'work from home' jobs

[Bigus Dickus]

My wife is a stay at home soon to be mom, and wondering if any of the thousands of "work from home" ads/offers are legit. Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?

The huge dollar figures thrown around in combination with "members only" websites that supposedly have information sets off my scam alarm.

But there's bound to be legitimate transcription work and other stuff out there. Heck, I even know of someone personally that made a little money from completing surveys.

She/we aren't looking for anything like a supporting salary. In fact, we don't have to have the money at all, but she wants to make a little of her own personal spending money so that she doesn't feel like she has to consult a budget all the time. So a couple of hundred bucks a month would be cool.

Any suggestions?

 

[Frank]

In one word: scam.

Try to help her get a regular job where she can choose to work at home if convenient. That might be hard, but it can be done (I did).

An easy avenue might be call support.

 

[digitalwanderer]

I've been looking/wondering about one of those for years and just ain't had no luck.

Then again, I never really had enough time to devote to it before...now I do. I'd love to get a paid writing gig online, that'd suit me.

 

[Ty]

Good timing?

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/CareerManagement/story?id=2441875&page=1

 

[digitalwanderer]

I couldn't work for ABC or Disney, currently boycotting them.

 

[Bigus Dickus]

The mystery shopper thing sounds interesting - no steady money needed, just a bit of shopping money. Shopping to earn that? I'll have to take a look.

The other thing that had sounded legit in the past was medical transcription, but I didn't know specific schooling was required to do that. I'll take a look there too.

 

[K.I.L.E.R]

If she's a programmer you could contract some light work on her behalf, that could be done via e-mail.

 

[Ty]

The mystery shopper thing sounds interesting - no steady money needed, just a bit of shopping money. Shopping to earn that? I'll have to take a look.

The other thing that had sounded legit in the past was medical transcription, but I didn't know specific schooling was required to do that. I'll take a look there too.

For medical transcription I'm thinking you'll at least need a class or two in medical terminology (I used to work at a hospital).

 

[digitalwanderer]

I'm still just tempted to hang out a shingle for PC repair and put out a cheap ad in the local freebie paper.

I just never know what to charge, how much do you charge to debug/disinfect/remove spyware from a PC which is usually the problem I most encounter?

BTW-I'm kind of serious, I think it'd be a fun/good side job for me. I seem to have a knack for making busted PCs better.

I figure I could even add a remove/re-install special for free just to make it more hassle free and because I HATE working with a customer looking over my shoulder, it's hard not to giggle at times.

 

[Skrying]

I'm still just tempted to hang out a shingle for PC repair and put out a cheap ad in the local freebie paper.

I just never know what to charge, how much do you charge to debug/disinfect/remove spyware from a PC which is usually the problem I most encounter?

BTW-I'm kind of serious, I think it'd be a fun/good side job for me. I seem to have a knack for making busted PCs better.

I figure I could even add a remove/re-install special for free just to make it more hassle free and because I HATE working with a customer looking over my shoulder, it's hard not to giggle at times.

Its worth the effort Digi, especially if you are good with talking to people and can communicate what is wrong in a easy way. The last part is getting easier has terms like virus, spyware, malware, etc are now basically household terms to anyone with a PC.

Personally I think $50 is fairly reasonable for a fixing computers that have the usual spyware/virus issues. Heck, $50 may even be on the cheap side.

I'd see if there are any shops locally and see what they charge.

 

[digitalwanderer]

Nah, $50 sounds good to me. I'll give it whirl.

Do I have to incorporate or file with my local chamber of commerce or anything?


EDITED BITS:: Thanks Skrying, I do appreciate your input help. I once planned to build PC to sell, but the support/liability issues scared my off.

This doesn't sound like it has that many issues. If what I fixed breaks I tix it for free, if it's something new I explain what the new problem is and give them an estimate.

BTW-I got insanely good people skills, even more off the hoards in realife than on 'em.
Thanks again fo

 

[Basic]

For medical transcription, it's a really good idea to demand specific schooling. It's pretty much a new language to understand, and people's life can depend on you spelling things right.

digi:
I'm not sure why, but I've got the impression that you'd be really good at explaining computer stuff for the PC-challenged. So fixing peoples PCs, and giving a quick course in how to keep it reasonabely clean seem like the perfect job on the side for you.

But beware for the situation where someone comes in with a PC that behaves strange. You clean out some viruses or whatever it was that caused it, but it had already destroyed some user files. So the owner comes back a day later and say that you deleted his photo collection, or at least by negligence failed to save it. And that his lawyer will get back to you.
Just make sure you have your back covered for such situations.

 

[pascal]

Digi:
I think you have very good skills to human interaction which is a major requeriment to the task.
But I agree with Basic. Explain that you will do a best effort service but there is no warranty. Make them sign a small paper explaining it before the service.

 

[Bigus Dickus]

dig - if you operate a business under your own name, you can assume the status of a sole proprietorship for which you claim all income/losses as direct personal income or losses (expenses), and add that as a line item under a single personal income tax return. So yeah, you can hang a shingle with "dig's computer repair" on your door and you are legally in business. If you need to collect sales tax you'll probably have to file locally for a state tax license, which often requires a bond of ~$500 or so, depending on the state, if you are operating out of your house instead of a business location (they can padlock your business if you don't pay sales taxes, they can't quite do that to your residence so they collect a bond to cover those cases). The bond is refundable when you go out of business.

Downside to a sole proprietorship is that you are fully responsible for all legal situations, meaning your personal and business property is one and the same. They can take everything from you except your house, I believe.

S-corporation is probably best for what you want to do, since as Basic pointed out there are some sticky legal issues to confront, and the corporation status gives you some separation of personal and business liability. Costs a few hundred usually to incorporate, and the paperwork is somewhat of a pain, but once operating the money works pretty much like a sole proprietorship (chief difference being that instead of a single line item on your personal return, you fill out a supplemental business return and enter the final amount as a line item on your personal return - i.e., money and losses still flow directly to personal finances, but you have to have the additional documentation provided by the S-corp return). S-corps are ideal for a single person needing some legal protection.

Best advice is to talk to a lawyer who deals specifically with business organization and liability cases, and find out what would be best and what kind of disclaimer you should have.

 

[digitalwanderer]

Hmmm, sounds like a job for my Mommy to help me write up a quick note/disclaimer for 'em to sign. (My Mommy was a contract attorney before she went into banking. )

But I really don't have to register with the town or anything to start up? Just get some waivers to cover my ass and limit the scope of my warranty to what I actually repair and I should be good to go?