Increasing numbers of people are working from home today, either as self-employed workers or as employees. Many companies are also more open than ever to having their employees work from home.
Benefits of working from home for workers can bring a relaxing EasyBet casino-type work environment that include flexibility, elimination of commute time, customizable office, better work-home relationship and financial savings. For the employer, advantages of allowing employees to work from home include reduced overhead costs, larger talent pool, increased job satisfaction among employees, streamlined communication and higher productivity.
Some people enjoy the atmosphere of working on-site but if you want to explore your options for working from home, you need to either find work as an independent contractor (self-employed freelance worker) or work for an employer who is amenable to your work-from-home arrangement.
Start by finding a work opportunity and then get yourself set up. There are multiple types of jobs that can be done – even done most successfully – when you work from home. Some include:
Teaching
Once you develop a reputation as a competent teacher or tutor you may want to set up your own freelance business but to get started, you should probably work for a teaching/tutoring company. There are many such companies online – some specialize in teaching a foreign language, tutoring math or science or another specialty. Others are general tutoring companies that provide all services from K-12 and above.
Teaching is done on a Skype or Zoom-like video-conferencing system and the pay varies, depending on your specialty – higher pay for more in-demand specialties. You will most likely need to take a test to demonstrate your proficiency in the subject that you want to teach and provide evidence of your own educational accomplishments – certifications, degrees, etc.
Freelance Writer
If you’re a good writer there are many opportunities to write online. There are manypublications and channels who employ the services of freelance writers including websites, blogs, companies specializing in internal corporate communications, newsletters, etc.
Grant writing and proposal writing are micro-specialties within the freelance writing field. If you have a head for technical issues you may want to look into technical writing. Ghost writing books is another specialty though you’d need to build up a resume and portfolio to get into that type of freelancing.
Again, you can work for a company or freelance. Try writing for a company like Fiverr which serves as a portal that links people looking for work with people performing the tasks. The pay is minimal but it will help you build up a portfolio and become known in the field.
Telehealth Nurse
Medical care is moving online as people try to minimize their visits to the doctor’s office. A telehealth nurse can answer questions about health over the phone or by text, thereby freeing up a medical practice from unnecessary in-office visits. You must be a certified health care professional – nurse, physician assistant….—and licensed in the state where you will be working.
Bookkeeper
If you have accounting expertise you can offer your services on a freelance basis or work for an accounting company from your home office. Some companies such as AccountingDepartment.com hire bookkeeping professionals for remote positions and provide health insurance, vacation time and a 401(k) retirement plan. Other companies hire on an hourly basis. Or perhaps you can market yourself as an independent contractor to work for your own clients.
Virtual Assistant
The secretary no longer needs to be available to pop into the boss’s office to take dictation. You can provide administrative support to employers who need help with email management, event planning, phone work, scheduling and social media strategizing.
There are agencies that hire assistants to work from home in 23 states or you can offer your services on freelance job boards such as UpWork or FreeUp which allows you to connect directly with potential clients.
Consultant
You don’t need any special skills or certification to call yourself a consultant……if you have expertise in a specific area, you can hang out your shingle and call yourself a consultant. It’s best if you have credentials, references and a marketable area of expertise to use as a base to build your network but once you get started, if you’re good at what you do, you can start building a client base and use those customers to reach out to others.
Consulting is a great freelance job for retirees who have years of experience and know-how in their field, be it accounting, medicine, law, advertising, engineering or any other subject on which people rely on knowledge. You can create an online presence to get your name out there or rely on word-of-mouth to market your services.
Customer Service Rep
Even in this day of reliance on the Internet, many companies find that they boost their sales with in-person phone connection. Many people aren’t willing to fill in Internet forms or wait for email replies – they want to speak to the company’s customer rep to resolve their problem.
If you have the technological know-how, or can get some help, you create a call center in your home to assist customers. Retailers to health care providers need customer reps to answer the phones and provide solutions to problems. There are also customer reps to work via email or chat…..or maybe you can combine all 3.
Claims Investigator
Some office jobs are drudgery but as a claims investigator you can put your brain cells to work doing some sleuthing work. As a claims investigator you would be researching databases and online data to assess the legitimacy of insurance claims. Senior investigators need special degrees and certification but you could do the “scut work” by checking out a claimant’s social media presence for evidence of fraudulent claims — pictures of the supposedly-incapacitated person taking a swim during a vacation or lugging some shopping up the stairs, etc.
Basic requirements include college-level courses in accounting or criminal justice and some experience – you may be able to negotiate a lower salary for some on-the-job experience.
There are many other types of work that you can do from home – sales representatives, mock juror, fundraising rep, psychologist, tech support, software engineer, gaming designer and more. Check out your options!