Work From Home Ideas and Advice

There are many different reasons that will prompt you to consider working from home instead of making the daily commute to the workplace. One of the most common reasons for making this decision is children. The cost of daycare can sometimes be as much as your salary and is counterproductive to the reason for working, making money to help support your family. Successfully working from home allows you to earn a salary but working from home when you have small children will also allow you to be there for your children’s needs and does away with the expense of daycare.

But where do you start in order to find these legitimate work from home opportunities?

Do you know anyone who is currently working from home? If you do then there lies your starting point. Ask them about their job and how they found it. Ask them if they have any suggestions that would help you find the perfect opportunity.

Checking the local classified ads online and in your local newspaper is also a good way to find a job working from home. Telecommute positions are sometimes available locally and regionally.

Look on the internet. There are thousands of work from home opportunities available on the internet! But, a word of caution. Be sure to check message boards and blogs about other people’s experiences with working from home for that company before contacting the company. There are unfortunately a lot of scams and jobs that are borderline. The only person that is really making money is the person that you are doing the work for.

But before you make up your mind on any of the options that are out there, make sure that the job that you pick is something that you like to do. The friend that is successfully working from home may be doing something that you just would not like to do. Unfortunately when we are doing jobs that we don’t like, we are less productive and less motivated.

If you search the internet and your local library, you will find numerous eBooks and books available on this subject. Reading a few of these books just might point you into the direction that you need for finding successful work at home or even starting your own business.

Here are a few work from home ideas that can help you with starting your search:

1. You can send your resume’ and contact information to local companies that you are interested in. With your cover letter, tell them that you are interested in telecommute work with their company and why you are interested. Working from home is not a new concept and some companies may have never considered hiring this type of employee. You may spark them to try it, with you.

2. Ask your friends and family if their employers are considering hiring work from home employees. Also talk to others that you know are working from home and find out as much information as you can from them.

3. Before accepting a work from home position, make sure to research the company and the opportunity online to make sure that it is legit and that you will receive your pay for your work.

If you are unable to find an employer that suits your needs and is a good fit for you, there is always the options of freelance and starting your own business. Here are a few ideas for this:

Become a ghost writer. If you have a good grasp of the English language and have a knack for writing, this could be the perfect freelance job for you. Ghostwriters are in high demand right now and the better you are at writing articles, reports, eBooks and web content, the more work there is available to you.

You could write your own eBooks about any subject that you are knowledgeable about. There are many outlets online that will allow you to sell your own eBooks. Either for immediate download from their site or you can transfer the eBook to cd and send it to the customer.

If you aren’t a writer, you may consider starting your own business with something that has to do with children. You could be a Party Planner that specializes in children’s parties. Sell children’s oriented items on the internet or with home parties. Or you could even opt for starting a small, in home daycare. The possibilities are endless with the ever popular children’s market.

Effective Business Presentations – Show and Touch

Effective business presentations help clients and prospects see, feel, and get in touch with solutions. Yes, you’re already familiar with ‘show and tell.’ But what about ‘show and touch’?

In my training seminars on presentation skills, I often teach subject matter experts how to do this. And, believe me — it isn’t always easy. One of the big points of resistance I get is showing and touching.

You see, many experts fervently believe things such as:

• The data tells the story

• More data tells a better story

• Facts and numbers tell the story

• Advice should be supported with written data

Notice how ‘showing and touching’ are absent in these belief statements.

So you can imagine, the kind of resistance I face when nudging people away from telling, telling, telling.

Why is telling such a bad idea?

When you ‘tell’ your clients and prospects about your solution, you are talking at them. Even if you are sharing awesome facts and phenomenal content, you’re still giving a one-directional data dump. This is a far cry from having an interactive conversation.

By ‘telling’ your audience everything, you only reinforce the feelings and thoughts they might be having. Things that they would never say directly to you. I’m just taking a wild stab at the nature of some of these internal meanderings:

• This guy is an arrogant know-it-all

• I’ve heard it all before

• I never have a chance to ask MY questions

• I don’t see what this has to do with my job

If instead, you show your solution — and let your audience touch a prototype, you shift the nature of the discussion. Instead of talking at your audience, you’re guiding interaction.

Often when participants see, feel, and connect with your solution, they will speak up. They’ll contribute interesting bits of information. They’ll share personal stories that can shed light on a usability issue. For instance, how this solution will help them save time, reduce redundant activities, or get more done for less cost.

And here’s the best part: they will tell you these things using a simple, commonsense, and down-to-earth language. This is incredibly valuable for communicating to your target group. It also gives you enormous leverage to connect with other groups in similar industries or positions.

I coach a lot of sales professionals who are using prototypes and demos to build persuasive presentations. Initially some sales teams struggle with this shift from telling to showing.

The reason is simple. When you tell, you’re in control. When you use ‘show and touch,’ you’re facilitating. This requires a different skill set and delivery style. Instead of using a directive presentation style, you need to be more facilitative.

In a new home study course on visual storytelling, you can find this systematically broken down into step-by-step blueprints.

Right now, here’s a simplified method for you to ‘grab-and-use.’

1. Show your solution. If possible use a physical model or prototype your audience can see.

2. Encourage touching. Get participants up out of their seats. Provide time to touch, interact with, and get a hang of how things work.

Not so hard, right?

Show and touch.

As virtual communication increases, this is a very valuable concept to keep in play. Show the picture, map, or model. Encourage touching. This makes concepts, ideas, and proposals much more concrete.

Fuzzy ideas become tangible. This is a crucial step for encouraging your audience to discuss proposals and buy-in to your solution. While this topic is hot in your mind, write down your ideas. Use this method in your next presentation. You’ll be much more persuasive — without having to be pushy. Show and touch.