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Sharon's going Web 2.0
You may have seen my work at home blog, but I'm also on MySpace. Be sure to check it out and send me a friend request.

Scope Out A Work At Home Job

Every day, millions of people are searching for a way to work at home. Many of them are looking for data entry or home typing jobs. In fact, in September alone there were 896,600 searches on Google for “data entry”, “home typing” and “typing jobs”. What most people doing these searches don’t realize is that while certain jobs that involve typing do exist, they are always specialized in some way, like medical transcription, which requires medical terminology training along with the needed reference materials and equipment. In addition to a training course, MT’s are often required to have at least 2 years of on-site hospital work in order to qualify for a work at home transcription job.

This is the case with many work at home jobs that involve typing or data entry. Job searchers are frustrated by the conundrum of not having the training or skills to get the job without a significant investment of time and money.

So what else should these would-be work at home searchers be searching for? It’s less what you should be searching for a more what you should be scoping out. Scopists transcribe and edit transcripts for court reporters. They take a draft of a court proceeding, sent by e-mail or simultaneously displayed on a computer, and read it to check for any mistranslations. The scopist makes necessary edits to ensure that the transcript is in the proper format. They then send the revised transcript back to the court reporter.

Medical Transcription: A Viable Work At Home Career

Are there really viable work at home jobs out there? This is a question that I’m asked almost daily. The fact is, there are most definitely careers that can be done from your home and there are people who are actually successful in those jobs. One of the fastest growing industries happens to be one that can be done from home: Medical Transcription.

A Growing Industry

Medical Transcription/Billing is an industry that is exploding. It’s prestigious and in demand. According the the U.S. Department of Labor, “Employment of medical transcriptionists is projected to grow faster than the average for all occupations through 2010. Demand for medical transcription services will be spurred by a growing and aging population.”

Transcription is one of those jobs that many people know can be done from home, and so the interest level is very high. Unfortunately, there are many companies out there trying to capitalize on that interest. The results are over-priced and sub-standard courses.

The Many Benefits of the Home Based Worker

With the current economic climate, many companies are having to find creative ways to cut costs. Some companies are doing this by implementing virtual worker policies. Letting employees work from home or remotely saves on commuting expense, utilities and other office overhead, and even gains increased productivity from employees.

The government is getting on the bandwagon too. A Telework Exchange study released in April states that a three-day-a-week Federal Government teleworker can save $5,878 annually on commuting costs and spare the environment 9,060 pounds of pollutants.

A study commissioned by The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) indicated that one day of telecommuting saves the equivalent of up to 12 hours of an average household’s electricity use.

Home Based Workers Can Benefit The Company

According to a Web-based survey conducted by CompTIA, a nonprofit trade association, working from home not only benefits employees, but a company’s bottom line as well. Survey results show businesses that allow telecommuting are more productive, save significant money and are able to hire and retain more qualified workers. “With anywhere connectivity, faster broadband options and high-quality video and online conferencing choices, the opportunity for virtual offices is greater today and more affordable for businesses of all sizes and types,” said Todd Thibodeaux, president of CompTIA.

All About Travel, Inc. All About Travel has worked out of its 15,000-square-foot office in Kansas since 1998. Several years ago, the owners realized the business was running out of physical space to house its growing work force. Bringing in quality employees also was becoming more difficult. [...read more]

Finding Your Way to Work At Home

It’s very frustrating to receive an email from someone that says, “I really need to work at home. Please help me.”

It would be impossible for me to make any kind of recommendation to this person. I receive emails just like this so frequently that I’ve created a template of the response that I send when I get one. In it, I tell them that I’d be happy to make some suggestions, but need more to go on. Do you want to start a business, or work for a company? What skills do you have? What line of work are you in?

Sadly, the fact that a person would put so little effort into making an inquiry like this tells me that they probably don’t have what it takes to work from home.

Whether running a business or telecommuting, working at home takes tremendous discipline, self-motivation and creative problem-solving skills. You don’t have co-workers or your supervisor down the hall, and often when problems arise you have to deal with them on your own.

