Legitimate work from home jobs?

You see this spouted everywhere – legitimate work from home jobs, earn $xxx per day! legitimate work from home jobs, earn from your computer!

It’s got to the point that if you see the word “legitimate” you immediately believe that it isn’t. What do they mean by legitimate? If you take them up on their offer and start to work then by that very act it is legitimate – as long as you’re paid (and not doing the books for the Mob)

Which I think gets to the crux of the matter – whatever it is you decide to do or try to break from the standard 9-5 is legitimate if you get paid – unfortunately most of these offers (if not all) only get one person into profit and that’s not you.

During our beta test of hiremyparents we have had our parents start a bewildering variety of ventures from your standard ‘virtual secretary’ to a high end ‘dog conditioner’ (dog trainer not dog shampoo, should probably talk to her about the title) and all of them have been legitimate because at the end of a working day they were a little bit richer than before.

So how do you make sure you’ll get paid? Well, there is no absolute guarantee. If you start doing a product launch plan for GAP or design the look of a new widget for SONY then chances are you’ll get a cheque – their reputation isn’t worth damaging – especially in todays socially connected world (more on that in a later post). But what if you’re doing the VAT for ‘Cardboard Inc’ a small but profitable company based in Nowhere, Wales. If you do the work how do you know they’ll pay up without any grief? Again, there are no guarantees but a bit of research could save you a lot of hassle down the road.

Below is a list of resources for the US and UK that you can use to check up on the companies that sign your cheques. Unless you’ve pulled off a $1m contract with someone I wouldn’t go too in-depth, just make sure that they’re legit and maybe do a google search for the company with the word ‘complaint’ added to the search box – you’ll be amazed at what pops up (social media again).

All in all I’ve heard no complaints from our beta parents concerning non-payment, and if you do hit a big pay-day maybe you should use an Escrow service or get paid in installments. But remember, most companies will pay up without a squeek but it only takes one idiot to ruin your cash-flow so a little research goes a long way.

Hoover’s Online

http://www.hoovers.com/free/

Companies House

http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/

Industrial Quick Search

http://www.industrialquicksearch.com/

IndustryLink

http://www.industrylink.com/

Foster Business Library

http://www.lib.washington.edu/business/bizweb/

Research Guides from the Baker Library, Harvard Business School

http://www.library.hbs.edu/guides/

Thomas Global Register

http://www.thomasglobal.com/

ThomasNet.com

http://www.thomasnet.com/

Manta

http://www.manta.com/

Rutgers Library Guide to Company Research
Thorough outline of company research issues and resources.

http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/rr_gateway/research_guides/bus…

Yahoo’s Business to Business Directory

http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Business_to_Business/

D & B Small Business Solutions

http://smallbusiness.dnb.com/

BizWeb

http://www.bizweb.com/

Business.com

http://www.business.com/

Research Guides – Business & Management

http://www.gwu.edu/gelman/guides/business/

Industry Research Desk

http://www.virtualpet.com/industry/