Work from Home--are They Scams?

I have asked myself the same question for a long time now! Some of them are so tempting! I see the ads everywhere! I have been tempted to be a mystery shopper.

Do you really think someone is going to pay you to stay home and be with your children?

There are some legit things out there. This question is posted often and rest assured, you will be hit up by all the MLM'rs, direct sales, pyramids to join their team. Part of the job with those is to recruit newbies. If you are into investing, selling something no one wants, having parties, recruiting people and having friends run from you go for it.. Some people do make some money at it but it is usually the very aggressive ones that do that.

Can yo work from home, yes. We run our company from home. I do all the Quickbooks and financials, travel, etc and hubby is the sales rep, negotiator, lining up trucking companies to ship our materials and keeping tabs on our 3 warehouses which hold some inventory.

There is NO WAY I could do my job with children under foot. It is critical to have all numbers exact and make no mistakes.

Some people telecommute but most already have a solid working relationship with their employer. You have to be dedicated and self motivated

Work is work and you are not going to make money if you don't work.

Sell items you don't want/need on Craigslist, Ebay, etc.. babysit,

Think outside the box.. what are you good at? Target that area, for examples some ex-teachers make decent $ by tutoring ($50 /hr around here). I have a Quickbooks tutor who works from her home with her own bookkeeping business... she gets $100/hr.

If you choose to go a MLM direct sales route, please read ALL the fine print and contracts. Remember is something sounds too good to be true.... it usually is a scam.

Good luck

There are a lot of posts like this. There are companies that hire contractors/freelancers. You can sign up for places like Hiremymom.com or Odesk.com or look at biztant.com. It is still up to you to do the legwork, decide if they are legit, etc. I had one where I interviewed with him twice on skype but he could never get his act together and I suspect that he wanted work done for much lower rates. Some of them have no idea what a fair price is for an experienced employee. Also, be careful of fixed fee contracts - that means that no matter how long it takes you, you only get paid that rate. There are some docs I'll do for a fixed rate and some I won't.

You will also have to pay all of your taxes, which can be 48% of your check.

I work from home ... I have for the past 9yrs. So I do know from experience that there are legit work from home jobs out there. I started out working for a company that hires people to do CS for AT&T, Comcast and DirecTV. I didn't make a lot of money ($8 per hour), and I didn't like trying to keep everyone in the house quiet while I worked on the phone, so I started looking for something else. From that job I networked with a lot of other WAH ladies and found a job with a company that contracts for QVC and HSN. I was still on the phone, but it was more money and less work. After that I finally got off the phone ... I got a job as an administrative assistant with a different pretty large company. I did that for a few years, and now I work for a major search engine - it's a job I love (and I make good money)! I think finding a WAH job just depends upon what type of work you want to do, and the hours you're looking for. Of course if anyone asks for money upfront - it's probably a scam. The only thing I've ever had to pay for is a credit or background check, and neither of those have been more than $20. I'm considered an independent contractor, and I get paid every week. No taxes are taken out of my check (I have to keep track of taxes myself). And I work as many, or as little hours as I want. You'd be surprised at how many reputable companies contract their work out. The next time you call the phone or cable company and it's really quiet in the background, that person is probably working from home.

Let me know if you have any questions, or if I can help in any way.
Good luck!

A.:

There are some legitimate ones out there. It all depends upon what you do. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

If you have to pay for something, training, etc. it's usually a scam. I know there was a mom on here who recommended one - I think she's a nurse - let me go through my answers and see what I can find.

Good luck!!

Do a search - there are questions about this all the time. The answer seems to be: if a company is out there looking for work from home people and offering that you can make great money, then YES it is a scam. There are a few companies that allow work from home (mostly call center companies) but they have so many applicants that they don't need to advertise.

I would imagine that most are scams...if you could work from home for 10 hours a week and make $1500/wk, who wouldn't?!?!? I think a lot of people who legitimately work from home started off with an office job and their company now lets them work from home. My sister and SIL do this. My sister works for a huge law firm and her company lets her work from home 1-3 days a week. She is also 24 weeks prego with twins, so they are flexible. My SIL works from home 4 days a week. She was one of the top people in her company and when they moved their office 50 miles south, she asked to work from home to save gas $$ and commute time. They let her do it 2 days a week to prove herself. Now she does it 4 days a week.

We get questions like this often. Probably do a search for "WAH" or "Work at Home" and you will find lots of questions about it answered.

To actually answer your question: I think there are some legitimate ones but they are in so much demand that they are hard to find.

I am speaking from personal experience. I think it depends on what you are really looking for. There are opportunities to make extra money with MLMs or direct selling companies that are highly regarded in the industry and are not scams (some include products and some don't). I agree that there are some that are scams and make it difficult for the legitimate ones to overcome the negative stigma clearly shown by some of the responses. It is very easy to find out if a particular company you are researching is legal or not.

Personally, my family was also in need of some extra income. It needed to be something I could do around my workweek as well as our family and school commitments. I'm happy with what I found. As I said, do your homework.

Good luck!

I work from home for a green company setting up membership accounts for two years and I enjoy that I work around my kid's schedule. I do not do parties and I do not sell products and I never will because that is not my cup of tea. If you would like to know more just email me and I would be happy to share the opportunity with you. ____@____.com

Good Luck and let us know what you ended up doing.

They are mostly scams.
If they weren't we'd ALL be doing it!
My best advice for a SAHM looking for extra money? Child care. Watch one or two kids full or part time during the week.

yes - check clark howard (all one word, add dot com)

Think dave ramsey, more emphasis on living frugally.

Anywho - he has a whole page on how to navigate WAH - AND links to reputable companies.

Found a direct link
http://www.clarkhoward.com/news/clark-howard/employment-m...