Helping Clients To Have Work At Home Careers

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• Helping Clients To Have Work At Home Careers
• Helen LaVan, PhD, LPC, NBCC
• Professor of Management
• DePaul University
• 1 E. Jackson Blvd.
• Chicago, IL
• 312-362-8539
• hlavan_at_depaul.edu

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• Factors Affecting the Decision

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Factors

• Relevant possessed or acquirable skills
• Possibility of financial investment, resources
  during start-up
• Per cent of work week the work at home is
• Per cent of time work is done at home
• Home based business start up, franchise or other
  opportunity

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• Rationale for Working At Home

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Rationale for Working at Home

• Personal
• Physicalaccommodate persons differentially
  abled--obese, M.S., blind
• Psychological--ADD, bipolar, conduct disordered
• Familychild care, elder care
• Financial need
• Financial resources, supplements
• Geographical
• Homebound for other reasons
• Coordinate with on-line education
• Option for the unemployed?

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• Statistics

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Statistics

• In May 2004, 20.7 million persons usually did
  some work at home as part of their primary job,
  the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S.
  Department of Labor reported today. These
  workers, who reported working at home at least
  once per week, accounted for about 15 percent of
  total nonagricultural employment in May 2004,
  essentially the same percentage as in May 2001.

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Statistics

• Work at home business annual revenue as a whole
  for work at home ventures is 427 Billion, that's
  more than General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler put
  together- Entreprenuer Magazine.
• Also 70 of work at home business ventures last
  over a three year period compared to 29 of the
  other business start ups, according to The Home
  Based Business Institute.

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Percent of At Home Workers
http//www.bls.gov/news.release/homey.nr0.htm
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Statistics

• Work at home entrepreneurs number in the millions
  and it is reported that every 11 seconds someone
  starts a home based business that allows them to
  work at home. Also 20 of work at home businesses
  gross between 100k and 500k per year. -Money
  Magazine.

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• Finding Opportunities

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Finding Opportunities
http//www.whydowork.com/jobs.php
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Finding Opportunities
http//www.indeed.com/jobs?as_andworkathomeas_
phras_anyas_notas_ttlas_cmpjtallstsa
laryradius25lchicagofromage7limit10sort

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Finding Opportunities
http//www.simplyhired.com/a/jobs/list/q-workath
ome/l-60601
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Finding Opportunities

• - Free starter kit from QuickCash from Craigslist
• - Free starter kit from EarnCash fast with Google

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My Favorite Opportunities

• On-line teaching
• Customer service
• Credit and collections
• Manufacturers rep
• Free lance mediawriting
• IT developers
• Executive recruiters
• Business development
• Accountant and tax services

• Consulting
• Personal trainer
• Schedulers
• Cleaning
• Home repair
• Home inspection
• Data entry
• Rebate processing
• Loan processing

Not all opportunities are 100 at home. Some
can require workers to do actual services booked
by the at home worker.
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• Associations to Help

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Home Business Institute
http//homebusinessinstitute.net/
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Home Based Working Moms
http//www.hbwm.com/
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Issues

• Match for work content
• Avoiding Scams
• Setting and Collecting Fees
• Safety Issues
• Insurance issuesHealth, Pensions and Property
• Psychological Issues
• Taxes
• Deductions

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Internet Resources

• West Corp. (west.com), with 15,000 home agents,
  is undergoing "rapid expansion," says Dan Hicks,
  a senior vice president. LiveOps.com, which
  claims to have 20,000 home agents working at
  least a few hours a week, plans to bring on
  several thousand more this year, says Jon Temple,
  president, world-wide operations. Arise.com, with
  8,000 home-business owners as agents, plans to
  add 4,000 more by year end, says Angie Selden,
  chief executive. AlpineAccess.com, with 7,500
  home agents, will hire 2,500 more people by
  December, says CEO Christopher Carrington.
  Executives at Convergys.com, with 1,000 home
  agents, and VIPDesk.com, with 300, also say
  they're expanding. WorkingSolutions.com claims
  4,000 active agents and plans to hire as many as
  600 more by December. In a new twist, a few of
  these companies, including West, are making home
  agents permanent employees with access to group
  benefits. Convergys and Alpine Access subsidize
  the benefits.

