a lot of demands from your clients.
Help can come in many forms – a nanny to help you with the kids’ needs, a small outsourcing firm to perform simple tasks for you or probably your spouse or older child to help answer the phone. If you’re overwhelmed most of the time, that’s a sign you need to unburden yourself and ask for help from a pair of extra hands.
There are so many opportunities for earning online that it would be such a waste not to take advantage of them. If your kids have already discovered the wonders of the Internet, why not teach them the ways to make money online this early? Intead of letting them addicted on video games, make sure to encourage them to maximize their time to learn how to make money online while having fun. Here’s how:
Teach them to harness their skills.
The best way to teach kids to make money online is to allow them to use their talents and skills. Kids these days are never too young to start using their computer skills and earn money from it. A young teen, for example, has harnessed her creative talents and turned them into cash by selling MySpace templates. She has since turned her interest into a seven-figure business. All that before she’s even 18.
Help your kids determine their strengths and weaknesses and see how they can translate these into real life skills that they can monetize online.
Teach kids by example.
How do YOU make money online? Do you know someone who has? To teach your kids how to turn their online presence into cash, why not familiarize them with the process? Teach them what kind of opportunities exist, where to look for these opportunities and what sort of skills are in demand. Then let them see how these opportunities can be monetized.
Teach kids to recognize scams.
If adults can fall prey to online moneymaking scams, what more young children? Kids can be especially vulnerable to scammers, so it’s best to teach them how to determine whether something is legitimate or not. In a wired world like ours, this is a very necessary skill to learn.
It’s extremely easy to become a work-at-home scam victim. All you have to do is believe everything. Although honest-to-goodness money can be made from home, there are also plenty of traps online that could get you in trouble. Want to learn how to spot work at home scams? Here are ways how:
The work-at-home job provider has no real job or real products.
Be wary of providers who want you to believe that you don’t have to lift a finger in order to earn money. They will also fail to provide you with a real job. Stuffing envelopes? What for? Making products they won’t buy back from you anyway? Forget it.
In order for a work-at-home job to become a real opportunity, you have to have real work. Or if products are involved, you should be able to offer real products with real value to a real market.
The work-at-home job offer is vague and the provider dodgy.
You hear or read more hype than information about the job. If you have questions, the provider over-embellishes, avoids the issues and is generally evasive.
Worse, they might even try to entice you with a ridiculous amount of money to be made within a short period of time. But they will not have clear answers to your questions.
The job is a no-brainer.
You’ll find ads that make the job sound so easy and effortless. Got no experience? No problem . You can earn $1,000 a week doing some ambiguous job. If you encounter an offer like this, be extremely wary. It could be a work-at-home job scam.
Ready to work as a Virtual Assistant? There’s a growing market out there for you. But before you take the plunge, find out how much you could stand to earn from this great job. Here are a few things you need to know about setting fair market rates as a Virtual Assistant:
Income can be good or very good.
If you’re new to the industry, you can’t expect to make a lot. This is because you need to have the expertise and background experience in order for clients to ask for your services. The more experienced you are, the more trusted you become. And the more reliable you are, the more money you can make.
How much to charge?
That depends on the jobs entailed and on how long the project will be. To help you set a fair market rate for yourself, look to other virtual assistants and how much they actually charge their clients.Â
The going rate is between $20 to $50 an hour, which brings the average to $35 per hour. Those rates should be enough to cover the basic services you will be offering. However, if you will be working using only a few services, you can charge less. If you will be offering more specialized services, by all means, charge more.Â
Before sending your rate cards to your prospective client make sure you can cover the expenses for the following operational cost
- Proffessional fees
- The software, equipment and office supplies used
- The advertising expenses
- Utilities
- Rent
- Transportation expenses
- Web hosting and maintainance
However, your may incurr some other expenses aside from the above list, you can always adjust your operational cost depending on the resources you have used and don’t forget to include your professional fees.
What about a retainership?
