What to Beware of When Working From Home

By Amber Ortega on March 31st, 2009

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Any time I am around a group of mothers the subject of working from home comes up in conversation.  Moms that work outside of the home want to know how they can stay home with their children and moms that stay home want to know how they can make a little extra cash.  Working from home can be very tricky, there are so many companies that not legitimate.

The most important thing to remember when looking for a new opportunity: You should NOT have to pay a company to work for them!  If you find a company that wants you to pay for equipment or training, it is not a legitimate.  Do not pay someone to work for them.  I did work for a great company that did require me to pay $30 for a background check, but I did research prior to even paying for that. The company was fabulous and paid well, but I checked with other people currently working for them prior to even submitting my application.

Also remember, if something seems too good to be true, it usually is.  Even if you don’t have to put money into a company, you may be required to do a lot more work than it is worth.  I have worked for companies that required me to do a lot of work to make less than $2 an hour.  Now, looking at that pay check, my time is worth much more than that.  I would rather spend that time coloring with my son than working and being stressed out. I have some friends that tried putting crafts together at home.  They were sent supplies and instructions, but then had to send in a sample of their finished product.  If it was not perfect, the sample was sent back and they were required to fix it and send it in again.  By the time their products were approved they had spent so much time working on the project that they made little to nothing for their time.

There are a lot of opportunites for sales jobs.  I have tried everything from make-up to stuff your own animals.  Some women do very well with this type of job.  Honestly, I have no idea how they do it.  I tried, I spent the time, I did research, I marketed and my businesses never paid off.  I never even made my money back that was spent on buying inventory.  If you go into a sales/party type business, remember you will have to put time into making your business successful.

Whatever type of business you go into, make sure to research it first.  Make sure you will make enough money to make the job worth your time.  I know work-at-home mothers making almost $30/hour, so the opportunities are out there, it is up to you to find what works for you.  Just because you stay at home does not mean all work-at-home jobs will be a good fit for you.  If you have small children home all day, you will need to stay away from jobs that have you on the phone with customers, as you will not want screaming kids running up and down the halls in the background.  If you aren’t very fast on the computer, you will want to stay away from a lot of internet-based work.  If your children have a lot of commitments you will want to stay away from a job that requires you to have a set schedule.  Until you find the perfect job, keep looking around, there is something for everyone in the work-at-home fields.  A great place to start looking for legitimate jobs is WAHM.com, which researches jobs prior to putting information on the site.  They are full of mothers who are all doing the same thing and can give feedback on the pros and cons of almost every work-at-home job available.