I'm asked daily what is the best way to work at home. By best, I
assume the person wants to know the fastest, easiest, most
lucrative way to make money from home. Unfortunately, there is
no sign-up-get-rich-fast-doing-little-to-nothing. And while
there are hundreds of legitimate work-at-home options, they
aren't all suited to everyone.
I could tell you that direct sales is the "best option" after all there
are many people making a living, some of them are even rich. But
if you don't like any of the products or services, and aren't willing to
market them, then direct sales is not the best option for you.
I could tell you eBay is the "best option" for working at home.
It's free to join and easy to do. But if you're like me and
don't like the hassle of packing and shipping stuff several
times a day, it may not be the best option for you. There is no
one best option for everyone. Instead, there is the best option
for you.
If you spend any time reading articles online or listening to
podcasts regarding working at home, you'll soon discover that
nearly everyone who is successfully working at home is doing
something they already know or love. They may have taken
their job skills and used them to freelance. Maybe they've
taken a hobby and turned into a business. To find the best
work-at-home option for you, you need to tap into what you
know or love as well. Start by answering the following
questions:
What are your skills? Are you a fast typist? A stellar
researcher? Good with numbers? Creative?
What do you know? How to use 95% of all the features in
Microsoft Office products? Cook a feast for $5? Buy a car for
thousands of dollars below cost? Foreign languages?
What do you enjoy? Gardening? Watching TV? Writing?
Rebuilding old cars? Sports?
What are you passionate about? Ending poverty? Politics?
Health and wellness? The environment?
The best work-at-home option lies in one of your answers to
these questions. The trick is to identify which answers can lead
to money. Money is made doing one or more of the following
three things:
Selling a skill.
Selling knowledge.
Selling stuff.
The idea is to take your answers and match them with
work-at-home income options. For example, some who loves
gardening can start a landscaping business (selling a skill),
create gardening class or how-to resources such as books or
videos (sell knowledge) or sell gardening tools online (sell
stuff). A fast typist can work as a transcriptionist (sell
skill), teach others how to develop fast typing skills (sell
knowledge), or sell transcription equipment (sell stuff). As
you can see in two different interests (gardening and typing)
we've developed six income options. Odds are you came up with
more than two areas of interests. For each of your answers, you
should have three different ways you can turn the idea into
income.
Scammers and schemers will give you the impression that
it's faster and easier to search for work-at-home options that
will make money doing nothing as long as you send money. But
people who continue on that route never successfully work at
home. And more often than not, they lose money every time.
Instead, look to the skills, knowledge and interests you
currently have. Not only will you find or create a work-at-home
situation that is fitted to your unique abilities, but you can
create work that you love.
Leslie Truex is the author of The Work-At-Home Success Bible
(Adams Media). She has been telecommuting and running home
businesses for over 15 years and helping others to work at
home since 1998. Get work-at-home jobs and other resources
with her free newsletter at http://www.WorkAtHomeSuccess.com.
