Working from home - any success stories?

[thinking54]

Could do with bringing in extra money, have a baby (breast feeding) and 2 other dc's. 1 is disabled.

Going back to work is something I feel I need to do but it won't be easy to find something with my home life. I don't need to earn a lot, but it would be nice to have some extra money and also something for me!

So before I start looking for something part time, I'm looking for something I could do from home.

Previous experience includes admin, recruitment and retail.

Any ideas?

Would you be working from home with a baby and the other children around, if so i'm not sure any job would be suitable.

If you're looking for something that fits in with childcare / school then admin might provide a few avenues to explore, depending on your previous experience and knowledge.

I run an eBay business and it fits in really well with the kids. Could you do something like that?

Ideally I'd just work when dcs are in bed. I'm in a tricky situation - I've been very lucky that dh has a good enough wage to cover us and I get carers allowance for looking after ds but we are looking to move into a bigger house and can't really do that without a slightly bigger income.

I'm just wondering if there's anything out there I can do from home before going down the part time avenue

Don't assume you can work from home in those positions without childcare is my only advice. I work from home but I'd only now older kids 11/10 they come home from school & get themselves a snack do homework without bordering me until I finish 5.30ish.my 2yr with childminder the days I work. Its the only way to be professional about it. I have had team members with crying kids in background & they didn't last.

@KissHerYouBrilliantFool yes possibly! Like I say, I've not worked for a few years and I really have no idea what there is out there and how to start!

I'm not sure any of those jobs would really be an option if you were wanting to work late / at night. Also would you really be able to give the job your full attention if you'd be up all day caring for children?

@KissHerYouBrilliantFool

How do you start an Ebay business? What is this, buying and selling?

OK just seen your update. So you looking for a work from after kids in bed type of job which is bit different. Prob eBay business or something like that then. Most companies for admin/accounts etc will want you available during some regular working hours (I finish off stuff while kids in bed but have to be online n available for calls during core working hours)

just our of curiosity - with the ebay business, how/where do you decide what to actually sell?

I'm a writer. What are your literary skills like? There is a lot of work for freelancers if you look for it. Assess your life experience to see what you could write about. Being a mum comes to mind

We have overnight typists who work from once the kids are in bed and earn pretty good money. They work on remote dictation systems.

@hazell42 I'll look into that thank you!

My organisation just outsourced some transcription work to an external contractor. They listen to audio-recordings of focus groups and research interviews and transcribe them into a word document. That should be pretty flexible work. (Unfortunately, I don't think it's very well paid, because I was surprised at how cheap it was.)

Also interested in the eBay business, no idea what I would sell but I'm willing to give anything a go.

Another reason I want to do this is to have something for me. I might not really leave the house, that's fine. But I want something to do other than ironing and changing nappies

I love my dcs so much but I've just lost my identity totally

If you get CA then I think there is a cap on what you can earn? There are sites you can sign up to such as mystery shopper etc but I think they are more pin money than a wage.

You could put an ad on paidbythehour for admin, transcription type jobs. I saw a job recently for a Virtual Assistant that was only about 6 hours a weeks, would something like that be suitable?

@evaperonspoodle yes if you earn anymore than £120 a week then it stops. I'm aware of this so will be taking it into consideration.

I'll look at paid by the hour, thanks

Lots of Social Media Managers work from home at night. Get international clients so the time difference works in your favour, although most just do a zoom call once a week or fortnight or communicate by email so you can do your hours whenever. Also look at packages rather than hourly work! I have a load of links if you are interested.

Alternatively, look at freelancer sites such as up work, people per hour, freeup etc.

I meant to say, thats where I hire my subcontractors from.

When I booked a holiday recently the person who dealt with my booking worked a couple of hours an evening from home.

If your partner will be available for childcare on the evening you could do phone based work like that.