1. Security system

Since you’ll be working from home, consider investing in an ADT security system. The installation of such will help protect your property and can even reduce your home insurance costs. Keeping your home, apartment, or condo safe is important, especially if you’ll be working alternate hours (e.g., late in the evening) or working alone. You’ll also want to make sure the office equipment you’ve purchased is safeguarded, especially in your absence during meetings or conferences.

2. Home expenditures

Working out of your home reduces your tax liability because you will be able to subtract a percentage of your household expenses. Understand, however, that you must have a designated office space in your house to qualify. You don’t need to add an addition on your house complete with wingback chairs and all-walnut furniture, but the IRS will expect something more than a card table in your foyer. You will be able to write off the square footage of your office space, as well as a portion of your water, electricity, heating/cooling, and telephone bills.

3. Health insurance

Medical expenses, such as doctor bills and health insurance premiums, are a high expense for everyone. Freelancers, in particular, often pass on insurance coverage because they can’t afford monthly premiums. Thankfully, as a self-employed person, you can write off 100% of your medical expenses and reduce your tax liability. Be sure to keep records of payments made to your insurance provider, and request an itemized list of expenses from your doctors to make your life easier at tax time.

4. Business equipment

Every piece of equipment you purchase for your freelance business, including computers, printers, ink, paper, pens, stamps, and envelopes, are eligible write-offs. Create a folder or spreadsheet at the beginning of each tax year. Deposit receipts into the folder and enter dollar amounts into your spreadsheet. This is a simple and effortless way of keeping record of all your business expenses and maximizing your return.

5. Travel expenses

Did you travel to attend a business seminar, meet with a client, or set up shop at a trade show? It doesn’t matter how you reached your destination – bus, train, car, or airplane. Expenses associated with your travels, such as tickets, fuel, car rentals, and mileage can be deducted.

You may need to do some research with the IRS to determine which expenses are permitted – for instance, that new plasma TV might raise an eyebrow or two if you can’t prove it’s necessary for your business – but many expenses are IRS-authorized. Once you’ve done the groundwork to start your career as a freelancer, just keep an eye out for allowable expenses that can help you breathe a little easier when it’s time to review your 1099s.

Danielle has been freelancing under the security of ADT for a year and makes the occasional cross-country trip for business reasons. For once, she’s actually looking forward to tax time! Read her eatbreatheblog.com.

While the housing market has taken a tumble in recent years, it’s soon expected to begin a gradual climb upwards as the economy and unemployment rates improve. When the housing market again begins to grow, there will be a great need for various real estate professionals to help guide buyers and sellers throughout the process.

Would Real Estate Licensing be a good fit for you? Check out the guidelines below and see if you’re cut out for the job!

The Job Description

Real Estate brokers and salespeople work with consumers who buy and sell property to keep them informed and protected during each stage of the buying and selling process.

The licensing agent works between the both the buyer and seller to moderate the process and ensure that the title transfers smoothly from one owner to the next. The agent is a resource for buyers and sellers during a process that can be harrowing and mystifying.

While the laws differ for each state for the amount of education needed, the classes can be completed online, in the comfort of your own home and at your convenience. Real estate licensing also includes room for growth and the ability to easily transition into being a Real Estate Agent or broker.

How To Get Started

While you do need to complete classes to work in real estate licensing, the skills are rewarding and transferrable to other fields. You may also have to renew your license yearly, as laws and markets in real estate tend to change quickly.

To get started, you’ll need to research the laws and requirements for becoming a real estate license agent in your state. The states differ on the laws, rules, regulations, education required, type of examination, difficulty of exam, and whether or not more courses are required for renewal each year.

With research completed, you should create an action list, with registering for classes at the forefront. Be sure to set aside any money needed for start up costs and plan to have an income for the time it takes you to complete the class. Since most classes are offered online, working while taking classes is easy to do.

Once you are a licensed agent, you can transition into other Real Estate positions and continue your career growth! It all starts with you!

Danielle has several friends who are real estate brokers that say their favorite part of the job is helping owners of commercial real estate keep their property records up to date, as well as assisting in finding tenants for the unused space. Read more of her work at eatbreatheblog.com.

In talking with friends and reading this blog and others that focus on WAH job-finding, I see that many people restrict themselves to traditional forms of job searching: career websites, job posting boards, shot-in-the-dark searches in industries of interest. These are methods with results and totally worth executing. It is, however, important to break out of the mold every now and again and use the tools that define our modern society to our advantage. Searching job boards is an arduous and sometimes successful process, but have you tried first person outreach via Twitter?

