If you are taking advantage of working from home via the Internet, you are one of a growing number of at home workers. Cutting out the time, stress, and expenses associated with a commute, having more flexible hours, and not needing to spend a lot of money on clothing to wear just for work are just a few of the amazing benefits of working from home. You also get to spend more time in the home you love and still pay the mortgage.
In order to maintain these benefits, you still have to work and make money. This means that you need self-discipline and a huge sense of responsibility. It's easier to be accountable when you are forced to get dressed and go to work on someone else's time. One way you can make working from home easier is to be organized.
One of the most important aspects of success when you operate your own business is organization. Businesses are often referred to as "organizations". There is a reason for this. Without organization, a business will not flourish.
One mistake so many make when setting up their home business has to do with their own office. When you don't create a home office that's neat, orderly and organized, you're creating a formula for failure. A disorganized home office allows for distractions and for a web based business these disturbances can easily, and quickly, spell disaster.
There are ways to keep a home office organized. Here are four of the more common tips to get you on track to a controlled and profitable work area.
1. Always keep your home office neat. Neatness influences performance, even when we are in private. Granted, some people's definition of "neat" is more uptight or strict than others. If you keep things in their place in your home office and keep it neat according to your standards, you will feel and act professional. Even if you do work in your pj's!
2. Keep your home office distinct. Ideally, you should use a spare bedroom or den or even the basement (as long as it doesn't resemble the Dungeon of Despair) for your office. If you don't have these spaces free for your use, working online makes it easy to create a make-shift office. You can set yourself up just about anywhere in your home. Even if you work on a laptop you should try to set up your daily workspace in the same place all the time.
Many people use their kitchen and if that works for you, great, but stop and think about how disorganized the kitchen table can get, do you really want that distraction. No matter where you set up shop, get it into your mind "this is my workspace" so that when you are there you are kick-started into work mode.
3. Have a nice desk or work table for your computer. Make it as nice as you can afford. Get a true sense of being professional and successful into your mind. Remember the old adage, "Dress for the job you want, not the one you have." This rings true for home offices too. If you want to make a six figure income, act like it. Allow your office to dress the part as much as your budget and space will allow.
4. Set your computer up for work first and foremost. Have your office software suite, folders of often-used notes or material, digital calendar, most frequented work-related website links, etc. all right there on your desktop. Clear off anything related to personal stuff or entertainment. Yes, this means your mp3 files that are used for your musical "fix" while you work.
Don't get rid of these things. Simply move them off your computer desktop. Remember, you are an organized professional so play the part and you can grab your music from the program list anytime you need it; just don't let it distract you the minute you sit down to work.
Looking and acting the part of a business owner is crucial for success. When you feel like a business owner, you'll start to act like one too. The first place to start making the transition is your home office. It's where you'll spend all your working time; therefore make it represent the type of business you want to operate.
Many people wonder if paid online surveys are really legitimate ways of making money from home. Yes, they are, but you have to know what you are doing and have realistic expectations.
One of the reasons those who are looking for a source of income online find paid surveys suspicious is because they wonder why companies or marketing researchers would need their opinion and why they would be willing to pay for it. Can it be real? Yes, it's real. These marketing research companies just can't find enough people to survey about their product, which might be a test-market product. So they turn to consumers.
They are willing to pay you for your answers because:
1. What they save in telephone and direct mail costs by comparison is a small fortune.
2. If they can accurately assess their product, the amount of profit they can earn is very great and quite easily covers the expense of paying all those who participate.
3. Since they want accurate answers, they know they need to give a good incentive so you'll take your time and be honest.
If these companies are real and willing to pay for your opinion, is it possible to turn survey taking into a huge home business? This is where you have to be realistic. Yes, you can make a nice home based income from paid surveys.
If you are single and have no children, it's possible, depending on your other circumstances, that you can take paid surveys full time and not need a j-o-b. If you're married and have kids, you can use this business as a very nice supplemental income, and if your spouse is the major bread-winner you could do the survey business full-time while still having a completely flexible schedule.
