A growing trend among large corporations, “Matsushita allows 30,000 white-collar staff work from home“. By providing job flexibility for personnel struggling to care for children or the elderly, the manufacturer of Panasonic brand goods aims to retain talent amid an aging society, the business daily said. Workers will perform their jobs while communicating with counterparts in the office over high-speed Internet lines.

click here for article

search for : work from home

DaLonna Rimsky had a stroke of business inspiration while trying to help her children cope with their father?s deployment overseas. Ms. Rimsky turned photos of her husband, Michael, into coloring book pages for Colin, now 6, and Paige, 3, and found the activity helped ease their loneliness. A year later, she?s hoping to help families both in the military and beyond stay connected with coloring books based on their own photos. The books of photographs converted to line drawings are created using a software program and sold through Ms. Rimsky?s Web site, www.colorthememories.com. ?Basically families in the military really go through kind of a grieving process when the dad goes away,? said Ms. Rimsky, whose husband is stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base near Shreveport, La.

click here for article

search for : coloring book pages, www.colorthememories.com

Rana Burr turned to the only home-based business opportunity she had ever seen that would pay her well for her efforts: Team National–a company that markets a benefits package designed to save individuals and businesses money on a wide variety of products and services. ?You would think that it would have been obvious that I would use my networking business to pay for my son?s RDI program. But up until that time, I wasn?t making very much with it yet. Most of the people I talked to about my business were in the same situation that I was?no money. How were they going to buy a benefits package? I had to go to work to expand my circle. And now I had a big reason to succeed.?

click here for article

search for : home-based business opportunity

A new survey of Connecticut workers conducted for the state Department of Transportation’s Telecommute Connecticut program shows dramatic growth in telecommuting in the past five years. “We are totally thrilled with the results. The numbers we are seeing are things we were hoping for but couldn’t confirm until the survey,” said Jean T. Stimolo, program manager for Telecommute Connecticut. More than 158,250 Connecticut workers telecommute — work from home — at least one day a month, many of them far more often than that. The number is up 86 percent since a similar study five years ago using a more narrow definition of telecommuter. The state’s total employment at the time of the latest study was 1,758,400.

click here for article

search for : telecommute, work from home

I’m preparing to start a new-home inspection business. My background is in aviation maintenance and home remodeling. In researching the topic, I see many more negative comments than positive ones concerning the effectiveness and competence of home inspectors. I believe the national average is 30 percent of new inspectors go out of business in the first year due to litigation. It also appears that many home buyers are unaware of the number of unqualified inspectors. Is there any good news out there for us potential inspectors?

click here for article

search for : home inspection business, home remodeling

Everyone wants to work from home these days. Who wants to commute to an office and sit in a cubicle when you can be just as productive in your own home wearing what you like without having anyone looking over your shoulder? Whether it?s in business for yourself or over a high speed connection to the office ? work at home is hot ? and that?s a lot of work to be had for you as an IT entrepreneur. But before choosing a logo for your Superfixit5000 van it?s important to get down to some fundamentals and proper planning (the logo bit does come ? all in good time). Like any other business a proper plan, some research and the ticking of a few key boxes are what will get your venture off the ground and flying high.

click here for article

search for : work from home

Utah County enacted a ban on certain kinds of home-based businesses Tuesday in what was described as an update of land-use rules to keep them relevant now that the county is rapidly urbanizing. The change won’t affect existing businesses, and most home businesses are in a different category than the one changed. It also doesn’t solve a dispute between West Mountain neighbors that illuminated the issues at stake, although it likely will keep similar disputes from erupting in the future. County commissioners approved the change 2-1. Commissioner Larry Ellertson dissented and said the change went too far. “I just feel that we’re painting with such a broad brush that we’re eliminating everything,” he said. But the category deleted in areas zoned as residential-agricultural or mining and grazing — “premises occupation,” in which a small business is housed in a standalone building in a residential area — is less relevant these days, said Utah County community development director Jeff Mendenhall.

click here for article

search for : home businesses, small business

In part one of Taking Your Job Home: Facing the Issues we covered concerns your employer would have if you asked him to let you work at home. There were five issues: Privacy and safety, Dealing with Co-workers, Communication, Job Function, and Trust. We ended by suggesting that you think over each of these issues carefully so you?re ready to address each one when your supervisor brings them up.

A good way to begin addressing these issues is to write them down. Then, put what you?ve written into a clear, concise ?blue print? for your manager so that she can follow along with you on how your plan on how a telecommuting work arrangement would succeed. (A written blue print is also important for supervisors who may agree with you but then need something to present to their superiors who might actually have the final say.)

Carefully cover each issue in your plan, even if you think your supervisor won?t be concerned about one or more of them. A blueprint always shows parts in the construction plan that aren?t necessarily relevant to what a builder is working on, just to keep things in perspective. Remember: The Company is what employers are most concerned about, even if they genuinely do care about their employees. The bottom line is always their bottom line.

