Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Working From Home: The Correct Way

By cassie humbolt

Now in these times of high gas prices people feel the crunch as the are driving to work each day. Employers are feeling the pain of the energy crisis also. The concept of working from home is getting attention once again, companies of all sizes are examining how to make a work at home plan fit for them.

If you have a current position where you think this idea would work, and you are known for producing your work on schedule, think about asking your boss about working from home.

Now if you are looking for a job, search for a telecommute job on the Internet. There are many reputable companies that are in search for workers to work on a contract basis, especially freelancers.

If your current manager agrees to a partial telecommute arrangement, you don't have much to worry about to keep the arrangement intact. Continue to be productive and abide by the rules as far as office days.

If you are trying to search out telecommute jobs independently, you have a different problem. As an independent contract worker, you'll discover many scams, and you have to learn how to tell the legit working from home positions from the companies that just want to make money off of you by asking for fees for membership just to access their job listings. These types of sites have jobs you have to bid on. Usually the employer only offers below average pay for this work. So for the most part you are better off to stick to the free sites for your opportunities to work at home to see what you can find.

Some free listing sites are used by scammers, who may never pay you for your work. You can guard against this in a couple of ways. When you get a response to a query, do a search on 'scams company-name'. If that comes up clean, this working from home job is worth pursuing. If not, drop it there.

In the case where the job is of limited duration, perhaps with just a week or two of work, require some up front money and a schedule of payments along the way. For example, let's say you're a freelance graphic designer. The client wants a logo and new page layout for their website. You might want to split payments as follows: one third paid to begin, one third paid on acceptance of the design prototype and the remainder paid on final delivery. This is a typical arrangement, which protects you, as the client demonstrates a commitment to getting the work done and paying you.

As you are working on one job, that is short term, you should have other jobs lined up to go for when you are done. Make sure you always have a couple of jobs lined up, this guarantees you an income that is steady.

This working from home has the ability to be very rewarding, you can schedule your hours around your family functions and it winds up saving you some cash! - 16089

About the Author: