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What Do You Do to Create a Work From Home Business?

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The growth of the Internet means that more people than ever can base their employment from their home. They find that, even if they are making less money, their life is more balanced as they create their own hours, are  free from the hassles of commuting, are able to create a workspace that suits their own needs and allows them to choose when and how they interact with others.

Some people continue to work for an employer while they work from home but others create their own employment opportunities. Establishing a work environment that you enjoy can be as pleasurable as winning the grand prize at the jackpot casino. You save time and money and enjoy reduced stress while you bring in an income.

If you want to explore your options for creating a work-from home business, consider finding work as an independent contractor in any of the following fields:

Virtual Assistant

Many offices are using virtual assistants to provide administrative support to the office. Since most such work is now done online, virtual administrative assistants are able to accomplish all of the tasks that were once office-based from a virtual location. As a virtual assistant you may be asked to transcribe letters and documents, make travel arrangements, put up company posts on social media, manage email, plan events and even answer phones. Meetings with co-workers can take place over Zoom or FaceTime video conferencing.

If you’re a self-starter, organized and are good at taking direction, you can apply to an agency that will match you with an employer or you can offer your services on a freelance job board such as FreeUp or UpWork that facilitates a direct connection between you and an employer.

Freelance Writer

If you’re a good writer you can become a freelance writer. Freelance writer job boards (such as on Facebook) help potential employers find freelance writers who write in a way that fits their business. You can post about your interests in writing on the job board  and wait for someone to contact you or you can scan the job boards to see who is looking for a writer. These sites include blogs, websites looking for content, companies looking for someone to write their newsletters and press releases for them, employers who want to put up frequent, scheduled social media posts, etc.

If you are technically-inclined, consider becoming a technical writer which will give you employment writing technical manuals and how-tos for tech companies. If you speak another language you might want to promote yourself as a bi-lingual writer or a translator. Writing proposals for grants is a highly specialized field within the non-profit world and there’s always a demand for good grant writers. There are online courses that you can take to learn the art of grant-writing.

If you are starting cold, you might want to work for a company like Fiverr in which you bid on jobs and the employer takes the bidder that s/he wants. Pay for these jobs is minimal but the more jobs you do, the bigger your portfolio becomes so you can demonstrate to new – better-paying employers – what you can do.

Telehealth Nurses

Expertise in the medical world is increasingly in demand as visits to the doctor’s office often take place online. If you are a nurse or physician assistant and are licensed in the state where you live/will be working you can work from home as a telenurse. You’ll be tasked with fielding calls from people who have a medical issue and your guidance will often solve the problem without the need for them to come into the office.

Many medical practices have telenurses on call and the number is growing as the service frees up the office from unnecessary in-office visits and saves patients money.

Bookkeeper

If you have a background in accounting you can work as a bookkeeper from home. Some work-from-home bookkeepers are employees of an accounting company and do their work from their home while others work on a freelance basis, often for small firms that don’t need extensive services but just need someone to keep track of income and expenses, salaries and tax payments.

There are online companies such as AccountingDepartment.com that hire bookkeepers for work-from-home positions. AccountingDepartment.com pays less than you’d make doing freelance work but they pay for health insurance, a 401 (k) retirement plan and vacation time. There are other online companies that hire on an hourly basis.  Or market yourself as a freelancer.

Customer Service Rep

In-person phone calls are still an important part of any company’s business strategy because people don’t like to rely on online forms or “chats” – they want to speak to a company rep to know that a real person is available to help solve their problem.

You can work for a company as a call rep to assist customers from your at-home call center. Many different types of companies from retailers to health care providers want customer reps who will help customers find solutions to problems.

If you are technologically-knowledgeable you can provide tech assistance to callers either as part of a company team or as a freelancer.

Claims Investigator

Working as a claims investigator is one of the most interesting jobs that you can do at home. You become a kind of sleuth for insurance companies as you research online data, databases, social media and other sources to assessing the legitimacy of insurance claims.

Senior investigators need people to dig into a claimant’s assertion of incapacitation by looking for evidence of fraudulent claims – pictures on social media of a supposedly wheelhchair-bound person dancing at a party, evidence of undeclared income, etc.

Companies providing claims investigators want to see that you have some educational background in criminal justice and accounting. Once you learn the profession you might be able to set up your own freelance services.

Online Tutoring

If you are knowledgeable about a subject and have the ability to teach that subject you might want to look into online tutoring. You can work for a tutoring company or promote yourself through social media. Find your niche – foreign languages, math, science, are the most in-demand subjects but there are other options as well – some tutoring companies are looking for teachers who can teach general subjects from K-12 online.

You’ll be teaching via video conferencing – Skype, Zoom or another similar platform. The pay varies with teachers teaching the more in-demand specialties receiving better pay. You can expect to be asked to provide copies of your degrees or certificates to ensure that your educational level is such that you can teach and to take a test to assess your proficiency in the subject that you want to tutor.

Depending on your background, education and initiative there are many types of work that you can do from home.

Picture of Emma Drew

Emma Drew

Emma has spent over 15 years sharing her expertise in making and saving money, inspiring thousands to take control of their finances. After paying off £15,000 in credit card debt, she turned her side hustles into a full-time career in 2015. Her award-winning blog, recognized as the UK's best money-making blog for three years, has made her a trusted voice, with features on BBC TV, BBC radio, and more.

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