Read more »

search for : Taking Your Job Home

The 25 million people in the U.S. who work from home fall into two categories: those who dread the idea of ever going into an office again and those who find themselves so lonely they talk to the plants. Part of setting boundaries is keeping physical ones too. When Teri Gault started Thegrocerygame.com seven years ago, she kept her computer and files in her bedroom. She soon learned that was a mistake. “When I went to bed at night, I saw the lights blinking or a fax would come in,” says Gault, whose company provides coupons and regional listings of rock-bottom prices at grocery and drug stores. “Things would go beep in the night. I couldn’t detach and get relaxed when it was time to go to sleep.” Now her home office is in a separate bedroom. It’s practically a holy site in the house. Family members know they’re not allowed to go in there whenever they please, and they’re certainly not allowed to use it as the supply closet when they run out of paper or staples.

click here for article

search for : Thegrocerygame.com, home office

K.C. Cerna can take a break from work and relax by the pool or play with her golden retriever anytime she wants. She’s her own boss. She built her 300-square-foot office in her own backyard ? literally. “You don’t have the high overheard of a storefront, and you can invest your money in your business and clients,” she said. Cerna is one of the 20.7 million people across the country who work at least partially from home, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. About a third of those workers are self-employed and run a home-based business. And just like millions of other Americans, Cerna plans on taking a home office deduction on her income tax this year.

click here for article

search for : self-employed, home-based business

For most working mothers, mornings require herculean organizational powers, and that’s just to get the children out of the door and themselves into work looking vaguely presentable. Once there, she may find herself overlooked, or in a stomach-churning race against the clock to be back at home for her second domestic shift. Her salary covers childcare costs, the commute and, if she is lucky, some reward-yourself shoes.

click here for article

search for : working mothers, childcare cost

Making $1,000 a month in extra income sounds tempting. It’s an offer that piqued the interest of several people who were looking for work but is it a job or a sales pitch? When Julie Schumacher needed a job a few weeks ago, she put her resume online and says she received a call for a marketing position in health nutrition. She says, “I’m going down there looking for a job and I go down there and I get a presentation.” Julie say she joined several other people at the seminar. Instead of a paycheck, she received a sales pitch for multilevel marketing.

Julie called it, “kind of disheartening. Gets your hopes up, put a suit on, I’m all ready to present myself and I get down there and they’re trying to sell me on something.” By phone, the company representative said his staff members specifically don’t contact people with online resumes. They don’t believe anyone is misled because people are told it’s strictly a business opportunity before they come in to a seminar. But the Better Business Bureau President Jim Hegarty says he made a test call two weeks ago. He says, “I was not told I was being brought in to discuss a business opportunity which would involve an investment on my part, which is the deal here.” Julie says the work opportunity seminar charged her credit card $160 for vitamin products but she’s since received a refund. “Why would you pay to work somewhere? That’s why you go to work. So they pay you.”

Read more »

search for : multilevel marketing, opportunity seminar, vitamin products

A home-office deduction is generally easier for self-employed individuals to claim. But even then, the Internal Revenue Service has certain requirements a taxpayer must meet. First, your home-office area must be used regularly and exclusively for your business needs. You can’t set up a computer in your den, sporadically type invoices and claim that room as your home office.

Secondly, the business part of your home must be either your principal place of business or where you meet or deal with patients, clients or customers in the normal course of your business. A separate, detached structure such as a garage or guesthouse that is used for business also may qualify as a home office. A few years ago, the IRS broadened the business activities that can be considered in determining whether a home office is a taxpayer’s principal place of business. Now, if a home office is used exclusively and regularly for the administrative or management activities of your business, it also qualifies. Such things as billing operations, keeping your books and records, ordering supplies or setting up appointments qualify as administrative duties. Be careful here. The IRS cautions that your home location must be the only place where you can fulfill these responsibilities.

Read more »

search for : home-office deduction, Internal Revenue Service

Working mothers in the UK would rather work from home than in the office, new research has revealed. In a poll conducted by Workingmums.co.uk, 87 per cent of respondents admitted that given the choice they would jump at the chance to become a home-worker. Moreover, it was revealed that 88 per cent would consider a job share, while 98 per cent want their jobs to be flexible.

A working week consisting of 15-20 hours was deemed ideal by 33 per cent of the participants, 20-25 hours by 24 per cent and 25-35 hours by 18 per cent. It was suggested by the survey’s authors that working from home is very popular for women returning to work after maternity leave and that many companies now have roles which can be carried out from home. Gillian Nissim, founder of Workingmums, said: “These statistics are probably not surprising since home-based jobs can provide mothers with the kind flexibility they’re looking for, for example, having more choice about the hours they work or having more flexibility at pressure points in the day such as school drop-off and pick up time.

Read more »

search for : home-worker, Workingmums

Have you ever seen the ads in the newspaper and on the Internet promising ways to make lots of money from the comfort of your home? Well, some might be legitimate, but I-Team 8 found one that looks like a scam. Work at home schemes can be another way for fraudsters to take your money. We found a company in Indianapolis that promised $1,000 a week for simple data entry. Stay at home mom Ilea Low wanted to make some extra income. She had heard JMasters was a great company. So she sent the company $85 for a training kit that she thought would teach her how to make $1,000 dollars a week.

It took Ilea only 30 minutes to complete the training kit, so she sent JMasters another $140 for 10 files containing 100 names each. The money was a deposit to ensure the files would be returned to JMasters. She figured she could make $1,000 per week working only two hours per day. “I don’t know why I didn’t think they could have just done it themselves,” Ilea said. Ilea sent in the completed files, but she was never paid. She contacted JMasters repeatedly, but they did not return her deposit either. “Email, after email, after email, sometimes like 20 times a day just to get a response,” she said. I-Team 8 found JMasters building is empty. The landlord said the company moved out weeks ago.

Read more »

search for : Stay at home mom, JMasters