My First Work From Home Job:
By Jay O’Brian
The first opportunity I had to work from home came to me 30 years ago - the day after I lost my job. I had been working as a cashier at a particular sub chain when my car died in my driveway on the way to work. Even though I had given myself extra time, taking the bus involved transferring to three different bus routes and I was over an hour late. It wasn’t until the place closed at 9 that I realized one bus I needed to take on my way home stopped running at 7. The taxi home cost me $25. After I was late the next day as well, the manager said he was taking me off the schedule until I got my transportation problems (a cracked cylinder head) fixed.
I sold the car for junk and made “I do Yard Work” fliers and was putting them up in the neighborhood when a neighbor asked me if I wanted a ‘real job’ helping him with his business.
“Real Job? Where?”
“I’ll let you work from home.”
I told my parents, and they agreed I should check it out. Mr. Neighbors has lived across the street for years. His daughter used to babysit me, and now he takes care of his grandson two days a week. He was perfectly trustworthy.
I went to his house the next day. He took me to the basement where there were cartons of papers and cases of envelopes stacked to the ceiling. He said he was in the ‘marketing business’ and needed help getting the information out to customers. He gave me a case of 5,000 envelopes, a carton of papers and a box of business cards. My job was to fold the papers a certain way and put one paper and one card in each envelope, seal the envelope and put it back in the carton. When I was done, I would take them back to him and he would pay me 5 cents for each one.
I was thinking 5,000 at 5 cents each…that is $250. I was thinking I’m going to knock this out in 4 hours, flat. I was thinking in a week, I will have every envelope in that basement stuffed and I will have money for a NEW car.
I set myself up with tunes, snacks and everything organized on a table. I got 150 done the first hour. 200 the second hour, 180 the third. It was obvious this was not a 4 hour job – I was not going to earn more than $60 an hour on this batch. I rearranged my workspace, drank an energy drink and really went to work.
30 hours later I was done. I took the envelopes back to Mr. Neighbors and he wrote me a $250.00 check. My hands were dry and covered with papercuts, I had gone thorough 2 of those envelope moistener sponges and I had averaged $8.33 per hour for the work. That was less than the $10.50 per hour I made at the sub shop, although I didn’t have to pay for gas or lunch.
I KNEW I could do better. Why was Mr. Neighbors doing this if he wasn’t making money? He had to have a trick or he wouldn’t have time to take care of Leon.
I asked for another carton. I found some binge worthy TV, got a ton of energy drinks and decided to pull an ‘all nighter’.
25 hours later I was done! I bumped my speed up and made myself make $10 an HOUR. Still not as good as the sub shop, but I got to stay home in my underwear and watch TV while I worked.
I kept doing this for a few more weeks. I was never able to beat the $10 an hour ceiling, there was just too much involved in folding and stuffing. , My hands were cracked and chapped as if I had been working with concrete and the papercuts on my cuticles were terrible.
When my girlfriend told me about an opening at the Bowling Alley, I took it. It was a 2 mile walk each way, but it paid $12 an hour. I apologized to Mr. Neighbors; he was surprised that I lasted as long as I did.
So, If you ever get a letter in the mail that offers you a chance to make money at home by stuffing and mailing envelopes – and all you need to do is send in $250 for the ‘Course Booklet and Disc’. You know that someone like me stuffed that envelope, and it is not a real job at all!
'Space Chewbacca'
Brian L. McIlwee Art
...Continued from Home Page.....
· ‘Insurance and Financial products’: These companies are licensed as legitimate ‘Financial Product’ brokers. Remember, it is the people you deal with – the ones who ‘hire’ you are the ones who make the money.
After you see the advertisement, you submit your on-line application. You either get an on-line ‘virtual’ interview or they call you into an actual office ad in the paper and you go for an interview. You meet with a nice person who tells you, “I really feel that you are not like most people, so I am going to fast track you into being a representative.” You get their presentation - an intense overview about their great financial products and how you can make money representing them to people.
They then tell you to pay for a training course to get your insurance license.
After a few weeks of training and giving up your money, you have a certificate.
That certificate allows you to sell the insurance products that your trainer brokers from larger nationally known companies (companies that any person can look up on line and buy the same products from directly WITHOUT paying a brokers fee)
Your trainer tells you to make your own contacts. Your trainer DOES offer you a 10% referral bonus for anyone you bring onto the team. Your trainer keeps half of the money paid for each training course.
You go out and call on a hundred people a week and make 3 sales a week.
