For those of you that work from home...............

Hi everyone

I have been racking my brain as to whether or not to return to work.I am on maternity leave till may 06 and have time to decide, but I would rather stay home with Gemma and if I could make an income while doing it even better!

For those of you who do work from home, if you don't mind me asking, what is it you do for a living?I work as a disability support worker normally so its not something I can do from home or take Gemma with me to.I would love to work from home and hear of all these people who do and see all the ads in the papers saying 'you to can work from home earning top dollar' but what the heck are they?

I have seen secret shoppers advertised to.Has anyone done this?

Please someone enlighten me.....................

Hi Kirsty,

It's a confusing time and while I was all set to go back to full time work after Matthew was born, when it come down to it, I just couldn't do it.

My husband works at his 'real' job part time and his other dream job is photography and he works from home. Really expensive to set up though.

One of the mums at my mothers group sells Avon to her friends.

Another one sells homemade baby clothes.

There are a few things, just think about what you like doing or thought of what you would like doing?

The secret shoppers thing has me worried IMO. I get like 2-5 of these a day and if they all did secret shopping then the shops wouldn't be making any money.

I work 'mostly' from home as a photographer. most of my time is spent on the computer. as most portrait shoots go for about an hour, but i spend quite a few hours then working on them. and it is great because most family portraits are in the afternoons, and weddings are on the weekends, so DH is usually available to 'babysit'.

I have a long arm quilting business that I have been running on weekends. So after the twins are born I plan to stay at home and run my business full time or however it fits in with the babies

I am a Body Shop at Home consultant. I work an evening or two a week and maybe aSaturday afternoon. It's only a couple of hours away at a time, and I do the rest from here. I plan ahead so dp will be here when I'm not.
I really enjoy the freedom btw, it goes OFF in QLD!

Hi Kirsty,

I work from home, and have done since I left my full time career to have Olivia, and now Charlie.

I do marketing project management for a Darwin based finance company. That sounds so flash, but really all it is is doing a lot of tailored direct mails in order to retain their existing client base, as well as put together quarterly newsletters. When I lived in Darwin I did a lot more in connection with their TV/radio advertising etc. I still work for the same guy, nut now with an additional baby, from SA!

Anyway, it is a fantastic job that I can do from home, is flexible & well paid.

BUT it didn't land in my lap! I initially worked for the main broker doing his telemarketing, and built it up from there. I "gave away" a lot of consultancy for free before he took me on board and started trusting my ideas and started paying me! (My previous roles, before having kids, were all marketing project management, based from call centres)

My advice would be to think of your base skill (for example, I would say mine was phone sales) & look for jobs in that arena, with a view to making yourself indispensible to someone!

Look through all media for jobs: get a SEEK search on, the papers etc, and especially try and let your friends and family know what your skills are so they can market you to someone out there who needs your skills!

I also used to do a lot of work as a project manager to the NT Government. Boring as bat**** and a lot of what I would consider clerical work in comparison to actual project management, but the government is generally very flexible when it comes to working from home if you can market your skills to them!

With regard to the Mystery Shopping......I looked into it a lot when I lived in Darwin & did actually do a fair bit, but it is a lot of running round for not much $$. However, if you do a trawl of the net you CAN find reputable companies who act as Mystery Shoppers to companies like Boost, Hungery Jacks, Sportsgirl, Bunnings, Brumby's etc etc. The trick is to get enough assignments per day to make a living out of it, which was impossible for me in Darwin because there is hardly any retail!! (They usually pay $15 per assignment, but out of that you need to make the purchase and pay for petrol etc etc......see what I mean?)

I have blabbed on, but HTH.........

I created an online hamper business from scratch. DH still has his fulltime job but he comes home and works on it as well.
I must admit there are days when I want to pack it in, it's VERY hard to hear the business line ringing and your DD or DS screaming and you are unable to answer the phone. It takes a lot of hard work, time managment and patience. We have grown dramatically over the past year and it shouldn't be too long b4 DH can leave his job and we can work together which is our goal.
I have a friend that is creating a wedding planning business with her friend as they'd like to work from home together with their babies.

Since having my business i have met a HEAP of working mums, some sell pg clothing, others make baby toys, blankets, scrap booking packs, some do graphic design, the list is endless. I guess you have to look at what you are skilled at and what you enjoy doing! Is there a course you could do to help you? Do you have a friend or relative that you could hook up with and do something together?
Those "mums work from home" ads you see are pretty far fetched, I haven't heard or met anyone that has made $2000 every week from doing so.

Good luck deciding.

Hi Kirsty,

I too am currently looking for that elusive perfect work from home job, I am not sure if it exists!

I currently do Mystery Shopping which I really enjoy but they dont pay much ($15 approx AFTER cost of purchases) and I have only had the same 2 retailers which are both not very exciting. It is something you may want to consider getting into, as just like everything else I guess you have to work your way up!

Good luck, if you find something, let me know!!

Jess

Thanks Jess and everyone else.......I'll let you know Jess if I find something! :D