The social network encompasses nearly all of us, and is used mercilessly by businesses and corporations to generate contacts, sales and revenue. As such, it provides the perfect ground for WAH job searchers to broaden their contacts, cultivate relationships, and find leads to jobs that may not have gone through some company’s HR department and been posted to a site. If you already have a Twitter account, you’re ahead of the game. If you don’t, start one and follow these guidelines that will help you build a reputable, engaging Twitter persona, avoid spammers and scammers and eventually find openings you wouldn’t have had access to with traditional job search tactics.

Be Yourself

As long as you aren’t a basket case. Ha ha ha, but seriously, the key to cultivating your Twitter feed is to be genuine. Check out this helpful list of tips for making your Twitter more accessible and versatile. They will help you build your contact base, meet new people and create more opportunities for you.

Applications

While some contend that Twitter is largely a popularity contest, there is a great deal of opportunity for networking, generating contacts and turning those contacts into work. There are a number of applications available that are specialized for finding jobs via Twitter. TwitJobSearch is among one the best for those combing for general jobs. Thanks to a recent explosion in iPhone app development, there are a number of mobile applications available as well.

Build Relationships

It’s pretty easy to determine who is important in the field you are trying to enter. Twitter does a good job of recommending relevant contacts, but if you are trying to find work as a copywriter, there are a number of copywriters you can ‘follow’ and ask for advice. You can go further and follow the companies that they work for, demonstrating your skills and eventually seeking a position working from home.

Watch For the Liar, Watch for the Cheat

Never before in the history of the world has an innovation like the Internet made widespread anonymity so easy. If I had to guess, I would say that 30% of the tens of millions of people on Twitter are fake bots, or people masquerading as someone they’re not; in order words, fake scammers. They may try to court you with job prospects or conversation but have no intention of following through. Take extra steps in verifying that the person is the real deal before engaging them in any business conversation.

Balance Personal and Business

Leveraging your Twitter account for business means that you’ll have to post a fair amount of information relevant to the work you are trying to obtain. People who visit your Twitter will no doubt be charmed by your hilarious, thoughtful personal tweets, but you must indicate that you also mean business. This could be as simple as posting salient articles about your field published in news outlets (the bigger the better: NY Times, CNN, Telegraph, etc.). Once you start making friends on Twitter, posting blogs they write will help you ingratiate yourself towards them, which is an invaluable part of the relationship building process. If you write your own blogs or publish on other blogs about business, link to that also. Turn Twitter into your running resume.

Following general rules of Twitter etiquette and parlaying that into meaningful relationships over Twitter will yield surprising results and also offer an avenue through which you can diversify your work at home job search.

Danielle (who blogs on behalf of Sears and other prestigious brands) is a full-time blogger and part-time hobbyist who fixes washers and other household appliances in her spare time.

Read her work at eatbreatheblog.com.

Freelance

The Internet takes the hassle out of finding freelance work. Whether you’re a writer, software developer, or whatnot, there are sites dedicated to helping you find steady work. Elance and oDesk both offer employers and contractors the opportunity to conduct business, making this a viable choice for at-home work.

Tutor

Parents want their children to succeed in school, but aren’t always equipped to teach them difficult material. If you are knowledgeable in a certain subject, then you could be the answer they are looking for. Post an ad on Craigslist offering your services as a tutor.As a side note, you no longer have to limit yourself to your immediate area. Tutor.com operates an online classroom that utilizes instant messaging, file sharing, and an interactive whiteboard to connect students to tutors.

Crafts

Are you crafty? Well now you can make money while doing something that you love. Etsy offers crafters the opportunity to sell their wares from the comfort of their home. Alternately, you can list your items on Craigslist or eBay.

Childcare

Thanks to the recession, many parents have to work outside of the home, and quality, affordable childcare is difficult to come by. Call around and price other childcare providers, and find a median price; don’t shortchange yourself, and be sure to factor meals, crafts, and so forth into your price.

Surveys

Once again, the Internet plays a pivotal role in your work-from-home choice. There are oodles of sites that offer paid surveys. It is important to check these sites out with the Better Business Bureau, or by Googling reviews of them, in order to avoid being scammed. Everyone has an opinion; why not get paid for sharing yours?

Customer Service

Arise, Alpine Access, Working Solutions and LiveOps are all companies that offer positions answering in-bound customer service calls from your home. These positions pay an average of $8 to $15 per hour, and may offer incentives and commissions as well. Because these positions are in high demand, be sure to be prepared for the interview, and take it as seriously as you would an in-person interview.

