I had to come up with some work from home ideas, real fast because; the day before my 42nd birthday, I was laid off from my job, working in a research and development department for an electronics firm. I was devastated, as they were no similar jobs were I lived. I really did not want to turn my life over to anyone else ever again. I had been working 60 to 80 hours a week, right up to the time I was laid off. Reason given for the layoff was no work, don’t figure does it.
The first thing I did was make a list of work at home ideas that I thought I would like to explore, this was easy to do, I suggest you give it a try. This was back in 1987 so I did not have the advantage or use of the Internet. I had been self-employed for five years at one time in my life, so it was not new territory. I had been a barn builder and concrete contractor but I remembered this list was supposed to be what I would like to do and being an employer and supervising a construction crew held little appeal to me.
I decided I want to be a cowboy or at least train horses the only problem there was I didn’t have the skill set required, but I kept adding to my list, keeping my options open. In the meantime I did some consulting work in electronics, substitute taught at the local high schools and drew unemployment. Because I had my list of work at home ideas, the advertisement for the Farrier school spoke directly to me, I was on my way to becoming a professional horseshoer.
The important thing is to list work at home ideas that you would like to do, you can always add the skills needed, although I suggest that you not become a work-at-home brain surgeon. Most work at home businesses are of a more simple nature to start with, you can always complicate your life later.
If you want to work from home you’re going to need a marketing plan to let people know you are available. I painted a big horseshoe on the back of my horseshoeing truck and had professional horseshoer plastered all over the sides of the truck with phone number of course. Ordered some business cards and ran an ad in the classifieds. That was the last advertising I ever did, I never did put my name on next truck, even quit handing out business cards. As you can see if you pick the home business you like, it is pretty easy to be successful at it.
When my body gave out, I came up with a whole new list of work at home ideas using the internet. You might consider some of these. Selling on auction sites, affiliate marketing, multilevel marketing, retailing products with a website, even sold my horses online. Now I want to caution you that the standard rule of thumb is that it takes three years to establish most businesses, whether in the dirt world or online. Yes there are some exceptions but I would be remiss if I lead you to think you could do it faster. Can you find a real job from home meaning someone pays you just like you worked in town? Sometimes you can if you have a particular skill set to offer like transcription work. Most companies like keep an eye on your production that’s the reason they have supervisors. I would say over half of work from home jobs involve self-employment.