The best resource for a flexible life with a flexible income
Why you’ll never get ‘that’ flexible job on a job board
From the title you may suspect that I’ve shot myself in the foot here. Yes hmp has a job board but not the type I’m talking about.
I was reading Seth Godin’s blog post Career fairs… and how they are the last resort for companies and job-seekers alike, and I realised that the giant job boards on the internet are just the same. A company needs to fill some drone position so they get HR to just throw up a description and chuck $400 at monster.com or careerbuilder.com. They don’t have to put any effort in, as long as you can string a sentence together you’ll do. Hell, all these big job boards even share the same database – stick the job on one it goes to the many.
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/
Try google’ing ‘work from home’
What you get back isn’t work. It’s hawkers desperately trying to sell you their latest way of making you rich. Cold-calling for commission, flogging perfume door to door, sitting by a phone all day as a ‘virtual assistant’. They’re not jobs, they’re ideal ways of putting you into a coma as your life slowly slides by.
If you have skills find a job or a project suited to those skills. Don’t sell your soul to something you have absolutely no interest in just to satisfy that need to spend more time at home for kids or lifestyle.
Do what you do but do it from home -
hiremyparents.com – flexible working for parents and outsourced professionals for companies
Work at Home scams are rife
It seems that if you want to start a home business nowadays you have to be very sure of advice and jobs you take.
Just one example:
http://www.idahostatesman.com/business/story/671269.html