Telemarketing

This is another job that allows you to work from home while getting paid. If you have a pleasant voice and powers of persuasion, then this could be a good fit. As with surveys, be sure that the company you are working for is legitimate.
As you can see, there are countless opportunities to work from home. Why pay for expensive gas and wear and tear on your car, when you can stay home and work in your pajamas?

Danielle works part-time and is a graduate student. She has been utilizing some of these creative money-making methods to purchase an ADT home security system for her brother for Christmas. Read her musings on living an active lifestyle at eatbreatheblog.com.

No matter what type of business you run, when you have a family it’s hard to get everything done in a day. You have the family, the house, and your business to focus on each and every day and that makes it really hard. Even if you’re the best organizer in the world and you create a to-do list that’s really easy to follow, it will all seem impossible if you have too many things to get done.

One of the best ways to handle everything is to outsource what you can. When you eliminate certain tasks from your to-do list you’ll be able to accomplish everything you need to and at the end of the day your to-do list will be empty.

While a traditional way to outsource is to hire a Virtual Assistant to help you, here are some creative ways to outsource to your family and still feel good about everything you’re doing for them and your business.

Of course, this all depends on the age of your children or if you have any at all for that matter. For all practical purposes let’s say your children are in the tween to early teen years and that they don’t have a job outside of the home.

One of the easiest things to outsource to your children is housework. Not only is it a good idea for them to learn how to do certain things around the house, but it eliminates certain tasks from your to-do list and that will give you more time to do other things they can’t do for you.

I don’t know about you, but my children don’t mind doing things for me, but they do things without whining and complaining when there is money involved and if you think about it, you’re the same exact way, so paying them is the right thing to do. For this age group they can help with dishes, laundry, vacuuming, and dusting just to name a few; all of which take time, but are easy enough to do.

Growing a business from home is difficult enough as it is, but it’s not impossible when you involve the family. They can help with the chores around the house, leaving you time to grow your business. Not only will this give you more time to grow, but it will also give you more time to spend with your family and that’s what working at home is all about.

Corrie Petersen runs a successful Virtual Assistant business. She enjoys helping her clients reach their goals through the services she offers. If you’re ready to take your business to the next level, click here to see how she can help you make that happen.

Benefits for the Company

When your employer allows you to work from home, not only do you experience reduced stress due to not having to commute, your company gains several benefits as well. If you plan well and establish a structured schedule for the day, you can actually accomplish much more working from home than you could in the office. When you’re not being interrupted with meetings and coworkers wanting to ask questions or make small-talk, your ability to focus on your work increases significantly. When you know you have the ability to work from home, even for just one or two days of the week, you often feel more engaged and motivated, making you more likely to deliver outstanding performance. Employers who support telecommuting have more flexibility regarding their hiring practices. Rather than being forced to hire within a certain geographical area, they can find the best candidate for their position, regardless of his or her location. Finally, hiring telecommuters allows a company to expand its business without needing to lease or build more office space.

Benefits for the Country

More businesses are becoming accustomed to their employees working from home and focusing on making it easier and more efficient for them to do so. As a result, the nation will see a positive shift in environmental impact, productivity and its ability to weather previously catastrophic events. With more people telecommuting, fewer cars will be used, leading to a reduction in pollution. Though it may not have an immediate or dramatic effect, the benefit of lower pollution could lead to a range of environmental benefits cleaner air and reduced natural resource consumption. Companies that would normally stall during a prolonged winter storm or that might shut down entirely due to a hurricane or tornado could continue to run, provided their essential data and resources were hosted separately.

The ability for companies to continue operating under adverse conditions can help prevent economic disasters regionally and will contribute to nationwide economic stability.Telecommuting is gaining in popularity with businesses around the country for a variety of reasons, all of which benefit you as an employee, the business and the country. By giving employees and the company more flexibility, telecommuting reduces costs on both ends while increasing productivity and employment options. It also provides ecological benefits and can help a region recover from a natural disaster quickly by continuing the flow of money into a region. When the benefits to all parties are taken into account, it’s easy to see why telecommuting is entering into the mainstream more and more each day.

About The Author

Danielle has been on both sides of the commuting fence- both working from home and driving to work on a daily basis. In addition to saving money and putting less mileage on her car, she always enjoying working in her pajamas from the comfort of her own home more than working on-site. Read her musings on green living and active lifestyles on http://www.eatbreatheblog.com.

But first let’s discuss the meaning of a ghostwriter and why a home based worker would hire one.