Don’t get me wrong, I love to help people– but I do expect it to be a collaborative process. I also understand that sometimes figuring out what it is you want to do can be a challenge.

So, what are some of the first steps you can take to find your way? Here are some exercises that you can do that can help to clarify your goals. [...read more]

5 Good Reasons You Should Stop Looking For a Work at Home Job Looking for a work at home job? I'll give you 5 good reasons why you should consider starting a home business instead.

Are You Missing Your Chance to Work at Home? Have you missed the turnoff that leads to your dream of working at home? Wouldn't that be disappointing? No one likes to think that they have wasted their chance, missed their opportunity. But that's exactly what happens to many. Sometimes you can become so focused on a single-minded purpose that you miss the opportunity when it presents itself.

Identity Theft and Your Online Job Search -While identity theft is nothing new, the Web has opened up whole new world of opportunity for identity thieves.

According the FBI, identity theft is the top online fraud. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission says that identity theft is it's number one source of consumer complaints - 42 percent of all complaints, in 2001.

The thief will use your personal information to open credit card accounts, cell phone accounts, open bank accounts in your name and write bad checks-leaving the victim with the bills and ruined credit ratings. Identity thieves may pose as representatives of banks, Internet service providers and even government agencies to get you to reveal your Social Security number, mother's maiden name, financial account numbers and identifying information.

The Invisible Opportunity How would you feel if you had been searching desperately for something, some magic solution to a problem, and come to find out it was right there in front of you the whole time-- you just failed to see it?

For many searching for a way to work from home, this is exactly what they're doing.

There is a common misconception out there that's preventing alot of people from realizing their dreams of working at home. Is it holding you back too?

Cereal Mom I recently heard a woman say that being called a "work at home mom" was professionally demeaning. Being one myself, my initial reaction was to agree with her. "That's right, I'm a professional, I'm not just a bored housewife dabbling with a hobby here," I said to myself.

Finding the Way Home Whether running a business or telecommuting, working at home takes tremendous discipline, self-motivation and creative problem-solving skills. You don't have co-workers or your supervisor down the hall, and often when problems arise you have to deal with them on your own.

So, what are some of the first steps you can take to find your way? Here are some exercises that you can do that can help to clarify your goals:

All In The Perspective Today I almost rented an office. I know, I know. How on earth could I ever consider giving up working at home? Well, I did say, "almost". But there are days when an office looks pretty darn good.

3 Secrets to Landing a Home-Based Position Landing a telecommute position isn't easy. Finding them in the first place is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Then, when you finally do find one that looks promising, it's filled before you can even click on "apply for this job".

But it's not all bad news. There are three very important rules that you should follow when pursuing a telecommute job. If you do, your chances of getting hired will be much greater. If you break them, your chances are about as good as winning the lottery.

Is Your Business Running YOU? I lost a client recently. When I asked why he was making a change he said to me, "Your site used to be in the top three results of all the search engines and now it's not". Alarmed, I immediately investigated. He was right. It was then that I realized that I had dropped the ball. I hadn't even looked at my search engine results for a couple of months. I hadn't been marketing my business.

The Fear Factor My brother-in-law is in the process of starting a home business. In fact, he's been in the process of starting it for over 2 years now. It seems that Bill (that's not really his name, but I don't want to embarrass him), is afraid to take the big step. This is an all to common situation among would-be business owners. But should we really let fear come between us and our dreams?

Remind Me Again Why I Do This... Why do I do this? Why don't I work in an office, like normal people do?

Assisting You Virtually- How Virtual Assistants are changing the face of the workplace. Virtual Assistants, or VA's are changing the way we do business. Not only is this field growing tremendously, but it's offering employers and business owners alike an attractive new alternative to hiring employees.

The Reluctant Entrepreneur It seems odd to think of a person opening a shop, knowing that they're not at all interested in selling or in face-to-face interaction with customers. But that's exactly what many Internet business owners have done. And they've done it well.

Is Working At Home Really For You? I remember what it was like when I was still working away from home. I remember all too clearly how desperate I was to quit my job and stay home with my children. It was my mission in life.