I want to work from home...

[TrinaJ]

I'm currently a nursery nurse but can no longer afford to put children into child care, I've looked into childminding but can only take on 1 child and also found it stressful!
I would like to work from home but don't know what to do, who to contact or where to find this out!! Can you help ?

[Jimjams]

Best thing really is to look at the issuebits AQA website I linked to earlier.The questions of the day give you some idea of the sorts of questions you get asked. Lots of press articles there as well. You get paid per question, but how much depends on how quick you are!

[whitecloud]

jimjams
Would just like some more information about AQA. What subjects do they cover and what kind of thing do people want answers about ? I am contemplating finding different work/income because changes in adult education funding next year may mean a lot of job cuts. At the moment I work in adult literacy - the government is concentrating funding on people who have ability to pass exams at a fairly high level towards GCSE. No good for those with mental health problems/dyslexia, so there'll be less work about. Can't help feeling - four years hard work and I wonder what it was all for. Anyone else facing redundancy/work cutbacks ? Commiserations, if so.

[misty]

bump

[misty]

Hi jimjams
I've just been offered a contract by AQA and wondered if I could pick your brains??

What's a realistic amount I could earn from this, given that I can dedicate about 20 hours per week?
How many questions can you get through in an hour?
Are there always lots of questions waiting for you, or are there slack times?
How often to you have to go to meetings/reviews?

Hope you don't mind me asking!!

Thanks

[anniebear]

Yes Jimjams I do get carers allowance.

I don't want to make lots of money, jsut want something to do whent he girls are at School.

Just joined Usborne, but don't know if I will give it a go or not, not a lot of confidence!

[TrinaJ]

I did childminding, setting up is baffling but just contact ofsted and they will explain what to do and how to do it. I found the financial side of it - taxes and record keeping so hard to keep up with that i didn't bother very long. Don't let me put you off though, lots of people do it for years and love it.

[kgc]

I would love to work from home and especially as a child minder but just setting up baffles me....????

[TrinaJ]

Thanks for your info jimjams, I wonder do you know of any child related / advice jobs from home?

[Jimjams]

yep thought about it several times, may do it in the future, but for the moment its too much committment for not enough money! (Difficult for me to manage set times at the moment).

[SoftFroggie]

Jimjams: have you ever looked into tutoring with the Open University? Some of their courses don't have any face-to-face tutorials, and are tutored electronically / telephone only. Those with face-t-face tutorials only hold them a few times during the year. Don't know whether it might suit you?

[SoftFroggie]

I must have been approaching it incorrectly - the first time I looked there were only 40 biologists - now I can see you amongst all 105 (which I guess is why you have to be quick to sign out the Q - especially as there seem to be lots of PG students / accademics who are probably sitting around on their computer all day whilst you juggle your rather breath-takingly significant family commitments).

Thanks.

[Jimjams]

I'm on the 2nd page of biologists sf! should be easy to find now.

[Jimjams]

yup that's me froggy. They seem to address everything to me as Dr first name which is hilarious.

Don;t worry- there are lots of scams out there, but like anything I think it dpends how much work you put in. Brainmass is paid by the students- they decide how much to pay you when they submitt a question and you can choose whether or not to asnwer it- Brainmass just acts like a broker really. The main problem I have with them is getting to the question before someone else has signed it out.

I don't earn that much from either Brainmass or AQA because I don't spend much time on them- mainly because of having 3 kids inclusing a baby of 6 months. I plan to increase my hours as ds3 goes to nursery though.

The other stuff is the same- Usana for example - people do earn very good money from usana- enough to live on- but again requires work and investment (especially time investment), I think the hardest thing about workin gfgomr home is that if you are repsonsible for all the house things and childcare as well (as I am) then finding the time is hard.

[SoftFroggie]

Apologies, Jimjams - my Q sounded a bit offensive ("money making schemes" rather than working)- I didn't mean to demean your job. There seems a bit of 'too good to be true' about earning money on a flexible basis from home and wondered whether you'd found them to come to anything - which clearly you have.

I had a (nosy) look for your details on Brainmass, but couldn't figure out who you are - IIRC you have a PhD in biology / biochemistry?