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Internet Resources

• If you like the idea of being a "virtual
  assistant" -- a jack-of-all-trades who performs
  online many of the same services as an
  administrative aide in a brick-and-mortar office
  -- TeamDoubleClick.com offers links to clients.
  Pay is typically 10 to 20 an hour for taking
  calls, booking events or travel or other tasks.
  But entry barriers are high some 80 of the
  site's 300 to 500 weekly applicants fail
  mandatory entry tests on typing, computer and
  phone skills. And only 10 of the site's 49,000
  VAs are working, says co-founder Gayle Buske.
• Other sites serve as job boards. Sologig.com says
  a sizable minority of the 8,000 screened
  free-lance opportunities it has posted can be
  done from anywhere. A smaller site,
  VirtualAssistants.com, offers access to screened
  postings for 14.95 a month. And tJobs.com and
  teleworkrecruiting.com also charge a fee for
  access to screened work-at-home postings, which
  they collect from employers or elsewhere on the
  Web.

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Free Lance
http//www.sologig.com/Default.aspx?p0kw22Nati
onalSalesGroup2222salesconsultants22sales
ormarketingcsdis30
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Telecommute
http//tjobs.com/
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Telecommute
http//teleworkrecruiting.com
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• Starting a Home Business Or Buying a Franchise

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Ideas for a Home Business
http//www.ahbbo.com/ideas.html
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Myths

• You have to be a successful salesperson to be
  successful
• Home based business aren't real businesses
• Home based businesses are cheap
• Theres no going back
• If youre at home, you must not be working
• You can write off everything
• You can run around in your pajamas all day long

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Franchise Locators
http//www.entrepreneur.com/franchise500/index.htm
l
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• Avoiding Scams

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Work At Home Scams

• Work-at-home scams have always been around. They
  offer you a supposedly easy way to make loads of
  money in just a little time from the privacy of
  your own home, but they rarely ever turn out to
  be what they claim to be. The Internet is no
  stranger to the proliferation of scams, with
  employment schemes ranking 6 according to the
  Consumer Protection Agency. You need to be a
  smart consumer, particularly when it comes to
  work-at- home offerings. If anything says you
  must pay for information or supplies to get
  started, my advice is to run away fast.

Source Rilyguide. http//www.rileyguide.com/scam
s.htmlwah
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Work At Home Scams

• Information on Business Opportunities from the
  Federal Trade Commission
• ...no, not opportunities with them, but the
  latest information on their crackdown on
  fraudulent work-at-home and other business
  opportunities. They also have additional
  information on recognizing real opportunities and
  avoiding fraud at http//www.ftc.gov/bizop/.
• Work-At-Home Schemes
• ...this document from the Better Business
  Bureau's Consumer Information Publication Series
  looks at the growing trend of people working from
  home, alerting you to the many work-at-home scams
  which are robbing good people of thousands of
  dollars. "Work-at-home businesses consistently
  generate the most inquiries received by the
  Better Business Bureaus. Of complaints received
  on the Better Business Bureau's on-line complaint
  service, 20 relate to work-at-home schemes or
  business opportunity on-line promotions." Please
  read this over before you sign on the dotted line
  or commit any money to any work-at-home
  opportunity.
• Work-at-Home Schemes
• ...released in March 2001 by the Federal Trade
  Commission, this publication discusses several of
  the more popular "work at home" scams, including
  Medical Billing, Envelope Stuffing, and Assembly
  or Craft Work. It includes questions to ask of
  any work-at-home program sponsors and where to
  file complaints. This guide is available through
  the Federal Consumer Information Center (Pueblo,
  Colorado), and many other good free helpful
  guides can be reviewed online here along with
  links to many more resources.

Source Rilyguide. http//www.rileyguide.com/scam
s.htmlwah
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Work At Home Scams

• Medical billing You send money for software to
  run a bill collection service from your home. The
  scam artists promise that the market is wide
  open and they have lined up clients for you.
  In reality, you stand to lose your entire 2,000
  to 8,000 investment. The software is only an
  assortment of forms and collection letters that
  anyone could design. The names of companies they
  send you are not clients they just got names and
  addresses from the phone book.
• Envelope stuffing This is the most common
  work-at-home scam, says the U.S. Postal
  Inspection Service. You send money and the
  business will send you information about
  earning money by stuffing envelopes at home. What
  you actually get are instructions to sell this
  scheme to others by placing ads in newspapers to
  illegally entice new victims. You make nothing
  unless you recruit others to work for you.

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Work At Home Scams

• Assemble or craft work You send money for
  supplies to assemble into products such as
  aprons, baby clothes, jewelry, or Christmas
  decorations. Sometimes you must buy the equipment
  from the promoter. Youre told that there is a
  ready market for the products or that the company
  will buy the products from you. Your items never
  meet quality standards or you must sell the
  items yourself.
• Business Opportunities You send money for
  information about starting a business from your
  home. The details are vague but the promises are
  big and include claims that we will provide all
  the training you need. The fraudulent
  salespersons will constantly try to sell you more
  information about special training and support
  systems and your personal coach.