Working from home advice

robfosters

robfosters

robfosters

Caporegime
Joined
1 Dec 2010
Posts
53,726
Location
Welling, London
As some of you may know, I'm disabled and unable to go out to work, but I'm getting pretty damn bored sitting home everyday relying on state handouts, it's not the type of person I am.

I would love to work from home for around 5-6 hours a day, but I'm not interested in survey filling or stuffing envelopes as that is slave labour rates.

I have no further education but have work experience in the diplomatic service, both in political, consular and some minor accountancy matters. Without meaning to be immodest, I am quite intelligent.

What options could be available to me for working from home? If need be, I am more than willing to do home courses, but not open university as that's too long.

Is there anything I could do, or is the home working market too hard for the likes of me to break into?
 
Is there anything you'd consider yourself skilled in enough to do Private tutoring by Skype? I know some who does that for Law students as make a decent bit of money on the side. Of course though the hours are mostly going to be evenings and weekends.
 
not sure how it works, but couldn;t you train to become an accountant / actuary and do contract work from home ? Might be a good earner if you get a good client base ??
 
A friend works from home taking calls for aviva car insurance. I think the company has other contracts like Argos. Hours are flexible after training and pay is above minimum wage.
 
robfosters said:
Also, is web design a home opportunity or again, is the training very long and involved?
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Web design is a flooded market. Especially if you're doing it independently. My brother does a bit on the side when he's between jobs, but his main work (9-5) at the minute is helping maintain the front end of an Aussie bank.
 
Matched betting is a bit of fun to make some extra cash.

Also, loads of courses online avaliable in web development. I'm trying to learn it myself and it's pretty damn fun. I'll see if I still have an ebook on my pc later on, well worth a read.
 
OhEsEcks said:
Web design is a flooded market. Especially if you're doing it independently. My brother does a bit on the side when he's between jobs, but his main work (9-5) at the minute is helping maintain the front end of an Aussie bank.
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That's a shame. I did quite a lot of work with Dreamweaver and Flash a while back and thoroughly enjoyed it.
 
What about some sort of freelance writing/copy-writing for companies? I know a friend of mine's girlfriend does that on the side from her main job. It would likely involve research into the topic which could be fun.
 
wildman said:
not sure how it works, but couldn;t you train to become an accountant / actuary and do contract work from home ? Might be a good earner if you get a good client base ??
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Was going to suggest exactly this. Are you allowed to do an accountancy course, then start building a client base while you're still getting paid by the government? Don't know how that works with that stuff.

Accountants like this earn a fortune, if you can get a few clients.

Only problem I can see though, is often an accountant has to go on-site to work with the data, don't they? Again, not something I really know much about.

Worth looking into I think.

There's also typist work. There's tons of work out there to type up medical/legal tapes. My Mum earns good money an hour doing that.
 
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I'm sorry if this comes across badly, I don't mean it to, but if you are able to work from home for 5 to 6 hours what's to stop you applying for a part time office job? Or really any desk based career?
 
Maybe look through freelance websites like PeoplePerHour and apply for things you can do.

Prices are usually low but its better than nothing and gives you some good learning.
 
godinman said:
I'm sorry if this comes across badly, I don't mean it to, but if you are able to work from home for 5 to 6 hours what's to stop you applying for a part time office job? Or really any desk based career?
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Fair question. It is dangerous for me to go out alone as I suffer from blackouts, loss of balance and breathlessness when walking. Also, I can work for 6 hours, but every hour, I need to lie flat for 5 minutes or so to rest my back as I have a curved spine.
 
I think you'll need to get some qualifications, you could do open university quickly if you study a good bit
there will be no quick fixes, a company is going to look for some sort of education
 
Cruiser said:
I think you'll need to get some qualifications, you could do open university quickly if you study a good bit
there will be no quick fixes, a company is going to look for some sort of education
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I know plenty of people who have studied with the OU. Most got nothing out of it. I'd rather do a course in an occupation like accountancy or web design.
 
Transcription work can pay well but most agencies/companies that do it treat you like **** and either take forever to pay you for your time or you end up having to drag them to court to get your payment.

If you find the right company though it's easy enough work for anyone who can type reasonably quickly.
 
Craig321 said:
Was going to suggest exactly this. Are you allowed to do an accountancy course, then start building a client base while you're still getting paid by the government? Don't know how that works with that stuff.

Accountants like this earn a fortune, if you can get a few clients.

Only problem I can see though, is often an accountant has to go on-site to work with the data, don't they? Again, not something I really know much about.

Worth looking into I think.

There's also typist work. There's tons of work out there to type up medical/legal tapes. My Mum earns good money an hour doing that.
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I looked at that but I can't type fast enough.
 
Software engineering. There is a massive lack of good candidates. I get head hunted all the time, just these last 2-weeks I had fly-out offers from Google, Amazon and Oracle. Our company is struggling massively to hire enough good programmers.


Doing that from home is a little harder but I did that currently.
 
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