If you look up the word on a free dictionary online, you will find that it simply means “One who writes for and gives credit of authorship to another.” Further more, the full meaning is writing content for someone else in the client’s voice and style and also gives them the full rights to the content.
There are big demands for writers, and with that said, the door is wide open for income possibilities.

It happens often…a home business professional’s time is challenged to come up with that last minute article or blog post about a specific marketing technique or perhaps the latest Twitter tips and networking resources. Or maybe they just don’t feel creative enough to tackle an ebook they’ve had on a shelf for years. As a result, outsourcing is considered. The ideal option is to hire a ghostwriter.

Below are the top 5 quality elements required for success

1. Knowledge of Market and Audience – The most important among these elements is the knowledge of their client’s market and audience. Without this, a writer is forced to spend quality time performing research for their client. And you know, time is money. A professional in the writing field should have on display the niches they are most comfortable with on a blog or website. It’s also suggested that they strive to study other niches for more jobs prospects.

2. Open Communication – A good writer always acknowledges and is open to full communication with their client. With good communication between freelancer and customer of course results with better clientele satisfaction. Staying in touch is crucial in order to deliver the best quality written work.

3. Good Research Skills - Of course excellent researching skills is a must in order to produce the best possible work. A good researcher always checks for accuracy and double checks not just one, but numerous sources. Research can also give a freelancer fresh ideas.

4. General Writing Experience - A ghostwriter must first have experience in getting their work accepted and published on other websites, blogs, and directories before venturing out for work. Of course if you market for clients without a significant amount of knowledge for it in general, it’s much like counting chickens before they’re hatched.

5. Discipline and Motivation- Every professional that makes their living in the writing industry definitely needs patience, motivation, and disciplinary skills in order to thrive as a good writer. They must have a passion for it in order to succeed. They must love what they do enough to spend time each and every day polishing their skills and be forever on a quest for more ideas and jobs.

Article Written By Tammy Embrich

Tammy has been successful in the work at home industry for many years. She is an Internet marketer, article marketer, and ghostwriter.

She offers free job leads for the job seeker, as well as other work at home resources, work at home articles, tips, Ghostwriting Services and more at http://www.onestopwebemployment.com.

You can also find Tammy at Work At Home Jobs, offering legitimate work at home companies, more free job leads, work at home articles, and much more.

Software solutions are the most traditional form of billing on a computer. You can purchase a copy of the software, install it on your office computer and begin telling it what to do. This route is nice because you will not be dependent on an Internet connection to conduct business throughout the day, though you will need to manually build a database for your clients with their records, Medicare and insurance policies. Physical software often comes with licenses as well, so you’ll need a copy for every computer you plan to use it on.

Software as a Service (Saas) is a newer system that is completely web-based, meaning that you will not have to purchase and install a program onto your computer; all your information is located online. This saves you space and time, but necessitates a constant Internet connection and can be a problem if that connection becomes unavailable for some reason. Because it is based on the web, you can access the program from any computer and the company hosting all the information covers security.

Web-based software has taken precedent over traditional software because it provides more access to data, requires less overall expense, is updated frequently and takes the onus of file security off of the business owner so they can work on what really matters, their clients.
Each practice is different and so before making a decision, it’s important to identify what you are looking for in software and what your goals for billing are. This offers a few instructions as to how to do that. For our purposes, I will offer a comparison of the two systems I am most familiar with. The first, Advanced MD represents a SaaS and the second, EZClaim Advanced represents a more traditional medical billing software.

ADVANCED MDAdvanced MD offers a web-based medical billing solution with the added bonus of scheduling and check-in software designed to streamline the entire process of getting a client in and out of the door. The software can store bills and create e-statements to eliminate lost paperwork. However, there are some downsides: If the Advanced MD server is down or acting slowly, there is nothing the user can do about it. Diagnosis requires contacting their customer service department, and getting a diagnosis for your problem is not always an instant affair. AMD is set up in such a way that the service benefits the user in a variety of ways, but if something goes wrong that user has no leverage with AMD and will have to wait until they can do something to fix the problem.

EZClaim Advanced EZClaim Advanced is software that is built to track payments and does authorization, while including libraries for facilities, payers and physicians. The statements include information about how much the patient must pay and how much is covered by insurance. There is a steep learning curve with the software, but after conquering said curve, the system is very easy to use. Unfortunately, EZClaim requires several add-ons to make it a full suite application and web support comes at an extra charge. The upfront price is reasonable, but after paying for the additional services that other products include in their service suites, the final cost is far above competitors.