If each sale is a policy that costs them $100 a month, and the broker fee is 2% that is $2.00 (Two Dollars) from each sale.
That $2.00 is divided between you, the person who trained and recruited you and the broker who hired the trainer.
You are only keeping, on the average, 50 cents out of each monthly installment payment made by your customers. And, at the end of a year...if you make three sales every week… at the end of the year, you will be earning about $72.00 a month. If you keep at it for 3 years...you will be earning $216.00 a month.
In reality, for every scam there is a legitimate job opportunity where you do not have to give your money to a fiend. You just need to be careful and watch out for obvious frauds.
I have a book called ‘Working from Home Using Your Computer and Your Brain’ which has great information on work from home jobs that you can actually do without paying ‘start up’ to a strange company. There are details on how to start a gift wrap design business, a fashion design business, and even a start-up plan for an on line shop.
The best way to start a work from home job is with knowledge of what is possible and Working From Home Using Your Computer and Your Brain is an ethical book on Amazon that gives the guidance we all want.
No Gimmicks, No scams, just the
Information YOU need to get
started in more than 5 great work from home careers!
Aurora
12 x 12 acrylic on canvas by Brian McIlwee
Brian Lee McIlwee Art
Art that touches your soul
Now is the best time to find out more!
You can't start a business without a budget. This budgeting book is simple. It has chapters on common financial scenarios and how to successfully budget for them. Do you want to start a business? There is a budget for that. Are you sleeping on a cot in the shelter? There’s a budget to help you get your own place. Are you supporting a stay at home spouse and an elderly parent or a child and you want to move to a house? There are budgets for that also. Need to budget for grocery shopping? There is a meal plan and list to get you started!
From paying off a car loan to paying off a student loan you will find simple budgets you can follow for success and wealth.
How to Start a Business: Work From Home Jobs
The Sudden Entrepreneur
By J. O’Brian
Is Your on-line business doomed to failure? –Help it Survive and Prosper!
You have decided to start or have started an on-line business, and you want it to be a good one! You may have done this because you ‘purchased a ‘course’ that included a website for a drop-shipping or on-line retail business or you may be doing this because you are good with a craft and want to make money selling it. Finally, the on-line business may be an extension of your ‘Brick and Mortar’ business. It does not matter how or why you started the business, what matters now is getting your business to show a profit.
Your on-line business requires that you have some product - whether it is informative – such as classes and courses or a retail product such as clothing, auto-parts, or pet toys. You also need access to customers, and an efficient way to get the customers what they want more quickly than your competition.
.....Continued here....
H.R. Life –
Getting a job you want
You may be changing jobs, re-entering the work force, looking for a second job or thinking about how to get your first job, but you know unemployment is at historic lows, and employers are looking for people to add to their payroll.
You have applied to job openings featured in the newspaper and you have gone to job fairs but you have not been hired. You have printed and mailed out dozens of copies of your best resume but no one has called you. You have proof read your resume and called your references to make certain they are prepared to give you a good word. You have done everything you can think of to let potential employers know you are there and interested but you have gotten very few interviews.
The question you ask yourself is, “Why …if all these companies say they cannot find qualified workers…why won’t ANYONE call me back?!
The answer is ‘You are going about it mostly wrong.’
The FIRST thing you need to know and understand is that most companies prefer to hire from within. They prefer that because they will already have a person who is in their system who knows ‘their’ culture, will need little training (if any) and will have no surprise waiting in the wings.
The SECOND thing you need to know is: Most companies have a policy that requires them to post every job opening. That means EVERY position that becomes available – from Third Assistant Janitor Trainee to Chief Executive Managing Administrative Supervisor will be advertised. And if it is not “policy’ then it is dictated by Union rules and agreements.
This ‘policy’ thing tends to work against you. They are advertising the job, but they have almost ALWAYS already made the decision to promote or move a person from a lower position to the available position. Then, once all the moving around has been done, they bring in the candidates who have sent in resumes for the advertised position – which has been filled. But you do not know this. So, you come in when they call…and sit around in a room of other candidates for hours. You take their employment tests, their personality tests and when you finally sit down with HR the nice person interviews you, makes you feel good about yourself and your chances, and then they say “The position of Administrative Assistant to the Director of Marketing has been filled BUT would you consider taking the receptionist position in that same department? The hours are the same but the pay is less.”
Now, if this is your first job or you have been job hunting so long you are broke…then this will be a good offer. Take it and continue to quietly look for a job that pays better.