Wahms - What Do You Do and How Did You Get Started?

Hi! What about tutoring, running classes, and/or homeschooling someone else's kids. Join some homeschool lists to get an idea of what's going on and maybe where you can fill a hole. Or board and/or daycare animals. Have fun homeschooling, it's a great life!

I've been a freelance public relations writer for 11 years. I got started when we moved and I couldn't continue my corporate PR job. My employer wouldn't let me telecommute but agreed to hire me as a consultant. I'm able to customize my work hours around our kids' school schedules (no way I could work when they're home).

Rather than thinking of companies you could join (which are bombarded with job seekers right now, anyway), think about your skill set. What do you have to offer that someone might be willing to pay you to do as a consultant? Consider starting your own business.

Good luck!

You might want to look into on-line colleges; you could teach virtual night classes. I agree with most that it is virtually impossible to WAH and watch your kids, much less home school them. Really it's not fair to anyone; employer who is paying you for attention you're not giving to them and kids who are begging for more attention than you can give them. I WAH but have been with my company for almost 12 years and worked a long time to get into a position where I can WAH full time - and my kids go to school or camp when I'm working, they're not home.

I make scrapbooks, recipe books, children's books, business books, greeting card books for people. You have to be crafty to do this though! (memorablerecipebooks.com and the-scrapbook-artist.com just in case you wondered, lol) Have you thought about child care in your home? You can view the requirements for in-home daycare in your state through a search engine. Another option is to pet/house sit or dog walk. You might not make a million dollars but it will be a little extra income. In our neighborhood, we all know who to call if we are going out of town to come and take care of our dog and watch our house and they are quite popular so I know they're making decent money doing it! If you need help with a website and web design, it doesn't have to cost you hundreds of dollars and I would be more than willing to help you as much as I can!

I'm an attorney and do legal editor contract work for my former full time employer. My work is sporadic and the time committment varies with the project. I worked a lot from July until about 3 weeks ago, but now I have a break that might last awhile. My work is specific to my background and doesn't really help you except that I used previous work contacts and an employer that was familiar with me to get work at home. What about a pet daycare business? One of my neighbors does that. I have an older aunt who also boards pets in her home.

ETA: I agree with another poster that I would find it impossible to work while homeschooling or caring for my kids, at least the type of work I do. It requires a computer and some concentration. Although my kids are older (12, 15) I only work during their school hours.

As co-owner of our company, I act as the CFO managing all the finances, travel, warehousing of our materials, etc. I use Quickbooks a LOT and there is NO WAY I could do this effectively and as efficiently as I do if I had any children under tow, much less homeschool at the same time.

My job is very detailed, I am very organized and I must be because a simple mistake could coust us hundreds of thousands of dollars.

My job kindof fell into my lap when hubby had been in the industry for 20 yrs and we had an opportunity to jump in and own our own company. We've been living off of it very well for a little over 3 yrs now and our sales are already up over 20% of last year. Manufacturing is booming right now.

I acted as hubby's customer service person since he had none and we just became a team and it has ended up with us owning our own company. It is very rewarding, very stressful and time consuming 24/7. We are very motivated and driven and we make it work.

For the last 11 yrs, I have been a substitute teacher only at the elementary school where my daughter attended. I only do pre-assigned jobs for things like vacations ,parent conferences, meetings, etc. This is my "escape" from my office so I can clear my head. In the meantime, it is another income stream to our finances.

Number 1 of course is our company and I have all my ducks in a row before I ever go teach and when I do go teach, I am home working on our company as soon as I walk in the door to manage payroll, AP, AR, travel. This am as I was leaving for school I had an unplanned quickie airline ticket I had to purchase before I left because I knew if I waited.. I might forget (BAD) or the fare would go up (BAD). So I stayed home a couple extra minutes for finish that. The school knows I run this from home and they are very lenient with my schedule and work with me.

As for your training, if you are a qualified HS teacher, you could do tutoring, manage a special type of class... animal science, etc that is in your related field, etc. Think outside the box.

It sounds like you are not the type to be interested in the MLM, direct sales... which is fine. I am not either. I hate that type of work, selling, recruiting, etc.

Look for something you love to do and you do well and focus in that area. Find your niche!

Good luck.

I was lucky that my company needed my skills and let me work from home.

With your experience, perhaps a "Pet Wash and Grooming" business? It would take a little set up, but I would say you are probably qualified.

Good luck!

I do high-level accounting and operations work from home. I was only able to get this gig because my boss really needs my skill set. It's a little cheaper for the company because I work from home on an hourly basis and they don't have to pay for my vacation or sick time - only time worked.

I have to say, it would be extremely difficult for me to work and homeschool my child. The only time I get a significant chunk of work done is when he's at school. From the time I pick him up until bedtime I am very consumed with his care - even when he has a playdate or he watches T.V. I do some work after hours, but I find I'm often tired (even though I'm a night owl) and can't do work that requires intense concentration. Just food for thought.

clark howard has a list of reputable companies and how it all works on his website. (which is his full name, no spaces)

(clark howard is a nationally syndicated host of a financial, cost savings radio program)

I left a FT technical writing position. I did some freelance technical writing, web work and then landed an online customer service position (no phone calls). I used odesk.com, hiremymom.com (<--my best resource) and biztant.com to check for leads. And I applied, applied, applied. Freelance is often feast or famine and weird hours. Many was the night I was working a doc til 2AM to meet a client deadline. You may need to have school in the AM and work all night or something. It is not the easiest to do childcare and work.

You also need to remember to pay your own taxes (about 48% of your check) and keep track of expenses, etc.