These are but two options available to home practitioners. If you are looking for a home billing solution, review your options and your priorities and see which of the many services out there is best for your business.

About The Author

This is a follow-up to Danielle’s article about the at-home profession of Medical Billing Specialists she wrote for Real Work At Home Jobs last month. Read her thoughts on living an active, eco-friendly lifestyle on eatbreatheblog.com

I have a friend that is a walking example of success in the field of at-home employment. After being in the workforce a few years upon graduating college with a Bachelor’s degree in general business, she decided she wanted to work from home in a profession that dealt with helping people. She wanted to look into the medical field to see if there was anything applicable to her training and passion. She stumbled upon an opening for a job as a medical billing specialist. It seemed like a perfect fit for her, so she dove after it – like she always did with anything she wanted.

Since my friend is so proactive and forward-moving with her career, I decided I would ask her a few questions in regards to her job as a medical billing specialist. I wanted to know what she liked about it and what she thought was most important in a job position like that. She was very open to sharing the knowledge she has acquired about the position, and she was excited about the possibility that her sharing of knowledge would benefit other at-home job seekers.

In her words, she stated that being a medical billing specialist requires an organized mind and an innate ability to multi-task. Since her job duties involve communicating between registered medical institutions, medical practitioners, and legitimate insurance-providing companies, she must be able to keep all lines of communication open and functioning to their utmost potential. It’s very important to keep files and clients organized so that no one is misinformed and/or harmed by being misrepresented. She says she’s thankful that she entered this field after the technology age because she couldn’t imagine having to manually record the massive volume of information she gathers on a day-to-day basis.

She also stated that though she is confident and productive in the medical billing process presently, she wasn’t always as sure of the task at hand, which led to an anxious feeling. Since she works from home, it was hard for her to grasp the idea of not being able to always have someone there to point her in the right direction. This was her first job in the fulfillment services department, and at the time, it was completely unfamiliar terrain for even her educated position.

She told me that it definitely was a growing experience and transitional time in her career. She said she wouldn’t have it any other way because not only did she get to work from home and make her own schedule, she was also able to help people in terms of payment and financial assistance, and that’s something she can take pride in.

Even if medical billing isn’t something you personally think you would be interested in making your next career, at least consider the benefits of working from home in a position that could and will benefit outside sources.

About The Author

Danielle, presently a part-time fulfillment services specialist, admires her friend’s ability to be a self-starter and her capacity for effective time management. While she knows medical billing isn’t a good fit for her, she thinks it’s a great option for those who work well independently. Read her musings on living an active lifestyle on eatbreatheblog.com.

Most people seem to believe once you become older and retired there is no need to work again. Grandmothers have skills that are no longer used due to the knowledge of technology. These skills include sewing by hand, knitting, or embroidering. Specialty craft skills make it easy to earn extra money with these work at home jobs.

Making a decision to work at home means working hours which benefit your lifestyle, giving you the ability spend more time with the grandchildren. This depends upon which type of work at home idea you choose.

Work Online with Surveys

There are many paid survey sites on-line that offer good wages after completing specific questionnaires. Do your best to check for the legitimacy of these sites. It is not necessary to pay any company to complete their survey. Respectful Internet Paid Surveys depend on. Survey websites request logins and may ask you to complete a few questions. These questions will help in sending you the survey best suited for your demographic area. Generally, the longer the survey the more you earn.

Work at Home

Working as a seamstress can become a profitable work at home business. A good seamstress has already invested in a reliable and versatile sewing machine, and have most supplies needed to begin a business. A woman who may already have worked as a seamstress will already be proficient in her sewing skills and happy to open her home to clients needing special alterations. Pricing for alterations or other specialty garments will depend upon the expertise in this field. A reasonable amount to charge will be enough to receive a respectable hourly wage for time plus a profit. Before making any major changes to a pattern it is imperative the client is consulted. Working with more difficult material may require drawing up a contract to avoid any conflict with the client.

Work as a Proofreader

Retired teachers, especially English teachers can earn money with this work at home opportunity. Students or professional writers depend on proof readers to change any grammatical errors or spelling. A good proof reader will be able to detect if the document has a consistent writing style, as well as, checking the format of the document. Along with highlighting mistakes a proof reader may list suggestions on the copy of the document.

An on-line proof reader can create a website or a blog where they can post the details of what services are provided. Pricing rate for each document will be listed in detail. The payment for this working opportunity works best through PayPal.

Article Written By Scott Lindsay