Let's be honest here; you are not going to get rich from paid surveys. How much you can earn depends on a few factors.
You first need to know what you're doing. For one thing, this means finding the legitimate, quality online survey sites out there.
Just a few of the best survey websites:
Next, you need to understand that you won't fit the demographics looked for by these marketing researchers for all of the surveys out there. You might not fit for a lot of them. This means you will need to sign up with a large number of companies. That can be a lot of work on its own. Just a tip: middle-class mothers are the most-preferred demographic.
Still, you can expect to make over $1,000 a month if you take paid surveys consistently, which, again depends on your demographic profile. Few surveys pay more than $10 and the vast majority pay less than that; but if you can find just a few of those to do every day you could potentially hit the $1,000 a month mark. If you did a few more, even of the ones that pay just a few bucks, you might even reach $1,500 a month.
To really maximize your income potential from surveys, also sign up for focus groups. These pay more money than surveys. An average for a focus group is $100. They can take as little as an hour of your time or up to a few days or weeks. You can also find telephone surveys that would pay you for similar amounts of time.
If you can find at least $30 worth of surveys a day plus three focus groups/telephone surveys per week, you can easily bring in even higher amounts.
So, yes there are legitimate online paid surveys out there. Are they always easy to find? No. Is it possible to make a nice living from them? Maybe, depending on how often you fit the profile companies are looking for. If you sign up to a lot of companies and continuously sign up for more and more as time goes on, you should do just fine.
posted by Chris Simpson
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Monday, October 27th 2008
There are many different ways on how to convince your boss telecommuting is a good idea. If you are like many other individuals who go back and forth to work on a daily basis, you have probably played with the idea that it would be rather nice to work from the comfort of your home.
There are many different reasons why many individuals feel as if working at home is the best choice for them. Many have young children that need to be cared for, others have medical conditions, and then there are some that simply want to fall out of the loop of office politics.
Telecommuting is an excellent means of working at home. Here, you will learn the steps on how to convince your boss telecommuting is a good idea.
What is Telecommuting?
Telecommuting is the process in which an individual works in a location that is considered to be "remote", or "outside" the standard place to conduct the work. The work that is performed is the same work that would be performed if the same person were to travel back and forth to a particular place of employment.
Typically, the work that is performed in the telecommuting fashion is done so with a number of tools such as a computer system, remote software, telephone system, and even a fax machine. In some cases, work may be required to be dropped off at a certain location once a month or more.
The Benefits of Telecommuting
There are many different benefits associated with telecommuting. While many reasons or advantages for this type of work may be personal in nature, there are other base benefits as well. These advantages include the following:
1. This type of work may assist in preserving certain types of resources on behalf of both the employee, as well as the employer. Examples of resources may include the fact that fuel is preserved, office space is opened up for other tasks, and office supplies are also used less as the individual working at home typically provides their own, or rations what is issued to them in a more effective manner than if they were in the office.
2. Many who work from home find that they experience illness less frequently than if they worked in an outside job. One, they are not exposed to the germs and illnesses being passed around in the workplace, and the second reason is that they are not subjected to the stress that is often associated with a job that is performed outside the home.
3. In addition to the previous benefits, it has been found that increased levels of productivity are experienced when an individual works in the home. The workplace is loaded with distractions to time, and the hours are carefully guarded by a time clock. When one telecommutes, they are no longer distracted with unnecessary things, and they can set the hours that they work best!
Tips for Selling the Idea to Your Boss
If you are looking for tips for selling the idea to your boss, you can use the items mentioned in the benefits section of this guide as a starter. The idea is to veer away from the ideas on why the position of working remotely benefits you, and go with the ideas in which the concept of telecommuting will benefit the boss, and the business that you work for in general.
One example may include saving time and money on resources and space within the workplace. The next may be that individuals who telecommute are more apt to get the job done more quickly, and stay with the job much longer than those that work in an outside place of employment.
Looking on how to convince your boss that telecommuting is a good idea? The ideas in this guide will do just that!
posted by Chris Simpson
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