But I Need to Make Money Now: How to Work from Home

A subscriber to my newsletter recently asked:

“Hi. My question is where do I start? I have been with a couple of programs for a few months now and I'm getting nowhere fast. I just want to earn some extra money so we are not broke all the time we can never seem to get ahead, please help me.”

This is a situation many of us find ourselves in when we decide we'd like to work from home or start a new business. The problem is, most businesses take time to build. It takes time to find customers, recruits and secure a reliable income.

If you've been a subscriber to my newsletter long, you'll know that I am always talking about passive and residual income -- and working less, while working more. However, this is not how I started working from home. I was like you and I needed to make money NOW!

So, what did I do? I could have done what many other mothers do and try to apply for every telecommuting job listing out there. Problem is, there are so many scams and there are always way more applicants than jobs. It is not EASY to get a company to hire you from a job posting.

Instead of going that route, I created my own opportunity. I found people who needed my help and I provided it to them. Let me explain how it happened for me and maybe you can apply this to your own quest to work from home too.

I've always been a half-decent writer and I knew a lot of online business owners struggled with writing for their businesses. Well, there was my in. I created a copywriting service to write articles, press releases and search engine friendly copy for these business owners.

It was kind of like a job, but I did it from home and I chose which hours I wanted to work. Yes, I still had to meet deadlines, but it was nothing like carting the kids to daycare every morning to drag my feet into a boring-old office every day.

I began by finding just a few people who needed my services. I did a great job, so they offered me more work and they also sent me referrals and soon enough I had TOO MUCH WORK.

Of course, this is the short-version of the story. There was a LOT of hard work involved acquiring the clients and I had to put in long, hard hours in writing to get paid. As my friend, Sylvie Charrier, says about working from home:

"You will not be spending more time with your family. You'll be home more, but you will have no time to spend."

That may sound a bit grim, but as you develop your service-based business and possibly outsource some of the regular tasks, things do become easier and less labor-intensive. However, the point is you should not expect a magical life where people pay you to hang out with your children. It's not going to happen that way.

But enough negativity, let's talk about you and what services you can offer. It's time to put modesty aside and take an inventory of the things you are good at and even the things you may enjoy. Whether it be:

data entry
spreadsheets
graphic design
website design
article writing
copywriting
bookkeeping
scheduling
collections
systems analysis
research
translation
transcription
event planning
menu planning
or any other service (those are just a few ideas off the top of my head), there are plenty of people and businesses that need help in these areas. It's up to you to establish yourself as an efficient provider of those services and secure those first few clients.

The thing is, if you need money now...you either need a regular J-O-B (who wants one of those?!) or you need to start getting paid for the work you do. You can sign up for every opportunity under the sun, but you don't get paid until you sell product or sign up productive recruits. If you can create a service and deliver it to people in need, they will pay you for your time and you can pay your bills.

I mentioned my friend, Sylvie earlier because she also faced the same dilemma. Her husband left her with 3 children to care for. She had no job and no money. She created her own opportunities, just like I did and just like you will. Her first project netted her $2400 and the next, $10,000. She used her skills and knowledge to deliver a service that people needed --- and she'll never tell you that it wasn't grueling work to accomplish those goals, but she did it. She now runs an international company that provides support services to businesses all over the world and it all started with her finding her own opportunities.

Sylvie has also created a guide to help you create your own opportunities. This guide prepares you for the realities of working from home, avoiding pitfalls and scams, marketing yourself online, landing contracts with winning cover letters and resumes and where to find the best opportunities.

Article by:

Alice Seba thrives on helping other mothers build profitable online businesses from home. Join her at her free community and information center just for moms at www.InternetBasedMoms.com.

This article is available for reprint with author's resource box intact and all links live and clickable. Copyright is reserved by author.

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