[Jimjams]

aqa and brainmass aren't internet money making things- they're jobs! (in aqa's case with a proper contract, holiday pay etc). You have to send send in a cv and you have regular reviews. IN brainmasses case I get paid depending on how many questions I answer.

Internet working is the same as any other- providing you avoid the scams (which is normally pretty easy- don';t touch anything cagey) you get paid if you put the hours in, you dont get paid if you don't. There's certianly no such thing as a free lunch, but it is possible to earn money based from home if you want to.

[SoftFroggie]

Jimjams: do you find you are making some money out of brainmass / AQA? I'm a cynic when it comes to internet money making things, and wonder if I'd just end up with 53p or something after a few months ..

[TrinaJ]

Jimjams, hope you got my CAT message?

[Fran1]

ok thx i will do. There website appears to be advertising for uk.

[Jimjams]

try them fran1- they do a test. I'm not sure whether they're recruting in the UK atm but woorth contacting them.

[Fran1]

Jimjams, i love the sound of AQA i love trawling the internet and often sit here strumming my fingers wondering what to search for next. But i do not have a degree d'you think they would ever consider anyone without a degree? Would it be worth me emailing.
What is there selection process? do they carry out rl interviews where i could prove myself?

[bambi06]

im in the exactly same boat as you so im waiting to hear with bated breath what everyone can suggest, as recently i got a job as a support assistant but got let down with childcare and couldnt afford to go to work!!

[Jimjams]

if you look at the top blub theres a bit that says Contact Another Talker - you can reach me through that (that's CATing)- if not I can CAT you if you want.

[TrinaJ]

Thanks for your fantastic advice Jimjams. I'd love to know more about these companies and where you found the info? Sorry I'm new to this site what is CAT -ing?

[Jimjams]

anniebear-do you get carers allowance? The advantage of working like this is you can start small and keep your carers and build up slowly - then when its big enough drop carers iyswim.

[Jimjams]

I'm thinking of putting together a website. Let me see what have a I tried.

First is straight teleworking- so doing a paid job from home. I used to work for channel 4 - teaching on homework high- mainly in the chat room. That was well paid and goood fun, but unfortunately channel 4 couldn't get enough sponsorship so they've turned it pretty much into a library only service.

Now I work for brainmass and AQA The advantage of both of those is that there are no fixed hours I can do as much or as little as I want. Both are good fun as well.

I've also run some home businesses. Mini-IQ and Phoenix cards- may be the ones you've heard of. Mini-IQ is a good opportunity if you want to do party plan as its new, run by a big organisation so there's plenty of opportunity to build up a team. However I have found party plan quite hard- because every time school holidays come I can't do a thing because of ds1's needs (he requires constant supervision and can't be taken woth me- not even to drop off orders). I'm not sure where I'm going to go with it really.

Phoenix is easier to fit in as it doesn't involve parties- always check out delivery prices on these sorts of thigns though. If you can routinely collect big orders then Phoenix is great- but if you have customers who want the odd card you iether have to hold a lot of stock (boxes boxes boxes) or you get killed on delivery charges. Phoenix is now due for renewal and I'm not sure yet whether I will or not.

I also run a business called Usana with Ghosty from mumsnet. That has lots of advatnages for me- I don't need to hold a lot of stock, I have a big interest in the things they're selling (nutritional products- very good quality ones). and I can reallyl run it from home (no parties) I'm thinikng of just concentrating on Usana as I think its probably the one that suits me best.It's been a bit of a case of sucking and seeing if you know what I mean though.

If you're looking at going into any of these direct marketing things you do have to watch out for scams. None of these things should be expensive to start up. If I do stop Mnni-IQ and Phoenix I will still have made some money- I won't have lost anything. Check delivery times. In the past I was a real nappy agent but found that really hard as the delivery times were long and I kept getting it in the neck although it was out of my control. All 3 mentioned above are good with delivery. You shouldn't have to buy up lots of stock, start up costs should be low and watch out in particular for companies who are cagey about their products. Direct sales are the best way to distribute some goods, but no-one should be hiding their product. Don't ever feel afraid of backing out either once you've started to investigate something.

I've tried too be very general in this as I don't want to be advertising. if you want to ask something that would be hard for me to answer wihout advertising then feel free to CAT me.