Work at Home Companies to Consider – Clerical, Customer Service & Writing

Work at Home Companies

Freelance Work at Home and More

Work at home is an ever hot topic these days. I do my best to stay on top of companies hiring home workers. There has been a huge surge in those looking for call center jobs, catalog order taker, and customer service type at home jobs. Be sure to get your application in with all companies – don’t just hope for a job at the one company you’re really gunning for.

Typically these companies have certain criteria. Read over any qualifications before applying. If you don’t have the necessary skills or equipment – it’s doubtful you’ll be given a second look. Try to stay current on any training. That always looks good on a resume and when interviewing. There are many online schools and programs. Many are accredited – so they are just like on-site attended classes as far as how they are gauged. Penn Foster is a fabulous career training center with many online classes. They offer a totally free career catalog.

Telecommuting and hiring virtual workers is becoming more and more popular. It saves the employer money. At first the general consensus was that if you let an employee “work at home“, they won’t get anything done. This has been proven to be a huge falsehood. Allowing employees to work at home has actually proven to be a more productive way to work. You cut out all the stress of the commute – which includes in climate weather, traffic jams and other delays. It also saves mileage on the employees car!

And think of how much more time the employee can spend actually “working” when they aren’t bogged down with office gossip, having to get ready for work, driving to work, pointless meetings and other office distractions.

Now granted….if there are kids at home….it can be hard to work at home. But many folks have kids in school all day or the child is so small….they sleep a large portion of the day. Some kids are in pre-school too. So it doesn’t mean that having kids means absolutely no working at home. It just means that you have to be realistic about working at home if you have kids. Employers don’t want you dealing with clients or being constantly taken off task by screaming, whining kids. It is VERY hard…..and I know this from experience – to get it through your family’s head – especially small kids (even my 8 year old has trouble with this)  that MOM works at home. Mom is AT work – please do not disturb. Sometimes I’ll be in the middle of writing an article like this and my HUSBAND will pop in my office and start yakking. It’s like he thinks I’m typing an email to my sister or something.?! Hello – I’m WORKIN’ IN HERE!

And while we’re on the topic of family bugging you while you’re trying to work….understand that working at home is not what you think. It’s not easy, breezy…..sipping coffee….watching Fox News in the morning…time to read the paper….sleeping in….blah blah blah. For example….I get up in the morning, fix the kids’ lunches, throw in some laundry, fold some laundry….after the kids leave I get on the treadmill for an hour. After that I have to shower. I still have not had coffee, breakfast – let alone read the paper or watch the news. After my shower I go threw gobs of emails, make some coffee, normally fix some oatmeal…..

I start writing, researching, returning calls…I do my own bookkeeping, my own SEO, my own site maintenance….before I know it – it’s 2:00PM and it’s time for me to leave to pick up my 8 year old from school. She gets out of school at 2:30 and my older one gets out at 3:00….so I don’t get back home til around 3:30PM – I try to work a little bit – MAYBE and hour…til say 4:30 and then it’s time to get dinner started, eat, clean up everything. I don’t make it back to my computer til around 9:00PM and I work til sometimes 11:00PM…sometimes 1:00AM!

So it’s not all….”Oh yes….Soooooooo flexible…..so wonderful. Half the time….I forget to have lunch!

So keep this in mind. Work is….well, work. It’s not a party, it’s not lounging around, it’s not pretending, it’s not talking on the phone with friends, instant messaging, twittering, updating your facebook page – none of those things. And so goes for work at home too.

I know….I’m a Kill-Joy. Sorry.

But – if and when you do start working at home…you’ll be mentally ready now! Ha Ha!

Make sure your home office is ready too! You’ll find that having a space dedicated to all things “work at home” is less stressful. Even if it’s a corner of a room, a side of the dining room table – whatever – just make sure it’s a space you can have just for work.

As I find more work at home companies, I will certainly update this list.

Alpine Access – Legitimate opportunity that provides income and a level of flexibility around your schedule.

InnoVisions Canada – For our Canadian friends! Current comprehensive list of job resources.

Working Solutions
This company hires teleworkers from everywhere to do data entry, clerical, order processing and customer service.

Click n Work
Information specialists, expert Web researchers
Seeking information specialists (e-librarians, experts at information retrieval etc) for spare-time, telecommuting opportunities. All work conducted over the Internet, only work when you chose. Rates up to US$25/hour. Visit to get more details and take our online tests.

The Write Jobs
Do you like to write? If you have a knack at writing get PAID for it! There are lots of jobs for writers!

Live Ops
LiveOps is looking to certify motivated, intelligent, articulate and personable people and small businesses to join their network of home-based agents. Flexible hours.

Speak-Write
Contracts typists and word processors throughout the United States and Canada.

 

Tagged as: catalog order taker jobs, Work at Home Companies to Consider, work from home catalog orders