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From the Email Bag – "Where is the big money working from home?" By Christine Durst & Michael Haaren July 26, 2012 Dear Rat Race Rebellion: How can I make a lot of money working from home? I’m in my thirties and don’t want to waste time making minimum wage. I’ve seen money-making offers online that look like scams. Aren’t there legitimate ways to make a lot of money from home? – Jason in Los Angeles, Cal. Dear Jason: Yes, it’s possible to make a substantial income working from home, but it takes a lot of work, too. We’ll get to details in a moment, but first you need to understand that the business rules you encounter in the brick-and-mortar world are the same you’ll see online. Just as there are few legitimate “fast bucks” in the offline world, there are very few online, too. Many kinds of businesses with high-income potential can be launched online and managed from home, especially if you use virtual teams. To name but one example, there is the office-support business. For context, many companies operate with bare-bones administrative support. When growth kicks in, the business can rapidly outrun its administrative backup. This creates all kinds of problems. Salespeople make sales and the paperwork lags. Business-development people bring in new clients and the fulfillment is wobbly. An executive on a business trip in a foreign capital needs urgent administrative help and no one is available. The list can go on and on. Companies often melt down and go under from this type of mismanaged growth. But almost all of these services can be provided remotely. If you put together a team that can take care of these needs at a decent price, you’ve got a business that can scale to million-dollar revenues and beyond. You can find rapidly-growing young companies in Inc. magazine (the “Inc. 5000”) and similar magazines. The business sections of local and regional newspapers often profile “hot” young companies, too. Look for companies that have just landed big contracts, or received investment funding. But you’ll need to recruit your own team carefully (screening and hiring people remotely is an art in itself). And you must manage them virtually, too. Finally, be prepared to work hard, keep your clients happy, and market your services effectively. Dear Rat Race Rebellion: Are there any free government grants to help people start a home-based business? I’ve been seeing ads on the Internet for books and DVDs to help me find free grant money. Are those legitimate? – Marianne in Portland, Ore. Dear Marianne: We have seen no free government grants for home-based micro-businesses. And the chances are that the ads you’ve seen are scams. The “free grant money” scams have been operating for quite awhile. Usually, the victim will provide credit card information and soon discover ongoing monthly charges. Victims also fall prey to high-pressure phone calls, browbeating them into buying “business coaching services” and other “programs” for fees up to $15,000 and beyond. On the legitimate side, more and more websites now allow entrepreneurs and others to seek donations for their projects directly from the public. For more on these options, see such sites as Kickstarter.com and Indigogo.com. ---- Christine Durst and Michael Haaren are leaders in the work-at-home movement and advocates of de-rat-raced living. Their latest book is Work at Home Now, a guide to finding home-based jobs. They offer additional guidance on finding home-based work at www.RatRaceRebellion.com. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2012 BY STAFFCENTRIX, DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM |
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