If you have a regular distant support client, this is an efficient charging method to use. Simply block off a number of hours a day you will spend working for that client. Multiply that by your rate per hour and you have a figure you can use as basis for your retainer’s fee. Even if you will be servicing one client exclusively for a month, you will have charged a fair market rate for your services as a virtual assistant.
Ever wished there was a way you could find a medical expert, a computer professional, a beauty consultant, a relationship counselor and a psychic all in one website? That’s Kasamba.com for you, a website composed of experts from a wide variety of practices and disciplines whom you can get in touch with using live chat.
What is Kasamba.com?
Kasamba.com is one of the leading providers of expert advice online. The difference is, these experts speak to you live, using real time chat. Its main goal is to become a source of expert advice and opinion offering customers and providers with a convenient and secure means of communication. It was recently acquired by LivePerson, Inc.
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Virtual assistants are the Internet’s version of the administrative assistant/secretary. They work from home or from their own offices to provide assistance to their clients. Virtual assistance is one of the fastest growing careers online. It is one of the most lucrative, provided you can offer the experience and quality service required in the industry.
What exactly is the job of a Virtual Assistant?
A Virtual Assistant (or VA) functions as an online office assistant. Some of their tasks include: secretarial work, project planning and administrative assistance. Virtual Assistants are called upon to receive and make phone calls and other communications, plan and coordinate meetings and travel bookings, assist in managing a project or coordinate logistics with concerned parties.
What makes their job different from that of office assistants?
Virtual Assistants often do not meet or work with their clients in person. They use the internet, fax machine or telephone to communicate with their clients and perform their jobs. They can also work from anywhere and may handle clients locally, nationally or internationally.
Virtual Assistants work independently, although they may be subject to comply with quality standards as agreed with their clients.
Who hires Virtual Assistants?
Virtual Assistants usually work with small business owners, independent professionals, online businesses and other individuals or companies who require contractual assistance.
How do you become a Virtual Assistant?
You should at least have a background in office administration and/or secretarial work. You should also have the necessary equipment and facilities, such as a reliable computer, broadband Internet connection, your own phone line, printer, some office supplies, etc.
Many Virtual Assistants receive training (usually online) and become certified VAs. You can offer your services by placing an ad online or you can work with an online agency to find your clients.
Do you want to Earn cash by writing honest reviews about any products or services? If your answer is yes then join SponsoredReviews.com, A quick and easy way to earn money on your blog.
“SponsoredReviews.com is the the first paid-blogging system to allow advertisers and bloggers to be both passive and proactive. Advertisers can post opportunities to attract bids from bloggers, or they can search through bloggers profiles and purchase reviews directly.”
Each time you write for a review, you will get 65% of the bid amount. You can write reviews in your own tone and style, and gear them to your audience’s interest. If the advertiser approved your bid for USD100.00, you will earn $65.00 and the remaining goes for SponsoredReviews.com. If your site has a good page rank, you can bid for a higher amount on each advertiser and you can even earn more than $200 per review. [More]
Being a mobile worker nowadays is being a kid in a candy factory. There are a variety of peripherals and gadgets that can increase your efficiency, make your data more secure and are not burdensome. Topping the list for the mobile workers are smartphones, laptops, flash drives, Amazon’s Kindle and digital backup devices.
Smartphones, as their name implies, are phones that have a little bit of something built in. Moreover, smartphones have the processor power and memory like a small computer that is packed into a usual mobile phone. [More]
Looking for ways to earn through blogging? Blogging is steadily growing as a business and as supplement to advertising. In fact, some of the top earners online are people who maintain blogs. Blogging is also an excellent way to monetize your interests and expertise. Here are four of the top blog networks you can use to search for blogging jobs:
1. Weblogs Inc.
This is currently the biggest blog network at present, offering over a hundred blogs with topics that range from business to technology to fashion and travel. That means you virtually have a spot for a paid blogging job provided you write excellent content. [More]
